GLENDALE, Ariz. — Many were baffled by the play call that doomed the Seattle Seahawks in Sunday’s Super Bowl loss.
That included Seahawks players.
Trailing 28-24 and facing second down from the 1-yard line, Russell Wilson was intercepted by New England’s Malcolm Butler with 20 seconds left.
Seahawks linebacker Bruce Irvin couldn’t hide his disgust that a running play for Marshawn Lynch wasn’t called.
“I don’t understand how you don’t give it to the best back in the league on not even the one yard line,” Irvin said. “We were on the half yard line and we throw a slant. I don’t know what the offense had going on, what they saw. I just don’t understand.”
Linebacker Bobby Wagner was equally puzzled.
“We’ve got Marshawn Lynch, one of the best running backs in the league,” he said. “Everybody makes their decisions, and unfortunately we didn’t get him the ball.”
Seattle coach Pete Carroll said he didn’t like the prospects of running against New England’s goal-line defense on second down with one timeout. But he would have run the ball on third and fourth down.
Irvin said Sunday’s loss will sting for a long time.
“It’s going to kill me,” he said. “I think I’m about to just go lock myself in a room for two weeks. This one hurt because we had it.”
Breakout game for Matthews
The Seahawks wouldn’t have been in the Super Bowl if it weren’t for Chris Matthews, who recovered an onside kick late in the NFC Championship.
And they wouldn’t have been on the brink of winning Sunday’s game without him.
Matthews came out of nowhere to nearly be the star of Super Bowl XLIX. The rookie receiver from Kentucky didn’t have a catch in the NFL before Sunday.
Matthews played the past two seasons for Winnipeg in the Canadian Football League. He even worked as a security guard for Foot Locker before being invited to try out by the Seahawks before this season.
All he did Sunday was catch four of the five passes thrown his way for one touchdown and a team-high 109 yards.
With 4:19 left in the first half, his first catch of 44 yards ignited an offense that had just 42 yards thus far. His 11-yard TD catch tied the game at 14 two seconds before halftime.
But Matthews said the loss takes the shine off his big game.
“I’m not OK with any of that,” Matthews said. “I’m not a selfish player. I don’t care if I didn’t have even one pass, one yard, one tackle. It wouldn’t have mattered as long as we had won the game.”
Lane’s injury crucial
Jeremy Lane made the biggest play of the first quarter, intercepting Tom Brady at the goal line.
But on the play, the Seattle defensive back suffered a broken left arm.
Brady repeatedly targeted Lane’s replacement, Tharold Simon. On the Patriots’ first scoring drive, Simon was beat by Julian Edelman on a crucial third-and-9 and on also on the 11-yard touchdown catch by Brandon LaFell.
Brady also targeted Simon on the game-winning touchdown pass to Edelman with 2:02 to play.
Earl Thomas (shoulder), Richard Sherman (elbow) and Kam Chancellor (knee) carried injuries into Sunday’s game.
“In football you’re never 100 percent,” Sherman said. “We were good enough to go. We went out and played. There’s no excuse.”
Quick kicks
Lynch has a touchdown run in eight of 10 postseason games he has played. … Wilson’s first completion came 19:30 into the game. That was the latest first completion in Super Bowl history. … The Seahawks have held a lead in 56 consecutive games. That’s the longest streak since the NFL merger in 1966.
