Super Bowl XLIX a letdown


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Now that I have finally picked my jaw up off the floor, I can begin to write about what I just witnessed in Super Bowl XLIX. As close as the game was, I’m still disappointed. Not because I am a Seahawks fan or because I hate the Patriots. In fact, I didn’t really have a rooting interest at all.

I think the game ended the way everyone expected it to, with the go-ahead score in the final minutes. There were lead changes and momentum shifts throughout the entire game.

The Patriots seemed to control the first half so much that my friend was convinced that Deflategate was planned as a coverup to hide Spygate part two. The Patriots took the lead with a touchdown but gave Russell Wilson two minutes to score, something he did in 29 seconds to end the first half.

Then came the second half that had the Patriots at a 10-point deficit. The defending champions had Tom Brady on the ropes and forced him into another costly interception.

It looked like the Seahawks had it in the bag after an incredible juggling catch by Jermaine Kearse. All the Hawks had to do was hand the ball off to Marshawn Lynch on the 1-yard line and let “Beast Mode” end the game, but instead Wilson threw a game-ending interception.

And that is why I think the Seattle offensive coordinator is the real MVP. Brady might be the official Super Bowl XLIX MVP, but he won by default. Brady didn’t really do anything important except throw two interceptions. Gronkowski had an important touchdown reception, but I still wouldn’t call it MVP status.

Wilson was the better quarterback during the game, but gave up Seattle’s only turnover with the costly interception. Lynch and Richard Sherman were both quiet, too, and if I had to pick an MVP I would choose Chris Matthews, who didn’t have a single catch all season except for his four catches for 109 yards in the Super Bowl. The undrafted 25-year-old is in his first season in the NFL and was just signed off of Seattle’s practice squad in December. His first catch came in the second quarter and was Wilson’s first completion of the night, helping to get Seattle’s offense in motion.

With that said, I don’t think I would’ve been totally satisfied if the Seahawks had won, either. I consider them lucky to even be playing for a Super Bowl after a pretty lucky win over Green Bay. Couple that with the fact that they almost won on Kearse’s miraculous juggling reception, and I was having a hard time getting over how lucky the Seahawks were.

But I am not convinced that the Patriots deserved to win either. With Deflategate now the second cheating scandal during Brady and Belichick’s reign, I question the Pats’ morals and integrity, and basically every game they’ve ever won. I was completely impartial to Deflategate until I saw Brady’s interview with Bob Costas in which his answers came across as evasive and calculated. To be fair, though, I also know that Pete Carroll might not even be the Seattle head coach right now if he hadn’t been caught in a scandal of his own here at USC.

Moreover, I don’t like that Brady won the Super Bowl and the MVP on a defensive play. I don’t think the Patriots won so much as Seattle simply failed to finish.

And finally, the last straw was the commercials. If I was going to be this dissatisfied with the outcome of the game, I wish I could have at least found some consolation in the commercials. I can count on one hand the number of commercials I found amusing.