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Seattle Seahawks’ Play-Call To End Super Bowl XLIX Wasn’t As Bad As It Seemed

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In the immediate aftermath of Super Bowl XLIX, all anyone can talk about (aside from the commercials ranging from downright depressing to incredibly comical) was the Seattle Seahawks‘ decision to pass the ball rather than run with the clock winding down. They had the ball on the one-yard line and a bruising back in Marshawn Lynch in the backfield.

However, everyone knows by now that they decided to pass the ball and that pass was intercepted, sealing the game for the New England Patriots and ending Seattle’s quest for back-to-back Super Bowl titles. It seemed like an absolutely asinine play-call at the time, but it really wasn’t as bad as it seemed.

When you look at the tape, there are a couple of reasons why the play-call itself wasn’t so bad. First of all, there were eight men in the box for the Patriots. They were stacking the box in order to stuff the run, which seemed like the obvious play-call. That gave the Patriots an 8-on-6 advantage on the Seahawks’ blockers up front.

Once quarterback Russell Wilson saw this, he seemingly checks out of the play that was called in the huddle, most likely a run. He thought with only three defensive backs in the game, he could exploit a mismatch. He was wrong. Again, though, it wasn’t as bad a decision as people are claiming it to be.

Fans are talking as if Lynch would be automatic from the one-yard line. In actuality, he was just 1-for-5 in one-yard, goal-to-go situations during the 2014 regular season, so he was far from automatic.

In addition, the Seahawks didn’t view the passing play as a risk of interception because there had been over 100 pass plays from the one-yard line during the 2014 regular season throughout the entire NFL. Not a single one of them resulted in an interception.

Call it bad luck, call it a bad play-call or call it both. Perhaps, if given a couple opportunities to pound it in, Lynch would have found pay dirt and given the Seahawks the title. It is not as simple as many are making it out to be, though. If Seattle would have cashed in on a touchdown pass, the call would have never been questioned.

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