FireFoley;n165709 said:
Okay I already contributed to this thread by saying it was the worst call in Super Bowl history. but after hearing Carroll and Bevell this morning, I have to add this.
Memo to Bevell: If you want to ever kill the clock just spike the ball. A laughable explanation. Yeah right, kill the clock by throwing into traffic!!!
After listen to Caroll I could only think back to what WM said after LSU converted a 3rd down and like 35 this past season. WM tried to explain that depending on LSU's personnel, that would dictate the defense, so when LSU when empty backfield, the defense had an empty check and someone missed it. Memo to WM. It is 3rd down and I can't see that far. There is NO CHECKING!!!!!!. You are in one defense regardless of what the other team is doing!!!!
When you have less than a minute to go in the game with one timeout and need a touchdown to win, you don't waste a play by spiking the ball. If they spiked the ball, then they only have 2 plays to try to score instead of 3, and they had enough time for 3 plays. Also, if Seattle scores on the play or if it is an incompletion, no one thinks it's a bad play call. Hindsight is always 20/20.
Everyone thinks this was a terrible call because they assume Lynch would have run it in for the score on that 2nd down, but in reality no one knows that for sure. The more I think about it the more I understand the call, even though I personally would have given it to Lynch in that situation. If they run the ball and don't get it, then they are forced to use their last timeout. Then on 3rd down, if they run it and don't get it they don't have enough time to run a play on 4th, so 3rd down is a must pass situation. The way that they were lined up on 2nd down, they still had a run or pass threat which makes the playcall less predictable. I personally thought they were going to run the read option on 2nd down and the pass caught me off gaurd, but obviously not the Pats' D. Anyways, if that ball was an incompletion instead of a INT, then the clock stops, they still have a run or pass threat on 3rd down, and with a timeout they have enough time to run another play on 4th.
Also, give credit to Bilichik for not calling a time out at the 0:54 mark. I thought he would have called a timeout there to give Brady time to score if Seattle scored, but he showed complete confidence in his defense to stop them. If Belichik calls that timeout, then Seattle probably runs the ball on second down and maybe every down until they pound it in. I suspect Seattle expected New England to call the timeout, and when they didn't then Seattle thought they needed to pass to conserve time. That's why they took up so much time between first and second down imo.
