By Matt Tulli
Before February 1, it had been an entire decade since the New England Patriots last won a Super Bowl. It seems amazing, considering the Patriots are perennial championship contenders when January rolls around. They had lost both of their two previous Super Bowl trips to the New York Giants, one in Super Bowl XLII (2008) and the other loss coming in Super Bowl XLVI (2012).
Patriots undrafted rookie cornerback Malcolm Butler picked off Russell Wilson from the one-yard line with 20 ticks left in the game on a controversial play call for his first career interception. Amazing, also considering that Brown is listed as the fifth cornerback on New England’s depth chart.
“I thought the Seahawks would win, especially at halftime after that touchdown drive, said sophomore Jeff Taylor. “And I thought [Seahawks all-pro running back] Lynch would just score on a run at the end.”
But, that’s about the exact opposite of what happened. While many people were criticizing the choice to pass the ball on the one-yard line instead of run, senior Tanner Erisman had a different thought.
“I understand why they passed it, if the pass would be incomplete, then the clock would stop and they would have time to reorganize,” said Erisman. “But I still would have run it. There’s no chance the Patriots were gonna stop him three times.”
When asked for one word to describe the Super Bowl, junior Eric Snyder said, “amazing.” Junior Nate Brown, who was rooting for the Seahawks said, “crazy.” Jeff Taylor said, “unreal.”
It seemed like, according to Twitter and talking with a lot of friends, a lot of people were rooting for the Seahawks. I heard a lot of reasons why, from “I like the way the Seahawks play” to “The Patriots win too much”. But the obvious number one reason would be “DeflateGate”, or the allegation that the Patriots deflated their footballs in the AFC Championship game to make them easier to play with.
But lets be honest, the score of the AFC Championship was 45-7. The Patriots would have won the game with a bowling ball. And that’s all I’m going to say about it.
Three interesting statistics from the Super Bowl:
League-wide this season, quarterbacks have thrown 109 passes from the one-yard line. Malcolm Brown’s interception was the first time one of those passes was intercepted, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
Per sbnation.com, none of the Super Bowl XLIX starters were 5-star recruits coming out of high school. Only seven of them were 4-star recruits, and the other 37 were 3-star or less, or not ranked at all. So for all you athletes out there: Never give up on your dream.
Lastly, Super Bowl XLIX was the most-watched American TV program ever, with and estimated 114.5 million people watching.