The Seahawks scored a late touchdown against the Patriots to put them up seven points before the extra point attempt. That’s good! That meant that all the Seahawks had to do was kick an easy extra point to take an 8-point lead, which would force the Patriots to score a touchdown and try a 2-point conversion to tie the game.
Why in the world did the Seahawks go for 2 when they were up 7 late against the Patriots?
Even the Patriots were confused.
Except, Pete Carroll decided not to do that ... for some reason. Instead the Seahawks tried a 2-point conversion, and failed to convert.
With the failed conversion, the Patriots could have tied the game easily if they had scored a touchdown. Essentially, Seahawks attempted the more difficult play that the Patriots would have had to attempt if only the Seahawks had just taken their easy one point.
Even Patriots head coach Bill Belichick was confused. He appeared to mouth the words, “Why would they go for two here?” as the Seahawks lined up for the play.
Carroll’s rationale had to be that he wanted to force the Patriots to HAVE to try to win the game on two separate possessions. Being up eight points meant that the Patriots could still tie the game on one possession. It’s not entirely unreasonable, especially with time dwindling.
Carroll confirmed that after the game.
“We wanted to see if we could put it out of reach, make it a two-score deal.”
But man, that could have been bad for the Seahawks. They escaped with a win, but not before the Patriots drove all the way to the 1-yard line. If Rob Gronkowski had been able to haul in Tom Brady’s fourth down pass attempt, there might have been a lot of anger directed at Pete Carroll after the game.
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