PATRIOTS STAGE COMEBACK OF THE CENTURY IN SUPER BOWL LI

By Liz Alper

Photo via @Patriots on Twitter

February 5, 2017 (Houston) - An NFL MVP and a four-time Super Bowl champion looking for his fifth ring and the NFL’s top offense made up Super Bowl LI.  Guess which team the MVP and the top offense were on.  Hint:  it wasn’t the Patriots.

From the get-go, it looked like a defensive battle.  The first quarter of Super Bowl LI went into the books scoreless.  Can you really call it a defensive battle if the Patriots’ defense didn’t show up until third down?  But you get my point.  No one scored.

The second quarter looked like it would be the same.  The Patriots had a pretty good drive going, until LeGarrette Blount, who was having an unusually bad game, fumbled and the ball was recovered by Atlanta.  The Falcons took over and the MVP quarterback, Matt Ryan, led the offense down the field and DeVonta Freeman ran it in for the five yard score and the first score of the game.  The Falcons led 7-0.  From then on, Atlanta ran up the score.  Austin Hooper caught a 19-yard pass to make it 14-0.  When the Patriots seemed to get their mojo back, Robert Alford intercepted a pass from Tom Brady and returned it for an 82-yard pick six and the score was 21-0.  Stephen Gostkowski did stop the bleeding for New England with a 41-yard field goal to make the score 21-3 at the half.

In the second quarter, however, things took a complete 180 degree turn.  The Falcons scored one more touchdown when Tevin Coleman caught a six-yard pass to make the score 28-3, but after that, the Falcons made a grave mistake.  Keep in mind, this is probably the worst mistake you could ever possibly make.  They underestimated Tom Brady.  They underestimated the Patriots.  And when you underestimate Tom Brady and the Patriots, bad things happen.  Very bad things.  

First off, James White caught a five-yard pass from Brady to make the score 28-9.  In the fourth quarter, Gostkowski kicked a 33-yard field goal.  28-12.  Atlanta watched their lead shrink before their eyes.  The hits kept coming.  Danny Amendola caught a six-yard pass for another touchdown.  33-19.  White ran it into the endzone for a yard.  That was the first dagger.  That tied the game at 28.  Super Bowl LI became the first Super Bowl to go to overtime.

But overtime didn’t last long and it was thanks to some great catches by Patriots receivers, but also to White, who lunged forward into the endzone to give the Patriots a 34-28 win and Brady earned his fifth Super Bowl ring in one of the greatest comebacks in not only NFL history, but sports history.  Their win gives them the largest Super Bowl comeback of all time.