Falcons Suffer From The Biggest Choke Ever

The Atlanta Falcons led 28-3 in the third quarter, with all indications pointing towards a blowout Super Bowl victory over the dynasty called the New England Patriots. However, either the Falcons choked, or Tom Brady decided to solidify his crown as the greatest of all time with the largest comeback in Super Bowl history, a 34-28 victory in overtime.

This loss for Atlanta will haunt them for months to come, so severely that it wouldn’t be a surprise if they never end up watching this game. Two crucial fourth quarter decisions by Atlanta will forever haunt the franchise and will presumably be the topic of conversation on sports talk for the next week, at least, and definitely remembered for years to come for the Atlanta faithful.

The two 4th quarter plays.

New England cut the lead to 28-12 in the fourth quarter, still, an improbable deficit to overcome with 8:35 left, especially considering the trend of the game. You’d think on 3rd and 1 Matt Ryan and the Atlanta offense would call a simple run play, but nope, they decided to line up in shotgun formation and throw the ball. That resulted in Ryan getting hit by Donta Hightower which caused a fumble that the Patriots recovered. Shortly after that, they cut the score to 28-20, really making this a game.

Julio Jones did what he always does, caught a pass that no one else in the NFL can catch at New England’s 22 with 4:47 left in the game and the Falcons looked like they were ready to press the cruise button. All they needed was to run the ball a few times and kick a field goal. However, they lost a yard on a carry then on the next play Ryan got sacked by Trey Flowers. On 3rd and 23, they dropped back to pass again, on New England’s 35 and a holding penalty was called which pushed them out of field goal range.

The Patriots got the ball back with just enough time for Tom Brady to work his magic and he went 91 yards against an exhausted defense to tie the game up. Atlanta lost the coin toss and never got the ball back on offense again. The Patriots scored a touchdown in OT to win the Super Bowl.