There's a fine line between being labeled a genius and being labeled Pete Carroll.
Before the interception on the Seattle Seahawks' last offensive play of Super Bowl XLIX that Carroll may be asked about for the rest of his life, it was New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick that made a decision that could have put him in the permanent Super Bowl second-guessing zone.
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A Seattle touchdown seemed inevitable after Jermaine Kearse's tipped-ball reception gave the defending champions a first-and-goal at the Patriots 5. Marshawn Lynch carried the ball for the Seahawks for a 4-yard gain to the New England 1 with 1:06 left in the game and the Patriots with all three of their timeouts.
All of planet earth, except for the Seahawks coaching staff, prepared for another Lynch run on second down.
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"We put our goal-line defense in probably around the same time they were sending in their multiple receiver group, and that's kind of what we wanted to be in there, to make sure they didn't run the ball in," Belichick said, according to ESPN.
Most had little faith in the Patriots' ability to stop Lynch from getting in the end zone.
But both teams let the clock run down to 26 seconds before Seattle's second-down play. When that happened, all eyes were ready to focus on Belichick, who seemingly had destroyed his offense's chance of driving for a game-tying field goal after a Seahawks touchdown was going to give them a 31-28 lead.
"I'd like to think had they tried to run the ball against our goal-line defense, with three receivers on the field -- we couldn't ask for any more than that in terms of trying to stop the running game," Belichick explained in his rationale for not calling a timeout, according to ESPN. "We saw that matchup and we certainly gave some consideration to taking a timeout there and leaving some time on the clock. I don't know if that would have been a bad thing to do. It might have been a good thing to do.
"But it just seemed like in the flow of the game that we were OK with where we were."
But according to NFL.com, two Patriots assistants noticed that the Seahawks were in a three-wide-receiver formation and substituted in nickel back Malcolm Butler for linebacker Akeem Ayers - making Belichick the one to look like a genius and Carroll the one to have his legacy forever tarnished by one questionable play call at the worst possible time.
It was Butler who jumped a route and picked off Seattle quarterback Russell Wilson at the goal line.
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