Patriots stage furious rally to stun Falcons in Super Bowl LI

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HOUSTON — Deflate this, Roger.

Tom Brady and the Patriots completed their revenge tour in unbelievable fashion Sunday night in Super Bowl LI, erasing a 25-point deficit to beat the Falcons 34-28 in overtime, the first Super Bowl to go into an extra frame and quite possibly the best ever played. It was also the largest comeback in Super Bowl history and served up a delicious ending to the season for the Patriots, who began it without their leader.

James White’s 2-yard run almost four minutes into the overtime period gave Brady and coach Bill Belichick their fifth Super Bowl championship and cemented their legacies as the best ever. Some would say the fifth ring is one for the thumb, but for the Patriots this was a ring to be worn on their middle fingers after beginning the season with Brady suspended for four games by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell for the Deflategate scandal.

“There was a lot at stake tonight,” Brady said. “We played our tails off all season to get to this point. It’s hard to win a game in the NFL. To beat this team and be down 28-3, it was just a lot of mental toughness by our team. We’re all going to remember this the rest of our life.”

It looked like it would be the upstart Falcons and their league MVP Matt Ryan who would steal the spotlight from the Patriots. The Falcons led 28-3 halfway through the third quarter and Atlanta fans were celebrating. But like every great villain from Dracula to Freddy Krueger, Brady showed he would not be killed off that easily.

Brady completed 43-of-62 passes for 466 yards and two touchdowns to earn Super Bowl MVP honors, setting up an awkward ceremony Monday morning with Goodell.

“We all brought each other back,” Brady said. “We never felt out of it. It was a tough battle. They have a great team. I give them a lot of credit. We just made a few more plays than them.”

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It was the Falcons who made the plays early. They forced two Patriots turnovers in the first half, including a pick-six from Brady. The Patriots moved the ball in the first half, but could not finish off drives. Atlanta took advantage and looked like it might roll to an easy victory. But the Falcons went 1-for-8 on third downs and had some questionable play-calling in the second half to let the Patriots back into the game.

The Patriots scored 19 points in the fourth quarter to tie the game and force the first overtime in Super Bowl history. The comeback really kicked into gear with the Patriots trailing 28-12. That was when the Patriots forced Ryan’s first mistake. It came with 8:31 left in the game. Linebacker Dont’a Hightower knocked the ball out of Ryan’s hands and Alan Branch jumped on it for the Patriots. That gave Brady the ball at the Falcons’ 25. It took him five plays to reach the end zone, finding Danny Amendola for a 6-yard touchdown with 5:56 left in the fourth quarter. White then scored a two-point conversion on a direct snap run that cut the Atlanta lead to 28-20, a one-score game. That awoke the Patriots fans, who made it sound like a home game at Gillette Stadium.

“I thought Hightower’s sack was a huge play for us,” Belichick said. “We really needed that after our two turnovers offensively in the first half. It’s hard to beat Atlanta, who is very opportunistic, when we turn the ball over like that. It was good to get one back. It was big.”

The Falcons drove down the field, getting to the Patriots’ 22 after a 39-yard pass to Devonta Freeman and a 27-yard pass play to Julio Jones, who made an amazing sideline grab. The Falcons marched backwards after getting to the 22. Trey Flowers sacked Ryan for a 12-yard loss and then a holding penalty moved them back another 10 yards, out of field-goal range. It made no sense that Atlanta was trying to throw the ball from the 22 instead of playing it safe and just taking the field goal to go up 11 points.

Atlanta had to punt the ball back to Brady and the Patriots, who took over at their own 9 with 3:30 left to play. After two incompletions, Brady connected with Chris Hogan for a 16-yard pass on third-and-10 to keep the drive going. He hit Malcolm Mitchell for an 11-yard gain, and then the Patriots made a play that will go alongside David Tyree’s helmet catch in Super Bowl lore.

Brady threw it across the middle toward Julian Edelman. Falcons cornerback Robert Alford, who had a fumble recovery and a pick-six already in this game, tipped the pass high into the air and then fell to the ground. Edelman dove for the ball, which sat on Alford’s leg for a split second and allowed Edelman to get his hands under the ball to make a fantastic, circus catch. A replay upheld the call on the field and it was a 24-yard gain to the Falcons’ 41.

“I couldn’t believe it,” Brady said. “It was one of the greatest catches. We’ve been on the other end of a few of those catches, and tonight, you know, we came up with it. It was a pretty spectacular catch. He had a hell of game.”

Brady then moved the ball another 20 yards on a pass to Amendola. He got the ball down to the 7 on a short pass to White that went for 14 yards. Another pass to White moved the ball to the 1, where White ran the ball in for a touchdown with 57 seconds left. New England lined up with five receivers for the two-point attempt. Brady threw a quick hitch pass to Amendola, who barely made it into the end zone to tie the game at 28.

The Falcons had one more possession with 52 seconds left to play, but had to punt from their own 27. New England ran a fake kneel-down play to end regulation.

In overtime, the Patriots moved down the field in eight plays against an exhausted Falcons defense. Falcons linebacker De’Vondre Campbell was flagged for pass interference while covering Patriots tight end Martellus Bennett in the end zone, giving the Patriots the ball at the 2. White ran it in from there, setting off the celebration in New England.

It capped off another chapter, maybe the greatest, in the legacy of Brady.

“He was the same as he always is, cool, calm and collected,” Amendola said. “He’s the leader, the general, the best ever and that is the end of the story.”

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