Super Second Guess
The 2014 football season is over, and the Seattle Seahawks will have an entire off season to second guess themselves after they bungled a golden opportunity to come back and win the 49th Super Bowl.
In case you weren’t one of the hundred million or so people who watched the game, you know by now that the New England Patriots won the Super Bowl by a score of 28 to 24.
The score could have easily been 31 to 28 Seattle. It SHOULD have been 31 to 28 Seattle, but they blew it. Seattle had the ball second and goal on New England’s one yard line with about thirty seconds to go, and were just about to go in and score the go ahead and winning touchdown. They had just completed a miracle third and long pass down the right sideline that wide receiver Jermaine Kearse juggled about five times before hauling it in before it touched the ground. It was the exact miracle play that teams have go their way (David Tyree 2.0) just before they go on and do what it takes to win the game.
The ball was there on the one after a four yard gash of a run by Marshawn Lynch, the beast of a running back, who is probably the best back in all of football at plunging into the end zone from one yard out to score touchdowns. Seattle still had a time out left, so there was plenty of time to run the ball at least once, if not twice, in that amount of time before they would have to utilize their last time out for one final play.
But the Seahawks made the play call that people will be calling a blunder for decades to come when they called a risky pass play from the one yard line instead of a run. The pass play not only did not work, it was intercepted by rookie Patriot defensive back Malcolm Butler in the end zone and run out to the one.
Not only did the play not work, it did not allow the Seahawks to utilize the most powerful weapon on their team, the power running of Marshawn Lynch. The percentages of running Marshawn Lynch twice against the Patriots defense and gaining just ONE yard in either one of the two potential carries that could have been called were very high, and nearly every person who watched the game thinks that they would have scored that game winning touchdown if they had just run the ball.
It is not just a cowardly second guess to suggest a team like Seattle should have run the ball (as opposed to a primary passing team that isn’t that good of a running team). Seattle IS primarily a running team. They led the National Football League in yards rushing. It is their identity. They had the chance to win the game using their BEST weapon, with the highest chance of success, but they didn’t use him and it cost them the chance to win the game.
But that should not detract from the heroic game saving pass interception by New England’s Malcolm Butler. He truly made “the biggest play of his life” at the most important time of the most important game of his life. He literally snatched a victory from the jaws of defeat when he made that pick. If he had just knocked down the pass, it would have been a terrific play. But he did more than knock it down. He intercepted the pass and truly WON the game for New England. (especially since Seattle probably would have won the game on the next play with a running play).
It will go right next to the game saving tackle on the one yard line by St. Louis Ram linebacker Michael Jones that saved THEIR Super Bowl victory over the Tennessee Titans as the BEST last second defensive play in Super Bowl history. This Super Bowl came up with a magical play that will now be remembered as one of the greatest plays ever.
It should not detract from the fact that New England won this game fair and square. They scored four touchdowns against the same Seattle defense that held opponents to an AVERAGE of a one touchdown per game over the last half of the season. They made ONE MORE big play than the Seahawks in an exciting game of big plays.
They WON the last game of the season over the other team that had a claim as to being the best team in football. They finished with the best record in football. They won the Super Bowl.
In football, you are what your record says you are. Sometimes, when two teams are as good as Seattle and New England, it all comes down to ONE play that decides who wins the game. So, (with a little assist from the play callers of the Seattle Seahawks, and thanks to a very heroic play by a rookie defensive back), the New England Patriots are the champions of football.
