The substitutions prior to the INT

I really like the play call from the Seahawks not as a pats fan but as a coach in the situation. "Love the call, hate the play." You have 4 downs 1 time out and the best back in the NFL you have to give him as many chances as possible. First down give him it run it, fail to score you have a choice pass or run, if you run and fail Time out next play you need to pass to stop the clock making you more predictable or you run the risk of running out of time on the 1 yard line with a play left in the Super Bowl that is gonna get questions asked of your coaching ablity.

That play was also open if Wilson puts it in the WR rather than in front of him. If the Seahawks score that play you're a genius for making everyone think run and pass it for a score.

The pats assistants that send in 3 corners need a lot of credit, as does Matt Patricia, BB and Browner on the play. You can see Browner tells Butler to cover Lockette not Kearse and we know why now he was just going to blow up pick.

RayClay said:

By the way, since it's over, why in hell isn't that a penalty? Are picks just de facto legal now?

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Let's not question that as I'm sure you could get browner for holding too if you looked hard enough. You can only really call a pick play if it works anyway.

When it comes to clock management, the Pats do it better than anyone in the league.. when I watch other NFL games often there is disregard for the rhythm of the game, when I watch the Pats you can pretty much tell what they they are doing by watching the game clock and play clock.

One of the many things that sets up apart from most of these teams..

There was so much going on in that last minute. A week of reading and re-watching has given me a different perspective.

I gave Carroll the benefit of the doubt because of the situation, 30ish seconds left in the game with only one timeout. But looking back, Seattle had all 3 timeouts at the 2-minute warning. They burned timeout #1 after an incomplete pass right after the 2-minute warning. Why? Then the second after the circus catch by Kearse. They weren't ready for some reason and that goes back to coaching.

They also assumed they would score and so they wanted to bleed the clock to the very last second and score on 4th down. It wasn't a matter of if, but when, as far as they were concerned. I get that you don't want to leave time on the clock, but they ran their last play with 1:06 to go and the clock ticked down to 26 seconds before running their next play. This reminds me of when special teams players let a ball roll inside the 10, 5, wanting to get it as close to the 1 as possible, then letting it roll in. Totally unnecessary risk to take.

Of course the Seahawks weren't the only ones who were sure they would score. Many of us were freaking out about BB not calling a timeout to conserve as much time as possible for Brady. And if the Seahawks had scored there, that would have been the story. But to channel Herm Edwards, you play to win the game. The goal isn't to conserve clock. The goal is to win. They felt very comfortable with the match-up, they didn't want to do the Seahawks any favours by calling timeout and letting them re-think things. The pressure was on Seattle, the last minute of the Super Bowl, the game on the line, they're scrambling emotionally, why give them a chance to think things over? He let the clock add onto the pressure.

A lot has been written about Butler being scouted and brought in. What a story. But let's also add how amazing it is that BB and staff coached him up on that play. The UDFA corner at the bottom of the depth chart who isn't expected to play was getting practice reps to prepare for that play. Butler deserves a ton of credit for the talent and hard work that went into getting into this situation, but kudos to the coaching staff for also preparing him and coaching him up despite a shorter period due to the circus around deflated balls.

So much will be written about Carroll's decision but it really isn't fair to our guys. Browner and Butler made perfect plays, the coaching staff did an incredible job preparing both of them as well as outcoaching Carroll and Co before and during the game, especially down the stretch. Even if they had scored, it was the right thing to do, and our guys will never get their due credit for that.

nabwong said:

2. There were ZERO interceptions from throw from the 1 yard line the whole season.

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By the Seahawks or the entire NFL?

RayClay said:

By the way, since it's over, why in hell isn't that a penalty? Are picks just de facto legal now?

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The goal is to make it a 'natural pick' - a defender getting blocked from defending his player by an offensive player in motion running a route (as opposed to an offensive player being stationary setting an obvious pick).

But yes, penalizing for a pick gets enforced with teh same regularity that intentional grounding gets called. It happens a lot but barely gets called.

Take TO's real long catch in Super Bowl 39. Randall Gay was clearly picked (not just a natural pick either).

Real American Hero said:

Carroll explained all of this 5 minutes after the game but because he used the word choice "wasted play" the media harped on those two words for a week.

And that's without even understanding that the concept of wasting a play was that if they passed on one of the three remaining downs they get three plays but if they ran they would only get two. Thus, the pass was a free play, a chance to "waste" an extra play if it failed, barring everything except the worst possible scenario, an improbable perfectly timed pick by a player who had been impeccably coached and made perhaps the play of his life.

But no, Pete said "wasted play" so let's spend 4 more months on semantics.

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Thank you for starting this thread. I've been wondering about this as well, and I think you summed it up quite nicely and gave some great insight on the strategies involved.

brdmaverick said:

By the Seahawks or the entire NFL?

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That was the first NFL interception of the year at the 1.

ewg_gestalt said:

That was the first NFL interception of the year at the 1.

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Wow that really does make that much more impressive. I know I'd getting greedy here, but did the source of that fact also include the total number of attempts that consists of?

brdmaverick said:

Wow that really does make that much more impressive. I know I'd getting greedy here, but did the source of that fact also include the total number of attempts that consists of?

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109 attempts.

brdmaverick said:

By the Seahawks or the entire NFL?

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I don't remember where I heard this but it was reported as the whole nfl. I'm gonna try to find the source.

I think butler said that the pats defense practiced against that Seattle lineup in practice before the game and he got beat because he took a step back.
When he saw that lineup in the game, he stuck his foot in the ground and drove on the ball.

Great play!!!

Hey OP,

Thumbs up on the thread.

On a side note: do you change your username every year?

rexxar said:

Hey OP,

Thumbs up on the thread.

On a side note: do you change your username every year?

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Thanks. I never thought at the time I joined that I'd be posting here 10 years later or I would have chosen a different name.

40yrpatsfan said:

Thanks. I never thought at the time I joined that I'd be posting here 10 years later or I would have chosen a different name.

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Wow. Just wow.

I wonder how often browner saw that formation in practice and games last year

eom said:

I wonder how often browner saw that formation in practice and games last year

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Yeah - I wondered that too.
But if Browner hadn't recognized the formation, Butler enlightens him.
Watch the clip (endzone view) again. Butler goes up to Browner and says something to him.
I'm sure it had something to do with the formation and to jam Kearse, hard, as to not block off Butler's path to Lockette.

Ochmed Jones said:

I think butler said that the pats defense practiced against that Seattle lineup in practice before the game and he got beat because he took a step back.
When he saw that lineup in the game, he stuck his foot in the ground and drove on the ball.

Great play!!!

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IIRC not only did he get beat on that play in practice, BB then explained what he should've done differently to not get beat on it.

Batman said:

....
The pats assistants that send in 3 corners need a lot of credit, as does Matt Patricia, BB and Browner on the play. You can see Browner tells Butler to cover Lockette not Kearse and we know why now he was just going to blow up pick.

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It looks like Butler went to Browner after recognizing the formation, not the other way round. Butler had that play burned into his memory from getting beat on it in practice.

When was the last time there was an interception from the 1 in the NFL? We know it only happened once this year

How far back do we need to go to find one?