Superbowl history made in Houston

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Zehra Jaffari, Student Life Editor

Making Super Bowl history, the New England Patriots won Super Bowl 51 in Houston, Texas. The Patriots from the American Football Conference (AFC) and the Atlanta Falcons from the National Football Conference (NFC) played the first overtime game in Super Bowl history. The Patriots defeated the Falcons, 34-28, on February 5th. Trailing 3-28 with approximately less than nine minutes left in the third quarter, New England made the biggest comeback ever.

 

After the first half, for everyone thought that Atlanta had locked in the game with a blowout, the second half came unexpected to all 111 million viewers. During the halftime show, Lady Gaga performed some of her most famous songs including “Poker Face”, “Born This Way”, “Bad Romance” and also sang “God Bless America” and “This Land is Your Land”. As she was propelled in the air with her grand entrance and a swarm of 300 LED-equipped drones, the drones formed the American flag.

 

After halftime, with a memorable performance by Lady Gaga at NRG Stadium, the Patriots had Tom Brady lead the Patriots 75 yards in 13 plays for a responding touchdown and a 17 yard completion to Danny Amendola. After LeGarrette Blount moved the ball to the 5-yard line, Brady threw the ball to James White, scoring a touchdown, making the score 9-28. Later in the second half, White ran the ball in for a 2-point conversion to make the score 28–20 in favor of Atlanta with 5:56 left on the clock. By the last couple minutes of the fourth quarter, two more passes to White gave New England a first down at the 1-yard line. With only one minute remaining, White scored on a 1-yard touchdown run, and Brady completed a 2-point conversion pass to Amendola, tying the score at 28. With a scoring tie at the end of regulation time, the Super Bowl went to its first overtime.

 

To start overtime, the New England Patriots won the coin toss to start the last moments of the game. On first down, almost intercepted by Vic Beasley, Brady threw an incomplete pass to Martellus Bennett. On the second down, White took a pitch and ran the ball right. Surrounded by Falcons defenders at the 1 yard line, White managed to stretch forward and just barely got the ball across the goal line before hitting the ground. This gave the Patriots a scoring touchdown with a 34-28 victory.

 

After the New England Patriots returned to Boston for their parade, with their most valuable player (MVP), Tom Brady, they celebrated with their home city and fans. After an exciting and memorable Super Bowl, this game will definitely go down in history!