Curran:Super Bowl's final minutes may unravel Carroll's Seahawks

[Bruins29]

At the end of 1st Half Patriots allowed a TD in 31 seconds and could have lost us the game so are you making grand declarations about Bill from this sequence. Coaches do not always have perfectly coached games just as players do not have perfectly played games.
Making entire judgements about people from a sequence of play is overdone.

With the last 6 seconds being totally inexcusable. Absolutely worst 6 seconds of BBs career there I think.

 

[Fencer]

At the end of 1st Half Patriots allowed a TD in 31 seconds and could have lost us the game so are you making grand declarations about Bill from this sequence. Coaches do not always have perfectly coached games just as players do not have perfectly played games.
Making entire judgements about people from a sequence of play is overdone.

Yeah. The Pats made some terrible boners on that sequence, notably the Arrington penalty and the TD on Ryan.

 

[Dr Pain]

The final two minutes of the game and everything Pete has done since the Super Bowl is classic 1998 version Pete Carroll. Whenever some say that Pete Carroll got a bumb wrap here and just didn't have the horses because of Bobby Grier, they should be forced to watch the final two minutes of the Super Bowl and all of Pete Carroll's interviews since to see what kind of disaster he was here. Sure the Seahawks fans have only gotten a few weeks of that guy, Pats fans got three years of him.

My biggest memory is Pete calling the offense off the field on 4th down and Bledsoe ignoring him and getting the 1st down. Pete didn't have the respect of the players.

 

[IcyPatriot]

As the 4th quarter unfolded I was elated but amazed at what I was seeing. The Seahawks had just won vs the Packers because the Packers did not play hard the full 60 minutes. I said to my wife you would think a team basically lucky to be here based on the Packers gift wrap would understand this without drilling it in the players brains. Yet ... here they were trying to coast to the end ... oh well. Every repeated statement ever made by Belichick to the media was there for all to see ... as always ... he was right.

 

[Rob0729]

At the end of 1st Half Patriots allowed a TD in 31 seconds and could have lost us the game so are you making grand declarations about Bill from this sequence. Coaches do not always have perfectly coached games just as players do not have perfectly played games.
Making entire judgements about people from a sequence of play is overdone.

Again, I am talking his performance over a certain period of time. He has been "Jacked and Pumped" Carroll for a few weeks now. I am not commenting about his entire body of work with the Seahawks.

You are twisting what I wrote into something it isn't. I said he has been a great coach for most of his run in Seattle. I am saying the 1998 Pete Carroll has popped up in the last two weeks. Why is that such a big deal.

Is Pete Carroll your father or something?

 

[Rob0729]

My biggest memory is Pete calling the offense off the field on 4th down and Bledsoe ignoring him and getting the 1st down. Pete didn't have the respect of the players.

 

[PatsWickedPissah]

With the last 6 seconds being totally inexcusable. Absolutely worst 6 seconds of BBs career there I think.

Others mentioned this 1st, but the players should have been coached to commit PI if necessary to prevent a TD. With a penalty and 0 on the clock, the SeaBirds would have had to take the 3 points.

In this situation, BB failed to

RESPECT THE CLOCK

 

[Fencer]

With a penalty and 0 on the clock, the SeaBirds would have had to take the 3 points.

That's not at all obvious if, for example, the ball was spotted on the 1-yard line -- even though we've all learned a lot recently about Seattle's difficulties scoring from the 1.

 

[PatsWickedPissah]

That's not at all obvious if, for example, the ball was spotted on the 1-yard line -- even though we've all learned a lot recently about Seattle's difficulties scoring from the 1.

Disagree
You risk 0 points with an incomplete pass or run stopped short
Did you see Pete initially calling for a FG from the 6 and only then risking one play where he warned Wilson not to take too much time or risk because they had the 3 points.
Pete, BB or pretty much any coach would have taken the 3 at the 1 with zero on the clock and a full half to play

 

[Bruins29]

That's not at all obvious if, for example, the ball was spotted on the 1-yard line -- even though we've all learned a lot recently about Seattle's difficulties scoring from the 1.

If a TD is going to be scored, its a no-brainer because worst case, its another chance to stop them at the 1 or 3 points. If the receiver is not near the end zone it gives them one more crack at a TD but I would think with zero on the clock they would take the three.

I wonder if anyone asked BB about that scenario?

 

[PatsWickedPissah]

If a TD is going to be scored, its a no-brainer because worst case, its another chance to stop them at the 1 or 3 points. If the receiver is not near the end zone it gives them one more crack at a TD but I would think with zero on the clock they would take the three.

I wonder if anyone asked BB about that scenario?

I'm sure BB remembered his utter fiasco in the regular season game vs Seattle where at the last seconds of the half they didn't take the 3, got 0 and lost the game as a result.
He'd kick the 3 with 0 on the clock. No doubt whatsoever.

 

[patfanken]

Disagree
You risk 0 points with an incomplete pass or run stopped short
Did you see Pete initially calling for a FG from the 6 and only then risking one play where he warned Wilson not to take too much time or risk because they had the 3 points.
Pete, BB or pretty much any coach would have taken the 3 at the 1 with zero on the clock and a full half to play

This is true. If the situation had been reversed in the last 31 seconds of the first half and Pete was in BB's shoes, we'd be lambasting him for not instructing his DB's to commit a PI if they weren't sure they could stop the pass. BTW - that's what BB should have done (given the benefit of my perfect 20-20 hindsight ).

As for the Pats execution during those 6 plays at the end of the half, I stated immediately after the game that they were the worst 6 consecutive plays the Pats defense had played all year....and definitely could have cost them the ball game.

Allowing the 20 yd run was unforgiveable. If it had been just a 10 yd gain, Pete would have sat on it. The 15 yd unnecessary penalty by Arrington was a killer. No way Pete goes for it if the ball had been on the 25, rather than the 10. The play would take too long. On each of those 6 plays there were a myriad of mistakes that were quite out of the ordinary. Allowing an 80 yd TD drive in 31 seconds to ANY team is unforgivable for an NFL defense. But the TD STILL could have been avoided by not worrying about a penalty on that last play. That was BB's job, and there was a TO to communicate the info. See he isn't perfect

 

[luuked]

I'm sure BB remembered his utter fiasco in the regular season game vs Seattle where at the last seconds of the half they didn't take the 3, got 0 and lost the game as a result.
He'd kick the 3 with 0 on the clock. No doubt whatsoever.

If I remember it correctly we couldnt kick the FG because of a 10 second run off on a penalty. Big difference.

Also you cant just add 3 points to the end result and claim that the rest of the game would have been the same if we get to kick the fg.

 

[BUSTAMOVE]

Pete is a great football mind. You don't get as far as him without it. The problem is discipline of his players. For a moderate window you can take on talented but un disciplined players. Allowing them to free style their talent and attitude. That is great while winning but when the turbulence occurs, the structure to deal with it is shaky. Ala Rex and the Jets. I use Blount as an example. Under Pete it is only a matter of time with a winning but unstructured team that he flies off the handle. With winning and structure he complies. Seattle is a well built team I just feel it is only a matter of time with the thug mentality on that team.

 

[Bobsyouruncle]

I think it's one of the worst articles I've seen from Curran. Here's why:

1. Throwing at the 1 is not crazy, it's not even unusual happens almost every week, and even during that game Lynch got stuffed in the redzone twice for a 1 and a 0 yard gain. Russell bailed him out with a TD pass. I guess there are about 50 "worst calls ever" every season.

2. His complaining about the clock is nonsense. It's far more important to get the RIGHT play, then preserve clock. They will run out of downs before clock if they don't get a first down. Which guess what? After that first TO they got a first down.

3. His criticism about cheerleading vs letting Wilson know what's going on before the miracle catch is ridiculous. As if Wilson needs Pete to tell him what he's "supposed to do." Wilson has been a QB for 3 years, he's in the SB, and he had a TD drive in 31 seconds in this very game. Wilson knows what he's doing. Trying to calm him down is reasonable, and in fact that psychological aspect is not "dumb coaching" but part of coaching. One that I think Carroll has shown he understands better than most. And by the way, after Carroll's dumb TO and coaching, they got the first down.

4. Time left had Jack **** to do with them winning or losing so why is he blabbing about it? How much time to leave on the clock is a subjective decision with pros and cons. Acting like more time = better is just failing to really understand football.

5. It annoys the f*** out of me when people pretend to not understand things. Carroll's explanation was NOT gibberish. You may not agree, or like it, but it was perfectly coherent. You see people do this all the time in politics, and they did it with the BB conference about Deflategate. "Oh my god, it was so bizarre, what he's saying makes no sense!"

Since when has pretending to be too stupid to understand something become a viable argument?

 

[Bobsyouruncle]

The Seahawks could fall apart because of the issues keeping the team together, or maybe they do get too much conflict, but that's still a terrible article IMO.

 

[Oswlek]

4. Time left had Jack **** to do with them winning or losing so why are you blabbing about it? How much time to leave on the clock is a subjective decision with pros and cons. Acting like more time = better is just failing to really understand football.

I agree with everything you said except this one. Had Seattle snapped the on second down at 0:45, they had plenty of time to run on all four downs. Instead, they allowed the clock to run all the way down to 0:26 (either intentionally or because they expect Bill to call TO) which forced them to pass on a down or risk having only two cracks at it.

I actually don't mind the play call as much as everyone else, the time management (two timeouts when the clock had already stopped!?) was the bigger mistake, IMO.

 

[Rob0729]

Pete is a great football mind. You don't get as far as him without it. The problem is discipline of his players. For a moderate window you can take on talented but un disciplined players. Allowing them to free style their talent and attitude. That is great while winning but when the turbulence occurs, the structure to deal with it is shaky. Ala Rex and the Jets. I use Blount as an example. Under Pete it is only a matter of time with a winning but unstructured team that he flies off the handle. With winning and structure he complies. Seattle is a well built team I just feel it is only a matter of time with the thug mentality on that team.

Player coaches typically have short shelf lives even if they are very successful for a period of time.

I actually think Rex Ryan bucks the trend. I don't think he is a very good head coach, but he had most of his team playing hard for him all last year. His biggest flaw that he forgets that he has an offense and a special teams unit, but his players never gave up on him. Idzik just gave him a talentless team.

 

[Fencer]

Disagree
You risk 0 points with an incomplete pass or run stopped short
Did you see Pete initially calling for a FG from the 6 and only then risking one play where he warned Wilson not to take too much time or risk because they had the 3 points.
Pete, BB or pretty much any coach would have taken the 3 at the 1 with zero on the clock and a full half to play

Actually, the percentage play on what amounts to 4th-and-1 is often to go for it. I recognize that 1 yard at the goal line is harder to get than 1 yard elsewhere. But the 2-point conversion line is the 2-yard line in the pros, which is suggestive of one try from the 1 yard line being better than a 50-50 shot. What's more, the ratio of scores from the two alternatives is 7:3, which is better than 2:1.

 

[BUSTAMOVE]

Player coaches typically have short shelf lives even if they are very successful for a period of time.

I actually think Rex Ryan bucks the trend. I don't think he is a very good head coach, but he had most of his team playing hard for him all last year. His biggest flaw that he forgets that he has an offense and a special teams unit, but his players never gave up on him. Idzik just gave him a talentless team.

Agree with you on shelf life. Rex's last year team was not the same bunch of thugs he had 2-3 years ago when the wheels came off of that bus because they were all allowed to mouth off. This year Rex was more quiet as was his team.