Ladies and gentlemen, Super Bowl LI is now in the books, it lived up to the hype surrounding it and was even historic.
After Luke Bryan’s rendition of the National Anthem, both teams were ready to get things started. The determination to bring the Lombardi trophy to Atlanta definitely showed in the beginning minutes of the game. The Falcons defense looked like they were out for blood, flying around the field and hitting everyone and anyone as hard as possible. And after a scoreless first quarter from both teams, the Falcons offense decided to show up and put the game’s first points on the board with a 5-yard touchdown run from Devonta Freeman. That touchdown sparked a string of 21 unanswered points, which included a 19-yard touchdown pass from Matt Ryan to rookie Austin Hooper and a 82-yard interception return by Robert Alford. The Patriots managed to score their first point on a late first half field goal from 41 yards out.
With the meme of a halftime show over, both teams came out of the locker room ready to wrap this game up.
The Falcons’ first score of the second half came on a 6-yard pass from Ryan to Tevin Coleman, giving them a 25-point lead. Six and a half minutes later the Patriots were finally able to score their first touchdown of the game on a 5-yard pass from Tom Brady to James White; dropping the deficit down to 19 points after a missed extra point.
From that point on it was the Tom Brady Show starring the Patriots. A 33-yard field goal started the scoring for the Pats in the final quarter. Four minutes later, the Patriots were back into the endzone this time by way of a 6-yard touchdown pass from Brady to Danny Amendola. New England looked like they were going to make the greatest comeback in Super Bowl history … and they did; with 57 seconds left on the clock James White, the former fourth round pick out of Wisconsin, scored the touchdown that would lead to the two-point conversion that would tie the game.
When all was said and done the Patriots had put up 25 unanswered points, tied the game and forced the first overtime in the history of the Super Bowl.
The Atlanta Falcons, the highest scoring team in the NFL this year, were held scoreless for 23 and a half minutes leading up to the fifth quarter of football that was about to be played in Houston. And, their scoreless drought would continue as Matt Ryan and the Falcon offense didn’t even touch the field during overtime due to the heroics of James White, who scored the game winning touchdown from two yards out.
The game itself was just oozing with history from both sides. For New England, Brady and Belichick are the first quarterback-head coach tandem to win five Super Bowls. As for the team as a whole, the Patriots have now hoisted a record setting nine Lombardi Trophies. As for the Falcons it was nothing, but bad history, MVP Matt Ryan was the eighth player to be named MVP and lose the Super Bowl. And, with this loss it has now been 166 seasons or 22 years without a championship for the city of Atlanta.
Many people will rejoice with the Patriots on their win and others will say that they didn’t deserve it, but at the end of the day the New England Patriots are the new Super Bowl Champions.