Seahawks Come Up 3 Feet Short After Atrocious Play Call

Three damn feet.

That's all it would have taken for the Seattle Seahawks to punch the ball over the goal line at University of Phoenix Stadium on Sunday and claim their second consecutive Super Bowl championship. Instead, they decided to throw—and, in the process, threw away a world title.

Three feet would have been nothing for Seattle running back Marshawn Lynch, who had already gained 102 yards on the ground and scored a touchdown among his 24 rushes.

Lynch, though, never got the opportunity to go Beast Mode for the final 36 inches. Instead, Russell Wilson's pass intended for receiver Ricardo Lockette was wrestled away by Patriots defender Malcolm Butler, who had earlier broken up a pass on the Seahawks' final drive, and the Patriots' 28-24 win was sealed.

Lynch could have run that ball in. Wilson could have run that ball in. Hell, my four-year-old nephew could have run it in. The question people will be asking from now until CenturyLink Field is imploded is why didn't the Seahawks run?

Seattle has made it a habit of pulling out games late, with more than a little luck involved (see the NFC title game two weeks ago), and were poised to do so again until somebody made that horrible play call on the Seahawks sideline with 26 seconds left and 2nd-and-goal from the New England 1-yard line. Lynch could have crossed the goal line simply by falling forward—but instead, somebody decided it was better to go to the air.

Seahawks defensive coordinator Dan Quinn was named the head coach of the Atlanta Falcons on Monday, the team announced. With Seattle offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell acknowledging to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer's Nick Eaton that he calls all plays, including that last one that killed Seattle's Super Bowl hopes, he should be following Quinn out the door with a pink slip and a bus ticket back to the Pacific Northwest.

The play call was maybe the worst call ever made in the history of the game.

Matt York/Associated Press

I never played a game of organized football in my life, but you don't have to be a football lifer to realize the Seahawks' most dangerous weapon is Lynch, and odds are he would have pounded the ball in—if not on second down then on third or even fourth down, especially with timeouts remaining.

Instead, Bevell fell victim to the malady that most NFL offensive coordinators suffer from, which is trying to show how clever he is and how fancy a play he can design when all he had to do was give his smashmouth running back the ball and let him do what he does best. Then again, Bevell's had problems doing that before, as I wrote earlier this season.

If the Patriots had kept Lynch out of the end zone with a goal-line stand, then so be it. Lynch never got the chance, though, especially after Jermaine Kearse's miracle catch kept Seattle alive. The Seahawks wondered if they could re-sign Lynch for next season, with Wilson set to receive a new, very expensive contract, according to NFL.com's Ian Rapoport. Now, after not giving him the ball when it mattered most, perhaps Lynch may not even want to come back.

Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll has to share some of the blame, too. He wants the Seahawks to play that power running game—yet when the most important game of the season was on the line, he went along with getting fancy, and it cost him and his team.

Wilson could have audibled as well, perhaps even run the ball himself like he is more than adept at doing, rather than throwing an ill-advised pass for his fifth pick in two games, this one ending in a crushing loss. Do you think someone like Tom Brady would have continued with a play like that with that much on the line, one yard to go and a back like Lynch behind him?

David Goldman/Associated Press

Football can be maddening considering how scripted a sport it is. Often, the simple play is best in sports. On Sunday night, with the biggest game of the year at stake, the Seahawks tried to make things complex—and, well, we all know now how that turned out.

Woody Hayes said it best, that there are three things that can happen when you throw a pass, and two of them are bad. The worst one happened for Seattle in the last minute Sunday night in Arizona.

You can argue that the Patriots escaped more than they won, but the truth is they're world champions again.

The Seahawks are still three damn feet short—and as far as Super Bowl XLIX is concerned, they always will be.