Super Bowl Review

Andrew Bulieris
Sports Editor

This year’s Super Bowl featured arguably the two best teams in the NFL, the Atlanta Falcons and the New England Patriots. The game showed off Tom Brady’s excellence as he led the Patriots back from a 28-3 deficit. The Patriots defense had the allowed the least amount of points per game all season while the Falcons offense scored the most points per game this season. Tom Brady and Bill Belicheck walked into this game looking to cement their legacy as the greatest-coach duo of all time. No quarterback or coach has ever won five Super Bowls before, and they looked to become the first to achieve the feat.

The game started off more than just slow for Brady and company, failing to put up a single touchdown all first half. On the other side Atlanta dominated all half, extending their lead to 21-0 after Robert Alford picked off Tom Brady on a rare Brady super bowl interception that he took to the house, this was thought to be a soul crushing pick six for the Patriots. Matt Ryan and the Falcons rushed and threw all over the Patriots’ defense in the first half entering halftime with a 21-3 lead. The second half was opened up by the Falcons marching down the field and stretching the lead to 28-3. Hope was beginning to be lost in New England as even some players admitted after the game that they had begun to start doubting a comeback after the fourth touchdown of the day. A twenty-five point comeback was looking near impossible at that point as the Patriots struggle to gain any momentum at any point during the game.

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But they don’t call Tom Brady the greatest quarterback to ever play the game for nothing. Brady ended the third quarter scoring leading the Pats down the field to tighten their deficit to 28-9 after a failed two-point conversion. They entered the fourth quarter with a bit of momentum on their side. The Pats defense made another stop, and then the offense scored a field goal as hope was beginning to be restored on the New England sideline. The Pats defense continued to make stop after stop as the Atlanta offense could not get anything going compared to their monstrous first half. With Atlanta deep in their own territory, Matt Ryan was strip sacked by Dont’a Hightower with the Patriots recovering with around eight minutes left in the fourth quarter. Brady threw a quick strike to Danny Amendola for a touchdown then completed a two-point conversion trick play with James White to make the score 28-20.

The turning point in the game was when Matt Ryan and the Falcons offense were able to drive deep into Patriot territory after a miraculous catch by Julio Jones on the sidelines. Matt Ryan was then sacked twice, and Atlanta was forced to punt after offensive coordinator decided to not run the ball over throwing it. Tom Brady was then given a chance to make Super Bowl history and he did just that by taking his offense down the field in three minutes completing pass after pass including an insane catch to Julian Edelman as he was surrounded by three Falcons cornerbacks. James White scored on a two yard run with fifty seven seconds left and Brady tied the game up when he connected with Danny Amendola for a two-point conversion.
 
That led to the first super bowl ever to go to overtime with the Patriots winning the coin toss. Brady went on to cement his legacy by taking the team down the field for the fourth time in a row to win the game and win his fifth super bowl ring. Brady and Belichick ultimately can now be called the greatest of all time as they are the only coach and player with five super bowl rings.