Is anyone else backtracking about the "worst call ever"?

[jwhitt]

I had no dog in this hunt but as a Raider fan, I hated to see the Pats pull it off. Add to that I despise the 49ners so I am a Seahawk fan at least twice a year lol. Having said that, passing the ball in that situation wasn`t a bad call BUT NOT WITH AN EMPTY BACKFIELD. Should have been a play action where Wilson can hit someone wide open, or run it in or throw it away giving yourself time for another play or 2. The Seahawks identity is similar to the old Raiders of a dominating defense and ground and pound with an occasional long pass. If Seattle gives it to the Beast and he does`t score, that is much easier to live with than what happened last night.

 

[CDN_C_Hawk]

Why care about 3rd and 4th down when you can win on 2nd?

Not too unlike worrying about "scoring too fast" at the end of a game. Pete always has a just score and let the rest play out mantra.....and yet here we are hearing excuses about planning for 4th down......WHY???? Seems to go against their philosophy

JUST SCORE THE DANG FOOTBALL WHEN YOU HAVE THE CHANCE!

I seem to be getting angrier as time goes on.....

They definitely went against philosophy. Now we all know why his philosophy is good and is what we need to stick with.

Still sad to see...

The way Lockett and Kearse lined-up....Browner recognized it was a slant and Kearse was going to to pick Butler, but Browner jammed Kearse and even got away with a hold to allow Bulter a unimpeded line to Lockett. With Browner so close...RW should have changed the play, and gone to a corner fade or a draw. With the one TO remaining...we needed to pass at least once.

 

[plyka]

I will admit that after sleeping on it, reading and watching dozens of points of analysis, I am backtracking on calling out the INT as the worst call in football. It's easy to question anything in hindsight, especially under the gravity of the situation, but now that I have seen so many facts and explanations and viewpoints, I still don't think it was the BEST call in the situation, but I understand why it was made. It really boiled down to execution, and the fact that a rookie DB made the play of his life.

I believe if we ran that play 100 times in the same situation, same receiver (yes, even Lockette) that we score a TD more than 50% of the time, and it's probably never intercepted more than the one time. It was an unbelievable defensive play, combined with an overconfident leading throw and a receiver not used to being in that position. But I understand it, and have come to terms with it.

I still would have liked a play action rollout, but if Lockette catches that ball yesterday I doubt anyone would be questioning the call.

Here is what I believe happened --a great coach, Bill Bellicheck, was put in one of the worst possible situations you could be in. Time winding down, 2nd and goal on the 1 yard line --roughly 35 seconds left in the game. A perfect storm of doodoo. His only possible out is if the coach on the other side can be tricked into making the worst play in superbowl history. So he comes out with his goalline defense --and because of this , lol ---the coach on the other side falls for the trick. Instead of walking over to the wheel barrow and lugging away all the money lying in the corner of the room, the idiot says: hey, we got the matchup we want!!! We got them in goal line so we should pass. You idiot, the reason they are in goalline is because they understand that they cannot win unless you do something idiotic, like passing in this situation. And then to make matters even worse, they don't just pass ---they don't give Russell a rollout where he has the run/pass option, they dont run play action from under center, they line up in SHOTGUN on 2nd and goal from the 1 yard line. Literally the only way New England has a chance to win. And then they decide to run a play that New England has seen on tape a million times and practiced for a million times. The opposing team literally knew what was coming. A pass by a 5'10'' QB, from the 1, on 2nd, in the middle of the field where any sort of tipped ball means you lost. The Hawks decide to not take the moneey in front of them, and they decide to take a 50/50 chance on door #3.

There is no way to slice it, it was/is/and in all likelyhood, will always be, the worst call in football history.

 

[SalishHawkFan]

I literally cannot count the number of times over the years I've screamed Give the $%%# ball to Lynch! In situations like that. I know I've been in the game day forum fuming at Bevell for not giving Lynch the ball. how many times has that ended badly for us?

Fire Bevell.

 

[CANHawk]

It's the equivalent of having Michael Jordan and taking the game winning shot with Bill Cartwright. That play relied way more on Lockette (who is more or less nobody) to make a big play, more so than Russell to do something great. Hate the call, hate the guy who called it.

If anyone is into getting a billboard, I've got $5 on a Fire Bevell billboard in Renton someplace...

 

[AgentDib]

For sure the worst call I can personally remember. I agree with most that the quick slant to Lockette in the middle of the field is the primary component that sucked. It was so far away from what we are best at.

I'm a bit surprised that more people are not making the personnel and time management part of it as a bigger factor. Is that because people are uncomfortable that BB outfoxed Pete? We were obviously expecting BB to call a timeout and were caught flat footed when he did not. We didn't need to run all that time off the clock after the first down run and we could have easily had our own goal line run package in on second down. BB's decision to not call a timeout there saved the Patriots every bit as much as Butler's play.

 

[KitsapGuy]

 

[KitsapGuy]

 

[hawksfansinceday1]

Yes. Wilson put it in pretty much the only spot it could have been picked off.

Bevell can't be scapegoated for everything. Players have to execute.

Wilson put it where it had to be. The defense knew the play was coming and broke on it. Very similar in concept to the play Sherman made against the Texans.

Even if Wilson had thrown the ball a tic sooner, Lockette would have been blasted at the 1 yard line, and if he had held onto the ball, Seattle would have been forced to burn a timeout, which is also a really bad outcome. No way Lockette scores there.

Seattle basically gave the play away when they went 3 WR and the Patriots dictated a pass with their defense. Lockette lined up just behind Kearse in a classic rub route formation. The Patriots see this formation a hundred times a day in practice, so they all knew it was coming. This was confirmed by Patriots DBs in interviews after the game. It really was just about the worst play call possible.

You gotta remember that Rat doesn't like Wilson so that's the reason for this post.

To answer the question of this thread............HELL NO!!!!

FIRE BEVELL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



For God's sake if you must throw a pass against a defense that didn't stop a goal to go from the one a single freakin' time all year, throw a safe fade route that can only be a TD or an incomplete.

 

[Ramfan128]

I don't get it. The only time an INT is not a QBs fault is if it hits the WR in the hands, or the WR runs the wrong route. Neither of those two things happened. Wilson threw the ball right to the Pats defender. As an NFL QB, you have to see that guy coming. You cant throw a pass without diagnosing the defense...when you do...well, we all saw the result.

Maybe he saw it was man to man, but if the DB runs the route for the WR, you cant just throw it anyway.

 

[TorontoHawk]

Worst call ever. 2nd down, best back in the league against an awful goal line defense who was getting pushed around in the second half to win the Super Bowl inside the one yard line.

It can't be anything but the worst call ever.

But if it was a TD it would have been the best call ever right? Butler made a great play and maybe we should have run it but we did not. Carroll is still a great coach and we still have a great team for next year(it will be better I think).

 

[byau]

Why care about 3rd and 4th down when you can win on 2nd?

Not too unlike worrying about "scoring too fast" at the end of a game. Pete always has a just score and let the rest play out mantra.....and yet here we are hearing excuses about planning for 4th down......WHY???? Seems to go against their philosophy

JUST SCORE THE DANG FOOTBALL WHEN YOU HAVE THE CHANCE!

I seem to be getting angrier as time goes on.....

They definitely went against philosophy. Now we all know why his philosophy is good and is what we need to stick with.

Still sad to see...

The way Lockett and Kearse lined-up....Browner recognized it was a slant and Kearse was going to to pick Butler, but Browner jammed Kearse and even got away with a hold to allow Bulter a unimpeded line to Lockett. With Browner so close...RW should have changed the play, and gone to a corner fade or a draw. With the one TO remaining...we needed to pass at least once.

Agreed. I think Russell didn't execute. Had he also passed behind him a bit instead of leading him into coverage, Lockette could have made that play and we'd be celebrating a win.

Thinking about it now (on day 3), Russell didn't seem as focused or dialed in this game, making quite a few inaccurate throws. So no matter what you thought of the play call, Russell still could have executed it. I'm sure he knows that and will learn from it.

 

[dutchman063]

Spinmasters aside... it is the worst call ever in the history of the superbowl

 

[byau]

Worst call ever. 2nd down, best back in the league against an awful goal line defense who was getting pushed around in the second half to win the Super Bowl inside the one yard line.

It can't be anything but the worst call ever.

But if it was a TD it would have been the best call ever right? Butler made a great play and maybe we should have run it but we did not. Carroll is still a great coach and we still have a great team for next year(it will be better I think).

Right. If it were a TD we are lauding how awesome it is to run a pass play when they were expecting the run.

We didn't execute as good as we could have and Patriots rookie made a HUGE play and capitalized.

 

[marko358]

There's a reason 99.99999% of the world thinks that was a terrible call. Because it was.

 

[hawk45]

For sure the worst call I can personally remember. I agree with most that the quick slant to Lockette in the middle of the field is the primary component that sucked. It was so far away from what we are best at.

I'm a bit surprised that more people are not making the personnel and time management part of it as a bigger factor. Is that because people are uncomfortable that BB outfoxed Pete? We were obviously expecting BB to call a timeout and were caught flat footed when he did not. We didn't need to run all that time off the clock after the first down run and we could have easily had our own goal line run package in on second down. BB's decision to not call a timeout there saved the Patriots every bit as much as Butler's play.

One thing Holmgren mentioned on KJR was that when he was OC there were times when he was scanning his chart for a run play for example and the coach would come on the headset and say "wait, pass it" or vice versa, and with the play clock winding down his play selection would be sub-optimal.

Of course we cannot know if that happened, but clearly Pete and our staff expected the timeout as you say, and the resulting delay when they realized it wasn't coming was what put them in the situation of having to pass to preserve the option of being able to use all 3 remaining downs instead of just two. I think Pete's comments about needing to "waste" the down are pretty indicative of this. You don't need to "waste" a down unless you are caught with your pants down, and it's pretty egregious to be caught out like that when your first down run completed with so much time left on the clock.

Belichick's move was utter desperation, and Pete threw the life raft in the water to Bill and then allowed Bill to yank him overboard. Have to believe Belichick himself cannot believe how pole-axed Pete was by the ploy.

Definite assist to Bevell for reaching deep into the bag of tricks and pulling out the play our team executes with the least competency when called on.

 

[Sgt. Largent]

There's a reason 99.99999% of the world thinks that was a terrible call. Because it was.

Yep.

Mitch made a great point this morning. He said do you know how I know it was an awful call? Because if you hooked up every single one of the Patriot's defensive players to a lie detector and asked them the ONE play that they didn't want the Hawks to run in that scenario, all 11 guys would say a Marshawn Lynch run play.

They knew it, 150 million people knew it. Unfortunately the only person that didn't know it was our O-coordinator.

 

[bandiger]

Why care about 3rd and 4th down when you can win on 2nd?

Not too unlike worrying about "scoring too fast" at the end of a game. Pete always has a just score and let the rest play out mantra.....and yet here we are hearing excuses about planning for 4th down......WHY???? Seems to go against their philosophy

JUST SCORE THE DANG FOOTBALL WHEN YOU HAVE THE CHANCE!

I seem to be getting angrier as time goes on.....

They definitely went against philosophy. Now we all know why his philosophy is good and is what we need to stick with.

Still sad to see...

The way Lockett and Kearse lined-up....Browner recognized it was a slant and Kearse was going to to pick Butler, but Browner jammed Kearse and even got away with a hold to allow Bulter a unimpeded line to Lockett. With Browner so close...RW should have changed the play, and gone to a corner fade or a draw. With the one TO remaining...we needed to pass at least once.

Agreed. I think Russell didn't execute. Had he also passed behind him a bit instead of leading him into coverage, Lockette could have made that play and we'd be celebrating a win.

Thinking about it now (on day 3), Russell didn't seem as focused or dialed in this game, making quite a few inaccurate throws. So no matter what you thought of the play call, Russell still could have executed it. I'm sure he knows that and will learn from it.

You can keep blaming the QB, WRs, whoever you want to deflect from insane Bevell's playcall. Our two best playmakers are just limited one as a decoy the other just takes a 2-3 drop step and throw. Leave it to Lockette of all people to make the play happen, I just don't know anymore how some fans can keep deflecting such a bad playcall. Whats the point of saving time, if the play occurred successfully you still give Brady time to make plays. I'm getting angry again

 

[NJlargent]

I think a lot of people trying to justify that play or a "pass play" are coping with this debacle and also believe that there is a good chance we get back to the Super Bowl next year or soon thereafter. I agree that there is a good chance for sure. However, assume we go the next 20 years without getting there again and make the divisional round only a couple of times in the playoffs. Then in 20 years we will definitely accept this call as the worst in Super Bowl history.

The call was atrocious and whether right or wrong, the correct response that leaves no wiggle room is to fire Bevell.

 

[TorontoHawk]

I think a lot of people trying to justify that play or a "pass play" are coping with this debacle and also believe that there is a good chance we get back to the Super Bowl next year or soon thereafter. I agree that there is a good chance for sure. However, assume we go the next 20 years without getting there again and make the divisional round only a couple of times in the playoffs. Then in 20 years we will definitely accept this call as the worst in Super Bowl history.

The call was atrocious and whether right or wrong, the correct response that leaves no wiggle room is to fire Bevell.

And if he ran the ball three times and they got stuffed he would be the scapegoat as most would say why did he not have the balls to try to pass it and win the game. It was not a great call to pass but Carroll made the call as he said so should he be fired? Bevell has made bad calls but every coach does(look at GB in the championship game, if they made the correct calls and gone for the TD's and not FG's Seahawks most likely would have lost). We will be at it again next year and better seasoned and have even a bigger chip on the shoulder than the previous years.