The Seattle Seahawks trailed the New England Patriots 28-24 with 26 seconds remaining from the 1-yard line in Super Bowl XLIX. Seattle chose to throw a slant pass instead of handing off to star running back Marshawn Lynch, resulting in Malcolm Butler's interception. On Monday, head coach Pete Carroll batted down reports that he called the pass after offensive coordinator called a run, per Terry Blount of ESPN.
Super Bowl 2015: Pete Carroll denies changing final play call
The Seahawks have been criticized for throwing at the goal line, but Carroll says there was never another plan.
“There was not a thought about running it, and then I changed the play,” Carroll said Monday. “That did not happen.”
The Seahawks have been universally criticized for not giving Lynch a chance at the goal line. Lynch ran for 102 yards and a touchdown on 24 carries against New England, but motioned out of the backfield on the final play. Still, Carroll insists Seattle’s staff had a concrete plan.
“I was so confident we were going to get it done,” Carroll said. “Making the call we made was just part of the sequence. We were very confident in the sequence. We had a very clear thought about what was going on.
Carroll and Bevell ran the ball from the 5-yard line on first down, gaining 4 yards. From there, the duo wanted to spread the Patriots out and throw inside on a legal pick play. Should the throw have resulted in an incompletion, third and fourth down would have been reserved for a running play and then a decision based off the time remaining.
“One of those downs we were likely to throw the ball and maybe two of those downs,” Carroll said, “depending on how we had to save the clock to get in all of our plays. It wasn’t just run the ball. That wasn’t what the thought was.”
Carroll believed the Seahawks had an advantage against New England on second down. Despite having an unheralded group of receivers, Bevell liked the three-wide set while the Patriots were in goal-line defense, anticipating a run between the tackles by Lynch:
"We thought about our personnel who were coming in the game after the first play [a 4-yard run to the 1 by Lynch on first down] when we came up short, with three wide receivers in the game [on second down]. We had thought about throwing the ball there. That was part of the reason we sent that group in. When [the Patriots] sent their goal-line guys in, I know we have the advantage on the matchups in the passing game."
Bevell stated that the Seahawks wanted to use the entire clock before scoring. However, the notion of throwing the ball flies in the face of that idea. If Seattle throws a touchdown, New England gets the ball back with time remaining. If the throw is incomplete, the clock stops.
If Seattle wanted to run the clock down before scoring, it could have ran into the line and called the final timeout with a handful of seconds remaining. Instead, the Seahawks threw the ball and ended up with a highly regrettable memory.
“We were conscious of how much time was on the clock, and we wanted to use it all,” Bevell said. “It didn’t turn out the way I hoped it would.”
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