(Editor’s note: One of the biggest challenges – and headaches – for a reporter is trying to write a story on deadline before the final outcome is known. This happens, for example, during late meetings, when the vote won’t happen until close to press time; crime and fire stories, when details are coming in slowly throughout the night; and sporting events, such as Sunday’s Super Bowl. Like most who watched the game, Tim O’Sullivan, the Monitor’s sports editor, was pretty sure the Patriots were on their way to another heart-breaking loss. He had a job to do, and so he started crafting a column based on the most likely outcome. This is the article Monitor readers would have seen on Monday morning had the most amazing comeback in Super Bowl history never taken place.)
That wasn’t supposed to happen. The plan, at least here in New England, was for Sunday’s Super Bowl LI to be part coronation and part retribution for the Patriots. Instead, the (insert final score) loss to the Atlanta Falcons was all disaster.
The game was supposed to end in the fifth title for the Patriots, the championship that cemented their status as the greatest dynasty in NFL history. As a bonus, it was also supposed to be a final serving of revenge to Roger Goodell, the commissioner who suspended Tom Brady for the first four games of the season but was supposed to hand him the Lombardi Trophy after the game.
That plan, however, was foiled before it began.
When the game started, Brady became the only player to ever suit up for seven Super Bowls. The rest of New England’s lineup was loaded with guys who had played in the big game just two years ago when the Patriots beat Seattle, 28-24. The Falcons were, for the most part, Super Bowl virgins.
That experience was supposed to be a tangible advantage for the Pats. They were supposed to have an early edge, gain a quick lead and put pressure on the wide-eyed Falcons. It never materialized.
Instead of being blinded by football’s brightest lights, Atlanta quarterback Matt Ryan basked in them. Ryan, who honed his skills at Boston College, opened the game completing his first seven passes. The seventh was a 19-yard touchdown pass to tight end Austin Hooper that gave the Falcons a 14-0 lead with 8:55 left in the second quarter.
The Patriots had never faced a 14-point deficit in a Super Bowl. No team had ever come back from more than 10 points down to win a Super Bowl.
Things looked bleak, and then they got worse.
Three holding penalties on Atlanta on three straight third downs pushed Brady, the Pats and their 14-point deficit down the field. They made it to the Falcons’ 23 yard line and a ship-righting, momentum-tying touchdown felt imminent.
But on the drive’s fourth down, there was no holding penalty to help the stumbling Patriots. There was only Brady looking like the inexperienced quarterback as he tried to force a pass between two defenders.
In some games, Atlanta’s Robert Alford might have tipped that ball instead of intercepting it, and the tip may have fallen to the intended receiver, Danny Amendola. In some games, Alford drops it. In some games, he intercepts it but falls down in the process, giving Atlanta the ball back deep in New England territory.
But not in this game.
In this game, Alford caught it cleanly and dashed 82 yards in the other direction, leaving Brady and the Patriots in his wake. In this game, the bounces belonged to the Falcons.
When Atlanta’s Deion Jones smartly pulled the ball from LeGarrette Blount’s arms early in the second quarter, the football came out before Blount’s knee touched the ground. The fumble spun into a crowd, but it was the Falcons who wound up with the ball and then turned it around for the game’s first touchdown.
Make no mistake, Atlanta earned the break, but the circumstances did fall nicely into place for the Falcons. Just as they did on the second touchdown. New England’s Patrick Chung had a chance to intercept a ball in front of Hooper, but Chung couldn’t make the pick. On the next play, Hooper caught that 19-yard touchdown in front of … Chung.
When the Patriots were on the verge of a touchdown at the end of the first half, a holding penalty turned it into a field goal. When it looked like they might cut into the lead on the first drive of the second half, a pair of dropped passes stalled things. When they finally found the end zone late in the third quarter, they missed the extra point.
Whether those were bad breaks or poor execution (it was, as is usually the case in football, a combination of the two), the results were the same. New England’s coronation and retribution plans were in shambles.
Just reaching the Super Bowl was a measure of revenge for the Patriots and their fans against Goodell. The commissioner squirmed and squealed when he was confronted by anyone from New England during the last two weeks.
Just reaching this Super Bowl may have also been enough to push the Patriots over the top in the Greatest Of All Time discussion. Not only has Brady played in more Super Bowls than any other player, New England’s Bill Belichick has now been head coach in seven of them, the most of all time.
There’s also all the non-Super Bowl accolades on the Brady and Belichick resume. Brady ranks first in postseason wins with 24. Joe Montana, the quarterback who most believe is Brady’s chief competition for the G.O.A.T. title, is second with 16. Brady also ranks first in career postseason passing yards with 8,628 (not including Super Bowl LI). Peyton Manning is second with 7,339.
Belichick is the all-time leader for coaches in postseason wins with 25, which is five more than second-place Tom Landry and more than double the next best active coach (Kansas City’s Andy Reid with 11).
But the Brady/Belichick combo is now 4-3 in Super Bowls.
(Reporter’s note: This is when Dont’a Hightower came up with the strip sack and I stopped writing this column, began paying closer attention to the game and started writing the winning column in a different file.)