HOUSTON _ The greatest.
Super Bowl. Quarterback. Comeback.
All of it. Just the greatest.
That's what we saw Sunday night in Super Bowl LI as Tom Brady orchestrated the biggest comeback in Super Bowl history and led the Patriots to their fifth championship, a 34-28 overtime win over the Falcons in front of 70,807 at NRG Stadium.
Trailing 21-0 and 28-3, the Patriots scored 31 unanswered points in the final 21:04 of the game, including the game-winning touchdown on a 2-yard run by James White to cap the only overtime drive in Super Bowl history. White had 14 catches, a Super Bowl record, scored three touchdowns and added a two-point conversion.
The Falcons and league MVP Matt Ryan never touched the ball in overtime.
No team had ever come back from more than a 10-point deficit to win a Super Bowl, and Brady had never come back from more than a 21-point deficit in his career.
"We all brought each other back," Brady said calmly after the most breathtaking of his Super Bowl experiences. "We never felt out of it."
Brady, who set Super Bowl records with 43 completions, 62 attempts and 466 yards passing, also threw two touchdown passes. He is the first quarterback and Bill Belichick is the first coach to win five Super Bowls. Brady broke a tie with Terry Bradshaw and Joe Montana, his boyhood idol.
After nearly a decade of having to endure watching David Tyree's miraculous helmet catch against them, which spoiled a would-be perfect season and denied them the Super Bowl XLII title, the Patriots finally found their own ridiculous reception to enjoy.
On first-and 10 from the Patriots' 36, Brady threw a pass over the middle for Julian Edelman that was tipped in the air by cornerback Robert Alford. Edelman somehow, some way, was able to catch the ball just centimeters off the turf after juggling it once and fighting through a scrum of three Falcons defenders for a 23-yard gain.
Three plays later, White scored from the 1. Brady hit Danny Amendola for a two-point conversion to tie the score at 28 with 57 seconds remaining and send the Super Bowl into overtime for the first time in its 51-year history.
After trailing 21-0 and 28-3, the Patriots came roaring back. They finally found the end zone on a 5-yard pass from Brady to White with 2:06 left in the third, and Stephen Gostkowski clunked the extra-point kick off the right upright to leave the score at 28-9. A 33-yard field goal by Gostkowski made it 28-12 with 9:44 left in the game.
Still, it seemed the Falcons were in control. Until ...
Dont'a Hightower sacked Ryan and forced a fumble with 8:24 remaining in regulation to set up the Patriots at the Falcons' 25, and Brady hit Amendola for a 6-yard touchdown. White ran in a two-point conversion to make it 28-20 with 5:56 left.
The Falcons seemed poised to run out the clock even then, as Ryan responded with a short pass that Devonta Freeman turned into a gain of 39 and a 27-yard pass to Julio Jones along the sideline that seemed destined to join Tyree's and Mario Manningham's in New Englanders' nightmares. But the Falcons had to punt, giving Brady the ball at the 9 with 3:30 left.
After two incompletions, he hit Chris Hogan for 16 yards from his own end zone to kick-start the tying drive.
The Falcons had 52 seconds left and no timeouts and were unable to get in scoring position before the end of regulation.
Atlanta dominated early on both offense and defense.
After a scoreless first quarter, the Falcons turned a pair of takeaways into 14 points and took a 21-0 lead. Rookie linebacker Deion Jones stripped Blount of the ball less than a minute into the second quarter, and it was recovered by Alford. From there, the league's top-scoring offense went to work with a pair of passes to Jones for a combined 42 yards and a 5-yard touchdown run by Freeman around the left side on which he was so far away from any Pats defenders that he was able to dive into the end zone in celebration.
The Falcons forced a three-and-out before Ryan hit tight end Austin Hooper for a 19-yard touchdown with 8:48 left in the half to go ahead 14-0.
The Patriots looked as if they might be able to land some points and stop the momentum with a 15-play drive to the Falcons' 23 (helped by three defensive-holding flags that converted third downs). But on third-and-6 from that 23, Brady was picked off by Alford, who returned the pass 82 yards for the second-longest pick-6 in Super Bowl history.
That play made the score 21-0 with 2:21 left in the half. It was the first return for points against the Patriots all season and Brady's first career postseason pick-6.
The Patriots kicked a field goal with two seconds left in the half to make it 21-3, but the Falcons marched 85 yards to make it 28-3 early in the third. Taylor Gabriel's 35-yard reception over the middle after juking cornerback Malcolm Butler to the turf was the big gain on the drive, which ended with a 6-yard pass to Tevin Coleman for a touchdown with 8:31 left in the third quarter.
It was a lead that seemed impossible for the Patriots to overcome.
Which is what made it all so great.
