Houston – It was Brady and Belichick once again hoisting up the Lombardi trophy after The New England Patriots defeated the Atlanta Falcons in the Super Bowl’s first overtime game, 34-28. The Falcons had a 28-3 lead into the second half, but the Patriots refused to believe that they were out of it.
“We knew we had to come out in the second half and play, no matter what. They were coming at us with a lot of things. We just wanted to be resilient, we wanted to be tough mentally, and we got it done.” Patriots receiver Danny Amendola said.
The Pats were anything but smooth in the first half of the game. The Atlanta defense put a beating on Tom Brady, with 5 sacks in the game and more that triple the number in hits on him. Also add a LeGarrette Blount fumble and a Tom Brady interception by Robert Alford for an 82 yard interception touchdown return to the Pats first half woes.
The Patriots still struggled into the third quarter, but they managed to hang around. By this time, the score was 28-3 and the Pats were able to score but missed the extra point when kicker Steve Gostowski ding his try off of the goal post. 28-9.
The play that opened it up for the Pat’s was a fumble by Falcon’s NFL MVP quarterback Matt Ryan. With 8:31 left in the 4th quarter, Ryan was sacked at the Atlanta 25 yard line by Dont’e Hightower. Hightower also caused a and fumble and New England recovered the ball at the Atlanta 25.
The Patriots seemed invincible from this point on. The Pats drove for 25 in 5 plays for a touchdown, making the score 28-18. They went for two with a direct run up the middle by James white to take the score to 28-20.
The Patriots kept it’s kickoffs out of the end zone and on the left side of the field, pinning kick returners to face their top-notched special teams unit. The Falcons would not start a drive from outside of their own 10 yard line for the rest of he game. The Falcons defense was no longer pressuring Brady, who picked apart the Atlanta defense at will.
With 3:30 remaining in the game, New England, starting from their own 9 yard line, drove 91 yards to bring the game to a 28-27 score. Brady threw a short pass to Danny Amandola for the two point conversion, tying the game at 28-28. The score held until the end of the fourth quarter.
New England won the coin toss for overtime and managed another drive of 8 plays for 75 yards and a James White run for the win, 34-28.
Brady and the Patriots set the rule book on fire with this game.
New England trailed by 25 points and the Patriots staged the largest comeback in Super Bowl history. It was the first Super Bowl game to go into overtime.
James White set a Super Bowl record for scoring (20 points). Tom Brady set records for Passes (62), completions (43), and passing yards (466). James White set a new record with 14 catches in the game. New England set a record for most first downs in a game by a team: (37), and most passing first downs (26). They also had the most offensive plays (93).
Tom Brady was awarded the Super Bowl MVP trophy. When the game was over, Brady fell to the ground in tears, and embraced several of his team mates, owner Robert Craft and others while sobbing.
Well deserved win, New England.
