Alright welcome in to a special full recap post of Super Bowl XLIX between the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks where the Seahawks are no longer the defending champions as the Patriots knock off the Seahawks 28-24 in a wild finish thanks to a game winning drive orchestrated by Tom Brady once again and a Malcolm Butler interception in the end zone.
What a wild finish! A divine catch, a fight at the end of the game, no-names being big heroes on the grandest stage in all of football, this Super Bowl had it all. Patriots fans, you can take off all that winless since Spygate, Deflategate, etc. because giving credit where credit is due, the Patriots stood calm and collected despite being down 10 when both Seattle’s offense and defense turned it on. Once that 4th quarter hit, Tom Brady became Tom Brady and masterfully executed a game winning drive.
Seattle Seahawks
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Chris Matthews, 4 receptions, 109 yards, 1 TD. He played some hardball this game. Even though the Seahawks lost, you gotta give it up for this kind of performance. Matthews was just a special teams player all season long, and to put up these kinds of numbers in the big game is just unbelievable. The Seahawks couldn’t get anything going on offense until Wilson hit one long play to this guy to set up a Marshawn Lynch TD. With Baldwin and Kearse being shadowed by Revis, McCourtey, and Arrington, Matthews stepped up his game to give Seattle’s offense something.
Marshawn Lynch, 24 carries, 102 yards, 1 TD, 1 receptions, 31 yards. How do you not hand off to Lynch for the go ahead score with your title on the line is beyond me? Sure, the Patriots’ defense had some good highlights stopping and bringing down Lynch, but once he finally hit his stride, he was impossible to stop in the ground game. Beast Mode was on for this game and he has outrushed New England’s running backs 102-53. It’s impossible to run over a defensive line when Vince Wilfork is waiting on the other end, but still Lynch was unstoppable for the Seahawks.
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Play calling in the final seconds. I touched on this while talking positive about Lynch and I’m going to ask it again, how do you not hand off the ball to Lynch? The Seahawks had an identity of running the football till the defense tires out. You have one timeout left, Lynch just got you to the half yard line or 2 yards, why not punch it in? To abandon what you usually do on offense at the goal line, I am just completely dumbfounded. Run it with Lynch down their throat, read option with Wilson, that’s something that Seattle fans will talk about for the remaining offseason.
Sportsmanship. Pass it on. If you’re going to lose, lose with class. The Seahawks defense got caught with an encroachment penalty as the Patriots were about to try and get out of their own end zone to avoid a safety. Then ensuing play, Seahawks pulled something ala Greg Schiano and all of a sudden they started a fight resulting in a 15-yard penalty. Now, you see why some people hate the Seahawks because of their lack of class and dignity. Yeah, play until the final whistle blows, but once it’s game, set, and match, take the loss and prepare for next season to come back stronger.
New England Patriots
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Tom Brady, 37 of 50 passes, 328 yards, 4 TDs, 2 INTs. Tom Brady joins the pantheon of the great quarterbacks with 4 rings, joining Joe Montana and Terry Bradshaw. As a Raider fan I hate this guy with a passion, I can’t stand him, but this stage is no surprise to him. As you guys saw, Brady’s been announced the Super Bowl MVP. Seattle managed to get to him like once or twice, but once they get pressure on him, Brady released the ball to a receiver for first down yardage. Aside from the two INTs, Brady has been consistent, beating Seattle’s defense with the short passes and his quick release. Honestly, put the Brady-Manning debates to rest. I think we all know who we want when the game is on the line in the playoffs. Aside from all the hate for Brady, I can’t deny his greatness.
Julian Edelman, 9 receptions, 112 yards, 1 TD, 1 rush, 7 yards. Wes who? With the game Edelman had in the biggest stage, he constantly burned the Seahawks’ pass defense all game long. I said it before, look at the tape in the San Diego game when the Seahawks had no answer for Eddie Royal, the Patriots exploited that with quick passes to Edelman. He had a chance to haul in 2 TDs, one he should’ve caught to cut the lead to three, but the Patriots eventually cut it to three with a pass play to set up a Amendola TD. This guy is the reason why Patriots fans don’t miss Wes Welker in the slot and with the game he had this game, there should be no mention of Wes Welker to Patriots fans.
Malcolm Butler, 3 tackles, 3 pass defensed, 1 INT. It’s a game of no names! If there’s one defensive we want to see from the Patriots to come up with the biggest play to seal the Super Bowl, we’d expect it to be Revis or Browner or McCourtey, but Malcolm Butler, he has his name stamped on here. Prior to that INT, he came up with a big play of deflecting a ball to Jermaine Kearse that would’ve put Seattle back into New England territory and he came up huge to make it fourth down. And in his big moment, with the game on the line, Butler picks off Wilson to give the Patriots their fourth Super Bowl championship. You can’t write a better fairy tale than that. There may be a lot of positives for the Pats, but Malcolm Butler, for sure is one of those under-the-radar positives.
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Running game. Seattle’s the #1 rush defense, it’s understandable as to why New England’s running game can’t get going. They tried to ground and pound with Blount, then play finesse with Vereen and they just couldn’t get anything. Luckily for Vereen, he managed to burn Seattle’s defense in the screen game softening up this negative more. Credit to the Seahawks’ defense, they kept this running game in check.
Conclusion
Congrats to the Patriots for winning a hard fought Super Bowl. This team has gone to four straight AFC Championships, two Super Bowls in that span. It’s really tough with all those regular season games, practices, postseason games to do something like that, especially in a physical game like football. I’ll give the Patriots 100% credit for that. Their perseverance through all that plus the Spygate scandal and the Deflategate investigations, there’s not a way to summarize that kind of perseverance the Patriots had to go through. As for the Seahawks, they’ll be back and contend in the NFC West again, but that last play will be looked at forever as the play that lost them the game and a chance for a repeat. Yes, there a lot of questions for the Seahawks going forward. Is Marshawn Lynch going to stay? That’s one of the most asked questions the Seahawks have to answer once the offseason hits. Anyway, crazy game, but at the end of the day, the Patriots are the last team standing. Thank you guys for following my coverage for the 2014 NFL Season and Super Bowl XLIX. Once you guys finished reading this, we’ll go back to our normal lives cheering for our own team again and looking forward to the offseason and the draft. I’ll see you guys later.
Congrats New England Patriots Super Bowl XLIX Champions!
