NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - Super Bowl LI recap

Episode Date: February 6, 2017

A room filled with heroes – Dan Hanzus, Marc Sessler, Chris Wesseling, Gregg Rosenthal & Kevin Patra – recap all the action from Super Bowl LI which included the largest comeback & first ever overtime game in Super Bowl history as Tom Brady and the Patriots erased a 25 point deficit take home their 5th Super Bowl ring. Plus, the heroes discuss where this Falcons loss ranks in NFL history, and what the future looks like in Atlanta.Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comNFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. The Around the NFL podcast is about to blow your mind. Welcome back to another edition of the Around the NFL podcast. My name is Dan Hansis and I am joined by a room filled with heroes. Mark Sessler, Chris Wessling, Kevin Patra, and Greg Rosethal. What's up, boys? Hey, Dan. Oh, Greg.

Here we are. Why do I have to be the focus? Oh, why do you have to be the focus? Because we are all living on your throne of ease right now as the cherubs circle you. Never has the nectar, Mark, tasted this sweet after maybe the definitive Patriots victory in the Bill Belichick, Tom Brady era, a 3428 overtime win. The biggest comeback in the history of the Super Bowl, the biggest comeback in the history of the Super Bowl, the biggest comeback in the history of the Patriots, period, a game that was 28 to 3, midway through the third quarter. Greg, I mean, this would be the good talent to retire as a fan because it will never get better

than this. Five rings. Yeah, I'm done. I'm done. I'm retiring. I mean, it was a little, it was almost too much last. Mark Wahlberg retired in the third quarter, by the way. He left the game.

Reprehensible. We should all be flying high here. You know, I know you maybe had different rooting interests here, but we all love football. It's 140 in the morning. we're all a little loopy and if you like football even a little bit or if you like sports even a little bit to watch one of the greatest if not you know i would say the greatest ever to do it to make a 25 point comeback in the super bowl and witness that live i mean we we were all writing our stories we everyone thought the game was over it was almost like the beginning of the

comeback snuck up on on us at the stadium because you know we're in we're in work mode we're almost in post-game mode at that point when it's 28 to 3, when it's 28 to 9. Absolutely. I mean, we were discussing back with our editors in L.A. Story ideas. I was about 700 words into a feature about how the Patriots defense had utterly collapsed against the Falcons. But then they started to make one big play and one big stop and then a turnover happened.

I thought, this story is crumbling before my eyes. By the way, this, Mark, you're the king of prewriting things. And sometimes it leads to you getting a little angry in the newsroom during the season. That's fair. Can this be, can this Super Bowl 51 collapse for the Falcons be the thing that finally gets you off writing stories in the middle of a game? Well, as is often the case, I was assigned this story. So I thought I'm going to get this thing in before deadline. But it is a fair point.

I am never going to write again before something is, you know, the game is done. Tonight was the lesson. Wes, you carry that water up and down the hill for the Patriots. So this has to be sweet for you as well. Well, it is because I am a huge fan of people who are great at their jobs, and Bill Belichick is the greatest coach in the most sophisticated era of football. Tom Brady, look at the numbers. He is the only quarterback in history to have over 500 record

in games in which he's throwing the ball 50 or more times, and he's 18 and 9 in those games. No one else is even close. He's also got easily the best record in games in which his defense has allowed 21 or more points. I think he's put so much distance between himself and any other quarterback now. What do you think, Patrick? Yes.

We have a microphone situation here now where Wes is sharing with Patrick. So Patrick can chime in whenever he feels he has a hot take. But really, Patrick, are you in the camp that think a lot of people are now, myself included, even as it pains me to say it, that this stamps Brady. If you kind of were on the fence before, a fifth title. He's going to have all the individual records if he plays another three to five years and the nature by which he pulled it off this time. He's the best. I was already in the camp that he was already the best.

I don't think he needed a fifth Super Bowl to prove that. If anybody who needed that, good for you. But I thought the way he came out of the gate kind of shaking in the first quarter. Then his wider receivers had some drops. But then he just like flipped a switch in the second half. And it was like, it was over. And that's his greatness right there. I think people had previously said he,

didn't play that great in Super Bowls, and I think he shut that that argument up right there in his second half. Just think that in two of the last three years, he came back from 10 points down, which at the time tied the biggest comeback in Super Bowl history, definitely the biggest, you know, two-touchdown fourth quarter comeback in Super Bowl history against the greatest defense of his era. Then two years later, he comes back from 28 to 3 against, you know, one of the greatest offenses that we see. And he got a lot of help along the weight. The Patriots scored on their last five possessions, if you don't count, you know, basically the kneel down at the end of regulation.

And the Patriots defense prevented the Falcons from scoring on their last four possessions. So as great as Brady was, the Patriots defense in the second half, limiting them to seven points on six possessions against that offense, you know, deserves a huge. part of the credit. He doesn't get mentioned, you know, he doesn't get puffed up as this big comeback king, if not for Trey Flowers and Dante Hightower and Matt

Patricia and all of them. Two quick losers from the evening. One would be everyone out there that wants to create the clickbait off-season article about who's the best quarterback. That debate is over. Number two, me, because for the second Super Bowl show in a row, I cannot

see Greg because there is a massive obstruction between me and Greg. I'm just hearing his voice. This is what he looks very self-satisfied. Oh, please. This is a big moment for you, Greg. I'm being honest. Let's hear what Tom Brady had to say after the game talking about really, and I want to get

to something about the Falcons in a second, but Brady's thoughts on the comeback. Coach talks about you never know which play it's going to be in the Super Bowl. And there was probably 30 of them tonight that any one of those would have been different. The outcome could have been different. But I'm so proud of our guys. our coaches, the team. It's unbelievable what these guys have accomplished all season. I'm just proud to be a part of this great group.

And Brady's right because this to me, there are two stories here. One is the Patriots, you know, I hate it. We've got to give them credit. One of the all-time comebacks, maybe the greatest comeback ever in the history of the NFL. But this was also to me, and I hate to say it, the biggest choke job in the history of the NFL, because the Falcons had to go way out of their way to find a way to lose this game up 25 with maybe 20 game minutes to play. And, you know, that stinks and what we can get into it later,

what the scene was down by the locker room. But what Brady said there is absolutely true. And it reminded me of the Packers Seahawks NFC title game from a couple years ago. And the Packers, and I remember writing a post about it, they had to eight things that they could have done if they got one of them, they would have won that game against the Seahawks and got into the Super Bowl to face the Patriots and every single thing they failed to execute Wes. And there you go.

The same thing happened here with the Falcons. So many plays in this game, whether it was getting into field goal range after Julio Jones made that acrobatic catch in the fourth quarter or after recovering the onside kick or after this or after that and every time they failed. Yeah, I kind of look at. it differently. I really think that they earned, the Patriots earned this one more than they earned the Seattle one. I feel like they were a little luckier in Seattle that that play call

happened. This one, I'm not a good enough play manager to second guess guys when they're, in the heat of the moment, when they're calling a pass instead of a run with five minutes left or whatever. I'm not that good at it, so I don't go there. I don't go to that territory. A lot of things did happen. I thought the Falcons played really well for 40 minutes. And I'm not going to think of this. I'm not going to look back and say this was a bad Falcons team or they should be disappointed. Oh, certainly not. They're not a bad Falcon team, but they will go down in infamy as the team that blew a 25-point lead in the second half.

And they did it all credit to the Patriots, but it does not happen if the Falcons disappear, including that historic offense when they needed them the most. But there aren't the – you know, I was thinking about doing a post similar to the one you did a few years ago, like the things the Falcons did wrong. And you know what? There's not hugely memorable gaffes. Most of the mistakes that you can come up with, let's say Matt Ryan kind of runs into that tray flower sack. You know, Kyle Shanahan calls a pass there. Most of them were the Patriots making those plays.

Because Kyle Shanahan was lauded three plays earlier for going aggressive and throwing the ball in that situation. And something Logan Ryan said to me stood out, and I think he was right. He said, we thought we were playing pretty well in the first half. of the plays they're making against us were great plays. Like the Falcons played a great first half. And I think the Patriots, most of the plays that they made weren't about Atlanta failing.

It was more about the Patriots making some hate. If anything, Atlanta's defense, which I think we all agreed was the weak spot in this matchup and one that could have allowed New England to win, you know, potentially by more than in a close game. They overachieve for so much of this game. and it looked like New England was completely asleep at the wheel on offense in the first half. I couldn't get a handle on what they were trying to do. I did not believe in the James White experiment out of the gate.

And the Patriots kind of proved all that wash of negativity that was on Twitter about what they were doing. They proved it wrong. All right. So that is the setup. And I think now a good thing for us all to do is kind of go through the game. And Mark, you said it on the way back. We were taking a car to get to the station here at the station here. at 790 a.m. sports talk in Houston that you almost have to rewatch this game to truly

comprehend what happened, especially we were about 500 yards up in an auxiliary press box at Energy Stadium. I have vertigo from being up there. But let's go through the game and see how it got to where it was. Like I said, 34 to 28. And Greg, we'll start in the first quarter. Everyone predicted a shootout or something close to it. And what happens? The Patriots get the ball first. They don't go anywhere. The Falcons, they don't go anywhere in their first possession, ending a streak of eight straight games without scores. And nothing happened in the first quarter at all. No score. And that's something no one predicted going into this game. No, I thought the Patriots defense had really blown an opportunity that they had stopped Atlanta twice

and they didn't take advantage of it. Like even thinking, you know, I'm thinking it back to it now off the top of my head, like, what happened in the first quarter? It's like, that's the type of thing I need to re-watch it to even remember. I mean, there were a few key plays that the Patriots didn't pick up a third and one. Like, the defenses weren't that bad in this game despite the score. Well, the first five drives were four punts and a fumble. I mean, it was, and the stat kept popping up that with Brady and the Super Bowl, they've never scored a touchdown in the first quarter.

I didn't think that would be the case in this game, not for the Falcons either. It was a very surprising opening stage. So this game goes punt, punt, punt. Then the Patriots make some progress. They move the ball down the field. But LaGarrett Blunt then fumbles the ball, Chris Wesleying. And what happens? The Falcons use a little bit of tempo, speed things up, change the pace on the Patriots who really weren't, clearly weren't ready for it. Five plays 71 yards capped by a five-yard touchdown run by Devanta Freeman. They'll hand it to Freeman inside.

Devante starts out. Wide left hill score standing into the end zone. He took a big leap. And Atlanta has grabbed the lead in Super Bowl 51. And West, this is when that speed of Atlanta really started to show itself. And you start to think to yourself, oh, New England might be in trouble here. I have my lead written. It was all based on the Falcons being head and shoulders above the Patriots in athleticism and speed.

and Dion Jones was playing like a man possessed in the first quarter. He made that strip happen on Legerick Blunt. And that was a huge play in the game. The Patriots had a chance to take control. That was at least a 10-point swing, if not more. In the, like, Julio Jones, I was ready. One thing I wanted to write was like, it was kind of great. Even though his numbers weren't insane, every catch that Julio Jones made was bananas.

Like, it was the best receiver of his era. making his best plays on the biggest stage. And it was cool to see. And Matt Ryan watching him live, one of the things that you appreciate, he's throwing the ball like seconds before these guys break on their routes, the anticipation and the continuity

and just the synchronicity between, you know, Ryan and Jones is just an amazing thing to see. And it was taking plays like that to beat good coverage from the Patriots. That was one of the things that was fun being in the stadium watching this. because you got a real good gauge.

Tom Brady as well, just his arm strength and some of the throws that maybe you don't fully appreciate on television and see the way they throw it across the field and how Tyler Palco is not making that throw, let alone, you know, Ryan Fitzpatrick types. You have to be a special type of guy. So then the Patriots get the ball back, three and out.

They go three and out. The Falcons get the ball, and they go down the field again. And this is when now Greg's getting nervous Greg's like, wait a second. They got the ball back. Five plays 62 yards. And this time, Matt Ryan was gunning for the end zone.

Ryan takes the snap. New England, going to bring some pressure. Matt going to reset throw for Hooper. He caught it. Touchdown Atlanta. And Matt Ryan absolutely shot a laser in there to the rookie. Patro, what are you thinking at this stage? Well, my first thought at that time was that was a hell of a throw.

Nice. Nice self- beeping there. I like that. To Greg's point, that was, I mean, it was anticipation he had went to Hooper the play before and you could tell they were trying to pick on Patrick Chung and Roe. And I just thought, well, this is where the Falcons were stopped early, kind of had jittery sense to them, and then they were just going to roll on from there on out. Well, you know what I was thinking?

One of the big winners of the night at that point, the hidden figure segment from the Thursday preview show. I mean, you got Austin Hooper, hidden figure. doing what we talked about. You got Mark's hidden figure, Brian Poole, coming up a little later. And suddenly one of the most maligned segments in this country's history comes back in a big spot. Dance hidden figure Malcolm Mitchell, two catches, baby. You had to know, he had a great game, Malcolm Mitchell, baby. Six catches, 70 yards, seven targets.

That's a hidden figure, too. All right, is everyone rightly satisfied with themselves at this point? Yeah, so again, we see the Patriots look slow and the Falcons look explosive and things somehow, somehow things are about to get worse because what happens, now the Patriots are trying to cut in to a 14-0 deficit in the second quarter now midway a little deeper than that into the second quarter. They get, they get, it was a little weird. Three consecutive, I believe, defensive holding calls helped the, the Patriots. it slowly matriculate down the field into Atlanta territory, but still things didn't seem right for this New England offense, not at all. And then Tom Brady facing pressure, which a lot of people were not expecting, makes one of the worst throws of his postseason career.

Brady gets a snap from Andrews. Falcons trying to get intercepted. Coming back up the field is Robert Alford. Alford 40, 30, 20, 15, 10. And he will walk into the end zone on an 81-yard pick six. Marron, now it's 21-0. Mark, is this one you started writing? Well, this is when I essentially told David Ely, our editor, I said, I'm going to head down in the locker room. This baby is looking like it's cooked. And, you know, you're getting close to halftime.

And in one sense, it's a victory because the Patriots have held Atlanta's offense to 14 points. it stunned me to watch Tom Brady allow another seven points by with that throw. Brady, the one thing about in that first half, I did not expect this at all. Atlanta crumbled the pocket and got to Brady and hit him, and it wasn't just the sacks. They disrupted him. He did not have that normal time to throw and that time to kind of scan the field the way he normally does. He was under a lot of pressure. I don't think a lot of people saw that coming.

There was no sync. There was no rhythm. It was too hard for everything the Patriots had to do And it seemed like everything the Falcons were doing Was too easy And the Falcons defense was using the Jets, Broncos Giants formula against Brady in the playoffs They hit in his face and frustrated

Well, they showed no respect to Edelman and Hogan And Amandola and Mitchell They said these guys are not going to beat our guys One-on-one They're just going to get up in their faith They played man to man and they were right. I mean, at least early in the game.

And, I mean, Dwight Freeney was putting a clown suit on Nate Solder. Dwight Freeney had an amazing game. Marcus Canaan was- Which was surprising. It's very surprising. Marcus Cannon was getting beaten. In general, they were winning, you know, the Falcons were winning all their battles up front early in the game. I mean, it made sense that Brady was getting bothered and starting to throw passes too early.

Well, Grady Jarrett was talking about a possible MVP of this game because he had three sacks and he was dominant inside, where people have won against the Patriots all year. And yet as all this is happening, there was something developing, which we did talk about at halftime, which is that the Patriots put up a 12-play drive and an 11-play drive to end that half.

And they went into halftime. We haven't quite got there. But they went into half-day, more than doubling up the Falcons play total. They ended up doubling up the Falcons play total for the game, 93 to 46. That's an outrageously high number. And I think those drives at the end of the first half,

you know, started to kind of set the, groundwork of the falcons defense getting tired. Yeah, when they, the Falcons were, and we'll get to that later, the Falcons were absolutely gassed by the end of this game, and that this, that played a role. It absolutely did. 100% did. That said, part of what scared me was the fact that two of the Falcons touchdown drives in that first half were less than two minutes long.

I mean, they have the ability to score so quickly that, yes, you can keep them off the field. I really wondered if this was going to be a 40 burger at some point with New England on the wrong side of it. And one last note before we moved to the second half. And the Patriots did go down the field and kick a field goal. And we went into the half at 21-3 as Gaga took the stage. Very nice job by Gaga. Not everyone in this room agrees, though, I don't think.

Why is that? I want to hear Mark's appreciation because I haven't really heard this yet. You're a big Gaga guy after tonight. Well, no, I mentioned in the last show that I do quite like Lady Gaga. and I thought that she knocked it out of the park for what she offers. She gave you the full experience of what she does. I thought she was good. And I thought she made a nice, not too on the nose statement opening with God Bless America.

A little bit on the nose, actually, when you think about it. But not too pointed where people are going to go, you know, going nuts and also did it. This land is your land by Woody Guthrie. And a clutch catch. I mean, that's very nice catch. People are going to remember that. Very nice catch. But it was around this point, the pick six, Wes.

Yeah, someone's going to have to explain to me why Lady Gaga was great, but we can do that. We don't have enough time in the world to try to get you on our page with that, maybe Tuesday. But this was around the time where my timeline was a fascinating beast during the Super Bowl, where it was flooded with people congratulating me about being right about gradual decline, hashtag slight regression, which two quarters made you right. Well, people were having phone with it. A lot of Patriots. It was a lot of me and Dan tweet to both of us, too. Like, what's the P scale?

Here's the P scale. You got blocked P scale people. Really? You're blocking people for P scale? Maybe muting. I have a block of it. Depends on the way they framed it. If it was just kind of a generic, what's the P scale?

Maybe you get a mute. If it was kind of like if it had a little bit of bite to it, like, I don't need it. One quick halftime note that that had been a really, rough half for the Patriots. One of the roughest that I've seen watching with Greg since maybe that Kansas City wipeout from a few years ago. And Greg in a delightful mood, honestly,

he could not have been, had it been me and my team in that situation, I wouldn't have even been in the press box. I didn't throw in bottles of people. He's a little detached. That's not true. He's spoiled by success. And you had already in your mind decided that, hey, this is not the worst Super Bowl to lose if we do. You already

said this on Thursday show, so you were preparing yourself. I was Roy When you lean inside, I was, you know... As the person sitting next to him, I can tell you... Who, conflicting report from Chris Wesleyan. Greg was extremely nervous. It was jittery. And when Greg gets nervous, Greg gets chatty.

Oh, okay. Well, Greg's always chatty. That's a fair point. Especially chatty. You know, what did you... Wait, where was your P scale, by the way? At this point, 213. I mean, it was getting to the point I was practically giving up.

But you asked me a half-time. I need to explain here. The P scale to you, Greg, in case you don't know. Listen, you just won the fifth Super Bowl. You can't let me explain the P scale? Give me something, Greg. One, your pants are dry. You're wearing your nice suit that your wife got you.

And she said you look handsome in it. And she wants you to have that suit for a long time. Five. Got it in Tokyo. Uh-oh. I'm in trouble. It's getting a little soggy down there. Ten.

Excuse me, wife. I need a new suit. Excuse me, wife. Area man not confident in pronouncing my wife, Emeka's name. Emaca. All right, so what were you going to say, Greg? Yeah, I was probably about an eight. I mean, I was, like Mark, I had about, I had about 700.

Well over nine for the record. Yeah, you know, this is half-time. You know, I will say you could go check your Slack channel. You asked me at halftime day and think they have a comeback in them. I'm not, you know, and I said I would never count them out. What did I say? You said the same thing. Was I bloating?

Was I being an asshole? No, you said you're not counting them out either. No, I wasn't. And so anyway, I was getting a lot of that, a lot of hashtag comments. And by the end of the game, you can guess what happened. It all came back the other way for like an hour and a half. So my timeline was an absolute disaster of hashtags. So everybody had fun, I guess.

I was just a little annoyed by it. You come at the king, you know. You best not miss. If you come at Tom Brady, you've got to be right. Okay. Greg has been saving that for five months. The black hat is on 24 minutes into the show. Here we go.

That was totally unnecessary. You know, anyway. Uncalled for Greg. Here we are. 213 in the third quarter. And you think, oh, even more bad news. The Falcons get the ball in the third quarter. They're, you know, Billy Boy's favorite little trick of getting the ball last in the first half

and then getting the ball again. He doesn't get to do that. In the third quarter, what happens? The Patriots get a stop, and they're a little bit pumped up, Greg, aren't they? A little Dante High Tower, love? Sure. I thought that would be a big moment, and yet it didn't matter at all. Patriots, you know, blew it right the next possession.

Right. And then the Falcons take the ball over, take it over, and with 831 to play, they march eight plays, 85 yards over four minutes, and at the 831 mark, now almost. midway through the third quarter. Matt Ryan throws his second and final touchdown pass of the game. Jones lined up here to the left. Bunch look right. Ryan going to throw. Here's Coleman at the five. He'll beat Nikovic to the end zone. Touchdown Atlanta. There's too many weapons, Wes. They got too many guys to pay attention to. To be clear, this is when I started to write

feverishly on this article that no human read. This was the moment. I will post this. 1 in the third quarter, 28.3. I'll post this on a website that I've yet to launch, but this article. But this is when I thought everything that we thought about Atlanta's offense that we had been talking about

for months was materializing. It was tangible. It was real. And the Patriots were the latest defense that couldn't hang with it. Taylor Gabriel had just got done embarrassing Malcolm Butler on almost back-to-back plays. broke is that tell you should have held on to him mark

well i mean i don't know how many different networks and broadcasts need to educate us to the fact that he was once on the browns we get it thank you another classic mistake by the browns organization accepted and for all the podcast fans the eight part browns and jets offseason preview starts thursday thursday make sure you're on there first week the first episode is a big breakdown on John Morton, the new offensive coordinator of the Jets. So much to dig into it. And more of an analysis, is he Johnny Morton? Is he older Johnny Morton that dropped the N.Y?

Or, excuse me, IE, I believe it was? Is that right, Patrick? I.E., correct. Or is it a different person? That is the first episode. We'll do an hour on that. And what does the Falcons collapse mean for Brown's coach, Hugh Jackson? So make sure you stay tuned.

It's the offseason. You know the pods, they get fun when the offseason comes. but so so here we are so 8283 and that's outrageous there's never been more than a 10 point comeback people start spacing a little bit now like we were talking about before the start now everyone is starting to process okay the falcons whip the Patriots all right how what it from our job standpoint we're trying to figure out how we're going to cover it and Twitter the game it's everyone's kind of moved on from whether or not this is who's going to win this game and it's more into having fun with the Patriots demise and also talking about where the

Falcons are historically. That's where we were at 283. I think the mood in the building and the mood on Twitter was everybody was ready to be an expert and say, I told you all that the Patriots just aren't athletic enough or fast enough to hang with this Falcons team. There's a tweet that Albert Breer had. He spoke to an AFC executive and you know how Scouts talk. He's like, the team in red is head and shoulders better in talent than the team in white. Absolutely. And in the building, which early on, it was a Patriots crowd all week long in Houston. It's been heavy Patriots.

But you could feel the Atlanta mob in there starting to. They were great. They absolutely. They were good. And they were about to, they were beginning to celebrate something that they had never felt as Atlanta Falcons fans. And then it started to turn. Well, I want to point out, you know, on the next Patriots position. possession, you know, Brady mentioned there's 30 plays you could point out.

And the first one you have to start with, in the lowest moment on ESPN's little, you know, what's the percentage that you win this game? I know you're sick of it. The lowest that the Patriots ever got was 0.3%. That was the moment, I could be wrong here, because it's off my memory. After Julian Edelman threw a pass on third and three on their own side of the field. And I know, I know it seems obvious that you. go for it on fourth and three, down 283 in the Super Bowl.

I don't know if every team goes for it. I just don't. I think coaches are just so wired into their normal way of thinking. They think, well, the game's over if we don't get it. And I don't think Belichick even thought twice about it. He goes for it on fourth and three. They hit Amandola on a great throw for 17 yards. And that's one of those plays.

If you don't get those three yards, there's no way they come back and win that game. Is your point that Bill Belichick is a talented coach? He's a good guy. I like him. Hey, one aside here, Mark, I mean, bad job with the Browns and Taylor Gabriel, but also bad job of you. Once again, Mr. F, Super Bowl 51 podcast,

the old Zusser forgets it off the top. I need you to jump into the top of the show and remind me. Well, I was saving it for a special moment, to be honest. Oh, is that true? I mean, let's do it right now. Now that we've gotten into it, let's promote Mr. F. We love Mr. F. He's a great sponsor.

He's been a wonderful sponsor. This wasn't the most organic. time to drop this in but uh we love you mr f anything else you'd like to add west why would mark lie to our audience like this mark never i don't know if mark's ever lied he's fibbed like 90% of the time yeah but i don't know about a bold face lie there is a difference this felt more like a lie though no this was not a lie i was an alternative fact preparing it in my mind and you know it it is now been unleashed on the listener all right so thank you mr f uh for all you do and if you if you are interested in the economics of the world,

you head up to the Hague, the Netherlands, and there you go. Mr. Flames' economics class will treat you right. Mr. F. All right. Now, back to the game. Listen, what time is it? It's

damn 2.12 in the morning. You can't do everything right. The Patriots comeback starts now, and it starts at, of course, as we said, 283. The Patriots take the ball late in the third quarter, March 13 plays. And Greg, this is what you were getting at now. Now it starts to really build here. 13 plays 75 yards in six minutes, 25 seconds. And it's amazing how many more plays of the Patriots ran. If somebody could look that up compared to the Falcons, it's like a historic split. Anyway, 9346? That is the number. Greg, is that the first time it's been stated on the show?

This is like, what was it? What was the thing we kept repeating the other week? No, I can't even remember. Do not ask me to remember things from the other week right now. It's 2.14 in the morning. Anyway, so they march all the way down the field and they finally, finally get in the end zone for the first time all game. And the man that gets in is James White.

But then Gistowski misses the extra point. And that's a little familiar, doinking it off the upright, Greg Rosenthal. So you settle for 289. with where were you at this point, 206 to play in the third quarter. The whole fourth quarter, as the Patriots were making their comeback, the biggest pit in my stomach was that the Patriots season could end

for the second straight season because Gatskowski missed the extra point and they were chasing it the whole time. And now I think every Patriots fan was probably thinking that. Once it got to the point where they had to get two point conversions, because Belichick pushes for this rule. I love the rule, but then it comes back to bite him because his kicker has been missing extra points. All right, which takes us to the next Atlanta possession.

Three and out, the Falcons go backwards, actually, negative 15 yards. Patriots takeover, and here we go again. Here we go again. We talk about the Falcons getting, starting the defense, starting to tire. 12 play, 72 yards. This time they keep them out of the end zone, though. And after there was an on-side of kicker. attempt, I believe, after the first

touchdown. Am I correct? Do I have the timing right there? Yes, that's when they went backwards, 15 yards. So they didn't get, they didn't, they start the ball at the 41 and the greatest offense in the NFL, and this really starts what was a miserable

fourth quarter for them, four possessions. None of them went more than six plays, two, three and outs. And this one, they went backwards. It was, yeah. And what felt, to me, it felt like a desperate move by Belichick, but not necessarily the wrong move, the one that facing the Falcons,

knowing that you need to start piling up some points. And when it backfires, it's another moment. It's like, oh, this is cute that they tried this, but this game still feels over at this point when the onside kick is recovered by the Falcons. Well, that's the thing because the Patriots took 11 and a half minutes

to get those 10 points on offense. So it kind of felt like they were playing into the Falcons' hands. It didn't feel like they were, you know, making this fast comeback at this point. that even when it's 28 to 9, it's not like it felt like it was much of a game. So it's 28, 12. 28, 12. And they need to, yeah, the time's ticking away now, but then they need a break and they get it.

They make their own break because Matt Ryan drops back to pass. Or he's actually in a shotgun. This is another play that surprised me on third and one. A perfect situation where a couple of first downs burns off a good amount of clock time and puts you in a good situation. But they drop back to pass on third and one and disaster strikes. for the Falcons. Ryan waits on the staff.

The staggered stands. He'll take it. Backs up. A blitzer coming. And Hightower gets to the quarterback. Ball is loose. You can't. It's sacking Ryan and recovering at the 25.

Alan Branch comes away with the football force. How to fumble by Ryan off the sack by Hightower. By the way, this is our first of many calls from Bob Sosey and Scott Zolak of WBZ. Soak is going to go flying. in a little bit. Oh, absolutely. He doesn't even know what's coming, but... No shirt. If that Lagaret blunt fumble in the first half felt like the

turning point of doom for the Patriots, this was the absolute lost opportunity for the Falcons. You could have played it safe here, you could have gotten a field goal. Instead that you get this strip sack happens and you can feel the game turning. The stadium itself

started to change. The Patriots fans getting back into this and you've started to wonder, this thing is changing entire That was the believe moment for Patriots fans. They allowed themselves to give themselves over to the Patriots at that point in the game. Dante Hightower is going to go down with Patriots fans as making two of the biggest plays in Super Bowl history that will probably be overshadowed in Super Bowl history. He's the guy that winds up tackling Marshawn Lynch at the goal line to set up Malcolm Butler. And he's the guy who forces this fumble.

from Matt Ryan, and it might be the last, you know, big play he makes as a New England Patriot. He's going to be a free agent like a lot of these guys. And, you know, name your kid. You haven't seen. A lot of these guys are leaving now. Nine key free agents for this team, and some of them are going to get paid huge. Yeah, that's what happened. Well, there's a lot of Belichick-Chic disciples running other front offices now, too. Right, and they'll sign eight players out of Rutgers and go right back to the Super Bowl.

So no problems here. And what happens now you really start to. see the strain that's being put on the Atlanta defense as they start to break. Because after that fumble, they need just five plays to go 25 yards the Patriots do in just 228 o'clock time. And now with 556 remaining in the fourth quarter, Tom Brady drops back to pass, looking to pull the pats closer. Tom takes the step, backs up, looks like, throws it for him, no one. Touchdown Patriots. That's will go for two, five, fifty-six to go here on the fourth.

Brady realigns out of him, in short motion. Direct stabs of James White, runs up the middle. He's in for two. Brady faking as if a high snap, but the ball directly fed to White, and he pushes his way forward. It's a one-score game. How long will we see that play being used in the Patriots playbook? That goes back to Kevin Falk, and they use that in the Super Bowl.

I believe, was it a two-point conversion in the Super Bowl back in the day? I can't even remember off the top of my head. Either way, they've been used, it was kind of cool for them to go back to that at that moment. Think about it again. Again, when you think about what needed to happen for the Patriots to get this game to overtime. By the way, Mark, yes, sir. Congratulations. Chomp, chomp, one of the all-time, go get my lunch prop victories.

You predicted, you might have predicted this last year, but that doesn't matter. You predicted that the first. overtime Super Bowl game would occur on February 5th, 2017, and you nailed it, my friend. Congratulations. Let me tell you. One thing that is disgraceful is that that has got to be, for me, the most onion-y, well, no, I also said the game would have no winner. But in terms of a realistic bet, calling overtime, that all I had were you two measly

people in here. I'm only getting two sandwiches out of it. Well, whose fault is that? Well, I normally could have gotten probably Sydney on board with that if we were back in the studio. I mean, what a joke. A real victim of timing you are. Yes, I am.

But you don't like sandwiches, so at the end of the day, who cares? Two is more than not. Well, it's too bad because Mark and I are leaving the hotel somewhere around 545, 6 in the morning, about three and a half hours from now. And when we get to the airport, breakfast sandwich, ahoy, Mark. Whatever you like, baby. A breakfast sandwich is about the last thing I want to put in my body right now, but thank you. It's not called go get my breakfast. That's right

It's hard to have a high octane He was the one who said earlier he wanted Not impossible Can I say one thing about the Falcons defense at this point Because I was watching this game through binoculars And you Humble brag All right I know that sounded ridiculous

But I was at some point They were so aggressive Wait and listen to my binoculars wisdom everyone Listen I'll just say this That at this point Watching them in between plays They were all kind of in their position but not looking at each other really or communicating much.

I think they were frozen and they had been... Then you start to realize we're playing the Patriots and they've been here a thousand times before and we have not. Vic Beasley said he thought, I don't know what this means. He said he thought that Brady kind of figured out their game plan and just started getting rid of the ball quickly. I don't know what that means because that's not necessarily true. There were some deep drops in that comeback,

but whatever it was, they stopped getting pressure on them. So here we were. Now we're late in the fourth quarter. Atlanta now holding on, but still in good position. I mean, all the, those silly probability win charts are probably soaring still in the favor of the Falcons with an eight-point league. Because not only do you have the ball with under three minutes to go, you even if you give up a touchdown, you could still get out of this with a win if you get the stop on the two-point conversion. And this is what I thought to myself, all right, Matt Ryan, you just got named League MVP, take your team on the field. matriculate, get a couple first downs, and we all go home.

You don't even have to go crazy here. Just get down the field and win this game. Don't let your defense have to get on the field in a situation where Tom Brady can tie the game. You can't let it happen. It starts off very well, actually, because on the first play, the Patriots and West, and they had an excellent fourth quarter in defense, but this was a bad coverage bust because Freeman gets all by himself in the flat and takes it 39 yards to midfield on the first play of the game. And once again, you start to feel like, all right, this is the Falcons game. So even at this point,

after that play, you're feeling like this is probably Atlanta's Day. Still commanding. Devonta Freeman, like you said, wide open. It was among the most wide open plays you'll see in the Super Bowl, goes 39 yards. And they're already back in scoring range in one play. And this, this was the point. Logan Ryan said it in the press conference after. after the game, he said they were essentially playing the Madden coverage, like when you're on punt block, that they're going all out, that Logan Ryan's taking one guy, Malcolm Butler's taken another, they're Dublin, you know, they're putting those guys on an island, they changed their coverage up, they went to Matt Patricia, asked for them to change, and they're trying

to get aggressive. So it's kind of a boomer or bust strategy that they're playing at the end of the game, and obviously they stepped up with it. All right. So then they have a short run for two yards. And then again, and this is another situation. You add it to the list when it looks like the Falcons have made the play to win the Super Bowl and the Patriots will get close but no closer. Matt Ryan drops back and drops a beautiful pass just over the outstretched arms of a defender into the hands of Julio Julio Jones. Guys, it's 225 in the morning, who toe taps on the sideline and 27-yard gain, which means it is now first in 10 at the New England 22, with 440 to play and an 8-point lead. This game is all but over.

About that Julio Jones catch, just pause a moment to appreciate it. That's his Lynn Swan play, that in the future when they put him in Canton, they're running that play over and over again. It's on all the top 10 list for catches. And at this point, I think Julio Jones has been an injury-prone guy, but I think the, these playoffs playing through what he did and the performances he had. He's in the Hall of Fame now barring some catastrophic injury. Well, how about this? I'll just counter.

Julio Jones, four for 87 in this game, targeted four times. And you could give the Patriots a lot of credit for finding ways to make Matt Ryan look off. But four targets in the Super Bowl? I mean, they're double and then even triple teaming him in time. And think about how hard I can. They only threw the ball 23 times all over. He said nobody could cover him. I can't think of the fourth.

That's true. The fourth catch, but three of those catches were outrageous where he wasn't open at all, two of them on the sidelines, one where he rips the ball away from the defender early in the game. I mean, he deserved better. And, you know, when Logan Ryan said after the game, you know, all the writers were deleting their articles and everything, that was the lead of a lot of their articles, was that play. Right. That was the play.

It was like the, it was the Julio Jones and Matt Ryan make, make their, their, hayplay. Translation, that was the lead of Greg's recap article. How dare you? How dare you? All right. And now, and you know, Bill Zeus is going to keep it real. I stopped writing then. That's how you know it's true. That's how you know. No, I ain't. It was halfway in. Greg, that one hurt you. That pierced you a little bit.

Hey, nothing's hurting me right now. All right, this is when the gag commences in full now. This is where the Falcons go full choke mode and a shout out. Listen, Greg, I'm not saying this to be a jerk. It's just we got to keep it real here. This will go down in history because like I said, first and 10 at the 22 field goal, game over. And you have Devante Freeman who was chewing up the Patriots early in the game in my mind. And take this from somebody who used to have a Herm Edwards as a head coach.

So maybe this has instilled in me a little bit. Get a little safe. run the ball three times choose some clock make the patrons use timeouts maybe you get a touchdown maybe you get five yards maybe get no yards but you're still lining up one of the best kickers in the league this season for a very makeable under 40 yard kick but what happens one run negative one yard right so gate how about gate by that plan gain three yards on that first run then maybe then you get a second don't lose a yard well obviously i mean execution execution but now don't go away from the plan i guess is what i'm saying uh if you trust your your your your offensive line and your backfield, try it again. Instead, they drop Mack Ryan into shotgun, and he makes the biggest mistake of his career. He takes a sack, losing 12 yards, Mr. Flowers. Ooh, flowers. You want to make flowers today? Takes him down, and all of a sudden, where a situation, third and 23, at the New England 35, and now you're thinking,

whoa, they really jack this up because they're going to be in a position, potentially, where they have to decide whether they want Matt Ryan to attempt a 50-yard field goal, depending on how this next play turns out and ended up getting even worse. I have a hard time with the play call criticism here. I saw it everywhere, and it's completely hindsight. I don't think anybody was questioning them right after Devante Freeman was wide open for 39 yards. Julio Jones makes a great catch. They're humming.

They've been doing this all year. I don't think anybody in the moment was saying, oh, God, why aren't they running it? It wasn't until Ryan got sacked. I was, I'm just saying. Even before Ryan got sacked, you were saying that? I was surprised he was in shotgun after that. They weren't gaining, they didn't run the ball a ton down the stretch, but they weren't gaining yards when they did run it.

That was a play where they had a little time before the play. Trey Flowers basically put his hand up, said, I want to be the guy who goes on a stunt. They were going to call a stunt. Alan Branch, it's kind of been the story of this team. They've had good interior defensive tackles. We talked about it on the show on Thursday. Branch occupies two guys he gets through.

To me, it was just a great play and a mistake by Matt Ryan kind of running into it. Trey Flowers had five quarterback hits and two and a half sacks. I mean, that's a much better game than some guys who have won Super Bowl MVP like Malcolm Smith. Trey Flowers was the best play. This guy played one game as a fourth round pick as a rookie. He was the best defensive player on a Super Bowl champion. That's crazy. This week eight.

I mean, yeah, he came on big time. That's a Michael Bennett game. So now it goes in bed. Let me set the table again here. So now it's $3.50 to play in the fourth quarter. The New England has just called a timeout. So they have two timeouts to play. And then disaster strikes again for the Falcons who are not executing when it matters most.

Matt Ryan drops back, connects with Mosinu for a nine-yard game that puts him back at the 26 and back into safe field goal range. But no, Jake Matthews gets hit with the biggest holding call of his life. 10 yards enforced at the 35, and now it's a third and 33 at the New England 45 with 344 to play. So let's say it again. It went from 1st and 10 at the New England 22 in a situation where you play for a field goal and you win the Super Bowl to 3rd and 33 at the 45. And then Matt Ryan, who heading it late in the fourth quarter, Mark, had a perfect passer rating. So that just gives you an idea how great he was, despite not having a lot of snaps. He sails one out of bounds trying to get it to Gabriel, and it's fourth and 33, a punt by Bosher,

and the Patriots take over deep in their own territory. I think it's fair to go back to what Greg just said, a word he used, execution, because a number of Patriots players used that same exact word after the game, that they acknowledged that they weren't doing that in the first half, but they have so much experience doing that. And the Falcons started to crumble. You saw killer penalties, weird decision-making. I'm with you on the play calling, Chris.

They are who they are and they trust themselves. But they did not get these plays made at the most critical times tonight. And you saw the Patriots, their patriots are at home in this situation. I'm not saying the Falcons are prone to this, but they did give up a almost impossible lead that earlier in the season at home to San Diego. So there was some history there. And then the Patriots, Logan Ryan talked about, look, we've come back.

It reminded me a lot of coming back 24 to nothing against the Broncos. If nothing else, you have to believe the cliches of all the defensive players that said we believe the whole time we could still win because they played that one. Well, I wrote a piece after that, I'm not exact same thing, that they, all this stuff that the Patriots say year after year and it's easily ripped on and people find it kind of ridiculous and mechanical and robotic, except that they buy into it, and here's the thing, it actually produces results. So there is something to be said for do your job and all this because it happens.

They really went into the locker room at halftime and believed that if they got back on track, they could win this thing. Every player downstairs said that after this game. I tweeted right before they got the ball back here. I thought you could feel the buzz in the stadium at this point that every Patriots fan knew Brady was going to get it done. If they could just get the ball back to him down one score, And what happens? Ten plays 91 yards.

And along the way, Greg Rosenthal, one of the most famous plays in Patriots history. Shotgun, snap to Brady, stands in, throws down the one for Edmund Ball's tip. And Julian diving for it. As Olford cut in front of the receiver, Edelman has it. Did he make the catch? He did. You got to be kidding.

At the 40. Up, up, 40. How do we describe that Kevin Patrick? that play. Ridiculous, stupid. Shouldn't be happening by physics. I mean, I think what Wes called it the ankle catch, which I told him we need to come up

with a better word for that because it can't be known as the ankle catch forever and ever. It sounds like he caught it with his ankles. But he caught it off somebody else's ankles. Like that's the screaming headline in any other game. Like this game was so insane. It's going to take a little while for it to set in, I think, for everyone that watches football.

Like, that play alone would have been the biggest story in any Super Bowl. I don't even think we wrote a story on that play. You know what I mean? Like, because it was one of a million different things that happened. You said at the time, you knew it. You said that's the Tyree Curse thing. And you don't have to be a Patriots fan to evoke those two names. And it's the same thing that happened against the Patriots with Malcolm Butler right before the big interception with Chris Matthews, was it?

Curse, Jermaine Curse, excuse me, a similarly circus-free catch that got lost into the ether because how the game turned out. And their receivers were awesome, by the way. I mean, that was a little bit of a flu play, although a great effort play. Edelman, Hogan, Mitchell, they came back to the ball and were making really tough catches for Brady in the second half. They executed insanely well. After the game, Matthew Slater went on a riff, and he was very humble and, I think Belichick loves Matthew Slater

but he basically said that all week long they heard everyone talking about their receiving core versus the Falcons that the Patriots receiving core just a bunch of jags nobody believes in us you know but they they struggled in the first half he said basically

the Jags got it done I know you don't like to hear that damn no it's like who's really disrespecting the Patriots wide receivers they have a nice group maybe they do a good job of putting that chip on their shoulder when it's not actually there I think Mark's right that they took a lot from that, but I think it's completely manufactured. I was in Falcons camp all week, and you could tell they legitimately respect the Patriots receivers.

How about Danny Omandola only shows up for Super Bowls lately? This guy is like... Well, that's a nice scenario to have of your team. He's like the Scott Brocious of the Patriots. It's incredible. If you can get to the 19th game of the season or whatever, he will thrive for you. Jim Lairitz. Oh, yeah.

You know, the Yankees and Patriots, you know, they should. share a lot of DNA, Greg, whether you like it or not. They used to. They used to. Why not anymore? Let's get into some Yankees talk while we're at it. The Yankees aren't the Cubs, Dan. Oh, I see. I got it.

Okay, so here we go now. This is when it's over, by the way. As someone that was divorced from the proceedings in a way... What are you talking about? The game's over at this point. Once that catch is made, the magic is in the air, and you know the Patriots are going to win the game. It's just a matter of time of it playing out.

So what happens? I wish I knew that at the time. Well, you, because you were emotionally like you were on the roller coaster. But first and 10 at the 41, 20 yards to Amandola, two-minute warning. And now it gets crazy because Atlanta used up their timeouts. So it gets to a point where you think, oh, the Patriots would be trying to fight the clock to get into the end zone to tie the game. But now it's a situation where they're smarter to kind of take their time. So Atlanta doesn't have any time left if the Patriots manage to tie the game.

And that's exactly what happens. After the two-minute warning, they get it to the Atlanta 8, they get it to the Atlanta 1, and then James White. We've heard this name before, and we're going to hear it again, punches it in. Brady will move under, center white behind him. Edmund to the right, Bennett to the right. Brady surveys the defense. Tom takes the snap. He backs up, hands it to White.

Up the middle. Touchdown Patriots! Hands off. They've drawn within two in Super Bowl. It's amazing how this team is never dead. The dead may never die. James White. I want to apologize for anything bad I ever said about James White on this podcast.

I did not believe. It is really outrageous that James White led the game in yards from scrimmage in one of the best Super Bowls of all time. 14 catches, 110 yards, and that they chose for him to be the guy in this game. That surprised me. He scored three TDs and a two-point conversion with the game on the line. And like you said, set a game-winning touchdown. Set a record for receptions. But were we not at halftime wondering, where is Dionne Lewis,

one of the most explosive players in the entire AFC barely used in this game? Well, Pat's fans blamed James White for them losing to the Broncos last year for a couple drops. If they had a Lewis, they thought they would have won that game. And then here you are a year later. Well, if you want to be a Patriots Homer here, He is a good example of their coaching staff, you know, coaching players up because he really was not a good NFL player. I don't think that's being a homer, Greg. The tape showed that he wasn't a very good player.

That's what I'm saying. And then he gets to his 30 years. He had a really good year this year. He was a different player. And then it all comes together in this spot. And again, none of this beautiful little comeback story matters if Atlanta could just find a way to get a stop on the two-point conversion and yet another failure. And this one was another one that was another one. the stars because once you saw the Patriots wide up it was empty backfield and you saw i think it was

edelman and amandola on the left side they're going to do that little thing where the guy in the slot like juts out towards that never works and it always works and what happens they run the play 57 seconds to go a two for the tide drips to the left brady undersettered tom takes the step Quit throw to Amadol, a screen left. A flag as he reaches across the goal line for a score. There is a put-of-de-vis marker on the play. They're off-sides, that's in. Time for the officials.

It's a tight game in Super Bowl 51. High-fives for everybody. Just give us some. What are you looking at, Beatle? I can't believe it. Is that him yelling at? He is high-fiving fellow broadcasting technicians in the booth. Completely nude at this point.

There are no clothes on Scott Zolak at this point. Yeah, that play has never not worked in the history of the page. They should just run that play 70 times a week. And yet, you know, you asked about P scale earlier. That play was about my peak P scale because I just... Well, it's 28, 26 of the Super Bowl on the line. Right. I just had it.

I was worried that during the whole comeback that it would be this great thing all leading to them failing on a two-point conversion. It would just be this wet fart to lose the game. AFC title game last year. a similar score, I believe, too, where they almost came back but couldn't get the two-point conversion. And, you know, they got pressure on Brady and that play in Denver to win the AFC title. And that was something, they were so gassed at this point, Atlanta, that Brady was back to being what he had been for a lot of the season all day in the pocket, completely comfortable in just picking apart the secondary. I think at that point we looked at each other,

or maybe it was even before then, and we said he's in the zone. He's dialed in and he is a cold-blooded assassin. Yeah, those were your exact words. I had a couple drives before that you said that went on his touchdown drives. And now the Falcons just need to be put down at this point because, you know, they still have 54 seconds to play. They don't have any timeouts, but something you would think, an offense that we've been putting in the class of the all-time greats, they can do something with 54 seconds. Great offenses have done more with less time than that, to be quite honest. honest with you. They've done it with that

all season long they've scored on drives up. Matt Ryan got his nickname from doing this about three times his rookie year, getting the ball with about a minute left and setting up a field goal. He did it against the Packers right earlier this year. I think he did it a few times. You're right.

Did it against the Seahawks in the playoffs a couple years ago. But they don't get help on special teams because Eric Weems, he might have been at the pub, I think, watching Gaga because he catches the ball near the goal line and again maybe it was kind of close where he couldn't tell if he could kneel on it. He kind of stumbles toward

the sideline, goes out of bound at the 11, so now they have terrible field position, and they lost five seconds of clock time, and then Ryan, again, cannot move the offense. He gets a 12-yard game to Sanu, that a four-yard game to Austin Hopper that kills them because the clock ticks on him,

and they spike the ball, and then an incomplete deep pass again to Hooper with flowers and coverage. It was ruled incomplete, even though it was nearly an interception, and then a punt, which sends us to overtime, Mark, which then that's when you were flying high because you just made some sandwiches.

Well, you talked about your mentions. I haven't even gotten to mine, and I appreciate that it's 99.9% podcast listeners and 0.0.1% very confused other people. But this very unlikely thing happened in my Twitter feed just exploded. We were so overdue. We went 50 straight Super Bowls without a single. overtime game. This is the season where I believe there were three straight Sunday night

overtime games. It was going to happen and it happened and made marks of sandwiches. You want to kill the Falcons coaches in hindsight. Kill them for not having any timeouts there. That is a killer. I mean, I'd have to go back. I need to go back. This is where the blur of the moment and look at why all those timeouts happen. But the Patriots had all three, which is one reason why they, I don't think, milk the clock at the very end, because they could have maybe even gotten the ball back even if they didn't get the two-point conversion, and the Falcons had none of it. And at that point, I think the fact, I think the game, like you said, almost was over, because

if it got to overtime, I think the Patriots defense, if they lose the coin toss, they're flying at that point. Logan Ryan said that they weren't, I said, you know, what were you feeling? Then he said, we were looking for our Malcolm Butler moment. We wanted to pick them off and win the game on our own. That's what we're thinking. So now you need a little luck if you're the Falcons. Maybe win the coin toss and somehow you can write things.

Because if you get a lose the coin toss, you know the defense is cooked. You can't even really get on them because they've been on the field for so much. What happens? The pats win the toss. Of course they take the ball. I shouldn't say, of course, because last year they won the toss in overtime against the Jets. elected to kick off. That's the story for a different thing.

That would have been amazing. There's no, of course, with a coin toss. It's very much a thing of chance. They went one for two tonight. So they take the ball and what happens? Yeah, let's go home. Eight play, 75 yards, and it was never even in doubt. I'm looking at this.

They never even got to third down. I mean, think about that. They go right down the field. They go six yards, 14 yards, 18 yards. They get a three-yard loss on a screen. 15 yards, 10 yards, a PI call. Was that a good call? I didn't, I was kind of checking out emotionally at that point.

It was fine. It was fine, Mark. Yeah, it was, I mean, it was. Mark's checking out too. No, no, it certainly was not a controversial call. No, it wasn't. When I saw that call, because that's almost like ends the Super Bowl type of call, I was really hoping it was a good call.

It was a fine call. It wasn't a, it could have been a no call, but it was a good call. And now it was just a matter of time. First and goal at the two, it gets a little dicey because Brady drops back to pass, targets Martellis Bennett. Vic Beasley gets his hand on the ball, unable to make an interception, but stops it. They give it to James White on second and goal from the two. And oh my God, the Patriots kept an amazing comeback.

Second and goal to go from the two. Toss sweep right for James White, cuts it under the right arm, cuts it up to the field. Driving forward. It's diving to the goal line. It's not right. A touchdown. And a title for the Patriots. I can't believe it.

They have completed the greatest comeback in Super Bowl history. Led by the greatest quarterback. Look at great. In Super Bowl and NFL Adels. One more ring. James White. And a silver trophy is coming back to New England. Zolak at that point jumped out of the press box onto the field.

You just swan dived onto the field. Uh, uh, Sidney, I'm going to, you know, it pains me, but let's put that into the discussion for the top 10 calls of the year. I, I don't, I'm not trying to be mean and I swear to God I'm not trying to rub it in, but it was a historic play in Super Bowl history. Do you want to hear the Falcons call? Yeah. From West door. I want to hear Joe Buck, too, but I guess I'll wait until I get home tomorrow. You get pulled off on Joe.

All right. Joe's gotten better. He's had a nice bounce back, but do we need to hear Joe? I mean, not right now. All right. We don't have me. Anyway. West Durham and Dave Archer of WZGC.

11.08 to go in the first overtime. They'll toss it to White, left or right side. White will cut back, and he will get in. Touchdown, New England. The Patriots stormed the field. And James White has won the Super Bowl for New England. That hurts. Let's maybe a final takeaway from everyone.

And mine will be this because it dovetails off the sadness there that you heard in West Durham's voice. We didn't even hear Dave Archer. Maybe he just passed out by that point. But this, there is a new sheriff in town. It's a sad sheriff to be. But the most tortured sports city in America now with the Cubs winning a title, with LeBron bringing the Cavs a title. It is Atlanta. And I don't think it's close.

179 years. We talked about this on Thursday show, 179 seasons, I should say, just one title, that being the Braves in 95. And now you have this where you came so close to winning a Super Bowl, where you're up 283 against an all-time historic team in this Patriots with Brady and Belichick, and you have the biggest collapse in NFL history.

So that is now the cherry on top of what has always been kind of under the radar. They are, to me, the new tortured sports city. terribly for the Falcons fans because they were outnumbered heavily in Houston this week but like we said they were allowed. We had a doomed trip that we took

to Papa Charlie's barbecue in downtown Houston where we walked about 15 minutes a group of a bunch of us and only to see that they were sold out of meat. I didn't know that happened but it's Super Bowl week and we stumbled upon this little section of Houston that labeled itself

Falcons fan headquarters and they were having such a fun time on Saturday night they were excited, they were happy, boisterous, and they were outnumbered in that stadium but that stadium was loud and that's who I thought of

when this game got away and how crush those fans must have been because this is to me the worst loss in NFL history. Yeah, and I will never forget what you and Kevin and I saw down, of the Falcons locker room where owner Arthur Blank was with family and just

hugging what I believe was his grandson and the child was crying but Arthur Blank just raw emotion because I just think how close they came and you you rode the wave with the fans in the stands my takeaway though is that two years ago when the Patriots won and Greg I was standing next to you and you earnestly called it maybe just anything here on out is house money. And it was thought maybe, you know, the Patriots may never get to do this again. My question now

is not, hey, is this the last one? But why not two or three more of these? I'm not kidding because you were looking... Wait, did you hear Thursday show? This was the last one. It is not. I'm telling you there's no reason to put these bookends on the

Patriots this point. You've got the best quarterback in football who just at his age shattered record. book records. He's shattered passing yardage and played as well as he ever has. So I don't see any reason. I don't care what's happening with free agency. I don't care about

any of that. There's no reason to think they can't be right back here again next year. There's no team to put above them right now. Well, he's just entered his prime, so there could be 10 more Super Bowl's left. That's the only thing I got, and I was getting a lot of tweets like, oh, Dan

Dan's going to be dying. I like Brady. I really do. like Tom Brady. I feel like it's been like an honor being able to be at like these type of games. This one, the Seattle game. Sure. I wasn't dying when that game ended. It was cool. I was happy because like my father, my brother-in-law

were at the game. They got to see another classic game. That was pretty cool. I mean, the only thing I got is that time keeps ticking, but what I learned and what I wasn't the only one that learned is that Brady now is operating on his own time clock entirely. So I don't know how much it goes on

from here. But yeah, I mean, Mark, You're right in the sense that there's no reason to think that Peyton Manning fall off the cliff is going to happen. They can keep on reloading as long as they have that coach and that quarterback. My takeaway, let's stay with Brady and, you know, Aaron Rogers is more talented. Brett Farve was more fun to watch. But Tom Brady, like these last two Super Bowls of his in the last three years are to me like the last three years of the Jordan Arrow with the Bulls, where he came back. And it's almost like a separate career.

And it's Michael Jordan with the game on the line two times in the last three Super Bowls. 99.5% of the building had an utmost confidence that Tom Brady was just going to come through and carry the Patriots to victory. And I think this has cemented him as one of my favorite football players to watch. Well, this era Brady was better. I really think so. And the fact that he's a multiple champion now in this area, era kind of cement it. I mean, the Grank era Brady to me is what's the greatest of all time.

It's not the 2001 to 2006 era. What about the 2007? Well, that was pretty good. Is that guy better than this guy? Well, I guess you're talking about they're both eagerly and credible in a lot of those. This guy's better. That guy was thrown to one of the greatest wide receivers in NFL history who made every quarterback better. Yeah, the fact that Grunk wasn't even playing in this game or even close to this playoff run, you have to add that to Brady's resume.

Patrick, your final thought. Well, I'll go with Falcons, and just if it wasn't for Brady, we'd be talking right now about how great that young defense played today. We talked about Dion Jones, Grady Jarrett, Keanu Neal, and I think they have the base to come back. I was in that locker room, and it was a sad moment, but it was kind of a resolved moment. They answered all the questions without being dick. Nobody asked me how big my penis was. Well, that's good. You're right off the bat.

Well, Patrick is the rare guy who was, like, hoping they did. Well, I could show off. He'll start stripping off his clothes. He's just ready. He's ready to, for an answer. I think with a few more pieces to this defense, I think that Falcons defense, it's already athletic, it's already fast. I mean, you get a couple of pass rushers in there.

It doesn't, it's not, doesn't have to go away. I see where you're going with that, Patrick, and there's no reason to think that these guys will all be so scarred emotionally that they'll never get close to the summit again. But I'll also say it's not unheard of in sports, not just football, that the, These type of losses can linger with a franchise, and I wouldn't be stunned if it had some type of effect long-term on them. It was that bad a loss to me. I would worry much more about losing Kyle Shanahan's mind than losing this game.

I think that Ryan has to prove he can play at an MVP level without Kyle Shanahan, who, in my mind, is the best schemer and play caller in the NFL. All right, boys. By the way, in the locker room after the game, I got some footage, which you could check out on NFL.com. Somebody stole Tom Brady's jersey and... Trump. Maybe. They stole

his jersey. I don't know who it is. If you are a listener of the around the NFL jersey, send the jersey, you don't have to label it where you're coming from, but send it to me, and I will make sure it gets back to Tom personally. Well, hold on. That's crazy. Wait a minute. Back the truck

up. You have exclusive footage of Tom Brady's jersey being stolen. Now you you've put up a ruse where some listener unlabeled is going to send you, said jersey. I wonder who might have that jersey right now, is he in this room? Oh, that's interesting. That would be an all-time. Wow.

All-time heel-ter. No, I don't have footage of the jersey being stolen. I have footage of him. Interesting. That's why he's in such a good mood. Who's in a good mood? You're putting it that thing on eBay? I know I have a good mood because I love good football. I love that we got to cover another one.

Our fourth together, six for Mark and I. You know, it put you an even better move. Patrick's first time. Yes, Mark, Greg. Me making my last point. You did, I thought. No, I think Greg was adding on to Wes's. Oh, oh, yeah.

That was a conversation. You got, that's what you got. I thought you made your point. I mean, it's Greg's night. This is your night, buddy. This will be quick. I'll try to be quick. It's a few things, but I'll still make them quick. Here we go.

Quick few things. We could excuse ourselves, actually. Well, let's not forget that last. The game-winning touchdown should not be. overlooked. The guy got tackled at the two-yard line and he ran through it. That is an all-time Super Bowl play that's almost getting overlooked. Great moment, James White.

Too quick. The Patriots, for as much as everyone kind of hates, you know, a lot of people around the country hates the page, the quality of these bonkers games that they provide in the Super Bowl has been awesome for the sport and them providing someone for

everyone to hate. But I don't know what it is because it's not like they do this in the regular season. The Super Bowls, they're in are insane. Like six of the seven Super Bowls they have been in have been absolutely insane endings where by the end of the game

someone wrote the column, this is the best Super Bowl of all time. That has happened six times the Patriots are in the Super Bowl. This qualifies as a blowout for the Patriots, a six point margin of victories, the largest ever. Everything else had been four or less. And then finally I just

they kind of... This is your stage. The last one. They came in as underdogs like the way Brady and Belichick kind of came on the scene, especially Brady, it was as big an underdog story as possible. And there's no way the Patriots can kind of be underdogs anymore because they're the Patriots. But coming back from 28 to 3, that is about as no one believed in us as you can ever get. That's as much of an underdog, if nothing else, improbable sort of story that you can ever get. A little bit like how they started that this guy, Tom Brady, I think when we think of him,

he's going to be for doing the improbable. This was the last look you had of him at this stage, you know. So it was a special moment. I wouldn't complain. I mean, it's been enough. All right. All right, boys. I think it's almost three o'clock here in Texas.

And we all have to get back to California. Patra, you got to get back to your gym in Chicago. Thank you for your help this weekend and also your help in the studio today. Yeah. Really good to see you, buddy. Thank you, too, Dan. but that's it guys great season another one of the books where are you going next west whaler tomorrow afternoon i may be joining you i'm running out of options here i may be right

there with you all right we got to get out of here it's time to go back to la but uh thank you to everyone for listening anybody that stayed up late to listen anybody that listens tomorrow or next week or the week after that we love you uh we'll be back on thursday with our next all new show so thank you and until then this is dan hansis signing off for the quiet storm the mailman Kevin Patrick coming at you the boss and new money behind the glass till Thursday This is an I-heart podcast.