Super Bowl XLIX thread.

[HuskyFreeNorthwest]

People are second guessing that playcall too much. On a few short yardage situations, the Pats had stopped Lynch. The Pats were stacked up expecting Lynch, they had their receivers in single coverage. Wilson made a good throw, it's just the Pats player made a brilliant play.

True, they stopped him after only gaining 5 yards on 1st down.

[Color Me Badd Fan]

True, they stopped him after only gaining 5 yards on 1st down.

They held him to no gain on 3rd and short in the first drive in the game when everyone knew he was getting the ball. The Pats player broke on the ball exceptionally quickly and made a great play. Everyone thought Lynch was getting the ball on second down, so the Seahawks' coaching staff thought they may have a better chance at completing a short pass. It almost worked.

A player makes a great play and then everyone says the losing coaching staff are a bunch of idiots. But just like the NFC championship and the onside kick, if the Pats player doesn't break on that pass as quickly as he does, and I think a majority of players in that situation wouldn't have, then none of this second guessing is happening.

[old_gregg]

it was an absurd and indefensible call with a timeout

[Color Me Badd Fan]

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[CardiacCoug]

No question that was a great play by that Pats DB -- great break on the ball, great toughness and great catch.

It's the one yard line though. Seattle needs to run the ball there three times -- that is the proven high-percentage strategy when you just need one yard. Back it up to even the three or four-yard line and I agree the pass isn't a bad play-call.

[SeattleUte]

I assume that boneheaded playcall will at least give SU grounds to blame the Church.

It is the LDS Church's fault in this respect. It was irrational, and the LDS Church has not promoted rational thinking in this world -- on the contrary, it has undermined it. The Seahawks had a fantastic streak going of reckless play calling bearing spectacular fruit. I thought the fake FG against Green Bay was insane -- a FG would have brought them to within two TDs and finally put points on the board, with a quarter and a half to go. Today, at the end of the half, I would have kicked the FG. I have admired -- been amazed at -- the Hawks' appetite for high stakes risk taking. They have played like there was no tomorrow. Better to have lived and died that way than not at all -- I guess. They've also had some unlikely good fortune. But they bet the house one too many times. It seems they thought the gods were on their side. Alas, the gods were only teasing them, right? Nope. Magic had nothing to do with it. The saddest thing may be they've lost their innocence. I enjoyed their playfulness, their crying after the Green Bay game, etc. It's all gone now. (Had the pass succeeded people would be calling it brilliant and courageous.)

[Color Me Badd Fan]

it was an absurd and indefensible call with a timeout

Was the three yard TD pass to Baldwin on 2nd down in the 3rd quarter also "absurd and indefensible." I don't see a comment from you on that one. That play worked so you can't follow the crowd and pile on.

How about the two drives stalled on 3rd and 1 run plays to Lynch? Apparently they were non-absurd and totally defensible.

[Color Me Badd Fan]

No question that was a great play by that Pats DB -- great break on the ball, great toughness and great catch.

It's the one yard line though. Seattle needs to run the ball there three times -- that is the proven high-percentage strategy when you just need one yard. Back it up to even the three or four-yard line and I agree the pass isn't a bad play-call.

They could have run the ball three times only if they had hurried up and ran the 2nd down play. But they didn't want to give the ball back to New England with time on the clock to score a field goal if they scored on that second down play.

So, they sat on the ball and snapped it with around 25 seconds left. If they had run the ball on that play and got stopped short of the goal line, then they would have had to take their timeout. Then third down would have to be a pass, unless Seattle had brass balls. Fourth down could have been anything Seattle wanted. Seattle had three shots and only two of them could be runs, Seattle chose to pass in second down.

[SeattleUte]

So, they sat on the ball and snapped it with around 25 seconds left. If they had run the ball on that play and got stopped short of the goal line, then they would have had to take their timeout. Then third down would have to be a pass, unless Seattle had brass balls. Fourth down could have been anything Seattle wanted. Seattle had three shots and only two of them could be runs, Seattle chose to pass in second down.

To me this sounds like terrible clock management and play calling.

[Uncle Ted]

So Bevell Carroll might be available for BYU, for those that always say "Who is there other than Bronco?"

FIFY...

Embedded Tweet

Carroll says he made the call not Bevell. "I said throw the ball,".

[Uncle Ted]

No question that was a great play by that Pats DB -- great break on the ball, great toughness and great catch.

It's the one yard line though. Seattle needs to run the ball there three times -- that is the proven high-percentage strategy when you just need one yard. Back it up to even the three or four-yard line and I agree the pass isn't a bad play-call.

Blame it on auto-correct...

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[Harry Tic]

It is the LDS Church's fault in this respect. It was irrational, and the LDS Church has not promoted rational thinking in this world -- on the contrary, it has undermined it.

SU, your game is slipping. I assume what you meant to say was "Never trust your playcalling in a situation like that to a guy who wears magic underwear, believes in peepstones and angels, and is also named Darrell."

And you might actually have a point.

[ewth8tr]

[Harry Tic]

Very interesting long read on Brady from the NY Times Magazine a week ago. A lot of the story is dedicated to describing Brady's relationship with Alex Guerrero, his idiosyncratic therapist, mentor, and guru. Here's where things get weird:

Guerrero, 49, is a practicing Mormon of Argentine descent with a master’s degree in Chinese medicine from a college in Los Angeles. His philosophy is built on three components: “We work on staying physically fit, emotionally stable and spiritually sound,” he says. He can sound somewhat Stuart Smalley-like in his mantras. Guerrero shares with me a saying that he and Brady invoke a lot: “Where your concentration goes, your energy flows and that’s what grows.”

Yesterday, testimonies were strengthened and chi flew freely.

[byu71]

In the post game someone said 5 times this season they ran Lynch from the one yard line and he only scored once.