Top Plays From First Half Of Super Bowl LI
The NFL's biggest stage provided us plenty of fireworks in the first half in Houston. Here are the best of them.
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The NFL's biggest stage provided us plenty of fireworks in the first half in Houston. Here are the best of them.
The Patriots and Falcons put on a show during Super Bowl LI in Houston on Feb. 5, 2017. Here are some of the best images from the game.
In 50 years of Super Bowl play, three quarterbacks sit at the top of the pyramid with four championships each: Pittsburgh's Terry Bradshaw, San Francisco's Joe Montana and New England's Tom Brady. Unlike Bradshaw and Montana, however, Brady has taken a long time to a compile his four SB wins. He was just 24 when the Patriots won their first title in January 2002. Now, Brady has a chance for a fifth ring at age 39, which is pretty amazing considering the pounding so many NFL quarterbacks take over their careers.
The Falcons and Patriots both feature dominant offenses. Stopping them might be the key to winning Super Bowl LI.
Now that the bulk of Super Bowl Week activities/distractions have been conducted, the Patriots and Falcons will spend the rest of their time concentrating on the real issue -- the game.
To hear the story about the day Chris Hogan arrived on Monmouth's doorstep, it sounds almost like folklore, as though he were the Paul Bunyan or Roy Hobbs of mid-major college football.
Just as winning the Super Bowl has a special gravitas, so does losing it. We keenly recall the team that wins it all, and the team that fell four quarters short.
No NFL franchise has been as successful as the New England Patriots this century, but the outlook for the 2016 season was dim with the announcement that the team would be without quarterback Tom Brady for the first four games of the year. However, the organization overcame its star QB's league suspension, and the Patriots finished with the best record, the best scoring differential and the best scoring defense in the NFL on their way to an seventh Super Bowl appearance since 2001. This is how they got here.
It's not enough to depend on superstar players. It's often up to role players to step up when a world title is on the line.
Does anyone really think the Atlanta Falcons will win this game?
Some highlights from Super Bowl LI at Minute Maid Park in Houston.
Matt Ryan was supposed to be the savior of the Atlanta Falcons when they drafted him but he soon earned a reputation as someone who lost in big games. Everything changed in 2016 and he has the Falcons ready to win their first ever Super Bowl.
This year's Super Bowl has shaped up to really be two of the very best teams in the NFL, and it doesn't hurt that two of the elite quarterbacks are also involved. Both Matt Ryan and Tom Brady are working through Hall of Fame careers, but the latter isn't slowing down as his age keeps going up.
Rob Gronkowski is the Patriots' second-most indispensable player, and the team has won despite his season-ending injury.
But for all the aerial splendor, something sets it up. Another dynamic makes the passing game possible. And, despite the sport bending the rules so heavily in favor of throwing the football, running with the rock still works.
The New England Patriots didn't get as good as they are by making poor choices and just drafting any player on the board. Every single decision they have made in the past few years have led up to this point and this collection of players is the reason they are heading back to the Super Bowl.
It has gotten to the point where seeing the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl elicits more shrugs than raised eyebrows. So much for parity.
Patriots head coach, Bill Belichick, may be the greatest coach in NFL history, especially given this era of parity and free agency.
The Falcons are a better defensive team than they were in 2014 or 2015. But it's fair to ask just how much better.
The message from coaches approaching Super Bowl Week is generally the same year to year. "Enjoy the experience," they say. "But not too much."
While it may seem impossible to imagine, CBS2's Steve Overmyer may have found a reason for you to root for the Patriots.
Here are five reasons you should root for the Falcons in this year's big game.
Whether you like them or not, there are a lot of reasons to root for the Patriots to beat the Atlanta Falcons in Super Bowl LI.
Despite having the NFL's eighth-ranked defense this season, New England doesn't have a lot of big-name players on that side of the ball.
For all of Belichick's four Super Bowl victories over the previous 16 years coaching the Patriots, one must never forget that way, way back, he, too, was once the hot defensive coordinator.
