When the New England Patriots trailed 28-9 heading into the fourth quarter of Super Bowl LI Sunday night, it was easy to write them off. No team had ever overcome a double-digit second-half deficit to win a Super Bowl before. And teams trailing by 20 or more points at the start of the fourth quarter have gone 0-11 in past Super Bowls.
But the Patriots, led by quarterback Tom Brady, fought back and somehow topped the Atlanta Falcons, 34-28, making New England’s the greatest comeback in football history. Here are the eight craziest stats from their win, which show just how bonkers this game really was.
• 99.6 percent: The Falcons’ win probability, according to ESPN, after Patriots kicker Stephen Gostkowski hit a 33-yard field goal with 9 minutes 44 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter to cut New England’s deficit to 16 points. According to Neil Paine of ESPN, no team has ever overcome a lower win probability in the second half of the Super Bowl than New England did on Sunday night.
• 8 minutes, 49 seconds: The time it took the Patriots to go from a win probability of less than 1 percent to a win probability of 50 percent, after a two-point conversion tied the game with less than a minute to go in regulation.
• 75 yards: The longest game-winning drive ever by Brady in the playoffs, one-yard more than his previous best, a 74-yard drive against the Baltimore Ravens in the 2015 divisional game. The Patriots’ previous longest game-winning drive in the Super Bowl was against the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl XLIX (64 yards).
• 466 yards: Brady’s new Super Bowl record for yardage, set on 43 completed passes, which breaks St. Louis Rams QB Kurt Warner’s mark (414 yards) against the Tennessee Titans in Super Bowl XXXIV. It is only the fourth time since the merger of 1970 that a team allowed 450 or more passing yards in a playoff game.
• 93 plays: Total number run by New England, breaking the NFL record (regular season and playoffs) set by the Pittsburgh Steelers (84) in Super Bowl XXX. Atlanta ran 46 plays.
• 14: Receptions by James White, breaking the previous Super Bowl record held by Denver Broncos wide receiver Demaryius Thomas (13 catches) during Super Bowl XLVIII. If not for Brady’s out-of-this-world heroics, White would be the game’s most valuable player. He had 110 yards and a touchdown in the passing game and added two more scores on the ground.
• 37: The number of times New England moved the chains against Atlanta, a Super Bowl record, to join the 1984 San Francisco 49ers as the only Super Bowl teams to have at least 30 first downs.
• 5: Football is a team sport, but Brady is now the only quarterback in NFL history to have five Super Bowl rings. He has been named MVP in four of those wins.
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