On the doorstep, Seattle throws 1 pass too many
The look on Richard Sherman’s face said it all.
In a split second, the outspoken, cocky, opponent-baiting Seattle cornerback’s mien had gone from confident grin to incredulous agony as Russell Wilson’s would-be Super Bowl XLIX-winning pass to Ricardo Lockette was intercepted at the goal line by New England’s Malcolm Butler.
How the ... what the ... who in the ... ?
Even the most casual fans, the ones who watch the Super Bowl only for the commercials,
knew that Seattle was going to give the ball to Marshawn Lynch. He was “Beast Mode,” right? Hadn’t he just topped the 100-yard mark with a 4-yard run on the previous play to move his team within 36 inches of becoming the first NFC team to win back-to-back Super Bowls since the Cowboys two decades earlier?
With less than 30 seconds to play, the Patriots’ situation couldn’t have been any more dire, and the next play call seemingly so obvious.
And yet, despite all of that, Seattle coach Pete Carroll opted to pass ... and threw away the Lombardi Trophy. New England 28, Seattle 24. “On second down, we throw the ball, really to kind of waste that play,” Carroll said afterward. “If we score, we do. If we don’t, then we’ll run it on third and fourth down.”
They never got those last two downs, thanks to Butler, who two plays earlier could only watch as Jermaine Kearse made one of the most improbable catches in Super Bowl history, one in which the ball went off his fingertips, then his left knee and his right leg before he — while on his back — corralled it with two hands.
First-and-goal on the Patriots’ 5. Fifteen feet from the title.
“Unfortunately, the guy (Butler) jumps in front of the route and makes an incredible play that nobody thinks he could make,” said Carroll.
It also made New England quarterback Tom Brady a Super Bowl winner for the fourth time, tying him with Joe Montana and Terry Bradshaw for most wins by a starting quarterback.
Brady (37-of-50, 328 yards, four touchdowns) was named the game’s MVP — an honor that might have gone to Wilson (12-of-21, 247 yards, two TDs and 39 yards rushing) had the Seahawks won — in large part because of his play during a stirring fourth-quarter comeback.
Seattle, which had the league’s No. 1 defense in the regular season, scored 17 straight points after falling behind 14-7 in the second quarter, and led 24-14 as the fourth quarter began.
Brady cut the deficit to three with a 4-yard pass over the middle to Danny Amendola with 7:55 to play, but Seattle could have stunted the momentum with a sustained drive of its own. Instead, it went three-and-out — including two clock-stopping incompletions (an indication of the bad play calling to come) — and the Patriots got the ball back with only 63 seconds having run off the clock.
The ensuing drive was quintessential Brady. Completions for 8, 5 and 9 yards pushed the ball into Seattle territory. A 20-yarder to Rob Gronkowski helped overcome an offensive pass interference call on Amendola. Three plays later — including a 7-yard run by Shane Vereen — New England was on the 12. With 2:06 to play, the Patriots took their third lead of the day on Brady’s 3-yard pass to Julian Edelman, a Serra High-San Mateo quarterback throwing to a converted Woodside High quarterback.
Wilson came right back, needing only three completions — 31 yards to Lynch, 11 to Lockette and the remarkable 33yarder to Kearse — to put the Seahawks on the 5 and on the brink of a last-minute win. As it turned out, Carroll and his staff thought he needed four.
“I think I’m going to go lock myself in my room for about two weeks,” said Seattle linebacker Bruce Irvin, who was ejected during a final-seconds brawl on the field. “This one hurt because we had it.”