Super Bowl LI – The best of all!
The New England Patriots, behind on the scoreboard for most of the game, playing sluggishly and without their usual rhythmic style, overcame a huge deficit in the third quarter to come back and tie the game in the last minute 28-28 forcing the first overtime in Super Bowl History.
Tom Brady, seemingly out of sync for most of the first three quarters, demonstrated why he is known as the greatest quarterback in the history of the National Football League, emphasized after the game by none other than Terry Bradshaw. . He is the only quarterback to win five Super Bowls, breaking a tie of four each with Terry Bradshaw of the 1970s Pittsburgh Steelers. He has also won four Super Bowl MVP awards, the most for any player. .
Never has a team recovered from more than ten points in the best game of all. New England entered the fourth quarter trailing 28-3, a deficit that was considered impossible to overcome, unless you’re Tom Brady and the New England Patriots: calm, confident, methodical.
Tom Brady was drafted in 2000 in the sixth round, 199th overall, out of Michigan. New England Patriots owner Robert K. Kraft now says it’s the best thing the team has ever done. I guess so with five NFL championships, Super Bowl wins, in the Bill Belichick/Tom Brady era.
The Patriots capitalized on several Atlanta game penalties and errors by scoring twenty-five unanswered points in the fourth quarter to tie the game.
New England won the coin toss, heads, and what was to be received. One had to wonder, with the momentum the Patriots had built in the closing minutes of the fourth quarter, if Atlanta would even touch the ball in overtime. They do not! New England marched down the field 75 yards in eight plays, scoring on James White’s 2-yard touchdown run. Game over.
New England’s experience in games like this proved too much for an energetic Atlanta, which, for three quarters, gave New England everything it could handle, but in the final analysis didn’t have the experience to win it. The Patriots held the ball for 40 of 60 minutes, ran more than 90 offensive plays and wore down the Falcons’ defense to the point that the fourth quarter was all New England, typical coach Belichick.
The stunned Atlanta Falcons were left in shock as the final score appeared on the boards: 34-28!
After the game, Brady was asked how he did it, how he was able to bring the Patriots back after the huge deficit. “We all brought each other back,” said Brady, the Super Bowl MVP for a record fourth time. “We never felt out of it.”
Postscript: NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, booed warmly by fans, shook hands with Brady on the sidelines after the game. Ironic considering the “Deflategate” fiasco that resulted in Brady being suspended for the first four games of the 2016 season.
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