First I acknowledge football is an extremely complex game to coach and good or bad coaches can have a bigger impact on a team's performance than almost any other sport.
But there comes a time. Like when you have 3 feet to go to win the Super Bowl and an extremely powerful running back. Where you just have to throw the playbook out and saddle up your strongest horses and go for it.
You're basically saying to the other team. I know what we're doing....you know what we're going to do. Stop us if you can but I don't think you can stop us and let it ride. It's like when the 90's Chicago Bulls needed a big shot. Everyone in the whole building knew who was going to get the ball yet usually the other team wasn't good enough to stop Jordan. Phil Jackson didn't call a time out an set up some elaborate play to use Jordan as a decoy to get Bill Cartwright the last shot. He looked at his guy and said "Go do it".
If the Pats stop them on downs.....well then they were better when it counted and good for them. But I think it was about 95% in Seattle's favor that they get those 3 feet within 3 handoffs to lynch up the gut.
At that point the only way New England was going to win was if they stopped them from getting those 3 feet or if Seattle made some huge mistake either a fumble, interception or penalty that pushes them off the goalline. You take passing out of the equation then there are only two ways Seattle can make a big mistake and lose it.
I hate being an armchair coach, really. But that was just beyond belief and possibly, given the situation, the worst call I've seen in sports.
Woody Hayes didn't like to pass a lot and when asked why he said when you throw a pass one of three things will happen and two of them are bad.
Obviously football has changed a lot since then and Woody's style wouldn't work as a whole today. But for those 3 downs Carroll should of channeled his inner Woody.
But there comes a time. Like when you have 3 feet to go to win the Super Bowl and an extremely powerful running back. Where you just have to throw the playbook out and saddle up your strongest horses and go for it.
You're basically saying to the other team. I know what we're doing....you know what we're going to do. Stop us if you can but I don't think you can stop us and let it ride. It's like when the 90's Chicago Bulls needed a big shot. Everyone in the whole building knew who was going to get the ball yet usually the other team wasn't good enough to stop Jordan. Phil Jackson didn't call a time out an set up some elaborate play to use Jordan as a decoy to get Bill Cartwright the last shot. He looked at his guy and said "Go do it".
If the Pats stop them on downs.....well then they were better when it counted and good for them. But I think it was about 95% in Seattle's favor that they get those 3 feet within 3 handoffs to lynch up the gut.
At that point the only way New England was going to win was if they stopped them from getting those 3 feet or if Seattle made some huge mistake either a fumble, interception or penalty that pushes them off the goalline. You take passing out of the equation then there are only two ways Seattle can make a big mistake and lose it.
I hate being an armchair coach, really. But that was just beyond belief and possibly, given the situation, the worst call I've seen in sports.
Woody Hayes didn't like to pass a lot and when asked why he said when you throw a pass one of three things will happen and two of them are bad.
Obviously football has changed a lot since then and Woody's style wouldn't work as a whole today. But for those 3 downs Carroll should of channeled his inner Woody.
