Howard Simmons/New York Daily News Russell Wilson walks off dejected after throwing a costly interception that dooms the Seahawks. GLENDALE, Ariz. — Russell Wilson had already come so far, so fast in his short career, but he was standing on the edge of true greatness late Sunday night. So few quarterbacks had won Super Bowls in the final seconds. Fewer had won back-to-back championships.
He was one yard away from all that, with just 26 seconds remaining. Then he made the one throw he may never be able to live down.
It’s unfortunate and unfair, but even Seahawks coach Pete Carroll understood the reality after watching Wilson throw the decisive interception at the goal line to seal the New England Patriots’ 28-24 victory in Super Bowl XLIX. As he began his explanation for a mind-boggling play call and Wilson’s ill-advised throw, he said, “The game comes right down (to the wire) and all the things that happened before are meaningless now.”
That’s just the way it is in sports. Wilson was an efficient 12-for-21 for 247 yards and two touchdowns, and he made some gutsy plays on the final drive that began with the Seahawks down four and at their own 20 with 2:02 left. He was on the verge of pulling an Eli Manning on Tom Brady. He was throwing his name into the conversation about the most clutch quarterbacks of all time.
And then...
“They made one more play than us,” Wilson said. “One play. That’s really what it comes down to.”
RELATED: CARROLL'S CALL WORST IN HISTORY
It wasn’t a bad play, either — at least that’s what Wilson and Carroll and offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell seemed to believe. Never mind that from the 1-yard line they should have called for Marshawn Lynch to run it. Carroll said when he saw the Patriots’ goal-line defense in the game he knew “it’s not the right matchup for us to run the football.” So he called for what he thought was a quick, harmless pass play “really to kind of waste that play.”
Receiver Ricardo Lockette started on the right and ran a quick slant to the left in front of Patriots cornerback Malcolm Butler. The throw was nearly on the money, but Butler went to the ball harder and faster and picked it off as he knocked Lockette flat on his back.
And that was it. Gone was the Seahawks’ shot to become the first back-to-back champions in a decade. Gone was Wilson’s chance to step onto the stage with some of the greatest who ever played the game.
“When I threw it I thought it was going to be over,” Wilson said, meaning he thought the Seahawks were about to win. “The guy just barely cut in front of him. One inch too far, I guess.”
Bevell said Wilson ran the play perfectly. He had no options to check down to a run and really no options to throw to anyone else. “He made a great read,” Bevell said. “He put a good throw on it. (Lockette) could’ve done a better job of staying strong to the ball. But (Wilson) did it exactly right.”
Except he didn’t, and that throw — whether it’s his fault or not — is the one that everyone is going to remember. It’s the way of the world in championship games. It’s why until Sunday night, Brady was in danger of being remembered more for his Super Bowl losses than for the three — and now four — that he won. Bevell should never have called for a pass, Carroll — who took the blame himself — should never have let him, and yes, Lockette made a weak effort on the ball. Butler gets credit for an incredible, instinctive read on the play, too.
But the bottom line, as the 26-year-old Wilson knows, is he’s the one who had the ball in his hands in the championship game’s most pivotal moment. That’s exactly where the ball is supposed to be.
And he’s supposed to get it done.
“(Carroll) can take the blame for it, but it’s not his fault,” Wilson said. “I’ll put the blame on me. I’m the one that threw it.
“I hate this feeling like I’m the one that lost it, in a way.”
He’ll be forgiven, of course. He’s young and he has already won one Super Bowl, the start to what may turn out to be a remarkable career. He’ll be cheered in Seattle, where people will remember the remarkable comeback he engineered in the NFC Championship
Game just to get to this stage.
The “but” to that sentence is a huge one, though, because quarterbacks are inevitably judged on the championships they win. Wilson had the ball in his hands, one yard away from becoming just the 12th quarterback to win two Super Bowls.
But then...
“It really was a great play,” Wilson said.
It was also the one play he couldn’t make.
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