A "waste play" that wastes away a Super Bowl

Pete Carroll, on the play call questioned around the world:

"Let me just tell you what happened," coach Pete Carroll said afterward. "Because as you know, the game comes right down and all the things that happened before are meaningless."

He was sadly right: Everything else became meaningless because of that single decision. A head coach known for swashbuckling moves and imaginative ways had made one of the worst choices in pro football history.

Some of his players tried to reason it away. Some did not.

"I don't believe it happened," said receiver Doug Baldwin, showing the same look in his eye that all the 12s in the stands had. "I still haven't figured it out yet."

He tried. Baldwin tried to figure it out. He looked around and up at the ceiling and offered a few words. Then he stopped himself.

"I'm just trying to make up an explanation."

There is none. Not really.

Here's what Carroll said: "We sent in our personnel, they sent in their goal-line [unit]. It was not the right matchup for us to run the football, so on second down we throw the ball to really kind of waste that play. If we score, we do, if we don't, then we run it on third and fourth down."

Waste that play. Those words are almost as stunning as the call itself. There were 26 seconds left.

The Seahawks did waste the play. They also wasted the season.

And wasted what appeared to be a Super Bowl victory.

Least mode instead of Beast mode.

Terrible mistake.

Comments

[Lands’nGrooves]

You don't throw over the middle.

There is no "wasted plays" with 26 seconds left and second and goal in any game, much less the SB.

Two words, Coach, Marshawn Lynch.

Lastly, thanks for giving those insufferable Pats fans even more ammunition.

tim, aka The Godless Heathen

[plus.google.com/102207530494679331148]

Look at that play again. It should have been a touchdown. Except for a heroic effort by the defender, it would have been.

Every time an offensive play is stopped, people claim it was a failure on the part of some offensive player. The defender never gets credit. Stop denigrating the defender. He was brilliant.

[Rick aka Mr. Brutally Honest]

Mr. Sykes, no one is denigrating the defender... what is being criticized is the play calling.

Not sure how in heck you're missing that.

[Rick]

I am a Seahawks fan of many, many years and that play was a throwback to the days of old when they would invariably shoot themselves in the foot with victory within their grasp. Sadly, Carroll's explanation rings hollow because he tries to quickly slide past the fact that the decision to throw the ball was made before the players were sent onto the field, as is obvious from the fact that the receivers were sent out there. It was not thrown to "waste" a play, it was to be thrown from the moment Lynch got up from the ground after running for four yards on the previous play.