Are not, currently. I can assure you, they were, once, part of the strategic fleet. And the B1-B redesign was for the sake of strategic operational viability; the switchover from high-altitude strike bomber to low-altitude penetration bomber, but both for the mission of putting nukes on Warsaw Pact targets.
My cite is probably still classified.
It came out of nowhere from a busted coverage, and that was all they were able to do until a late touchdown that was pretty much in garbage time.
I’m not saying it was a fluke, but it felt like it in my mind. The Patriots had tried a number of deep passes late in the game and they rarely worked (and one was intercepted). It seemed like a situation where if you keep trying, it will eventually succeed, and in that case it did. But that didn’t mean they were going to sustain it, and ultimately they did not. Which I guess does make it something of a fluke.
The game started at half an hour after midnight in my time zone, so I resolved to go to sleep like normal and then stay completely away from any media coverage and keep myself unspoiled until I could watch it this evening on delay. Here in Europe, that’s much easier to do; as long as you don’t explicitly go to any news site (where the result will be a headline), you aren’t going to be bombarded with mentions elsewhere or overhear casual conversation about it. Basically, hardly anyone cares.
There was one guy in the office breakroom today who started bringing it up (because he knows I’m originally from Seattle), but I shushed him immediately and then explained why.
I was successful in remaining unspoiled, and I just finished watching it.
And as a Seattle fan, I will agree with those above who say it’s probably the second-best Superbowl. 
The crowning achievement of my life came during the 2014 Superbowl. Just before the Broncos kicked to start the second half, I stood up and authoritatively said, “He’s [Percy Harvin] gonna run that all the way back.” And he did.
He earned his money yesterday!
He has been great since he started in Seattle. I still remember when he decided, on his own, to keep the ball and run it himself in a game when he was forced to punt from his own end zone, and he actually picked up the first down that day. Even though that video credited Pete Carroll for the play call, Pete said later that it wasn’t the play, Michael decided on his own to do that. That is my favorite Dickson moment. (I alos loved the time he picked up a blocked punt and punted it again.) But his punts to pin guys back at their own goal line are so frequent that they are just expected at this point. What happened in the Super Bowl is just what he does.
I just thought it was unusual that he was the only player on the other roster earning top money, I find that amusing.
We will see if he still is once they get through the offseason…
So the prediction
If Sam Darnold has a turnover, the Seahawks are doomed.
Turned out to be correct.
The implication was that of course he’s going to turn it over, because he chokes in big games.
I agree that the Patriots should have been more aggressive on 4th down, although it’s easy to say that with hindsight. I can certainly understand not being confident of picking up the first down with the way the Seattle D was handling things.
The Patriots were kind of caught between two strategies there. In games that are more defensive, possession of the ball is less valuable and field position is more valuable. This was certainly a defensive game (for most of it), so that suggests punting. But when you’re an underdog to win, your strategy should be to increase the variance of the game, and that suggests going for it. With the game still relatively close in the first half punting makes a lot of sense, but it seemed like the Patriots waited too long to get into gambling more.
I saw a fun stat about the game:
Bad Bunny carried the football 124.4 yards during the halftime show (according to Next Gen Stats). The Patriots as a team rushed for 79 yards the entire game.
He also carried it into the end zone, meaning he was the first to score a touchdown.
Some Canadians used to watch American channels do they could see trendier commercials. But the regulator obligated them to show Canadian commercials so Big TV could benefit from increased advertising prices. They were mostly the same old. TD Bank, fined millions of dollars for a cavalier approach to illegal laundry, had a lacklustre commercial about how they were prioritizing humans over AI. Finishing with the song “Are we human, or are we dancer” was a nice touch though.
Seattle’s best offensive player was pretty much shut down, though. Some people enjoy defensive battles. Some people enjoy supermarket sauerkraut too. I would have liked to see more successful long passes. The thing with Seattle is they still have a kicker when their offence can’t get into the end zone.
I never knew this thread was here. I wrote this at this spot of the game:
Welcome Hack ( The Ben Affleck Song )
♫ Welcome Hack
♫ Your dreams were your ticket out
♫ Welcome Hack
♫ To that same old place (where you were kicked out)
♫ Well, the names have all changed
♫ Since you hung around
♫ But those memes have remained
♫ And they’ve turned around
♫ Who’d have thought you’d face-pout
(♫ Who’d have thought you’d face-pout)
♫ About a 12 to Nothing shut out?
(♫ About a 12 to Nothing shut out?)
♫ Yeah, we tease you a lot
(♫ Maybe DD will sell you Pot? )
♫ Welcome back
Not quite, but the 2017 Super Bowl comes to mind.
But then again, Tom Brady wasn’t walking through that door.
The Patriots did score 19 unanswered points in the 4th quarter to tie up the game, but they had 9 points already at that point. They hadn’t been shut out. They weren’t even shut out in the first half; they were down a lot at half time, at 21-3. But they did score.
Fun fact… Every team that was shut out in the first half lost the Super Bowl. (That’s just one of those weird stats, it’s not like you can’t win a football game after being shut out in the first half. It just has not happened in the Super Bowl yet.)
That stat is now 0-15.
At 19-0, I sent a message to my tennis group chat “It’s Brady time!” and found that Patriots fans have no sense of humor (I’m in New England). I copped a whole bunch of abusive emojis and spelled out swear words.
Random stats quibble, I’m seeing some conflicting figures, was the Nwosu touchdown ruled a fumble or interception? Because it looks like Maye’s arm was moving forward, which should have made it a pass attempt and therefore INT. Not that it matters much.
The stats seem to show that Maye threw 2 Ints and Nwosu is listed as having made 1 Int. You could say that Maye threw 3 touchdown passes for a net score of 6 points.
I believe that it was originally ruled a fumble on the field, but was re-evaluated and ruled an interception shortly thereafter. I remember the announcers mentioning that a couple of minutes after the play.
Thanks. I was in a loud restaurant and couldn’t hear.