And they did. Ugh.
I wish I was a believer in moral victories but I don't. History is written by the victors. One stupid decision, a little luck, and we'll have to endure years of Patriot fan gloating. This is particularly bitter for me because I lived in Cleveland and was a huge Browns fan as a kid when they lost to Denver in the '88 AFC Championship Game because of "the fumble." They were the better team and Denver proved it by going to the Superbowl and getting their asses kicked by Washington. At least with the "fumble" it was a reasonable football play that just went wrong. Yesterday was a dumb football play that cost Seattle the Superbowl. Ouch.
I can think of a lot of coulda shoulda's. I wish the Seahawks secondary wasn't in its weakest condition since early season. I wish the Seahawks secondary wasn't further weakened when they lost last year's Superbowl MVP in the first quarter to injury. I wish our starting defensive end didn't get injured in the 3rd quarter...followed by two touchdown drives by the Patriots. I wish our coach called for a run instead of a pass. Any one of those would have probably made the difference in the game.
It's definitely hard to swallow. The Seahawks held the Patriots to 57 yards rushing. The Seahawks rushed for 162 yards. They intercepted Brady twice. As I predicted yesterday, the Seahawks were the tougher team. On any normal day the Seahawks win with those numbers.
But they weren't the smarter team...at least in the last meaningful play of the game.
Sorry, I can't bring myself to really congratulate the Patriots. I admire the hell out of Brady for leading the Patriots comeback in the 4th quarter against Seattle's depleted defense. I admire what's his name who made the interception to win the game...nice defensive play on an historically stupid offensive play. I admire the Patriots secondary shutting down Seattle's middling receivers for about half the game. I admire Belichick for being an ornery *******. But overall I say, lucky win but still counts.
See you next year and hope the results are what they should have been yesterday--the best team winning the game.
PS. It'll be fun to see how the Patriots fare in a year or two when Brady is done. ;-)