By now everyone knows the story: With under 30 seconds to go and the Patriots about to lose in heartbreaking fashion, Malcolm Butler jumped the 2nd & Goal route, and made an impressive interception to win the Super Bowl for the Patriots. The Seahawks were in a Stack formation and ran a pick play with a slant route coming underneath the pick. The Patriots were in man-to-man coverage and had Brandon Browner jam front Seahawk Wideout Jermaine Kearse:

Butler attacked and drove hard downhill to make the interception. After the game, he eluded to the fact that his decisiveness in going for the interception was based on him anticipating the route combination/pick play from film study. He also said he had been beaten by the route in practice during that week.

Of course Butler’s efforts would have been for naught if it weren’t for Brandon Browner’s impressive jam on Jermaine Kearse. Browner likely had some extra insight as a former Seahawk, but Browner said he hadn’t actually seen the pick play from a stack formation.

With that in mind, I reviewed the last 12 weeks of Seattle’s season to get a better idea of what Butler would have watched prior to the game in order to react so instinctively to what he saw. I compiled any passing play with either a stack formation or a Wide Receiver running a slant or drag underneath another Wide Receiver:

The question is how many undrafted rookie free agents playing in the crucial final seconds of the Super Bowl would have studied enough to know what Seattle liked to run out of the Stack formation/Short Yardage, been able to recall enough of the film study exactly when needed, AND been decisive enough to go all out for the interception. The lesson? Film study pays off: it might make you famous one day.