I will continue to promote that Carroll made the call in an effort to make Russell the MVP.
That is not to say that Lynch was being “disrespected” by Carroll, but my look at what happened was just bad coaching to make Carroll’s QB the hero of the game - over the opposing QB. To make it simple, Carroll was “measuring his pecker” against Belichek’s organ.
Tell me that, with 18 inches and 2 downs to go, Carroll could not have called a QB sneak followed by putting in a fullback to punch it in? Did Carroll mistrust his O-line that much? How many yards did the O-line help Lynch produce up to that point?
Let’s not forget that it was a great defensive play. More times than not, that call would have been successful.
Short yardage, seconds on the clock, and one timeout. If you want to maximize your chances then you pass on first down. If it's a completion then you win. If it's an incomplete then you've only burned two or three seconds and you have two more chances with your timeout. Carroll's call was a correct one, it just resulted in the worst possible outcome.
The historical chances of losing the ball on a quarterback sneak are much greater than the zero turn-overs history of that pass attempt before that play. NE was keyed on Wilson and Lynch. Carroll thought it best to go with the safest pass in the game.