The Seahawks won the previous Super Bowl by 35 points, dominating what was arguably the greatest offense of all time in one of the most embarrassing championship beatdowns ever. Too bad most people seem to forget about that based on what happened the next year.
In what was perhaps the most infamous playcall and turnover in NFL history, Seattle coughed up a Lombardi trophy to Tom Brady and the Patriots at the one-yard line in Arizona’s accursed stadium in Super Bowl 49. Even though they had much better options to choose from, Darrell Bevell’s call was for Russell Wilson to throw a quick slant to Ricardo Lockette, who was perhaps the fifth-best receiver on the roster at the time. Wilson did his best to fit his throw into a tight window, but Malcolm Butler made an incredible jump on the ball and the rest is history.
While some fans have understandably never gotten over it (we may or may not have drunk to excess every day for a week), the guy who has perhaps the most reason to feel upset laughed it off. Here’s what Marshawn Lynch told Kevin Hart about it in a recent episode of Cold as Balls.
“I come off the sideline, and in my mind, I’m confused… And I’m walking by Pete, I’m just laughing at him like, ‘Bro, what the…’”
Here’s the full show:
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Most people think the mistake was not handing the ball to Lynch – but that’s missing some important context.
We could write a whole volume of books about this one play. The most important thing to remember is that New England was crashing its defense into the box – making it a very tough look to run against.
Here’s a screenshot of what Wilson was seeing just before the snap:
That’s pretty far from an ideal box to run against, no matter who was in the backfield.
While we don’t mind calling a pass there the objection should be in the details. There’s no reason why Lockette should have been on the field in the first place and in any case it would have made much more sense for the target to be somebody else, either Doug Baldwin or Chris Matthews – who was having a hell of a game to that point – posting four catches, 109 yards and a touchdown to close out the first half.
Anyway, we’ll be debating this until eternity but we prefer to focus on the fact the Seahawks at least got their ring the year before – even if nobody else remembers.
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