it was second down. he catches the ball, the game is over. he drops the ball, the clock stops. it didn't work out. but here's the thing, and deion knows it: that call wasn't spontaneous. they have a goal line offense. they've been practicing it for months. it was already set.
go track down videos of teams with the ball inside the five on first or second down. what you're going to see is that something like 80% of the teams throw the ball on first or second down. third, fourth? you're going to see that 90%+ run the ball on both downs.
it's easy to attack the call as stupid. but it's really pretty common.
Glachs
+deathtokoalas nah if you have the top 5 RB and your on the 1yard line you run it in, they werent on the 5yrd line, they were on the 1, just had to give to Lynch or do a QB fake and take it in yourself, if you don't get it you can clock it or call a TO
deathtokoalas
+Glachs they were at about the five yard line on first down, which clicked in their goal line offense. they ran a running play on first down that got them a few yards. so, it's second down. the whole world expects you to push the line. that's not a lynch issue, it's a line issue. and, of course, a lynch can't get the yards he gets without being behind a strong line. but it's a different issue. it's not about lynch's talent level, it's about who has more muscle up front. you've got three chances at this, but if you get fucked on a strong blitz and lose yards then the whole calculus changes.
so, you're going to see a lot of teams run a little pass route in this circumstance, to try and catch the secondary on a blitz. the intended play was probably on the wide side, and meant to catch the safety out of position. but (and it might be because the passing play was actually so predictable), the defense didn't buy it. i'll agree with deion that the ball was questionably thrown, but you can't throw the ball into the crowd when you've got solid coverage anymore. the clock was ticking, he had to let the ball go.
if he catches the ball, the game is basically over. well, i guess the patriots can try and run it back. and, note that ticking a few seconds off the clock is a good reason to run the passing play on second down, too.
if he drops the ball, you ideally get two chances to push through the line.
it wasn't a bad call at all...it was mostly just good coverage.
i think, in that situation, you want to make sure you're throwing the ball deep into the end zone, so that an interception would create a safety.