As Seattle Seahawks sift through the wreckage of defeat at Super Bowl XLIX, what possessed them to make that erroneous last call?
The New England Patriots recovered from 10 points down midway through the final quarter to win last night.
But the night could easily have belonged to Seattle as they bounced back from Brady's three-yard touchdown pass to Julian Edelman with just two minutes and two seconds left on the clock.
Last year's champions went the length of the field and were camped a yard from the Patriots line with 20 seconds remaining before they bizarrely chose to ignore star running-back Marshawn Lynch and opted for a pass that was intercepted by Patriots rookie Malcolm Butler to effectively end the game.
Analysing the match on Off The Ball tonight, Channel 4's NFL analyst Mike Carlson felt Seattle erred by deviating from their tried and tested philosophy.
"For the first time in the game, Seattle basically tried to outsmart the Patriots - and that's not their game. Their game is to do what they do best. I was just shocked when they lined up and threw the ball," he said, adding that it was almost "indefensible" not to use the reliable option of Marshawn Lynch.
Carlson also turned his attention towards Tom Brady and his legacy as one of the great NFL quarter-backs as the 37-year-old claimed his fourth championship ring.
"He definitely has a case to be the best ever but I don't think it rose or fell on the result of this game," he concluded, also going on to compare Bill Belichick's Patriots to Arsene Wenger's Arsenal and discussing Lynch's future at Seattle.
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