Andy Benoit's first take

http://mmqb.si.com/2015/02/02/super-bowl-49-darrell-bevell-play-call-interception/ Hasty and scattered, but still with plenty of interesting tidbits. The worst part is the title and beginning, in which he appears to be mounting a strong defense of the fatal goal-line pass call, but really doesn't support the case. Otherwise some of his comments are:

• Patriots should have called a timeout when Seattle was near the goal-line to preserve over 1/2 minute o clock.
• The Patriots were great in man coverage, except Arrington on Matthews.
• Browner begged to have his assignment switched to Matthews.
• The Patriots murdered the Seahawks when they went man, especially to Gronk.
• Collins' Achilles heel all season has been man coverage on the sidelines.

The only reason BB would not have called a Timeout was because he wanted the two timeouts to be able to try and get a FG which means he was going to let them run it in. Doubling the stupidity of throwing it there.

I screamed at BB for not calling a TO, but if they had, Seattle would have had three shots at running it in. The only reason Butler got a chance to make that play is because Seattle was managing the clock, too. If BB calls a TO, Lynch and Wilson get three cracks at running it in, instead of two. I'd still call the TO, but I might not like the result as much.

The point about Flores and Boyer swapping Browner to Matthews without consulting Patricia or Belichick is really interesting.

Rossmci90 said:

The point about Flores and Boyer swapping Browner to Matthews without consulting Patricia or Belichick is really interesting.

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When you think about it, BB is in some ways an extreme delegater. After all, on every play a lot of decision-making is delegated to 11 men who are going to have to make choices with amazing speed.

That said, one weird aspect of the story is that Browner recruited Flores to help him lobby Boyer. Perhaps Flores and Boyer make game-time decisions by consensus. (Frankly, I can't see how they could make many decisions independently of each other.)

Also, I bet the story is slightly exaggerated. Probably Boyer at least notified Patricia, who implicitly or explicitly rubber-stamped the decision.

Rossmci90 said:

The point about Flores and Boyer swapping Browner to Matthews without consulting Patricia or Belichick is really interesting.

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Yea I think they just said we need to do this and the chain of command said ok

I would rather told the defenders to drag lynch into the EZ instead of tackling him in the 1 yard line instead of timeout.

pencilneckgeek said:

I screamed at BB for not calling a TO, but if they had, Seattle would have had three shots at running it in. The only reason Butler got a chance to make that play is because Seattle was managing the clock, too. If BB calls a TO, Lynch and Wilson get three cracks at running it in, instead of two. I'd still call the TO, but I might not like the result as much.

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Couldve called timeout and then dragged them in to score on the first shot. ...I bet if they had lost this wouldve been the biggest talking point today. BB got away with the gamble and sometimes you need that bit of luck.