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Down 28-24, Seattle could have given the ball to Marshawn Lynch and tried to gain a little more than a foot on the ground.
Since they've been the best rushing team in the NFL by a significant margin, everyone assumed that that's what they'd do.
Instead, they threw the ball and it got intercepted by the Patriots:
NBC's Chris Collinsworth was dumbfounded on the broadcast, and the criticism only grew from there.
"That was the worst call in Super Bowl history," Deion Sanders said on the NFL Network after the game.
"I don't have words for that call," former player Marshall Faulk agreed.
Other NFL players could not believe they didn't give the ball to Marshawn:
When asked by the NFL Network whether he thought they should have given it to Lynch, Tom Brady responded, "I'm glad they didn't." The big national NFL writers are ripping Pete Carroll and the Seahawks:So what were they thinking?After the game Pete Carroll explained his decision. He said that he didn't have a run-friendly matchup because he had three wide receivers on the field against New England's goal-line defenders. Seattle only had one timeout, so they could have only run the ball one time no matter what.If they ran on 2nd down and didn't make it, they would have called timeout and been forced to throw the ball on 3rd and 4th down.Throwing it on 2nd down gave them the flexibility to run the ball on 3rd down, at least on paper.It was a fantastic interception by Malcolm Butler, no question. But ultimately the Seahawks didn't put the ball in their best player's hands with the game on the line.
