How about a Super Bowl 49 thread?

I agree but I would use the word "conflict" instead of panic. Belichick showed the nerves of a riverboat gambler. Seattle figured that The Pats would call timeout
but they let it run. If there was a timeout they likely would have come to their senses and changed personal. Just a brilliant ballsy move that speaks
of years of experience. I guess we'll have to wait until Michael Holley writes his next Belichick book to know what he was really thinking.

 

Seattle would have been very hard-pressed to get in three running plays. In a vacuum they could have done it, sure ... but that's if nothing goes wrong, they don't lose yardage on any play, and they want to give up on shifting people to match New England's formation.

 

That second run play, in a state of being harried, would have been a Wilson keeper.

 

I do wonder how much of the "panic" (though I'm not sure of the word) came from the unexpected nature of Belichick not calling timeout. So much of those final minutes seemed to go exactly according to script.
With or without Kearse's circus catch, I think the Seahawks were going to march down the field and score. Hell, the pass to Lynch on the first play was about as easy as you can get.
Then, with them in position, they run Lynch and get to the one and, suddenly, bam, things go off-script.
I really think Seattle was caught in the mentality I'm sure most of America was with waiting for, and not getting, a timeout call there.
It was just so unexpected. I know it threw me off and I had a hard time believing what I was seeing.
So suddenly you're forced to think on your feet and, in my honest opinion, Seattle wasn't ready for that. They've felt pressure before in big games but there's nothing like a close Super Bowl where everything comes down to one play. The Pats, meanwhile, have had this exact scenario happen five times already and, in my opinion, weren't fazed in the slightest by the moment.
I think the Seahawks got caught off guard and weren't ready for that sequence and that led to a terrible play call and even worse decision to throw the ball there.

 

Amazing that Carroll, who's already won a title, could get to the place everyone in his profession eats, sleeps, and breathes for, and mishandles it. Jerry Glanville could have made that call. Rich Kotite could have made that call. Ray Handley could have made that call.

OK, maybe not Ray Handley.

 

Andy Reid would have let the clock run out and then blamed it on Donovan McNabb.

 

Tom Brady has thrown 31 one-yard touchdown passes in his career, including four this season.

Were those just Belichick's dumb idea that panned out?

 

Time and place might matter, I think.

 

Yeah ... and personnel.

But the sequence -- run your fourth-best play on second down and then save the best for later -- isn't THAT unusual.

But I too think Belichick got them all frazzled by letting the clock run. And it's pretty apparent that the play Seattle ran was exactly the play New England was expecting. I wonder if they had picked that up as a tendency. Or maybe they had the headsets bugged.

 

HeadsetBugGAHZI!

 

Yeah, but think of their upside and escapability.

 

Think their both coach killers