How the Patriots completed their miraculous Super Bowl comeback

The New England Patriots completed the biggest comeback in Super Bowl history after hanging 31 straight points on the Falcons and storming back from 25 points down. Every great comeback has a story, and here’s the anatomy of how it went down.

It begins with five minutes left in the fourth quarter. Atlanta was up 28-12. At this point the Falcons had a 99.6 percent chance of winning according to win probability statistics.

Atlanta began the next drive at the 27-yard line and was staring down a third-and-1 play to keep the drive alive. Instead of running the ball, Atlanta elected to try gashing New England through the air. Matt Ryan dropped back and was sacked for an 11-yard loss on a play where running back Devonta Freeman could have easily completed a chip block, but instead let Dont’a Hightower run right past him. The sack was bad enough, but Ryan fumbled the ball and set up a Patriots’ touchdown to narrow the game to a single score.

This is the drive everyone will be talking about for years to come. Atlanta set everything up and Julio Jones was nothing short of otherworldly when he caught the ball deep in Patriots’ territory.

Jones caught the ball at the Patriots’ 22-yard line. At this point, New England was down by eight points. A field goal with less than four minutes left would have given Atlanta an 11-point lead and assuredly ended the game.

However, Atlanta elected to keep throwing -- instead of simply handing off the ball and setting up an easy field goal while running the clock down. These were the three plays after Jones made his catch:

The sack on Ryan paired with the holding call flipped the field so drastically that the Falcons lost a total of 23 yards in three plays, which pushed them out of field goal range.

Don’t be confused into thinking this was all about the Falcons coughing up the game. The Patriots were absolutely on fire and nothing went wrong during their incredible comeback. This was typified by an eerily similar moment from the team’s past. David Tyree’s helmet catch in Super Bowl XLII is one of the defining moments in Super Bowl history, and one permanently etched into the minds of Patriots and Giants fans alike.

Patriots fans finally got their version, courtesy of Julian Edelman.

Granted, this came on a first down during the Patriots’ drive, but it was a 50-50 ball that could have been intercepted. An interception ends the game, a completion takes New England into Falcons’ territory and gives them a shot. It was huge.

Brady was firing on all cylinders following this play. The rest of the drive saw the Patriots’ QB go 3-for-3 for 40 yards and a touchdown, with Danny Amendola punching in the two-point conversion.

Minutes earlier, the Falcons had a 99.6 percent chance of winning, but now the collapse was on. The win probability chart shifted 61.7 percent to New England’s favor.

At this point the game felt academic. The Falcons began to play like they knew they were going to lose, and New England looked like it was going to be impossible to beat — fate agreed and gave the Patriots the ball in sudden-death overtime.

It’s tempting to focus too much on the Falcons again, but the reality of overtime is appreciating just how good the Patriots were. New England ran eight plays before winning the game, and they were almost without blemish.

Brady threw seven times, and only two were incomplete. One because of pass interference by Atlanta, the other was a mistimed throw to the end zone that almost gave Atlanta a chance to pick the ball off -- but it was just out of reach.

This was Brady’s final drive: 5-of-7, 50 yards. It took 3:58 for the drive to be over when White ran in the final touchdown. The comeback was complete, the Patriots had done the impossible -- but it never felt impossible. The game was in Atlanta’s hands, but it was wholly in Tom Brady’s control.

It was football perfection, and when it comes to the Patriots, we’ve grown accustomed to it.