Never has a team had a Super Bowl won so many times then conspired to lose it.
At three points, Super Bowl 51 appeared over, with each point feeling more definitive than the previous one.
First, there was Robert Alford’s gut-crushing interception return for a touchdown to give the Falcons a 21-0 lead. Early on, Atlanta looked too fast for the Patriots, and Alford painted a perfect, blurring portrait of that advantage, taking Tom Brady’s ill-advised pass to the house.
Alford jumped the route then accelerated past the outstretched, futile hands of a diving Brady, 39 years old and made to feel older by Atlanta’s vicious, lightning pass rush. It was young versus old, and the Super Bowl felt like teen spirit.
The Patriots regained their composure and looked to have a hint of momentum after scoring at the end of the half and then forcing an Atlanta three-and-out to start the third term. But that momentum was extinguished by Matt Ryan’s touchdown pass to Tevin Coleman to extend the Falcons lead to 25 points. 21-0 seemed insane – 28-3 seemed inevitable.
And then, finally, was the greatest catch that never mattered. The Super Bowl has seem some iconic passes over the past decade, whether it was David Tyree, Santonio Holmes or Mario Mannigham on the receiving end. But those passes all existed in the universe. They were improbable, but if you squinted hard enough, they were possible. The windows were narrow, but they were there.
Julio Jones had no window, no play on the ball. No way to catch it, certainly no way to bring it down inbounds. On that pass, God said ‘no’ and then Julio said ‘yes’. God backed down.
That throw may have been the single worst decision of Matt Ryan’s career (although we’ll soon arrive at another contender). There was nothing there when he threw it, and nothing there when it was in the air. And then Jones made it into something – something magnificent enough it deserved three Super Bowls. But the Falcons couldn’t even get him the one he seemed to make certain was theirs.
Even with a beyond comfortable 28-3 lead shattering into a beyond uncomfortable 28-20 lead, the game was over when Jones made that catch. With an eight-point advantage and first down at New England’s 22-yard line with 4:47 remaining, the Super Bowl was finished. Statistical models gave the Falcons a 98.1 per cent chance of winning the game at this point. All they had to do was conservatively run the ball and then set up Matt Bryant for a regulation field goal attempt to stretch the lead to 11, a lead that not even Tom Brady and Bill Belichick would be able to chase down.
But just like they did earlier in the quarter on third and 1 when they needed to run but instead called a pass play that led to the game-changing sack-turnover, the Falcons gritted their teeth and put the foot on the pedal when a pair of sunglasses and cruise control were required. There’s just something about playing the Patriots in the fourth quarter of Super Bowls that makes coaches physically unable to call running plays even when all logic dictates that they should.
Ryan took another brutal sack, one he absolutely could not take, and then a Jake Matthews holding penalty took Atlanta back to midfield. Somehow, on the biggest set of downs in franchise history, and one where they should have been content with one-yard gains or one-yard losses, the Falcons managed to move backwards 23 yards.
Entering the fourth quarter, armed with a 19-point lead, all Atlanta needed to do was not colossally screw up. Playing conservative is antithetical to Atlanta’s high-octane, explosive identity, but what was required wasn’t a paradigm shift – all that was needed was a little prudence and some sanity. It didn’t come, and what eventuated was the most colossal screw up in Super Bowl history.
People might point to Pete Carroll’s gaffe in throwing the ball from the one-yard line two years ago as just as mighty an error, but that was a single incident that still required Malcolm Butler to make one of the greatest plays of all-time. What the Falcons did was a dissertation in incompetence, a choke-job that might leave their collective oesophagus broken for decades. Only with a title, one that has eluded the franchise for all 51 years of its existence, will they be able to breathe again.
The Falcons were given gifts over and over again – whether it was LeGarrette Blount’s pivotal fumble, Brady’s shocking interception wiping out three Atlanta defensive holding penalties, Stephen Gostkowski missing an extra point, or Julio Jones bailing out Matt Ryan’s dangerous passes into traffic – and still they came away losers.
Credit to the Patriots (always, credit to the Patriots) for being good enough to punish them. The story, and the extra-terrestrial brilliance of the Patriots, is not that they were able to somehow assert their championship will and topple their opponents – it’s that once Atlanta stopped shovelling dirt on them, they were strong enough to fight their way out of the coffin and see blue sky. The Falcons were able to bury him, but they weren’t able to Kill Bill.
Tom Brady wasn’t anything other than Tom Brady. He is the greatest, and the conversation is done. Adjectives are useless. He is just Tom Brady.
It was fitting that the comeback didn’t happen with huge passing plays downfield or screens taken a mile to the end zone. It was surgical, it was methodical, it was inevitable. It was Brady.
By the end of it, nothing made sense and everything was a blur. But then you stopped, and you remembered who the architects of this completely non-chaotic chaos were. Brady and Belichick. Of course.
The game ended up being like the narrative arc of Breaking Bad – you begin with something normal (a high school teacher, a blowout win) and you end up with something that seemed impossible at the starting point (an international drug kingpin, the biggest comeback in Super Bowl history). But the richness of the journey, from knowable to unknowable, is that it’s arrived at not with any singular extravagance, but a series of rational decisions. (Well, except for the Julian Edelman catch. What the hell was that?)
The Atlanta Falcons and their irrationality, though, were the vital ingredient. Brady and Belichick are the best we’ve ever seen, but no-one, not even them, could overturn a 19-point fourth quarter Super Bowl deficit without a little help.
The Falcons, whether through nervousness or catastrophic miscalculation, gave them that help, and now they’ll go down as one of the most profound losers in the history of the NFL, a doormat for its most profound winner.
SDough
Guest
It was actually an 18- 2 lead with 11 to go, so not quite so bad. Halligan had kicked a penalty goal earlier in the game, then missed the first conversion during the comeback, then nailed the next two from the sideline. Was at the game. Happy days!
BrainsTrust
Guest
You know little about Alex Ferguson then, Ferguson got a start with nobodies not at the top. He had success with every club he coached. His greatest achievement would be winning a European title with Aberdeen.
andrew
Guest
Please. Ferguson had his choice of any player in the World when the vast majority of his opposition did not. He played teams whose entire salaries combined were less than one, maybe two of his own players. Meanwhile Bellichick has consistently won with one/two star players on 53 man rosters and the rest players he grooms. He recruits workers and smart players and turns them into winners. The Pats consistently have the highest college graduate rate among all the NFL. Bellichick recruits, develops, coaches and manages. Ferguson just managed egos.
Jeremy
Guest
I'm not actually a Falcons fan. Unfortunately I support the Jets, which also means I definitely don't consider the Patriots the good guys! Two knees then a FG, I like it.
Andrew Kitchener
Roar Guru
Phew. I was getting worried there! But seriously, not sure that in the heat of the moment anyone could properly dissect and analyse what was happening. Note the stunned and shocked Troy Aikman and Joe Buck in the FOX booth. They had as much trouble making sense of the events unfolding as anyone, and they're paid to talk through high drama.
Ryan Buckland
Expert
Brilliant synopsis Jay.
Brendo
Guest
Ferguson has the benefit of not having a salary cap to restrict his squad...
Felix
Guest
While he breathes, he has no equal.
Felix
Guest
ROC I think he was referring to how unspectacularly spectacular the comeback was, which I kind of get. It feel it was the clinical weight of possession that made it seem like no other result could have happened - that O/T coin toss win was so big. I'm a Pats supporter and sent a text to my mate at half time who was ragging on me, I told him to watch out and that Brady was just warming up the hammer - wish I had the courage at $26 live odds!
greg prichard
Guest
Didn't realise Ferguson was still coaching.
Daws
Guest
Sir Alex Ferguson might have something to say about being the best, but Belichick is definitely in the same field.
one armed scissor
Guest
Omg!!! The falcons had this in everyway possible but still lost. Its really not worth trying to explain how they lost as it still makes no sense and never really will. This coming from a Vikes fan who has seen plenty of head shaking moments (Blair Walsh last year!!!) Maybe Trump had some influence!!! Anyway, make the Falcons great again!!!
Ryan O'Connell
Expert
"The Pats comeback . . . wasn't exciting". That will do me. Hands down the funniest comment I've ever read!
no one in particular
Roar Guru
The running game worked in the first half. That opened the play action, which opened up Jones. Up by 8 with six minutes to go they should have gone back to the run. The NE defense were dropping back to cover both Jones and the play action, so they should have run the ball, eat the clock and set up a FG. Proper play calling would have put them up by 11 with about 3 to go. As much as I believe the Patriots success is on BB and not Brady, that win was on Brady. Truly great yesterday
AZ_RBB
Guest
I know it's not the same thing. But the Pats lost 2 very very tight SBs against the Giants not too long ago. I know they had the comfort of having won recent SBs but they were still tough losses. They've since bounced back to win 2 more titles. A great organization or club can bounce back from these sorts of heart break. Actually the greatest are almost always defined by how they returned from failure and adversity. If this Atlanta team want to be great they won't let this loss define them.
GFH
Roar Rookie
That game reminded me so much of Superbowl XLVII where the 49ers came roaring home with a wet sail against the Ravens and so very nearly pulled it off. Goes to show you that sometimes momentum is everything, and when the rules are set up to encourage close games - the opportunity for 2pt conversions, clock stops when ball goes out of play, 2-minute warning, use of timeouts, etc - you sometimes get these results. I feel for Atlanta. They have a nucleus of a young, dynamic team, but the mental scarring is going to take many years for them to shake off. There's a real fear that they might not ever get over the hump now - Ryan and Jones alone take up a whopping 22% of their salary cap, and they're going to start bleeding players and cap space when Ryan, Trufant and Freeman want extensions. Sometimes you need a bit of luck to win, and for three quarters yesterday they had it.
sheek
Roar Guru
Jay, You explained the defeat in your banner headline perhaps without realising it - 'The Falcons find a way to lose a championship they'd already won'. No, they hadn't won, but they were leading handsomely. That's why they lost, they thought they had already won, relaxed, took the foot off the throat & ultimately paid the price. They make movies about this sort of thing all the time. The goodie is copping a bashing from the baddie. But in a split second when the baddie thinks it's all over, that split second gives the goodie the break he needs. The hardest thing to do in sport is to get going again when the other side is full of running. The cardinal sin in sport is to relax before the final whistle/bell/siren. The Falcons players will have the rest of their lives to reflect on this truism. But they can never change the result.
andrew
Guest
At 28-3 I was seriously looking at my phone at options for twilight golf. I was contemplating leaving the game early. I can't imagine what that was like for a Falcons fan - oh wait, that's right i can because I watched the Eels blow an 18-0 lead with 10 to go. When the Pats won the toss for over time, it felt inevitable. They were not going to stop him. The defense had been on the field for so long, and the veteran GOAT was not going to let them or Goodell of the hook. For a while the inevitability seemed in favour of the Falcons with Brady missing Edelman in particular a couple of times over throwing him when open. While that last Falcon drive was brutal for Falcons fans to watch (after the Freeman run got them off to a great start and then the Jones catch), at the end of the day, the defence was on the field for over 40 minutes. That is a long time to hold the Greatest of All Time in check - even without his best target available.
Big Steve
Guest
The falcons getting knocked out of field goal range twice and then the strip sack lost them the game. That either falls on Ryan or Shanahan. Those 3 sacks lost them the game. Steve Young kept repeating it in the post game discussion you can not take those sacks. I blame Shanahan more than Ryan, his excuse that they passed cause the RB's were all out on their feet made no sense. The lost the time of possession 41 to 23 how could the running backs be too tired to run a running play. I think Shanahan wanted the glory play and got burned. It was horrifyingly inevitable. There was a whole string of events NE needed to win from mid 3rd quarter. We were talking about it during the game, needed to stop field goal, tick, needed to score TD, tick, Need 2 point, tick, need turn over, no problem, need TD, need 2 point, stop FG, win toss in OT, score TD. They don't achieve any of those single events and they lose. looking back it was over after the first 2 point conversion, that was when Atlanta thought they could lose. NE really thought they could win the whole game. Amazing.
bobbybones
Guest
Great article, great game. Was rooting for the Falcons but can't do anything but admire the Pat's comeback.