(Gainesville, Ga) Thousands of people packed into the Texas stadium for the last football game of the season where the New England Patriots would take on the Atlanta Falcons. Country singer, Luke Bryan, sang the National Anthem before kickoff around 6:30 pm The coin toss followed the singing of the National Anthem. Patriots called heads but when former President George Bush Sr. tossed the coin it fell tails up giving the Falcons the choice to choose whether to kick or receive first.
In the first quarter neither offensive team was successful. It wasn’t until the second quarter when Falcons running back, Devonta Freeman, got the first touchdown by running it into the end zone. The Falcons held the lead for the first half of the game. After the running game deemed successful the Falcons switched up the offensive play through quarterback Matt Ryan.
“The Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan began to lose his nervousness after the first quarter where Falcons were only running the ball. Now he is more confident in passing the ball in the second quarter.” stated Falcons fan Taylor Stubbs.
Throughout the first quarter Patriots Wide Receiver Jullian Edelman was getting all of the Patriots yards. After noticing Edelman as a threat, the Falcons defensive coordinator Richard Smith started putting double coverage on him in the second quarter which successfully stopped Edelman’s dominance as the Patriots top receiver in the first quarter. After stopping Edelman, the Falcons defense stepped up in the second quarter but their defensive penalties were continuously giving the Patriots free yards and first downs.
The Patriots caught back up at the end of third and beginning of fourth quarter with a crucial touchdown catch made by Amendola. With five minutes left in the 4th quarter, Matt Ryan passes to Julio Jones for a potential game winning touchdown, but the next play Matt Ryan was sacked for a loss of 13 yds.
Two penalties in the 4th quarter cost the Falcons 20 negative yards which took them out of field goal range and helped the Patriots gain a position to tie the game as the Falcons barely held onto an 8 point lead.
Patriots’ Edelman intercepted Matt Ryan’s pass in the 4th quarter. This tied up the game 28 to 28 with 30 seconds left on the clock. The Falcons and Patriots made a first in Super Bowl history by going into overtime! After a few plays in overtime, the Patriots made the last touchdown of the night ending the game at 34 to 28 and becoming the champions of Super LI.
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