When Belichick saw the Seahawks come out in that formation he probably was trying to bait them into passing, That is an excellent point espnespn. IF the Seahawks had come out in a GL formation I wonder if the Pats would have used a timeout.
Throwing that ball in the middle is always a risky play on the GL.
Out of that formation against a GL defense a run might not have worked. The question is why did they come out in that formation in the first place. That is inexcusable.
I think the Seahawks expected the Pats to use a TO and then didn't know what to do and were almost just trying to waste that play after the pats remained in their GL defense and didn't call a TO.
What I meant was that Carroll already decided on a passing play for 2nd down because time was ticking down (about 20 secs left) and the best way to guarantee that he'd have 2nd, 3rd, and 4th down to score (if needed), and flexibility to either run/pass on 3rd down, was to pass on 2nd down.
Look at it this way. Assuming that each play is unsuccessful until 4th down attempt:
Option 1:
a) Pass play on 2nd down. Clock stops with incompletion.
b) You can run either a pass play or run play on 3rd down. Defense has to guess. You can stop clock after a run play with last TO, and have plenty of time to set up 4th down play
c) 4th down can be either pass play or run play
Option 2:
a) Run play on 2nd down. Must burn last TO to stop clock.
b) Forced into pass play on 3rd down.
Defense knows that you probably won't run because you are out of TOs, because you will have to scramble to get off 4th down play.
c) 4th down can be either pass play or run play, but might not have enough time to run 4th down play
For Carroll to have flexibility on 3rd down and keep the defense guessing on 3rd down, he has to pass on 2nd down. Otherwise, it would be a disaster if the Seahawks run out of time before they can run a 4th down play.
