LasMa, ouch!!!
Well, it was a great game. I base my conclusion on the fact that we are still talking about the game barely mentioning the ads. 
^My S pointed out that the fact that Belichick didnāt call a time out at the end might have been a brilliant strategy to rattle Carroll, as you suggest, Xiggi. We were allāwhy isnāt he calling a time out, and meanwhile it seemed like SEattle was waiting for it and lost time. Not a fan of the guy, but that seems pretty clever.
The play wasnāt successful, what else is there to discuss? If they were intent on passing for clock management it should have been a pass where the only possibilities were either to be caught for a touchdown or to have sailed out of the end zone incomplete. To throw the ball neck to head high in the most congested area of the field was way to risky and it failed.
Marshawn would have gotten at least two chances and possibly three. When the game is on the line you put the ball in the hands of your best player, you win with your best and if you lose you lose with your best.
It was a great game, BB, no question. Regarding the ads, I had read that the league ā in its well-executed scheme to appeal to women! ā was trying to get away from the frat-boy T&A ads of yesteryear, in favor of gushy emotional ads which would we girls would like better. Hence all the puppies and good-father ads (because either we all have daddy fixations, or we wish our DHs were good daddies to our children. Not sure.)
xiggi, it does seem that there was confusion on the field, and the Hawks did seem to be in hurry-up mode. Why, itās hard to say. They had time, given their TO situation, to figure it out.
I love puppies and have a golden retriever myself, but did every ad have to have a roly poly yellow lab or golden? It got rather silly.
xiggi:
Here are two camera angles on the final interception.It was an incredible individual play by a rookie CB.
[Start of the play, Butler breaks on the ball before the receiver](Vine)
[End of the play, Butler takes the ball from the receiver](Vine)
The kid had made a great play breaking up the ball Kearse caught on his back just before that.
I think I read that Butler said he had a feeling that they were going to pass on that down AND that he would intercept it? Or did I imagine that?
Butler had practiced the exact play against Jimmy Garoppolo and the Pats scout team. Butler had gotten burned on the play for a TD reception in practice.
There is no doubt that Butler made a great play. His recognized the pick and was able to avoid the collision. It was amazing and he deserves the full credit, Yet, there were numerous technical problems with the Seattle play that forced them to pass with 5 seconds on the clock. And then there is Wilson:
It really pays to replay the video in super slow motion. Iām sure it will dissected ad nauseam. I expect Bob Sturm of the Dallas Morning News to have a full complement of shots that show how open the receivers ācouldā have been and what happened to the throw of Wilson.
I still think, contrary to most, that it was a safe call under normal circumstances and that it got ruined by a combination of a great instincts (and preparation by Genius Bill) by Butler, and a flawed execution by the RB, the QB and both receivers.
@Indiana91, that makes sense about spreading the defenders on the next play, which would have made it easier for Lynch to get in. Or even Wilson. Heās been known to make those short runs into the end zoneā. Maybe that would even have been the best play, because Lynch would have been heavily covered and several times earlier, he was stopped like a brick wall.
I am almost certain Katy Perry wasnāt singing live, live performances in stadiums have artifacts you canāt miss,it was definitely recorded and lip synched (and I trust my sonās ear a lot more than mine, and he confirmed it was lip synched to a recorded track).Like a lot of pop singers these days, she is more the product of marketing and the recording engineers and auto tune than talent, with some exceptions.
as far as the commercials go, I felt most of them werenāt worth the money they spent on getting them broadcast. My favorite was the Fiat commercial, that had an edge without being frat boy, and one of the video games with Liam Neeson riffing on his various āIāll kill you in revengeā moviesā¦the rest, mostly blah. For once, the game was better than the commercials, not a blow out. I felt Seattle has been pretty flat in the playoffs and now at the superbowl, the offense was pretty mediocre with some exceptions, and even their defense wasnāt that great, other than Bennett getting in Bradyās face, forcing the two bad throws. Without those two picks, Seattle would lose a lot worse than they did.
One of the reasons seattle threw the ball was to try and not waste clock time and not have to take a timeout. Thing is, given the likelyhood of them getting a TD, NE would likely call a timeout to preserve the clock in case Seattle scored.
Everything is crystal clear in hindsight, and I am guilty of analyzing with a known outcome. It still isnāt what I believe they should have done. It was an exciting game and I am happy for the Patriots. Brady throwing for 300 plus yards and four touchdowns against that defense is pretty remarkable. The game could have easily gone either way, so as a spectator you canāt ask for more than that.
Now lets see what comes of deflategate. As a fan I would hate to see Bradyās reputation tarnished, I hope that doesnāt happen.
I agree that the commercials were pretty disappointing on the whole.
I hear more callgate than deflategate at work this morning.
I this a Sea World Shamu ad?
http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/150202070031-03-halftime-show-0202-large-169.jpg
Well, Dan Quinn will be leaving the Seahawks to coach the Falcons. Any thoughts?
Oh, snap. Thatās coldā¦
Iām really hoping the latest leaks are accurate, and the only ball deflated by 2 PSI will be the one in the Coltsā possession. Where thereās smoke, right? 
All successful NFL teams suffer from a brain drain. Itās one more thing that makes sustained success very difficult.
Iām somewhat surprised Josh McDaniels chose not to interview for HC jobs this year. It makes me wonder if Belichick has a definite retirement date in mind (when Brady is gone? Another 2-3 years, tops, despite Bradyās magic training regimen IMO), and JMcD has been secretly anointed the successor, so he will be sticking around.
Now that the game is in the past - recent but still past - my original thoughts were the Pats would put up 31-35 points and Seattle 21-24 points. That is, I figured NE for 4 TDās and 1 or 2 FGās and Seattle for either 3 TDs and an FG or 2TDs and 3 FGs. I believed that NEās offense is simply too difficult to stop, that itās extremely flexible in approach and has a lot of talent in the key skill positions. I also worried that NE would be run on, which was partly true. I feared they would give up big plays to the outside, which they did, but thought that Wilson would run more than he did. I thought Seattle might have to settle for FGās because their attack is the kind that can bog down close to the goal. I didnāt think Seattleās pass rush would cause more problems than Baltimoreās and it didnāt. On 50 attempts, there will be some pressures and the key to avoiding a sack or INT is the read receiver being open. Since thatās often a pre-snap decision, stopping their passing attack usually depends more on changing the defensive looks to create a bit of delay in Bradyās reads, but Seattle doesnāt do that.
As for injuries, NE has players who need surgery too. Itās part of the game: labrums (shoulder, hip), elbows, knee ligaments (medial mostly), etc. Neither team threw at the strongest corners and both took advantage of any pre-snap match-up they could create, from Gronk on an LB to Lynch on an LB. I think we saw why the NFL canāt let the teams play without penalty whistles as much as they did in this game: the violence level was very high. In terms of officiating, I think it was pretty even as to missed or noncalls.
Nice game.
I truly donāt understand Doug Baldwin. What kind of a moron would do that at the Super Bowl? As to Richard Sherman, I hope at some point he grows up. Getting in front of a camera to flash 2-4 (Revisā number) after Baldwinās sole catch of the game was juvenile. I say this because the media in Boston would be all over any Patriot who acted that way. The team wouldnāt stand for it. Itās hard for me to understand how that happens. Here, for example, when Randy Moss came over - or Corey Dillon or even LeGarrette Blount - the media goes nuts over their past transgressions ā¦ and they had to become decent citizens here.
I believe Sherman pointed at the scoreboard after he 2-4āed. Thatās how many points the Seahawks had at the time.
Among other things, what Sherman in his gloating forgot is that Revis was picked by the referee, players are not allows to throw a ref out of the way and it kept Revis from covering Baldwin on that pass play (a cynic would argue that the refs did it deliberarately to āmake the game excitingā lol).
Josh McDaniels probably didnāt interview for any HC vacancies because teams didnāt show any interest. His tenure at Denver was not exactly stellar, and there is now a perception in the NFL that Belichickās coaches are products of the system and on their own, canāt do well. I canāt think of any Belichick assistant who has done well on their own, Romeo Crenel flopped, Charlie Weis was a disaster area, Mangini did not do well, and so forth. Sometimes they find out differently (for example, Mike Petine had the knock that he was a product of working for Rex Ryan, after leaving the Jets, though, he proved he was a good defensive coordinator and seems to be doing well as HC of Cleveland).