On February 5, Tom Brady and the New England Patriots clashed with Matt Ryan and the Atlanta Falcons in Super Bowl LI, a Super Bowl that will perhaps go down as the greatest Super Bowl of all time. After coming back from a 25-point deficit, the New England Patriots secured their fifth Super Bowl victory in absolutely thrilling fashion, with running back James White punching in the game-winning touchdown in overtime.

Coming into the game, the expectations were high for both teams. The Falcons, having never won a Super Bowl, were hungry to at last end this title drought. Their team this year, 11-5 in the regular season, rode a high octane, big-play offense to a playoff spot. Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan had a breakout season, coming in first in the league with his Quarterback Rating of 117.1 and second with his 38 passing touchdowns. If the Falcons were going to finally win a Super Bowl, it would be behind this year’s Most Valuable Player, Matt Ryan, and arguably the best wide receiver in the league, Julio Jones.

While few predicted the Falcons’ road to the Super Bowl, the Patriots had come in as a popular choice to represent the AFC even during the preseason. The championship pedigree that New England has established under Tom Brady and Bill Belicheck is astounding. Still, the Patriots came into this season with a bad taste in their mouths after a bitter playoff loss in Denver the previous year and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell’s suspension of Tom Brady for the first four weeks of the regular season. The suspension stemmed from the infamous Deflategate scandal of 2015. As Wei Xu 19’ observes, “The Patriots had to prove to everyone that they were the best in the league, and that they could still win without Brady for four games… even though Brady would eventually play in the Super Bowl, it was about sending a message to Goodell.”

The game started off in a very mild fashion; after the first quarter, the score was still 0-0. The Falcons, however, took a commanding lead in the second quarter. Atlanta running back Devonta Freeman scored first with a five-yard touchdown run, putting the Falcons up 7-0. Following a failed New England drive, Matt Ryan connected with tight end Austin Hooper for a nineteen-yard touchdown. Within minutes, the Falcons were up 14-0. However, they weren’t quite finished. With the momentum strongly on Atlanta’s side, Tom Brady threw a pick-six with less than three minutes left in the first half. By halftime, the Falcons had a comfortable 21-0 lead.

Later into the third quarter, the Patriots finally got some points on the board with a field goal, cutting their deficit to 21-3. In return, Matt Ryan threw a scoring strike to running back Tevin Coleman, expanding the lead to 25 points to start the third quarter. After a touchdown by running back James White and a Gostkowski field goal, the Patriots reduced their deficit to 28-12.

With eight minutes left in the fourth quarter, the Falcons needed to maintain their comfortable lead. However, after a Falcon fumble and Patriot recovery, New England capitalized on the opportunity with a touchdown as well as a 2-point conversion; the score was now 28-20. With under four minutes left in the game, Matt Ryan threw a beautiful pass into the faithful hands of Julio Jones, who made a diving catch while tip-toeing like a ballerina to stay in bounds. This pass put the Falcons squarely in field goal range, and looked to be perhaps the final nail in the coffin for New England. What followed, however, was a complete disaster for Atlanta.

Due to a sack and a holding penalty, the Falcons were not able to kick a field goal and gave Brady another chance at greatness. After a masterful drive, during which Brady made the Atlanta secondary look like swiss cheese, Patriot receiver Danny Amendola caught a touchdown pass from Tom Brady, as well as a 2-point conversion to tie the game. The game went into overtime, the first time ever in a Super Bowl.

Chrissie Giberna 18’, who does not particularly like Tom Brady, expressed her feelings at this point in the game: “I was pretty angry. Not only did I really want the Falcons to win, but I desperately wanted the Patriots to lose. At this point, however, I felt that the game was already decided. The Patriots had too much momentum on their side for the Falcons to win.”

On their first drive, the Patriots’ Super Bowl LI victory culminated with a James White rushing touchdown, making the greatest comeback in Super Bowl history official.