Izzo Calls Seattle Pass, Subsequent Interception 'Haunting ... Gut-Wrenching'
By Ashley Dunkak
@AshleyDunkak
CBS DETROIT - Longtime Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo cannot remember making a call as costly as the one Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll did Sunday, but Izzo sympathized with the agony he knew the coach must be feeling.
"Those are haunting," Izzo said Monday on the weekly Big Ten teleconference. "At the end of the day, you win some you should have lost and you lose some you should have won … I look at last week, and probably they had no business winning that game.
"I haven't had a situation like that … that I can remember," Izzo continued. "It was gut-wrenching."
With a minute remaining in the Super Bowl, Seattle had a chance to retake the lead from the New England Patriots, but on second down on the New England one-yard line, the Seahawks elected to pass instead of using star running back Marshawn Lynch. The pass was intercepted, and the Patriots went on to win the game.
Asked if coaches think about the worst possible outcome before calling a risky play in a late-game situation like the one Sunday, Izzo replied in the affirmative.
"I think I am conscious of that – who do you want to have a ball, what mistake could he make," Izzo said. "I do think you have to manage the downside."
While Izzo said he would not have thrown the ball in the situation Carroll did, he also praised the coach for having the guts to go for the touchdown at the end of the first half rather than go with the safe alternative of kicking the field goal. The Seahawks scored and entered halftime tied with New England. Seattle would go on to take a 10-point lead before the Patriots rallied.
"He's kind of a riverboat gambler, and that's the way he's always coached," Izzo said. "It was a better defensive play than the offensive situation they were in."