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Seahawks coach Pete Carroll speaks to reporters after his team’s 28-24 loss to the Patriots in Super Bowl XLIX on Sunday. (Matt York/AP Photo)
What happened on the final play that sealed the Super Bowl XLIX victory for the New England Patriots? Who made the decision to call a pass on second-and-goal from the 1-yard line? Who should Seattle Seahawks fans blame for their heartbreaking 28-24 loss Sunday in Glendale, Arizona?
Head coach Pete Carroll came right out and took the blame. Here’s how he explained the final sequence of events at University of Phoenix Stadium on Sunday evening, which ended with an interception by Patriots cornerback Malcolm Butler.
“Let me just tell you what happened because, as you know, the game comes right down and all the things that happened before are meaningless to you now,” Carroll said. “It’s really what happened on this one sequence that we would have won the game.
“We have everything in mind, how we’re going to do it. We’re going to leave them no time, and we had our plays to do it. We sent in our personnel, they sent in goal-line (package) — it’s not the right matchup for us to run the football — so on second down we throw the ball really to kind of waste a play.
“If we score, we do. If we don’t, then we’ll run it in on third and fourth down. Really, (we called it) with no second thoughts or no hesitation at all. And unfortunately, with the play that we tried to execute, the guy (Butler) makes a great play and jumps in front of the route and makes an incredible play that nobody would ever think he could do. And unfortunately that changes the whole outcome.
“So I told the guys in the locker room that they’re a great team and they fought to prove that, and they did everything to do that again tonight. And they’re on the precipice of winning another championship, and unfortunately, the play goes the other way.
“There’s really nobody to blame but me, and I told them that clearly. And I don’t want them to think anything other than that. They busted their tails and did everything they needed to do to put us in position, and unfortunately it didn’t work out. A very, very hard lesson. I hate to learn the hard way, but there’s no other way to look at it right now.”
As he took questions from reporters, Carroll expanded on what happened when Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson threw a dart at receiver Ricardo Lockette at the goal line — a pass Patriots cornerback Malcolm Butler picked off to dash Seattle’s hopes at a Super Bowl repeat.
“Really the way the route generally works is the back receiver gets shielded off so that the play can get thrown to the guy trailing,” Carroll explained, getting more into the X’s and O’s. “And it’s worked really well, it’s been a nice concept, but they jumped it — did a fantastic job. I don’t know if they prepared to do that or he did it on his own, but it was a great play.”
Seahawks offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell, who calls plays, also took responsibility for the gameplan that set the heartbreak in motion.
“Well, you know, I’m calling the plays and I make the calls,” Bevell said. “Coach Carroll could tell me to do something different. But we communicated, we talk, but I make all of the play calls.
“Shoot, it didn’t turn out the way I hoped it would, so of course I’m going to sit here and say I could do something different. There’s 20 different things going through mind mind about what we could do. Obviously you could run it — doesn’t mean that you score on that play. But we were just making sure we were real conscious of the time, real conscious that we didn’t leave very much time for them, as well.”
Bevell also said he thought Wilson made a good read on the play, to go to Lockette, and made a good throw despite the interception.
“We could have done a better job of staying strong through the ball,” Bevell said, referring to Lockette’s effort on the catch, “but the kid from New England made a great play. … (Wilson) did it exactly right, exactly right.”
Game photos: Super Bowl XLIX
Visit seattlepi.com for Seattle Seahawks news. Contact sports editor Nick Eaton at 206-448-8125, nickeaton@seattlepi.com or @njeaton.
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