Super Bowl 49 results: Reactions and observations to a fantastic end of 2015

The Arizona Cardinals didn't get to play in Super Bowl XLIX, but the big game was in University of Phoenix Stadium. The result was one of the best Super Bowl games we will ever see. It was a classic. The New England Patriots rallied from 10 points down in the fourth quarter to defeat the Seattle Seahawks 28-24 and win their fourth championship in six tries with Tom Brady at quarterback.

Here are some of my thoughts about the game.

• Do we know who is the better team? I don't.
• The Pats started the game the way they needed to so they could believe they could win. They moved the ball well early in the game. The end zone interception aside, the fact they gained yardage early really set the tone, unlike when the Broncos fell apart offensively early on last year.
• The Seahawks did what they do. Seth Cox said it best (I can't recall if it was a tweet or a text). Seattle lulls you  to sleep and then smothers you with the pillow. It looked like they were at it again, methodically and patiently bouncing back and putting a team away.
• Tom Brady was a superstar. He was patient. He took the dinks and the dunks and didn't get too greedy. Then he made his shots count.
• Rob Gronkowski and Julian Edelman made plays. Was  there any doubt that had to happen for the Pats to win?
• Wes Welker who? Apparently the Pats can make any shifty white receiver look great. They let Welker go and got two of him in Danny Amendola and Julian Edelman.
• The two game-changers in the game were Chris Matthews, who had never caught a pass in the league before Sunday, and Malclom Butler, who had never intercepted a pass in the NFL. Matthews caught four passes for 109 yards and a touchdown in the Super Bowl and could have been the MVP if Seattle had won. Butler clinched the win with the interception at the goalline. He also alertly pushed Jermaine Kearse out of bounds after he made that crazy catch and then got up. If Butler isn't aware enough to to that, he never has the chance to make the play in the end zone two snaps later.
• We learned the Seahawks, who love to talk when they win, don't handle losing well. Bruce Irvin became the first player ever to be ejected from the Super Bowl after picking fights after the Pats were going to run out the clock at the end of the game. Sore losers. At least Richard Sherman went and congratulated Tom Brady quickly after the game.
• Seattle offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell will have nightmares for the rest of his life. He will forever be asked about why he didn't call a run with Marshawn Lynch there at the goalline instead of the throw that got picked off.
• Regarding that play, it isn't as if the play itself was a bad one. It was just a questionable one. Look at this picture. It looks like Ricardo Lockette was going to score. It was just a great play by Malcolm, who saw the pick coming to take him out of the play and jumped the route, knowing what to expect.

  

• What in the world was Dan Patrick doing? He asked Rob Gronkowski how it felt again to be there as a champion. The Pats hadn't won in 10 years. Gronk wasn't around. Whoops, Dan. Either he meant to ask that question to Tom Brady or he just didn't do his homework...or forgot and asked a stupid question.
• Thank goodness the Seahawks lost. I don't know if we could have handled hearing Seahawks fans had they won two straight championships.