Falcons Blow Large Lead in Super Bowl 51

by Brigham Williams and Foster Jensen

The New England Patriots defeated the Atlanta Falcons 34-28 in Super Bowl 51. With the win the Patriots completed the biggest comeback in Super Bowl history after being down 28-3 early in the game.

The Falcons dominated the first half scoring 21 points in two quarters before the Patriots kicked a field goal at the end of the half. Patriots quarterback Tom Brady struggled throwing a pick-six late in the first half.

“The pick-six was my favorite part of the game,” Senior Brayden Robinson said.

The third quarter the Falcons got an early score taking a 28-3 lead. At this point, it looked like it was going to be a blow out Super Bowl with the Patriots having less than a 1 percent chance of winning. The Patriots ended the quarter with a touchdown but kicker, Stephen Gostkowski, missed the extra point.

No one had come back from a deficit that big in the Super Bowl, in fact the largest comeback in the Super Bowl is 10 points. So victory for the Patriots seemed impossible but Tom Brady had other plans.

“The turning point in the game, I think was when the Falcons had the ball on the 20 yard line, and instead of running the ball they decided to throw and had a holding penalty and took a sack,” Senior Zeke Birch said.

With the Falcons recovering an onside kick and getting the ball to 20 yard line. Easily in field goal range they threw the ball getting sacked and picking up holding penalties. It eventually got to 4 and 33 and out of field goal range forcing them to punt the ball.

After the Patriots scored, the game went into overtime and they had a game winning drive of their first possession. With the win, Tom Brady became the first player in NFL history to win 5 championships with the same team.