In the lead-up to Super Bowl LX, there has been a lot of discussion about the previous Super Bowl between the Seahawks and Patriots.
Mike Macdonald’s team is not out to atone for the sins of Pete Carroll in that controversial Super Bowl XLIX giveaway. They DO NOT CARE about that, as Macdonald has made clear. Nor should they. They are their own team out to carve their own destiny.
But, while Carroll ruined a chance at a Seahawks dynasty by losing to those Patriots, it is perhaps apropos that Macdonald could very well begin a Seahawks dynasty by beating these Patriots.
As we all remember, Carroll’s Seahawks were poised to win their second straight Super Bowl – all they had to do was score from the 1-yard line against the Patriots.
They infamously failed. Instead of setting themselves up for a possible three-peat (thus dynasty), they instead started the Patriots on their second dynastic run (three titles in five years, with a Super Bowl loss also in that span).
Several Seahawks players from that era have confirmed that Carroll’s poor choice in that goal-line situation (throwing the ball rather than just handing to Marshawn Lynch again for the win) ruined the rapport the coach had built with his players and thus destroyed any hope of a dynasty.
Lynch recently echoed what Cliff Avril once said: The players lost faith in Carroll after that.
“It took confidence (away from) what the coaching staff and what the organization was preaching,” Lynch told Michael Silver. “(Carroll) preaches, ‘We’re gonna run the ball down your throat.’ … I think it took a lot of respect from them, ’cause they weren’t standing on shit. They weren’t ‘10 toes’ on what … they were preaching.”
Way back in 2018, Avril said, “I do think the team would have bought in more to what Coach Carroll was saying — instead of going the opposite way of, ‘Hey, this is what we thought the foundation of the team was.’ That’s not what happened in that particular play.
“So I think guys started questioning him more, more so than actually following his lead if we would have won that Super Bowl.”
After that, Lynch said, “It felt different. It felt like we had to go to work. Before, work didn’t feel like work; it was basically like a hangout.
“It just became a shit show. It was a friction between what the players stood on and what they saw the coaches standing on. They weren’t standing on their word.”
Avril also said in that 2018 interview, “If we win that Super Bowl, I think we probably would have won another one within the two years that went by.”
Lynch agreed, telling Silver: “I think we could have (been a dynasty), because our ability was probably unmatched.”
Instead, Lynch said: “Regardless of us winning a Super Bowl in the fashion that we did (43-8 over Denver), I think it’s always gonna be overshadowed by the Super Bowl that we lost in the fashion that we did.”
So now here a new bunch of Seahawks have arrived in the Super Bowl under Macdonald’s guidance, not looking for revenge for that inglorious defeat, but rather looking to get their own trophy and be noted themselves as one of the great teams in NFL history.
If this squad can handle the Patriots the way Carroll’s team should have, it could be the first step toward the potential dynasty Carroll literally threw away.
It would do nothing to heal the wounds of Lynch, Avril and their 2014 teammates, but it certainly would be a Phoenix-like rebirth for this franchise as a Super Bowl power and for the fans who suffered through the implosion of that burgeoning dynasty.
It’s apropos that this chance starts in this Super Bowl, against the Patriots again.
CHAWK TALK: Everything being said about the Seahawks 
The Seahawks received the ball to open the third quarter of that game. They drove from their 35 to the New England 17, mainly on the strength of a 45yd pass completion from Russell Wilson to Chris Matthews. Lynch then rushed for 7yds and Robert Turbin followed up with a 2yd gain. On 3rd-and-1, Lynch was stopped for no gain and Stephen Hauschka kicked a FG to give the Hawks a 17-14 lead.
On the ensuing possession, Bobby Wagner intercepted Tom Brady at the NE 40 and returned the ball six yards. The Hawks drove to the NE 4, the big plays being a 15yd scramble by Wilson and a 14yd run by Lynch. On first-and-goal, Lynch rushed for a yard. On second down, Wilson completed a 3yd TD pass to Doug Baldwin (who was flagged for an unsportsmanlike conductive penalty after a simulated defecation of the football).
Lynch carried the ball an additional four times for 12 yards.
If anyone wants to argue that a handoff to Lynch was a sure thing, be my guest. Me, I’ve never blamed Pete Carroll for wanting to use all of his plays. In this half, his offense had failed to convert a 3rd-and-1 run and had scored on a 2nd-and-3 pass. Robert Turbin observed later that this was not the first time anyone had called a pass on second down. The problem, Turbo thought, was that they didn’t execute the play.
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It was not about anything that had happened earlier in the game. It was about the momentum of that very moment. And I and many others felt Lynch could replicate the 4-yard run he had just done. I would have lined up and run the same play, counting on Lynch to get the yard.
Instead they overthought it and walked into Belichick’s trap …
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