The Immaculate Interception

Jason Tougaw

Let’s talk about that call.

You know exactly what I’m talking about.

The call that had Richard Sherman like…


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And Had Tom Brady like…

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The play call that the Seattle Seahawks made with just over 20 seconds left in Super Bow XLIXl will go down as one of the most criticized calls in the history of the game. With one yard needed to win the Super Bowl, the Seattle Seahawks opted to throw the ball and it was intercepted by the Patriots sealing the victory for New England. The Seahawks decided not to hand the ball to their running back, Marshawn Lynch, who is the most physical and hard to tackle player in the NFL today and maybe in the history of the game. This decision will live in infamy.

Why throw the ball? There are several possible reasons. When you play a team like the New England Patriots, teams tend to overthink the simplest things. Bill Belichick is known as one of the greatest coaches in NFL history and he never hesitates to do something out of the ordinary. When the Seahawks lined up they most likely expected the Patriots to come in with their goal-line personnel. This would mean that the Patriots would bring in their heaviest and strongest players to clog the middle of the line in order to stuff a run into the end zone. Instead of being conservative and banking on their offensive line to block one yard and Marshawn Lynch to get enough push to gain a yard, the Seahawks got cute and tried to catch the Patriots off guard.

The problem with this plan was that the Patriots were not fooled. If you look at who was on the field, the Patriots matched personnel with the Seahawks and had cornerbacks guarding the receivers instead of putting linebackers in space in order to stack more bodies inside the line. This was the first problem the Seahawks encountered. The mismatch they wanted was not there.

From top to bottom, you will see Darrelle Revis covering Doug Baldwin, Brandon Browner covering Jermaine Kearse and Malcolm Butler on Ricardo Lockette; three cornerbacks for the three wide receivers.

Given the fact that the Patriots had cornerbacks on receivers, the Seahawks still got what they hoped for. If you look at the play, the slant route into the end zone is wide open. What happened here was New England Patriots cornerback Malcolm Butler making an absolutely brilliant play. Instead of getting caught in traffic or falling for a fade to the back of the end zone, Butler made the split-second decision to break on the slant route and he was able to come up with the interception.

You can see Butler make a quick decision, follow his instincts and break on the football making an absolutely brilliant play.

If you look at what Russell Wilson saw,  you see exactly what he wants. The slant into the end zone looks like an easy touchdown. You chalk this up as a phenomenal play by a defender, more than a bad decision by the quarterback.

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Another piece of the puzzle is the amazing jam that Brandon Browner puts on the Seahawks wide receiver at the bottom of the screen. With Browner stonewalling the receiver, this allowed Butler to get a good view of the slant as well as the quarterback and have a free run in order to make the play.

At the end of the day, the only thing you can criticize is the play call. When you have Marshawn Lynch as your running back, you put the ball in his hands and tell him to gain a yard. The Seahawks relied on Marshawn Lynch all season long. They traded away their best wide receiver in order to focus more on running the ball. The offense flows through Marshawn Lynch. With the game on the line the Seahawks went away from what what made them special and it cost them.

Great teams stick to what makes them great in crucial situations. Great teams impose their will on other teams and make them change their ways. The Patriots made the Seahawks change their plan and it cost them.