What an amazing Super Bowl!
It lived up to all the hype and ended up with the most questionable call that cost the Seattle Seahawks the victory.
I’m no Patriot fan but I do believe the greatness of Tom Brady was on display in that game, but especially the fourth quarter, bringing the Patriots from 10 points down against the best defense in football. He adjusted in the second half against the rush, stepping up in the pocket instead of standing immobile, to fire the ball to Edelman, Amandola, Vereen, and Gronkowski. I must admit I thought the Seahawks would bust it open once they went up 10 points and stomp on Brady, but it sure didn’t happen.
I wish I’d hear more about Julien Edelman, 11 catches for over 100 yards and a TD, turning so many 3 yard passes into longer gains, slipping tackles. He is tough as they come.
It sure looked like the Patriots left too much time on the clock and it was “Russell Wilson time” again. Just as he took the Seahawks 80 yards in 30 seconds at the end of the half for a TD, and Seattle made a gutsy pass call instead of a safe TD, he started the final drive with a 30 yard pass to Marshawn Lynch. The Patriots then almost had a third Mario Manningham, David Tyree amazing (or lucky) catch go against them to set up a game winning TD for Seattle.
With a minute left I was screaming for Bill Belichick to use his timeouts to have time for Tom Brady to try and get at least a field goal for OT, but he didn’t. Seattle was also letting the clock run off 25 seconds before running the play so by the time it was second down there was only 20 seconds left and 1 Timeout left. There was no question it would be a run by Marshawn and then a timeout if he didn’t make it. Then they would have had to pass or if they ran again and didn’t make it, time would be short for a 4th down play. Seattle used the clock very poorly for themselves. One has to believe Marshawn would score, especially when he sees “MVP” in the end zone with endorsements and him being the center of attention the entire off season. He did a masterful, brilliant job of making himself the most talked about player for 2 weeks, without talking.
But a slant pass was called, and Brandon Browner didn’t let the WR Kearse get off the line, each part broke down, and then there was the great play by an undrafted rookie DB Malcolm Butler to intercept the ball.
One play doesn’t win or lose a game in a 60 minute game, but the last play and a totally out of character call for a team not to use “Beast Mode” Lynch to win it will forever be the “reason Seattle lost” for Super Bowl #49.
