How about a Super Bowl 49 thread?

Oh, I think Seattle and New England will get back to the postseason and probably reach the conference title games. And who knows? Green Bay and Indianapolis will probably make it back too. Groundhog Day, anybody?

 

Here's a story on Butler from August.
A good tale of redemption and success.

From the archives: Super Bowl hero Malcolm Butler a rags-to-riches story | Sports - Patriots | providencejournal.com | The Providence Journa

 

OK. Homerism aside (YEAH PATRIOTS!!!!), I've got to say this. The Patriots got incredibly lucky. What a terrible, terrible call. I've officially been watching football for 20 years as of this Super Bowl and I've never seen a worse call. EVER.
You absolutely run the ball with Lynch there. Absolutely. There is no reason not to. It goes like this:
Plays you can run in that situation:
1.) Marshawn Lynch run play 99% of the time
2.) Russell Wilson run play 1 % of the time.
3.) All other plays are unacceptable.
But I'll take it. Thanks guys!

 

Seahawks players openly criticize Pete Carroll's final play call - SBNation.com

 

I would say Mike McCarthy has led an unbelievably charmed life the last 13 days but his younger brother died unexpectedly last week.

From a purely professional standpoint, however, having inflated footballs, Lynch vs. the reporters and now Pete's Folly have kept McCarthy shielded from that dumpster fire two weeks ago.

 

And another:
vicksburgpost.com/2014/07/13/vicksburg-native-butler-overcomes-missteps-to-earn-free-agent-shot-in-the-nfl-with-the-new-england-patriots/

 

In the end, what may have been the two huge plays that are under-reported are the two wasted timeouts. First they wasted a timeout at midfield to save 5 yards from a delay-of-game penalty. Then they don't get lined up in time after the great rebound catch by Kearse. They used two timeouts in the final two minutes that had nothing to do with stopping the clock. Just inexcusable.

If they have two timeouts left, running the ball with Lynch is mandatory. But with the clock down to 30 seconds, now they don't want to run and be stopped and forced to use their final timeout. Two inexcusable time-out wastes, and maybe that's why Carroll (or Bevell) went away from the run.

 

I don't see how this changes anything. They had one timeout with goal to go. Running with him is still mandatory.

 

I agree, but it certainly is easier if they hadn't wasted those two time outs.

 

I think it changes a lot of things. If they run and don't make it, they have to burn their last timeout and one more run that doesn't make it ends the game or forces them to scramble to run a fourth-down, all-or-nothing play. Lynch ran for no gain on two other plays in the game. Everyone's talking like he was guaranteed to get the last yard (and it was actually about a yard-and-a-half).

That the Seahawks showed a complete lack of class after Brady took a knee makes me feel no sympathy for them. And they got their asses kicked for 57 minutes two weeks ago, so they weren't some unstoppable machine.

 

Not any kind of football expert, but having seen people tweet that shot, I don't understand how it's supposed to show Wilson had a great opportunity there or that it makes it any smarter of a play call. Wilson's going to be passing to a spot; he wasn't passing it to a target just sitting on the one-yard line. The receiver and the DB are both in pretty much the same position to reach that spot at the same time--which is what happened. Plus there are defensive linemen there who could deflect it. It's not like it's a pic of the receiver standing alone in the corner of the end zone for 5 seconds.

The personnel involved is what makes it even more inexplicable. It wasn't just throwing from the 1. It's having the best running back in the league at your disposal. It's having a great running QB if you want to roll out. And you do that?

 

Having listened to ESPN's talking heads dissect this for the last three hours, it came down to three things that seem legit:
1) Bad execution. Kearse took Browner out of the play, but not Butler. Wilson's pass was also a bit off of where it needed to be -- too far outside and not in enough on Lockette's hands. Maybe Lockette was a step slow to the ball, too.
2) A bad play call. You've got a timeout. Run the damn football. If you don't get it, then you've still got two passes. Still, though, this was not an abortion of a play call because ...
3) Butler just made a hell of a play. He recognized the formation and knew what to do to stop it. He lined up in the perfect position to avoid the pick by Kearse and have a free run to the spot Wilson was throwing, and he flat beat Lockette to it. Look at the replay, and he was really the only one on the field who could've stopped Lockette from catching that ball and scoring a touchdown. Lockette was open for what the Seahawks were trying to accomplish. Butler just sniffed it out and played it perfectly.
There'll be a lot of blame to go around in Seattle, and rightfully so, but sometimes the defense wins.