Lynch had a poor record actually punching it in against the defense the Pats lined up in, especially earlier in the same game. Carroll went for the safest pass in the game in order to burn some clock and try to score on the next play. Had his players executed, and the Patriots rookie DB had not, or had bit on the run, he would have been called a genius.
I will continue to promote that Carroll made the call in an effort to make Russell the MVP.
That is not to say that Lynch was being “disrespected” by Carroll, but my look at what happened was just bad coaching to make Carroll’s QB the hero of the game - over the opposing QB. To make it simple, Carroll was “measuring his pecker” against Belichek’s organ.
Tell me that, with 18 inches and 2 downs to go, Carroll could not have called a QB sneak followed by putting in a fullback to punch it in? Did Carroll mistrust his O-line that much? How many yards did the O-line help Lynch produce up to that point?
Seahawks lost because of Brady shredding their defense. They were lucky to have even been in the title game. A banged up Arizona team, playing a third string quarterback lead them in the NFC West until the last game of the year. Seattle HAS to have home field to beat the Packers, then they lucked out when they were outplayed except for the last 4 minutes of the game when Packers self-destructed. So no, they didn’t blow the game to the Patriots. They were lucky to even be playing them.