New England Patriots, 34 Atlanta Falcons, 28
For five decades across American backyards, high school football fields, outfields, parks, living rooms, everywhere- kids with footballs and imaginations have set the scene "(insert your name) has led a 20 point comeback, now it's overtime of the Super Bowl - this is it". It is the American Football dream, a major comeback in the Super Bowl. For 50 super bowls there have been many legendary and historic performances, suspenseful close games and nail-biting comeback attempts but there had been no significant 10+ point successful comebacks, no true movie magic moments or cinderella stories.
And for it to finally happen for a team winning their 5th Super Bowl in 16 years?
28-3 will go down as a restricted number sequence in Atlanta. That is the score the Falcons led by after a walk-in 6 yard TD reception by RB Tevin Coleman from red-hot NFL MVP QB Matt Ryan with 8:31 to play in the 3rd quarter. The big story was taking shape- the most impressive offensive playoff performance of all time- 3 games of scoring almost at will. At the point, the Falcons had spent 10+ playoff quarters scoring 98 points and dicing defenses for 1,203 yards. Tributes to Matt Ryan and his slew of weapons were writing themselves.
There was no room for error for QB Tom Brady and the Patriots and so... there were none. They responded to the 28-3 deficit with a crisp, efficient 13-play, 6-minute drive resulting in a RB James White touchdown. The Falcons went 3-and-out, a FG for the Pats, a forced fumble by LB D'Onta Hightower, a short field Brady-to-WR Danny Amendola TD and suddenly the Patriots were only down 20-28 with 6 minutes to play in the 2017 NFL Season.
This was the test that the rolling Atlanta offense had not had. Starting from their own 10, they began to the move the ball for the first time since the Coleman TD. A 39-yard screen pass to RB DaVonta Freeman and one of the greatest catches is Super Bowl history a 27-yard high point, toe-tap sideline catch to WR Julio Jones at the 22 yard line. Now within field goal range, the Falcons went for the kill and were sacked for 12 yards, followed by a 10-yard holding call and had to punt.
Focus shifted back to Brady with 3:30 left, down by 8. He led a 10-play, 90-yard drive, highlighted by a circus gravity-defying floor catch by WR Julian Edelman (perhaps some of the 2007 helmet catch karma finally came around to New England?) The topper was a RB James White 1-yard TD and 2-pt conversion to Amendola to tie the game at 28 and create the first ever Super Bowl Overtime.
The Patriots won the toss, and the result seemed inevitable. In four minutes, Brady and the momentum-heavy Pats had driven to the 2-yard line and RB James White ran his 3rd touchdown of the game, capping the greatest comeback in Super Bowl history for the underdog comeback kids, the cinderella story... I refer of course to the 5-time Super Bowl Champions.
KEY PLAY : The Falcons offense had their heroic moment with Julio Jones' 27-yard epic catch to the 22. The following play ended up turning the game, a sack for a loss of 12 yards. The Falcons went into shotgun to stay aggressive but DT Tre Flowers bull rushed up the middle and interrupted a slow developing roll out. The holding call on the next play would play a -10 yard factor as well but these two plays combined to rob the Falcons of a game-sealing field goal and forced the punt. They then watched Brady drive two scoring drives from the sideline.
MVP: Popular aesthetic backlash is shifting towards RB James White because he scored 3 touchdowns and the media coverage focused so thoroughly and comprehensively on Brady. The true fact of the matter is that Tom Brady deserves this MVP award. Brady helmed three critical do-or-die TD drives worthy of the best of Joe Montana. The desperately calm 3rd quarter response drive to the Coleman touchdown, the 3 minute final drive of regulation and 2-pt conversion to tie and the OT drive to seal the game and keep the Falcons offense from touching the ball in OT. 241 yards of pressure cooker Super Bowl-deciding drives all handled by the 5-time Champion and deserving MVP QB Tom Brady.
