It's been 17 days since Super Bowl XLIX. I've needed this entire time to just soak in and digest what happened. No doubt it was one of the most shocking, crazy, improbable Super Bowls ever played. That fourth quarter might have been the most exciting quarter in the history of football. All the changes of momentum... it was incredible to watch. The game itself lived up to the considerable hype going in. There were plenty of story lines in the two weeks between Championship Sunday and the big game.
Many of those story lines were negative towards Tom Brady, Bill Belichick, and the New England Patriots. The Patriots haven't won a Super Bowl in ten years! They always lose when they're playing a great defense! The Patriots haven't won since Spygate! Brady and Belichick are cheaters! They should give up their spot in the Super Bowl if Deflategate is true! Brady is the one behind Deflategate! Brady hasn't won without Adam Vinatieri kicking the game winner! Brady just isn't that good anymore! The Seahawks are going to get in his head! He's too old to dominate a game anymore!
I saw a lot of people pick the Seahawks on Twitter. After Brady's first horrible pick my friend Kiley tweeted that it was the first of many to come. Everyone across the country was rooting against the Pats. They were ready to gloat when the Seahawks "inevitably" won. It was pure, unfiltered jealousy. Jealousy that their team hadn't done what ours had. Jealousy that their team didn't win three of four Super Bowls. Jealousy that their team hadn't been in the playoffs basically every year for a solid decade and a half. "They hate us 'cause they ain't us." That's how Pats Nation felt in the weeks leading up to the game. It was us against the world. If we lost, it was going to backfire on us, and everyone we knew was going to tease us mercilessly until September.
For a while there, it looked like it was going to backfire.
We outplayed Seattle throughout the first half. Russell Wilson didn't even complete a pass in the first quarter. Even with Brady's awful interception on the goal line, we scored first on a slant to LaFell in the second quarter. After Seattle came back and scored, Brady drove down the field finishing with a beautiful over-the-top throw to Gronkowski out wide right, which every Pats fan called before the play even happened because Gronk was matched up outside on a linebacker. Every time that happens Brady throws it to Gronk and it's usually a score. That came with 31 seconds in the half.
That's when things started to turn against us. Russell Wilson drove his team down the field to score a touchdown with two seconds left in the half to rookie Chris Matthews who started the season working at Foot Locker. The touchdown was maddening because DB Logan Ryan was playing five yards into the endzone when he should have realized that the Seahawks needed to throw quickly to avoid a sack that could take them into halftime.
After Seattle kicked a field goal to open the second half, Brady had another horrible throw picked off trying to force one over the middle to Gronkowski. The problem with the throw was that it came on the Patriots' side of the field, which led to a Doug Baldwin touchdown after the ref picked Revis to allow Baldwin to get open. After a few ugly drives, the third quarter ended with Seattle leading 24-14. The Pats got the ball back with 12 minutes to score twice. And they knew if they didn't, the constant deriding and hate would continue with nothing to do about it.
So what happened? Brady had the best fourth quarter of his career on the biggest stage. He seemed undeterred by earlier mishaps, as he marched the Patriots down the field and finished with a beautiful throw in the back of the endzone to Danny Amendola.
New England got the ball back after Wilson missed Lynch on what would have been a 20-yard third-down conversion. Brady showed his greatness by going eight for eight on the final drive, capping it with a touchdown to Edelman who left Tharold Simon's ankles on the other side of the field with a fake slant spin out to get wide open in the endzone. The Seahawks got the ball back just before the two minute warning and immediately hit Lynch (lined up on a linebacker Jamie Collins out wide left) for 31 yards. After a few plays that netted a first down and a play where Wilson took too long and was forced to burn a timeout (hold that thought), Wilson goes deep down the right side to Jermaine Kearse matched up on rookie Malcolm Butler. Butler made a great play to tip the ball away, only
the ball fell right right down to Kearse who tipped it a couple times with every part of his body while lying down to control and catch it. And that's when I went numb.
I couldn't believe it was really going to happen again. The Tyree Catch. The Manningham Catch. Now the Kearse catch. Why did these amazing, improbable catches always happen against us in the Super Bowl? Everyone at the party I was attending was yelling and screaming and I was just sitting on the couch with my mouth slightly open in a look of total disbelief. I couldn't believe it. I was so dead inside that I didn't even realize Seattle had blown their second timeout. Hold that thought a little longer.
On the next play, Lynch rumbled down to the one. I wanted him to score so that the Pats would have some time to try and score. I mean, Brady had beaten up the banged up Seattle defense all quarter, and it seemed inevitable that Seattle would score. Or so I thought.
In a move that seemed at the time to be Belichick freezing after the Kearse catch, New England didn't call timeout. As it turned out, he was banking on Seattle coach Pete Carroll passing one time because Seattle also only had one timeout. Well...
MALCOLM BUTLER WITH THE INTERCEPTION ON THE GOAL LINE!! YES!! YES!! YES!!
What a play by Butler. He also had the presence of mind to dive out of the endzone to avoid taking a safety. Pats ball on the one yard line. But hold on, the game isn't over. It was very possible that the Seahawks could still drive Brady back into the endzone for a safety. Then the Seahaks would get the ball back on a punt down just two. But Brady, being the ultimate champion that he is, baited them offside with a hard count. Five yard penalty, game over.
But the Seahawks wouldn't go gracefully. Once those bunch of unsportsmanlike, PED-taking jerks realized they had been beaten fair and square, they just had to start a fight. They couldn't handle the fact that New England had beaten them, and they couldn't just congratulate them and get out of there. They had to make it all about them, as always. No class.
Once they threw out the Seattle instigator, New England took a knee, the clock hit zero, and the Patriots were once again Super Bowl champions. Now...
Is it finally time for Brady, Belichick, and New England to get the respect they deserve? Can everyone please admit that we watched the greatest quarterback and coach in NFL history on Sunday? Brady went 13-15 for 124 yards and two touchdowns in the fourth quarter, including 8-8 on the final drive.. Against one of the all-time great defenses. When he needed to come through or he would fall to 3-3 in Super Bowls. All the analysts who said he was done better backtrack real quick. All those analysts who gave them a bunch of crap for Deflategate (many of whom lost big games to Brady and Belichick. Hmm...) should all just shut up. And so should anyone who said that the Patriots were overrated. Tell me when your team wins four Super Bowls in a decade and a half including the last two being ten years apart in an era designed to restrain continued success.
And as for anyone who will continue that argument by saying "Well the Patriots got let off the hook by a terrible play call", that's all fine and dandy, but Butler had to make an incredible play to catch that ball. Even if it was a bad play call, we still had to make a play on the ball. And Butler said afterward that they had prepared for that play all week in practice. So how much luck was it really?
To all the Patriots haters out there, this is to you: I don't care why you hate us. If it's because you're a fan of another AFC East team, it's perfectly understandable. If it's because you're secretly jealous that we've won more than you, that's less understandable, and really pretty sad. Maybe you should focus more on what your team is doing wrong. It's really not fair to take your frustration out on us. And if I sound a little pompous, that's kind of what I'm going for. My team just won another Super Bowl, and it's earned it's rightful place in football lore. Even if some of you don't think so.
I couldn't believe it was really going to happen again. The Tyree Catch. The Manningham Catch. Now the Kearse catch. Why did these amazing, improbable catches always happen against us in the Super Bowl? Everyone at the party I was attending was yelling and screaming and I was just sitting on the couch with my mouth slightly open in a look of total disbelief. I couldn't believe it. I was so dead inside that I didn't even realize Seattle had blown their second timeout. Hold that thought a little longer.
On the next play, Lynch rumbled down to the one. I wanted him to score so that the Pats would have some time to try and score. I mean, Brady had beaten up the banged up Seattle defense all quarter, and it seemed inevitable that Seattle would score. Or so I thought.
In a move that seemed at the time to be Belichick freezing after the Kearse catch, New England didn't call timeout. As it turned out, he was banking on Seattle coach Pete Carroll passing one time because Seattle also only had one timeout. Well...
MALCOLM BUTLER WITH THE INTERCEPTION ON THE GOAL LINE!! YES!! YES!! YES!!
What a play by Butler. He also had the presence of mind to dive out of the endzone to avoid taking a safety. Pats ball on the one yard line. But hold on, the game isn't over. It was very possible that the Seahawks could still drive Brady back into the endzone for a safety. Then the Seahaks would get the ball back on a punt down just two. But Brady, being the ultimate champion that he is, baited them offside with a hard count. Five yard penalty, game over.
But the Seahawks wouldn't go gracefully. Once those bunch of unsportsmanlike, PED-taking jerks realized they had been beaten fair and square, they just had to start a fight. They couldn't handle the fact that New England had beaten them, and they couldn't just congratulate them and get out of there. They had to make it all about them, as always. No class.
Once they threw out the Seattle instigator, New England took a knee, the clock hit zero, and the Patriots were once again Super Bowl champions. Now...
Is it finally time for Brady, Belichick, and New England to get the respect they deserve? Can everyone please admit that we watched the greatest quarterback and coach in NFL history on Sunday? Brady went 13-15 for 124 yards and two touchdowns in the fourth quarter, including 8-8 on the final drive.. Against one of the all-time great defenses. When he needed to come through or he would fall to 3-3 in Super Bowls. All the analysts who said he was done better backtrack real quick. All those analysts who gave them a bunch of crap for Deflategate (many of whom lost big games to Brady and Belichick. Hmm...) should all just shut up. And so should anyone who said that the Patriots were overrated. Tell me when your team wins four Super Bowls in a decade and a half including the last two being ten years apart in an era designed to restrain continued success.
And as for anyone who will continue that argument by saying "Well the Patriots got let off the hook by a terrible play call", that's all fine and dandy, but Butler had to make an incredible play to catch that ball. Even if it was a bad play call, we still had to make a play on the ball. And Butler said afterward that they had prepared for that play all week in practice. So how much luck was it really?
To all the Patriots haters out there, this is to you: I don't care why you hate us. If it's because you're a fan of another AFC East team, it's perfectly understandable. If it's because you're secretly jealous that we've won more than you, that's less understandable, and really pretty sad. Maybe you should focus more on what your team is doing wrong. It's really not fair to take your frustration out on us. And if I sound a little pompous, that's kind of what I'm going for. My team just won another Super Bowl, and it's earned it's rightful place in football lore. Even if some of you don't think so.
