Blanchette: For Pete’s sake, that was worst-ever Super Bowl call

GLENDALE, Ariz. – Word has it Robert Kraft was so giddy about his New England Patriots winning another Super Bowl that he celebrated – by firing Pete Carroll again.

Thereby saving any kneejerk 12s the trouble.

And possibly a few of Carroll’s own players.

Has a better football game ended with a worse play call? Maybe. But this was the Super Bowl and, really, there is no other game. So no decision in the first 49 Supers – or, hey, the next 49 – will go down as more ill-considered as Carroll’s rubber-stamping a foolish goal-line throw, especially into the teeth of rush hour on I-5.

It’s why the Seattle Seahawks aren’t Super Bowl champions for the second straight year this morning.

Never mind any no-one-play-decides-it wagon-circling. This one decided everything.

When Patriots nickel back Malcolm Butler got to that brain-cramp of a slant pass from Russell Wilson ahead of Seattle receiver Ricardo Lockette, the anguish explosion in the Northwest approached Mount St. Helens levels.

As will the fallout from the Seahawks’ 28-24 loss in Super Bowl XLIX.

Check out the embers and ash:

“We had it,” said Seattle linebacker Bruce Irvin. “I don’t understand how you don’t give it to the best back in the league on not even the 1-yard line. We were on the half-yard line, and we throw a slant. I don’t know what the offense had going on. I just don’t understand.”

Of course, Irvin was the guy ejected for instigating a minor melee as the Seahawks melted down in the immediate wake of Slantgate. Consider it confirmation that the now-dethroned champs can’t cope with failure any better than they handled success, as in the matter of third grader Doug Baldwin’s poop-squat touchdown celebration.

Still, Irvin’s complaint is more than just on point – it pierced to the heart.

This was the worst call in Super Bowl history – and that’s saying something to anyone who saw the Nationwide ad that aired Sunday.

With the clock ticking down to 26 seconds, the Seahawks on the 1 – poised to launch Patriots quarterback Tom Brady on the Peyton Manning Long Goodbye Tour – and with not only the beastish Marshawn Lynch ready to rumble but the best running quarterback in the game, too, the Seattle brain trust had other ideas.

Carroll: “I made the decision. I said ‘Throw the ball.’ ”

Offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell: “Coach Carroll can tell me to do something different – we communicate and we talk – but I make all the play calls.”

Wilson: “Put the blame on me. I’m the one who threw it.”

Sheesh, Roger Goodell may have to hire another investigator to sort out the stories in this latest NFL travesty.

Speaking of travesties, the shame of slant – behind crushing the spirit of greater Cascadia – was how it made everything that came before a footnote. Brady was just a shade short of magnificent. The Patriots, with four long scoring drives, were steady and often brilliant against Seattle’s proud defense.

The Seahawks unearthed another unlikely hero in receiver Chris Matthews, who had never caught an NFL pass but was on the verge of being the improbable MVP Malcolm Smith was last year.

Mostly, it made the single greatest catch in Super Bowl history – Jermaine Kearse’s three-carom job off his hands and knee and on his back – irrelevant.

Give Carroll props – he stood up to explain his rationale, over and over.

He wanted to leave the Patriots no time. He wanted to be able to use all four downs. He sent in three receivers, hoping to spread out the defense. The Patriots answered instead with goal-line personnel, guessing the ball would go to Lynch.

Duh.

“It’s not the right matchup for us to run the football,” Carroll said, “so on second down we throw the ball really to kind of waste that play. If we score, we do. If we don’t, we’ll run it in on third (or) fourth down.”

Out-think yourself much?

First rule of winning: score more points than the other guys. Get the ball in the end zone. Period. Send out your short-yardage guys in the first place. Big on big.

Second, if Lynch is stopped short of the end zone against an unfavorable alignment, so what? Yes, it probably costs you a fourth down. You really want to be finessing seconds and downs now?

Third, if you’re thinking “waste” then waste it – throw the ball away. Then you still have your precious two downs to do what you should have on this down.

Sincere as Carroll was, you could tell he was having trouble selling it to those who matter most: his players.

Baldwin tried echoing the party line and then gave up.

“I’m just trying to make up an explanation here,” he admitted. “I really don’t know.”

That’s a big club he’s in. You can count them in multiples of 12.