Last Sunday Night over 100 million people tuned in to watch television’s biggest game of the year: Super Bowl LI. This year’s match up was between the New England Patriots and the Atlanta Falcons. The Patriots, who held a 14-2-0 regular season record, were the heavy favorites over the Falcons who held an 11-5-0 regular season record. Both teams had a strong offensive season leading many people to think that Super Bowl LI would be a high scoring game, and they were right.
After a scoreless first quarter, the Patriots and the Falcons were looking very evenly matched. That was until the start of the second quarter when Patriot LeGarrette Blount fumbled the ball and was picked up by Falcon Robert Alford. The Falcons would take advantage of this critical mistake by going on a 71 yard drive that would be topped off by a 5 yard run by Devonta Freeman for a touchdown.
The Patriots’ next drive would end with a 38-yard punt by Ryan Allen. The Falcons would start their drive form their 38 yard line and go on a 62 yard that would end with a pass from Matt Ryan to Austin Hooper for the touchdown, making the score Falcons 14-Patriots 0.
Hoping to make a comeback the Patriots would go on a 52-yard drive and end up on the Falcons 23 yard line when Quarterback Tom Brady threw an interception to Robert Alford which would be returned for another Falcons touchdown.
With 2:21 left on the clock and the Patriots still not on the board, things were looking pretty bleak for Bill Belichick and the Patriots. For their next drive the Patriots would stay in the shotgun formation and go on a 52-yard drive to the Falcon 23 yard line where Stephen Gostkowski would kick a 41 yard field goal 2 seconds before the half. The half ended with the Falcons leading the Patriots 21-3.
During the second half of Super Bowl LI millions of fans would witness the greatest halves in Super Bowl history. On their first drives both teams would struggle to make any progress down the field and end up punting the ball. It was on the Falcons second drive that things would start getting exciting. The Falcons would go on an 85-yard drive that would be toped of with a 6-yard pass to Tevin Coleman by Matt Ryan. Extending the Falcons lead over the Patriots to 28-3.
Behind by 25 points, no one thought the Patriots and had chance of pulling off the greatest comeback in Super Bowl history that would start with the Patriots second drive of the half. Starting on their on 25 yard line, the Patriots work their way down the field and end the drive with a touchdown pass from Tom Brady to James White. Patriot kicker Stephen Gostkowski would miss the extra point leaving the score 28-9.
The Falcons’ next drive would end in a punt and the Patriots would start their drive on their 13 yard line. For this drive Patriots would stay in the shotgun formation and make it all the way to the Falcons 15 yard line where Stephen Gostkowski would kick a 33-yard field goal, and bring the score to 28-12
On their next drive the Falcons would fumble the ball on their own 36-yard line and would get picked up by Patriot Alan Branch on the Falcons’ 25 yard line. The Patriots would take advantage of the Falcons’ mistake and drive the ball all the way to the end zone and making a successful two-point conversion. With 5:56 left in the game and the Falcons still leading 28-20, the second half of Super Bowl LI is shaping up to be quite exciting.
The Falcons lead was slowly diminishing, and with the Lombardi Trophy on the line both teams were desperate to pull out a win. In an effort to maintain their lead the Falcons started their drive on their 10 yard line and made it all the way to the Patriots’ 45 yard line before punting the ball the to the Patriots 9 yard line.
The Patriots knew that they still had a chance to tie up the game and send it into the first ever Super Bowl overtime if they could make it 91 yards down the field and into the end zone, then make another two-point conversion. Making sure to keep time on the clock the Patriots stayed in the shotgun formation and worked their way down the field to the Falcons’ 1 yard line where Running Back James White ran the ball into the end zone. With the score 28-26 the Patriots were forced to go for a two-point conversion to tie up the game, and with a pass from Tom Brady to Danny Amendola the Patriots did just that.
With the score 28-28 and 57 seconds left on the clock the Falcons had the ball on their 11 yard line. After making it 16 yards down the field and 32 seconds left on the clock the Falcons had no choice but to spike the ball and try for a “Hail Mary” to win the game. Falcons Quarter Back Matt Ryan lobbed the ball to the deep left end of the field to Austin Hooper, but the pass was incomplete forcing the Falcons to punt the ball. With only 3 second left on the clock the game went into overtime after the Patriots ran the ball for a gain of 3.
In the first ever Super Bowl overtime the Patriots won the toss and elected to receive. From there they would start on their own 25 yard line after a touchback from the Falcons kicker Matt Bosher. Staying in the shotgun formation for the remainder of their drive the Patriots would make their way down to the end zone for the final touchdown of the game, and to win Super Bowl 51.