Time Out for Sports Talk: I Don’t Believe It, Bill!!!!
Todd: That headline was for you, Mike. I might have exclaimed that sentence at the TV Sunday night, hoping Belichick would hear me.
Now for some other random thoughts/factoids from Super Bowl XLIX (BTW this was the final SB to start with the Roman numeral ‘X’) while knowing the “Three Games to Glory” DVD producers finally have work again after a 10-year layoff…
Wow!!!! That win was so satisfying after the emotional wringer we’ve been through the last two weeks, spanning from feelings of deflation to those of elation.
Despite the insane finish of that game, the Patriots earned their fourth championship because they finally have a defense that could make a big stop, and everyone did their jobs right down to the final and most critical plays of the game.
Malcolm Butler’s goal line interception was not only an incredible play on his part, but was possible because Brandon Browner jammed Jermaine Kearse at the line of scrimmage, preventing Kearse from setting a pick play that would have left Ricardo Lockette wide open. Contrast that sequence to Michael Bennett jumping offside on the very next snap to allow Brady breathing room to kneel down.
I’ve written how the Pats defense dominated in the second half over the second half of the season, allowing just three touchdowns over ten games following their bye week. But to narrow down even further how well they performed, only one of those three touchdowns came in the fourth quarter, and in the final fifteen minutes of the Pats’ final nine games, they allowed twelve points on four field goals and no touchdowns.
Speaking of the number 12, I guess this was the one time having one ‘12’ on the field was better than having thousands of them in the stands.
Tom Brady was tremendous again, becoming the second oldest quarterback to not only win a Super Bowl, but to also earn MVP honors. Well deserved, given that Brady became the first QB in SB history to rally his team to victory from ten points down in the fourth quarter. Only two other teams have ever even come back from ten-point deficits to win Super Bowls (and both those deficits occurred before halftime).
Think it’s now officially safe to end the Brady-versus-Manning debate. Aside from Brady owning practically every postseason and Super Bowl passing milestone, he now has nine career game-winning postseason drives, while Peyton has nine postseason one-and-dones.
Second play of the game after Butler might well be Brady-to-Julian Edelman on third-and-14 for a huge first down. The fact that Edelman hung on to the ball after likely getting concussed by Kam Chancellor made that play as incredible as Butler’s INT.
I still think back to the first time I saw Edelman in person at 2009 training camp. My first thought was, “What is Drew Bledsoe doing back with the Pats and why he is returning punts?”
Factoids that bear repeating: Brady was drafted 199th overall (6th round) by the Pats in 2000; Edelman 232nd overall (7th round) in 2009; and Butler was an undrafted free agent from the University of West Alabama, a D-2 school, in 2014. Simply incredible.
Back to the final minutes of SB XLIX, which like the Glendale game seven years prior, had its own version of the David Tyree freak catch. Seemed fitting (at least in the moment) that this time around the crazy catch was made by someone named ‘Kearse’. I also believe the Seattle receiver used every part of his body to catch that ball, even his spleen.
Speaking of spleens, at that moment I felt like I had been punched in mine. But two plays later, my pain unexpectedly subsided.
If Bob Uecker’s Harry Doyle (from the Major League movies) had been on the call of SB XLIX, he would have immediately recognized Pete Carroll’s ‘I want to pitch to Parkman’ moment and uttered, “Obviously Carroll’s thinking…I don’t know what the hell he’s thinking!”
Really, Pete!! You have a player on your team nicknamed ‘Beast’, who is about as sure a bet to gain one yard as I am to gain a pound, and you call a pass play! Really???
Watching Pete Carroll get pumped and jacked after each Seahawk touchdown, and then watching the way he handled the final minute of that game, helped me remember very quickly why he was never going to work with the Pats. It’s also why Bill Belichick is the far superior coach, feeling confident in his defense, opting not to call time out and letting the clock run down, forcing Pete to make a split-second decision under pressure.
So for me, there is finally that punctuation mark at the end of the Patriots’ dynastic 14-year sentence. But I couldn’t help but wonder if Grantland’s Bill Simmons has been reading our column, as he referred to the win as the Pats’ “exclamation point title”, comparing it to the Spurs winning the NBA title last year.
Final thought from me this week: who knew how appropriate it turned out for the Seahawks to be introduced to The Verve’s “Bittersweet Symphony”? Is that really their theme song in Seattle? Give me Ozzy’s “Crazy Train” any day of the week!
Mike: OK---I am still trying to get over what I saw last Sunday! I've watched the repays of the game several times, and it's finally starting to sink in that Pete Carroll isn't going to call for a run.
That had to be the most shocking end to a football game that I have ever seen, not just a Super Bowl. I was convinced that the game was lost, that Lynch was just going to pound the ball in from inside the 1, and that would be that.
Obviously, I am thrilled to be wrong. I ended up flat on the floor in a room of disbelieving, screaming Patriots fans, just absolutely stunned at what I had just seen.
And this is the exact opposite of what was going on across the country. This group of Seattle fans recorded themselves watching the fatal moment, and I must admit, I can't get enough of it. (Warning, the language in the video is NSFW, but it is funny...)
You can actually see the moment when their collective heart breaks, and I know I shouldn't take pleasure in it, but I do...especially when they start desperately hoping for a flag on the play. I've been on their end of things too many times, so I know what they are feeling, but I still take a sick pleasure in watching it.
And then there's priceless "superfan," who decides that his TV was to blame for what happened. He really needs to relax!
All that being said, I do have to say I feel for Pete Carroll. He has been up front about his decision and he has not backed down from his choice. Sure, in hindsight, it looked like a colossal mistake, but in reality, it was a low-risk pass. In fact, it was the first pass thrown from the one yard line that had been intercepted all season. Too bad for him, the first intercepting came at the worst possible time.
But schadenfreude aside, this is a really special title, and one that, earlier in the season, especially after the Kansas City debacle, looked like a longshot. But as they seem to always do, the Pats got stronger as the year went on, and they rolled to another Lombardi Trophy.
And I am enjoying this title, especially because I have s sneaking suspicion that it might be one of the last for the Brady/Belechick tandem, just because it's so hard to repeat, and we don't have another 10 years with these guys.
Yes, the Patriots have some good young talent, and they will be contenders again next season. But as we have seen over the years, things can go wrong. And they will have some personnel decisions to make, especially with free agents such as Revis, who will be looking for a big contract in the offseason.
But all that is for another day, for now, it's enough that the Patriots have won another Super Bowl championship.
So, I'm really going to enjoy this one.
Our next LIVE show is coming up on Monday night, February 23 from 8-9pm. You can post your questions via Twitter using the hashtag #TOSTfeb23 or call in at (617) 484-2443.
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