Extra Points: Butler proves to be the best backup

Feb 2, 2015 - 5:09 AM Glendale, AZ (SportsNetwork.com) - No legacy really needed to be stamped for the greatest coach/quarterback duo in NFL history but for all the naysayers who wanted validation, it was a little known cornerback from the University of West Alabama who affirmed it all.

Malcolm Butler's interception at the goal line in the waning seconds preserved New England's 28-24 win over Seattle in Super Bowl XLIX, the fourth championship in the Bill Belichick/Tom Brady era and the first in a decade.

"It's been a long journey," Brady said. "It's just a great win. We left it all on the field."

Brady did his part, setting a new Super Bowl completion record and throwing a 3-yard touchdown pass to Julian Edelman to put the Patriots on top with 2:02 remaining, but it Butler's pick with 20 seconds left that sealed things.

Brady, who finished 37-of-50 for 328 yards and was named Super Bowl MVP, threw two of his four touchdown passes in the fourth quarter to bring New England back from a 24-14 deficit against the NFL's best defense.

Seattle, vying to become the first repeat Super Bowl winner since the Pats accomplished the feat following the 2003 and 2004 seasons, moved down to the Pats 5-yard line in the final seconds, however, after Jermaine Kearse came down with a miraculous 33-yard catch, reminiscent of David Tyree in Super Bowls past against New England.

It looked a fait accompli that the Seahawks would earn their second straight Lombardi Trophy after Marshawn Lynch bulled just short of the goal line on the ensuing play, but inexplicably Seattle went to the air instead of letting Beast Mode finish the Patriots off.

"We sent in our personnel, they sent in goal line," Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said. "It's not the right matchup to run the football."

Instead, Russell Wilson threw an ill-conceived slant pass toward Ricardo Lockette that Butler jumped and snared to secure the contest and Brady's fourth Super Bowl title as New England's quarterback, matching his boyhood idol Joe Montana as well as Terry Bradshaw for the most in NFL history.

"I just had a vision that I was gonna make a big play and it came true," Butler said to NBC Sports just after the game.

Carroll, meanwhile, was left to defend some tortured logic.

"On second down we throw the ball really to kind of waste the play," Carroll said. "If we score, we do, if we don't then we'll run it on third and fourth down."

Unfortunately Seattle never go that opportunity.

"The guy (Butler) makes a great play and jumps in front of the route and makes an incredible play that nobody would ever think he could do and that changes the whole outcome," Carroll said. "There's really nobody to blame but me."

Perhaps, but in a nip-and-tuck game where one play was going to decide it, the difference was that the Patriots' backup cornerback, Butler, was better than Seattle's reserve option, Tharold Simon.

Seahawks nickel corner Jeremy Lane tried to send a message late in the first quarter when he intercepted a Brady pass intended for Edelman at Seattle's own goal line but when trying to return it, Lane suffered a gruesome right wrist and arm injury that ended his night.

The domino effect was startling as Brady, one of the smartest signal callers to ever play the game, targeted the overmatched Simon early and often. Simon simply couldn't handle the short-area quickness of Edelman or the Pats' complicated combo routes.

It was Simon who got beaten badly on back-to-back plays that resulted in the Patriots' first TD, an 11-yard Brady strike to Brandon LaFell, and it was Simon who was victimized again on what turned out to be Edelman's game-winner.

Conversely, after falling behind 14-7 Seattle probably never would have gotten back into the game if not for little-known wide receiver Chris Matthews having his way with Pats CB Kyle Arrington.

With Darrelle Revis glued to Doug Baldwin, Kearse wearing Brandon Browner like a glove, Percy Harvin long gone and Paul Richardson convalescing with a torn ACL, Wilson was unable to complete a pass until 19 1/2 minutes of game time elapsed.

It's almost as if Carroll looked around and said "What the hell, let's try that tall kid over there."

And the 6-foot-5 Matthews, an ex-CFL player who was working at Foot Locker before the Seahawks reached out to him in December, kept catching 50-50 balls over the overmatched Arrington.

Matthews, who didn't catch one pass in the regular season, snared four balls for 109 yards and an 11-yard TD. He also set up Lynch's 3-yard run in the second quarter with a 44-yard gain.

For a while it looked like Matthews would join ex-Redskins running back Timmy Smith as one of the most unlikely Super Bowl heroes. That is until Belichick made his own adjustment, a seemingly innocuous tweak which changed history and made Butler the most popular man in New England.

"I just knew they were going to throw," Butler said. "My instincts, I just went with it, just went with my mind and made the play. I just didn't want to be the reason we lost the game. I just went out there and played football, played the best I could to help my team."