The Seattle Seahawks’ ill-fated decision to throw the ball at the Patriots’ goal line with 20 seconds left in Super Bowl XLIX has been analyzed by practically everyone on the face of the planet. ‘How could they not give the ball to Beast Mode?,’ seems to be the prevailing opinion, and it’s hard to argue with. But Thursday morning, Seahawks head coach, Pete Carroll, sat down with NBC’s Matt Lauer to talk about the aftermath of the loss, and defend the final play call.
“It was the worst result of a call, ever,” said Carroll. “The call would’ve been a great one if we catch it. It would’ve been just fine and nobody would’ve thought twice about it.”
But before Carroll defended his team’s decision, he shared with Lauer his emotions from the moment Malcolm Butler made the interception, to meeting with his team on Monday to talk about everything. He spoke about how deflated he was in the moment, but how he immediately started thinking ahead once he realized what had just happened. After a little more prodding from Lauer, though, Carroll admits he did have a moment where he broke down following the loss.
“Have you allowed yourself to have that one moment lying in bed where the tears flowed?”
“Yah, that happened. That happened at the 4:05 mark. That hit.”
“On Tuesday morning?”
“There was a break where I allowed all of the rush of it to hit.”
During the 20-minute interview, Carroll comes off as a coach who really isn’t going to let this loss haunt him down the road, let alone affect his decision making in future situations. Carroll also explained how Seattle planned to throw the ball at some point in that sequence, well before Russell Wilson snapped the ball for the last time. Credit to Lauer for a solid interview, as well as Carroll for not shying away from the spotlight and sticking with his beliefs.
[via Larry Brown Sports & Sporting News]
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