Patriots Source Trolls Pete Carroll While Watching USC-Texas Replay on ESPN

Needing a play to stop Vince Young's cascading momentum, up 38-33 late in the fourth, Pete Carroll and his 2006 USC Trojans went to the ground game. It cost him; Lendale White, the ballcarrier, was unceremoniously stuffed, leading to another heroic two-minute drive from Young to capture glory in Pasadena.

It appears, with our hindsight glasses firmly strapped on, that Carroll learned all the wrong lessons from this pivotal play.

With the game top of mind thanks to ESPN's rebroadcast on Thursday night, one Patriots source reached out to reporter Pete Thamel, realizing exactly how much the future was being written on that early 2006 evening.

Yup. Already burned once on the big stage in the so-called greatest college football game of all time, Carroll needed just a yard and couldn't get it with his bruiser back.

Given a re-do in perhaps the only situation bigger, the goal line of the Super Bowl nine years later, Carroll went with the exact opposite maneuver, and still got burnt -- this time, at least, by an outright spectacular play and a testament to Bill Belichick's preparation.

If Carroll ever needs one yard again in a title game, where does he go? Fake punt?