Super Bowl LI: A Game for the Ages

Ah, the Super Bowl.  An American icon.  The day with the biggest parties and the most food.  The sporting event whose viewership is only exceeded on a consistent basis by the men’s World Cup Final.

This year’s Super Bowl pits two teams who are, in essence, a mirror image with one another.  Explosive offense…underrated defense.  So much so that the over/under is the highest we’ve ever had for a Super Bowl.  I’ve seen it range from 58 to 59.5.  Yet the Patriots are favored by three, so the game is expected to be close.  Prolific passers at quarterback…both of whom use short passes as weapons comparable to running the football.  Enough intros where I try to pull stats off the top of my head.  The game is about to start.

What a touching coin toss.  I’m glad President Bush (41) was healthy enough to do it.  Even though his health isn’t great, he still has a beaming smile and the twinkle in his eye.

Funny note: my friend Presley made a bet saying that he’d have to immediately go jump into a pool if the Patriots win.

First Quarter

• Granted, it was the first possession, but Atlanta very quickly showed how tough it would be for New England to run.
• Atlanta running back Devonta Freeman is GOOD, as we’ve seen all season. First play from scrimmage?  37-yard run where he juked and broke tackles.
• Please…don’t anyone say that Ryan fumbled on third down with 11:32 left in the first.
• Booming punt on the next play by Atlanta’s Matthew Bosher. 55 yards.[1]
• Atlanta sacked Brady twice on New England’s second possession. Crazy how underrated their defense is.
• Did anyone else notice that, on Atlanta’s seven-yard run to the left side by Coleman with 2:42 left in the first, that Logan Ryan was aided in his tackle by being blocked in the back?
• First quarter ended scoreless. Not surprising when one knows the first-quarter history of Super Bowls in the Brady/Belichick era: 3-0, 0-0, 0-0, 3-0, 9-0, 0-0.

Second Quarter

• Obvious fumble by Blount with 14:09 left. Big play by Atlanta, obviously, in a close game.  Plays like this tend to break the ice in such a closely-matched game.
• Julio Jones is terrifying to go against. The catch with 13:28 is one of many examples.  He jumped to catch the ball and wrestled it away from the defenders on his way to the ground.[2]
• After another great Jones catch, Freeman rattled off two outstanding runs to score the first touchdown of the game.
• New England quickly went three and out on their ensuing possession, and then Atlanta marched 62 yards (in 2:49) for their second touchdown. It was capped by a 19-yard pass to tight end Justin Hooper, who snagged the ball while Patrick Chung was committing pass interference against him.  Explosive…scary.
• On New England’s ensuing drive, they looked discombobulated and sloppy, yet still managed to keep the ball for 12 plays (plus three plays that didn’t count because of Atlanta penalties. After 6:12, Brady threw a dangerous pass into coverage that Robert Alford picked off and returned 82 yards for a touchdown.  21-0 Atlanta!  Crazy!
• New England looked more like their usual selves on the ensuing possession, but Brady did sail two passes intended for Edelman – one where he was wide open.
• On the third-to-last snap of the half, a screen pass that fullback James White took to the ten was nullified by an obvious, foolish holding penalty on Martellus Bennett. New England had to settle for a field goal.  Very uncharacteristic half by New England…but they haven’t faced as good of a team as Atlanta all season.  Atlanta, on the other hand, is clicking on all cylinders, and is definitely playing like their usual selves.  “Impressive” is an understatement.

Third Quarter

• After a New England punt, Atlanta roared to another touchdown to take a 28-3 lead. Blowout city.  There is a lingering cause for concern, though: Atlanta’s defense has been on the field for a long time.  They were on the field for all of the final 8:48 of the first half, with the exception of a PAT and a kickoff.
• To make it worse for the Atlanta defense, New England’s ensuing touchdown drive took 6:19. They’re going to lose their legs at this rate.
• Even on a touchdown, things go wrong for New England. Kicker Stephen Gostkowski clanged the extra point off the right upright for the first missed extra point in a Super Bowl since Mike Cofer’s miss for San Francisco in Super Bowl XXIV.[3]  But…if any team would blow a big lead in a championship game, it would be a team from Atlanta.  In 168 combined seasons of play (not counting the NFL season that is ending today) in the Big Four sports leagues, they have only one championship, coming when the Braves won the World Series in 1995.[4]  Will the Atlanta sports curse strike?  It doesn’t look like it.  Brady tends to pull crazy comebacks out of nowhere, but this deficit looks too big for him to overcome.

Fourth Quarter

• Atlanta’s offense quickly went three-and-out on the ensuing possession, punting on the first play of the fourth quarter. Atlanta now has an exhausted defense protecting a big lead.  Maybe the defense can force a quick three-and-out and then the offense can do a time-consuming, ball-control drive.  Wait a minute…Atlanta’s offense moves so fast that it is highly unlikely for them to do so.
• Nope…New England took 5:07 to kick a field goal and cut the lead to 28-12. And then they took 1:09 off the clock in a three-play drive and ended in a Don’t’a Hightower sack-fumble that was recovered by Allen Branch.  This is getting interesting….
• Then New England took five plays over a span of 2:28 to score a touchdown, capped off by a six-yard reception by receiver Danny Amendola on a pass from Brady, followed by the two-point conversion on a direct snap to James White that he rammed up the middle. Eight-point game.  This is REALLY interesting.  Atlanta needs a long drive that will end in at least a field goal, or this will be the biggest blown lead in Super Bowl history.  And the biggest blown fourth-quarter lead in postseason history.[5]
• Atlanta got the ball at their own 10, and two plays later, they were on the New England 49 with less than a minute gone from the clock. One play later, Julio Jones made an incredible toe-dragging catch on the right sideline for a 27-yard gain.  Wow!  Even though only 1:13 has been shaved off the clock, they should be okay.  They’re within Matt Bryant’s field goal range, and he’s been close to automatic.
• The next play was a one-yard loss on a run by Freeman toward the left end. Good for Atlanta.  Even though it was a one-yard loss, that should take close to a minute off the clock.
• Ryan was sacked for a 12-yard loss on the next play. What is Atlanta doing?  Who cares if it’s 2nd-and-11?!???  Run the ball!  Take lots of time!  Then kick a field goal if you have to!  The sack turned the potential field goal attempt into a 52-yarder, and now it makes it 3rd-and-23.  Atlanta has to pass simply to make it a more makable field goal…and to keep from giving New England a short field in case of a miss.[6]
• On the next play, Ryan completed a nine-yard pass on the left side to Mohamed Sanu, making the field goal a more-makable 43-yarder. Except that left tackle Jake Matthews was penalized for holding as he hauled a blitzing Hightower to the turf and gave Ryan time to throw.
• When Sanu was tackled by Logan Ryan, they facemasked each other. Ryan tackled him by it, and Sanu ripped Ryan’s helmet off.  Many will ask why there were no flags on the play.  That is because officials are taught to pocket their flags in that situation, talking to the players about it instead, unless the dual facemasking occurs in the course of, or the buildup to, a brawl.
• Now on 3rd-and-33, Ryan threw incomplete, bring Bosher on the field to punt, since that would have been a 62-yard field goal attempt. Edelman made a fair catch on the nine, giving New England 3:30 to go 91 yards for a chance to tie the game with a two-point conversion.  This could get REALLY interesting….
• Brady tried to make major progress on a deep lob pass toward Chris Hogan on the second play of the drive, but it fell incomplete. On the third play, he found Hogan for a 16-yard completion for a first down.  Two plays later, he found Malcolm Mitchell for an 11-yard pass for another first down…and a stopped clock, since Mitchell was pushed out-of-bounds with 2:28 left.
• On the next play, Brady threw deep up the middle toward Julian Edelman, which was batted into the air by cornerback Robert Alford. Edelman and two other defenders dove for the ball, and Edelman somehow caught it.  That looked like it hit the ground.  Here comes the replay…
• BFJIELHFLFNFREJVFNRUIORTOEIUEFRNOUWIEFCSNOHJI!!!!!!!! WHAT AN AMAZING CATCH!  It went off of the leg and then the foot of Alford, and Edelman snatched it on the ricochet, controlling it before hitting the ground!!!!  That was the best catch I’ve ever seen in my 30 years of football-watching.[7]  Wow wow wow wow WOW!!!!!!!
• Three more consecutive complete passes (20 yards, 13, and 7) set up a one-yard touchdown plunge by White. On the two-point conversion, Brady passed to Danny Amendola on the left side for the score, but there was a flag.  It turned out that Atlanta was offside.  Tie game.  Amazing!
• Given that Atlanta had no timeouts, they needed to complete deep passes along the sidelines, but it was too heavily guarded.
• New England won the toss. The way their offense has been going, they could very easily score a quick touchdown and win this thing.  After all, Brady has completed five consecutive passes – six if you count the two-point conversion.
• Holy cow! Brady completed five consecutive passes (of 6, 14, 18, -3, and 15 yards) to get to the Atlanta 25, with 11:56 left on the clock.
• James White then ran around the right end for a 10-yard gain, giving New England 1st-and-10 from the Atlanta 15.
• Brady threw incomplete toward tight end Martellus Bennett on the right side of the end zone, but De’Vondre Campbell was penalized for pass intereference, making it first and goal on the two.
• Two plays later, White ran around the right end, juked left a little bit, and dragged defenders in the end zone for the dramatic, improbable win. Did this actually happen?
• I feel like I’ll understate the win, no matter what I write.

Postgame

• Terry Bradshaw and Troy Aikman – both of whom are among the 10-15 greatest quarterbacks ever to play the game – called Tom Brady the greatest quarterback of all time.[8]
• I loved seeing commissioner Roger Goodell having to present the Lombardi trophy to Patriot owner Robert Kraft after all of the nonsense with Deflategate. And then to shake Tom Brady’s hand after the ridiculous suspension.  That was great comedy.
• Atlanta…sorry guys. Only Phoenix, San Diego, Buffalo, Cleveland, and Vancouver sports fans fully understand.  To come so close….

I had fun doing these write-ups this season.  Hopefully I can stay caught up during each week of next season.  Thanks for reading!  If you liked it, recommendations to friends are always appreciated.

Sunday, February 5, 2017, 11:45 pm MST

[1] He uncorked another boomer on his second punt.  It was also 55 yards.

[2] Every NFL receiver can catch, obviously.  There are three other key receiving abilities: leaping, strength, and blazing speed.  Most NFL receivers are great at one of those skills.  The all-stars are great at two.  The elites – like Larry Fitzgerald and Julio Jones – are great at all three.

[3] That kick was pretty much the only thing that went wrong for San Francisco in that game, which they won 55-10.  I loved that game so much.  Not only did Joe Montana (who, along with Kurt Warner and Larry Fitzgerald, is one of my three all-time favorite players) play close to flawlessly, but the Niners knocked that arrogant smirk off of John Elway’s face.  (He was more stuck up than Cam Newton.  I never have liked Elway, simply because of his arrogance.)

[4] And the Braves came close to getting two more (1991 and 1996), but they blew it due to a bullpen meltdown in Game Six and a major baserunning gaffe (Lonnie Smith stopping at second on a double to the gap) in Game Seven of 1991 and a bullpen meltdown in 1996.  And to make 1996 worse, they led two games to none with Games 3-5 at home.

[5] And the people who bet every year on overtime at 850-to-1 odds will have a handsome payday.

[6] That gasping noise everyone across the country heard at this point was the now-worried-even-though-they’re-ahead Atlanta fan base.

[7] My brother, Lyle, is a long-time (since they drafted Tedy Bruschi) Patriots fan.  I, as the longtime readers of my columns know, am a fan of the Cardinals.  Our favorite teams have been the victim of four circus catches in Super Bowls – The Helmet Catch in SB XLII, Santonio Holmes’ toe-dragging touchdown catch in SB XLIII, Mario Manningham’s diving toe-dragger in Super Bowl XLVI, and Jermaine Kearse’s flat-on-his-back catch in Super Bowl XLIX.  All but the Kearse catch ended up being a key play in the course of a game-winning drive – and the Kearse catch would have been if not for the most clutch interception in postseason history.  After the game, Lyle said that it was about time that a great catch in the Super Bowl was done by a Patriot and not by a Patriot opponent..

[8] I have a hard time giving him the nod over Montana, but I can see the logic behind the argument.  I also wonder whether I’m biased toward Montana due to him being in a three-way tie with Kurt Warner and Larry Fitzgerald as my all-time favorite player.