Pete Carroll caught a lot of flak for his decision to throw in the last seconds of the Super Bowl, but he has an unlikely supporter in former rival, Jim Harbaugh who thought it was a good call.
Jim Harbaugh and Pete Carroll were at odds for the last several years, including their time as rival coaches at Stanford and USC, respectively, but they saw eye-to-eye on the Seahawks decision to throw from the one-yard line in the closing seconds of the Super Bowl.
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The Seahawks were on the doorstep of the goal line and a second consecutive Super Bowl championship when Carroll elected to bypass handing the ball off to running back Marshawn Lynch and instead called a pass play against the Patriots goal line defense.
Operating out of a three-wide receiver set against the opponent’s goal line defense put Seattle in a good position to take advantage of the personnel on the field, but the execution just didn’t work out as Malcolm Butler intercepted the pass from Russell Wilson to clinch the win for the Patriots.
Harbaugh thought Carroll made a good call, but Butler made an incredible play.
“You know, I really thought they had a good play called,” Harbaugh told the San Jose Mercury News on Friday. “That was an insightful play against a goal-line defense, and a really neat combination that they had with an inside pick play. It really was open.”
Carroll was lambasted for not putting the ball in the hands of Lynch who has scored more rushing touchdowns than anyone in the NFL since he was traded to Seattle in 2010, and Harbaugh understands hindsight is 20/20, but you have to tip your cap to the opponent.
“In that situation, I said that before, after it’s over, yeah you would love to go back and try a running play,” Harbaugh said. “Giving it to Marshawn Lynch and see how that would have worked out after you know how the other worked out but that’s football, that’s the game. My opinion was it was a good play call and an incredible play by the New England Patriots.”
Harbaugh is the new head coach at Michigan so the rivalry between he and Carroll is over, but I’d imagine Harbaugh would have said the same thing even if he was still the coach of the San Francisco 49ers.
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