Once and for all... [Malcolm Butler pick revisited]

brdmaverick · Jan 30, 2026

PatsFanNM said:
Many people blame Wilson for throwing the pass. When he throws the pass his receiver is relatively open, and Malcolm's appearance in just the right place is far from predictable. A possible pass breakup is definitely predictable, but the interception was basically a miracle.

Right, what I found particularly interesting is that if you watch the "Sights and Sounds" show after the pick Wilson goes over to Carroll and says "What happened"? It's crazy to me that HE (Wilson) didn't know. Carroll was like "they undercut the route" or something to that effect. I suppose that goes with waht you are saying where the receiver 'looked open' when the ball was thrown

brdmaverick · Jan 30, 2026

Quick sidetrack but..........has anyone actually seen some good footage of how close Hightower was to knocking the ball out of Butler's hands. I'm pretty sure he really just wanted him to 'get down' but I've seen a clip that shows him 'close to knocking it out' and then the clip just starts. I've never seen the whole 'finished play' from that angle looking at Butler where you can see him keep the ball all the way to the ground.

To be CLEAR, I am NOT suggesting Butler dropped it. I would just be VERY interested to see a good shot of the ball while he is going to the ground (to have even more appreciation for his catch)

TheRainMaker · Jan 30, 2026

NFL Mystique said:
Throwing it to Lockett (4th receiver) did not make sense to me. Why not throw it to Baldwin or Kearse?

I've thought that too. If Baldwin were lined up there, Revis would've traveled. On second thought, maybe they should've done it because the ref threw a fantastic pick on Revis earlier in the game. Lol.

40yrpatsfan · Jan 30, 2026

All I know is Lynch would have been stuffed for no gain or a loss. We had 8 DLs lined up, with 3 corners. We had already stuffed him a couple of times earlier on short yardage. Seattle’s OL wasn’t that great. No way would he have gotten in, and then the clock would have been running under 20 seconds, 3rd down, 1 TO, needing a TD. Carroll knew that and called a pass play so that worst case the clock is stopped with an incompletion.

40yrpatsfan · Jan 30, 2026

The other thing not mentioned much is how “on” Malcolm was the entire time he played in that game. Like he was on roids. He made at least 5 incredible plays. Why Seattle would challenge him at that point was crazy.

NFL Mystique · Jan 31, 2026

40yrpatsfan said:
The other thing not mentioned much is how “on” Malcolm was the entire time he played in that game. Like he was on roids. He made at least 5 incredible plays. Why Seattle would challenge him at that point was crazy.

Three immediately come to mind:

1. Pick
2. Pushing Kearse out of bounds
3. Pbu to Kearse down sideline at 24-14

If Butler played the whole game he might have been SB MVP.

40yrpatsfan · Jan 31, 2026

NFL Mystique said:
Three immediately come to mind:

1. Pick
2. Pushing Kearse out of bounds
3. Pbu to Kearse down sideline at 24-14

If Butler played the whole game he might have been SB MVP.

The pbu on Kearse at 24-14 was all-pro level. Also on a 4th qtr drive he broke up a slant to Kearse. I don’t think Kearse caught another ball once Butler was on him, except the play down at the 4.

Va_Pats_Fan · Jan 31, 2026

Something about that interception I have always wondered. He dove forward and was downed around the 2 yard line or so. Since he was knocked back into the endzone by contact, would that have been a safety if he took a knee there? Or could he gave taken a knee in the endzone, and our ball at the 20?

n1997y · Jan 31, 2026

Va_Pats_Fan said:
Something about that interception I have always wondered. He dove forward and was downed around the 2 yard line or so. Since he was knocked back into the endzone by contact, would that have been a safety if he took a knee there? Or could he gave taken a knee in the endzone, and our ball at the 20?

My recollection from the postgame discussions is that he wasn’t sure if it would be a safety if he went down in the end zone, because he wasn’t sure whether he was in or out of the end zone when he intercepted, so he drove forward instead of risking going down and causing a safety.

Not sure I’ve ever seen or heard a definitive analysis of how it would’ve been called if he did go down in the end zone. That would be interesting.

PATSYLICIOUS · Jan 31, 2026

PatsFanNM said:
Many people blame Wilson for throwing the pass. When he throws the pass his receiver is relatively open, and Malcolm's appearance in just the right place is far from predictable. A possible pass breakup is definitely predictable, but the interception was basically a miracle.

Exactly, of all pick plays we’ve seen how many times is the pass picked? Thats literally the only time ive seen it picked personally.

People have been saying for years ‘how do you not give it to Lynch’ not realizing the simple fact that they WERE going to give it to him at least one more time, maybe twice.

OldEngland · Feb 1, 2026

Dexter said:
Patricia is not getting enough credit...

I hadn't appreciated this before, thanks for the video.

So the goalline-3CB formation put out on that play, had not been run before and their was no tape on it, and was designed to either run into stacked GL defense, or make them check into the pick play...

In do your job, it always sounded like Patricia was asking Bill about the timeout because he thought it was a good idea to preserve clock. But this video implies the reason he was asking is that he was disguising the defensive formation and personnel until the last second amd when the headsets cut off for maximum confusion

They had designed and practiced a play especially for this very moment against Lynch and the Seahawks.
Then in the heat of the moment Bill was baiting them into running a known play they had seen before (and not some creative play) by running the clock down against all logic, Patricia was hiding this new defensive personel until the last moment, and Browner was the on field general in Butlers ear what to do and planning to choke out the crap out of the reciever.

OldEngland · Feb 1, 2026

The final offensive series is also one of my favourites.

Brady O so disciplined. Getting them to jump offside at the 1 yard line, I presume Brady was going to have to sneak. Then the melee and Gronk ripping off Bennett's helmet and Hawks players getting ejected and another 15 yards. Brady just kneeling with the ball in the chaos and looking lazer focused.

Off the back of the pick was such a great victory formation.

n1997y · Feb 1, 2026

OldEngland said:
I hadn't appreciated this before, thanks for the video.

So the goalline-3CB formation put out on that play, had not been run before and their was no tape on it, and was designed to either run into stacked GL defense, or make them check into the pick play...

In do your job, it always sounded like Patricia was asking Bill about the timeout because he thought it was a good idea to preserve clock. But this video implies the reason he was asking is that he was disguising the defensive formation and personnel until the last second amd when the headsets cut off for maximum confusion

They had designed and practiced a play especially for this very moment against Lynch and the Seahawks.
Then in the heat of the moment Bill was baiting them into running a known play they had seen before (and not some creative play) by running the clock down against all logic, Patricia was hiding this new defensive personel until the last moment, and Browner was the on field general in Butlers ear what to do and planning to choke out the crap out of the reciever.

Exactly. Except Browner was going to choke the crap out of the guy setting the pick so Malcolm had a clean run to the ball.

Talk about highest level stuff.

PP2 · Feb 1, 2026

n1997y said:
My recollection from the postgame discussions is that he wasn’t sure if it would be a safety if he went down in the end zone, because he wasn’t sure whether he was in or out of the end zone when he intercepted, so he drove forward instead of risking going down and causing a safety.

Not sure I’ve ever seen or heard a definitive analysis of how it would’ve been called if he did go down in the end zone. That would be interesting.

He caught the ball outside the EZ and thought that if he was pushed back into the EZ and downed there, that would result in a safety for Seattle.

In reality the momentum exception rule would have been applied to this situation and the ball would have been spotted at the one yard line with neither a safety or touchback occuring if Malcom was downed inside the EZ. It was therefore a very heads-up play by Hightower to try and push Malcolm to the ground to end the play to avoid a fumble.

I believe (but could be wrong) that the momentum exception rule was added to void the advantage an offensive player would have in immediately pushing an intercepting defender into the EZ for a safety.

XLIX · Feb 1, 2026

Va_Pats_Fan said:
Something about that interception I have always wondered. He dove forward and was downed around the 2 yard line or so. Since he was knocked back into the endzone by contact, would that have been a safety if he took a knee there? Or could he gave taken a knee in the endzone, and our ball at the 20?

since he was “knocked back” by a Seattle player, that is considered making a tackle so if he went down in the end zone, he would have gotten forward progress to the 1.

Once and for all... [Malcolm Butler pick revisited]

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