Patriots Win Super Bowl XLIX, Defeating Seahawks

GLENDALE, Ariz. — The seconds ticked off late in the fourth quarter Sunday, and how familiar it must have all seemed to Bill Belichick, to Tom Brady, to the New England Patriots and their fans wondering why, oh why, was this happening again.

In their last two Super Bowls, the Patriots had lost in improbable fashion, last-minute defeats fueled by ridiculous passes and absurd catches, and now came the Seattle Seahawks, driving to the New England 1-yard line.

In a frantic finish, and after a dose of karmic payback, the Patriots survived. It was New England that became a team for the ages, not Seattle, winning its fourth Super Bowl title, 28-24, when Malcolm Butler intercepted Russell Wilson’s pass in the end zone with 26 seconds remaining.

“We’ve had some great teams that haven’t won it and I think you’ve got to just enjoy the moment,” Brady said. “We’ve been on the other end of this twice now.”

Butler’s catch had the same nauseating effect on the Seahawks and their supporters as David Tyree’s helmet catch here seven years ago or Mario Manningham’s sideline grab three years ago did on the Patriots, who lost those Super Bowls to the Giants by a total of 7 points.

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Pete Carroll Reacts to Super Bowl Loss

It spoiled the Seahawks’ repeat bid, denying them of dynasty status, and returned one of the league’s most successful franchises to glory. And it came on a play call whose merits will be debated in barrooms and boardrooms in the Pacific Northwest for years to come.

Instead of handing the ball off a second straight play to Marshawn Lynch, their bruising running back who had already scored a touchdown, the Seahawks on second down elected to pass. Coach Pete Carroll accepted responsibility, but in the chaos afterward there seemed confusion.

When asked whose decision it was, Wilson deflected the question. The offensive coordinator, Darrell Bevell, said he was comfortable with the choice but, considering the result, he would have liked to have called something different.

“We were on the precipice of another championship,” Carroll said. “Nobody to blame but me.”

In toppling Seattle, New England became the first champion to overcome a 10-point deficit in the fourth quarter, a development that was remarkable and disorienting all at once. As many comebacks as Brady has orchestrated over his sparkling career, this one has to rank among the most special.

Because it came against the swaggering Seahawks, who boasted the N.F.L.’s best defense and would tell anyone who asked as much. Because in its last eight games, all victories, Seattle had outscored its opponents by 83-13 in the fourth quarter and overtime — and by 130-26 after halftime — in a stretch encompassing its stunner two weeks ago in the N.F.C. championship.

Confronted with daunting circumstances, a 24-14 deficit with 12 minutes 10 seconds left, Brady led the Patriots to touchdowns on consecutive drives. The second provided the margin of victory, with Brady completing all eight passes, including a 3-yard toss to Julian Edelman, who had nine receptions for a team-high 109 yards.

“Considering the fact that I almost had two heart attacks,” said Edelman, still wearing his grass-stained jersey, “it was great.”

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So it was, all across the Patriots’ empire Sunday night and, particularly, in all corners of University of Phoenix Stadium. Rob Gronkowski cut short an interview because he said he needed to go celebrate. Confetti cascaded from above. In the interview area, Darrelle Revis was chatting with two reporters from Japan, one of whom was wearing a pink cowboy hat. One asked Revis about the victory party.

“It’s already begun,” Revis said. “But you want to come? You can come. But you have to bring the hat.” Then the reporter let Revis put it on.

Although they were asked, and although they would not say, the Patriots said they derived no additional satisfaction — not in their return to the stadium where they were denied perfection seven years ago, not after enduring scrutiny, their image stained, all because of footballs that may or may not have been intentionally deflated.

For them, for Belichick and for Brady and for defenders everywhere of the Patriot Way, validation is measured by Super Bowls, and now they have another.

Before the playoffs started, Wilson and Brady sent emails to a mutual friend. Each quarterback predicted this Super Bowl matchup, and their telepathy made sense: finishing his third season, Wilson is hewing to the Brady career arc: midround draft pick, immediate success as a starter, a title by age 25.

The year after Brady won his first championship, New England did not even reach the playoffs, let alone return to the Super Bowl as Wilson did. Wilson had won his first 10 games against Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks, but Brady, even throwing two interceptions, dazzled, completing 37 of 50 passes for 328 yards and firing touchdowns to four receivers in winning his third Most Valuable Player award. He joined Joe Montana, his boyhood idol, and Terry Bradshaw as the only quarterbacks to win four championships, all of Brady’s coming with Belichick.

“I’m a big Joe Montana fan — I love him to death, I thought he was the best and everything,” Edelman said, but, “Tom Brady came out here, he’s been to six Super Bowls, he’s won four with the salary cap. It’s hard to argue against that.”

All week the Seahawks treated queries about Brady’s brilliance and LeGarrette Blount’s brawn and Gronkowski’s gronkness, about the Patriots’ wacky receiver-ineligible formations and chameleonic offense — 40 rushes one game, 14 the next — and flicked them away like cigarette ash. Not out of arrogance, or disrespect, but the declaration, as stated earlier in the week by linebacker Bobby Wagner that “we do what we do and we do it very good.”

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Tom Brady on His Legacy

Confusing offenses is not the Seahawks’ style. They just line up in their three-deep coverage, with their thumping secondary, and try to impose their will. Usually successful, the Seahawks were not in the first half. Countering Seattle’s pass-rush, the Patriots ran quick passes, screens and pick plays, and they ran them so well that on their second possession Brady guided New England to the Seattle 10, on a drive that consumed nearly eight minutes.

Chased by Michael Bennett from the left side, Brady made a miserable red-zone decision — throwing nowhere near a receiver, and right into the hands of Jeremy Lane at the goal line. The interception prevented one touchdown, but it indirectly produced another.

On his return, Lane, the Seahawks’ nickel cornerback, sustained an arm injury. Tharold Simon replaced him, and on the Patriots’ next possession Brady exposed him. First with a 24-yard pass to Edelman, zipping across the middle, and then, two plays later, with a perfect slant to Brandon LaFell, whose 11-yard touchdown put New England ahead, 7-0.

For the Seahawks, their offensive malaise — three series, one first down — evoked the first 58 minutes of their last game, the N.F.C. championship victory against the Packers. Nothing Seattle tried, from Lynch’s interior running to dropbacks by Wilson that were thwarted by the Patriots’ superb downfield coverage, seemed to work.

Until Wilson found a matchup he liked and exploited it, connecting deep down the right sideline with Chris Matthews, whose onside kick recovery two weeks ago proved he had excellent hands. Matthews reached over Kyle Arrington and fell backward while hauling in his first career catch, a 44-yarder that set up Lynch’s 3-yard touchdown run with 2:16 left in the first half.

That was far too much time on the clock for Brady, who dissected the Seahawks as if slowly pulling off a Band-Aid — with short passes to Shane Vereen — before yanking it off with a 22-yard touchdown fade to Gronkowski with 31 seconds remaining.

But that was also far too much time for Wilson, who has developed a reputation for clutch passing himself. He drove the Seahawks 80 yards in 29 seconds, a series keyed by a 23-yard pass to Ricardo Lockette and 10-yard personal foul on Arrington. With the ball at the New England 11 and six seconds left before halftime, Carroll had a choice: attempt a field goal or run one final play.

Nothing about the Seahawks’ aggressive personality suggested they would play it safe, and Wilson whipped a pass on the outside to the 6-foot-5 Matthews, who exploited his 6-inch height advantage over Logan Ryan, for an 11-yard touchdown that evened the score at 14-14 heading into halftime.

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The Seahawks, masters of the second half and the fourth quarter, were in the middle of reeling off 17 straight points. They were in control until they were not — a feeling New England knew all too well, and returned when Seattle took over with 2:02 to play at its own 20.

Three plays after Wilson opened the drive by throwing a 31-yard pass to Lynch down the left sideline, Jermaine Kearse made a catch to rival Tyree’s on this same field in 2008 — defended by Butler, Kearse had the ball bounce off both thighs and his lower arm before he corralled it at the New England 5.

“I didn’t have any doubt,” receiver Doug Baldwin said. “At that time, you didn’t think there was anyone on the sideline who didn’t think we’d score.”

After a 4-yard run by Lynch, the Seahawks lined up in a three-receiver set. Based on the formation, Butler said he recognized before the snap that Seattle was running a play intended to beat man-to-man coverage. It forced the cornerbacks to line up tight, Butler said.

As Carroll explained it, he did not want to waste a running play against New England’s goal-line defense — he wanted to save that for third and fourth downs, if necessary.

Split out wide were Kearse and Lockette, who stood a few yards behind him and a step to his right. Even though Wilson’s head was not moving, Butler read his eyes, which were scanning in that direction.

The play was designed, Carroll said, for Kearse to shield his defender, allowing the trailing receiver, Lockette, to pop open.

“When they made the call, I didn’t question it,” said Wilson, who finished 12 of 21 for 247 yards. He added: “We thought we had them. I thought it was going to be a touchdown when I threw it. When I let it go, I thought it was going to be game over.”

It was — just not as Wilson expected.

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“It’s going to kill me,” Seattle linebacker Bruce Irvin said. “I think I’m about to just go lock myself in my room for about two weeks. This one hurt because we had it. We had it.”

The Seahawks will recover. They are too young, too resilient and too talented. But they also lost in perhaps the cruelest way possible, to a team that once specialized in crushing defeats but no more.

The Patriots are winners again. The Patriots are Super Bowl champions.