Dont'a Hightower Made The Other Super Bowl-saving Defensive Play For New England Patriots

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Dont'a Hightower Made The Other Super Bowl-saving Defensive Play For New England Patriots



Lost in the celebration of Malcolm Butler's improbable interception to save New England's 28-24 victory over the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl XLIX on Sunday night is the other defensive play that saved the victory.

Trailing by four points with 66 seconds left in the 49th Super Bowl, Seattle had a first down at the New England 5-yard line after an out-of-this-world reception by wide receiver Jermaine Kearse for a 33-yard gain.

Predictably, the Seahawks handed the ball to running back Marshawn "Beast Mode" Lynch on the next play. Lynch has led the NFL in rushing touchdowns in each of the past two seasons and had scored on a 3-yard run in the second quarter of Sunday's game. Lynch went over 100 yards for the game on his 24th carry of the contest. But he did not reach the end zone.

New England linebacker Dont'a Hightower brought down Lynch at the 1-yard line.

On the next play, Butler jumped a slant route by Seattle wide receiver Ricardo Lockette on a pick play to intercept a pass by quarterback Russell Wilson. According to the NFL, the final pass thrown in the 2014 season was the only pass thrown from the 1-yard line during those 276 games that was intercepted.

"I think everybody was expecting run," Hightower said of Seattle's final snap of the season. "You've got Marshawn Lynch who's able to run the ball on the goal line or 1-yard line, so I think everybody figured it would be a run. But we were prepared for either way, then Malcolm made a hell of a play."

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The two defensive plays made New England's rally stand up. The Patriots trailed 24-14 entering the fourth quarter. New England became the first team in Super Bowl history to trail by at least 10 points in the second half and win. The previous 29 teams that trailed by 10 or more points entering the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl had all lost.

"This team is bend, but don't break," Hightower said in the locker room after the game. "We've been through a lot of adversity. We were able to overcome all of it. I'm proud of this team, and I appreciate each and every one of them."

Hightower's final tackle was his fifth of the game. On all five, he tackled Lynch.

Hightower played with a sore shoulder down the stretch in the regular season, sitting out the Patriots' meaningless season-ender, and throughout the playoffs. He left Sunday's game favoring his arm after Lynch's touchdown run with 2:16 left in the first half. Hightower, New England's defensive signal-caller, was back on the field as usual in the second half.

Hightower becomes a Super Bowl champion in his third season in the NFL. He's the 23rdformer Alabama standout to play in at least one Super Bowl for the winning team.

"There're no words that I can use to describe how I feel right now," Hightower said. "I don't think I have the full effect right now. But I can guarantee you that in a couple of hours, it'll be a full effect."



Hightower can add his Super Bowl ring to two BCS national championship rings the Crimson Tide earned during his collegiate career. Hightower was hurt and missed Alabama's victory over Texas in the 2009 BCS national championship game, but was a consensus All-American when the Tide shut out LSU in the 2011 BCS title game.

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Terrific analysis of the play here in:

Super Bowl Wrap-up: What Was Pete Carroll Thinking?

The Three Plays You Forgot

3. Dont’a Hightower saves the Super Bowl and nobody notices. You’ll remember that play Butler made for the rest of your life if you’re a football fan. What you probably already don’t remember, though, is what happened on the previous play. You already know that Lynch ran the ball for four yards to set up that second-and-goal situation on the 1-yard line. Do you know why he didn’t get into the end zone? Watch what no. 54 does here:






That’s an incredible play by Hightower in a spot where the margin for error is basically nil. First, he fights off a block from one of the best left tackles in football, Russell Okung. That gives him a tiny window in which to tackle Lynch, arguably the most difficult man in football to bring down, and Lynch is running away from a basically standstill Hightower at full speed. Hightower somehow manages to dive at Lynch’s knees and trip him up, with Akeem Ayers diving on a falling Lynch as the Seahawks star goes down.

If Hightower doesn’t get off Okung’s block, it’s a touchdown. If Hightower doesn’t get enough of a swat at Lynch’s knees, he either runs in for a touchdown or Ayers’s tackle drags him into the end zone. Sure, the Seahawks made the wrong call to throw the football on the next play. Seattle fans are going to spend the rest of their lives stewing over that call. As easy as it is to say the Seahawks lost this game because of their own mistakes, the Patriots had to make some incredible plays to win. Hightower’s Super Bowl–saving tackle was one of the plays that will unfairly get lost in the shuffle.

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