Patriots quarterback Tom Brady has won his fair share of Super Bowls over the years, but he’s never won one like he did on Sunday night.
New England was down 28-3 in the third quarter and Brady was being knocked around by a Falcons defense that seemed to have an extra gear on the Patriots. Brady said “I got hit pretty hard” during his postgame press conference and that the first two quarters-plus was “exactly how we didn’t draw it up.”
Things turned his way from there, however. A 13-play, 75-yard drive ended with a touchdown pass to James White to get the Pats within 19 before the third quarter was out and then things got really crazy in the fourth. Brady had trouble remembering the exact sequence of events during his press conference -- “there was a lot of s--t that happened tonight” -- but he had no issues recalling Julian Edelman’s remarkable juggling catch that got the Patriots 23 key yards on the game-tying drive.
Brady noted that the Patriots have been “on the other end of a few of those catches” in past Super Bowls before calling Edelman’s catch one of the greatest of all time and remarking that he didn’t know “how the hell” the wideout caught it. Edelman did and Brady wound up with Super Bowl records for passes attempted, passes completed and passing yards in a performance for the ages.