Belichick's Greatest Hits No. 4: The 28-3 Comeback

Robert Beck. Getty Images.

There's no reason not to give Tom Brady, James White and Julian Edelman all the credit they've gotten for the legendary 28-3 comeback against Atlanta. Or for that matter, Danny Amendola, Malcolm Mitchell, Martellus Bennett, Chris Hogan or [spoiler] the Lily Tomlin character in 80 for Brady. They earned every accolade they've gotten and will forever get for that. Those first three names will all get voted into the Patriots Hall of Fame in due time and their heroics on that day will come up with each induction. 

So in no way is this meant to diminish what they accomplished putting up 31 unanswered points by putting it all on the head coach. But Bill Belichick's masterminding that day seven years ago has been overlooked way too much for way too long. A whole book could be written about it. And with all due respect to those horny geriatric fan girls in Brady's movie, his handling of that game deserves a Kurt Russell in Miracle-level film treatment. But for right now, he'll have to settle for this spot on this countdown. And this blog. 

For starters, the very fact his team hung in, stayed focus, didn't implode and turn the game into a rout as so many past Super Bowl teams in the past when they got down early did (looking at you, Broncos, Bills and Chargers of the late '80s-early '90s). Just for the fact they didn't give up hope like every single Pats fan in the world did (looking at you, Mark Wahlberg), is a testament to his coaching. As Mr. Kraft pointed out at the ring ceremony months later, late in the 3rd quarter the analytics had his team with a 99.6% chance of that party never happening. That willingness to hang in starts at the top.

Next, the Patriots offensive braintrust led by Josh McDaniels had all the contingencies on top of contingencies for mixing things up until they found something that worked. As explained in Do Your Job 2, which the NFL would never let me embed so here's the link, they anticipated the Falcons playing a lot of Cover-1 with five defenders underneath, with the fifth being freed up to disrupt passing lanes over the middle. Which was obviously working. So they adjusted by working the edges and hitting on a lot of curl, flats and comebackers. Absolutely none more critical than faced with a 3rd & 10 from their own 8, still down 28-20 with just over 3:00 to play and zero margin for error, when Brady hit Chris Hogan for 18:

Again, I could go on all day about the offensive scheme, adjustments, execution, and individual performances that made that comeback possible. But for the purposes of this discussion, I'm going to focus on the under-talked about aspect of that game. How Belichick's defense turned the tide. 

The 2016 Falcons not only led the league in scoring, their 33.8 points per game was the 8th highest in NFL history. Matt Ryan was the league MVP. Julio Jones was arguably the league's best wideout with 1,400 yards. Devonta Freeman was an outstanding all purpose back, with 1,400 total yards of his own. And Dan Quinn's offensive staff was essentially a Brat Pack of great young innovators that included Kyle Shanahan, Matt LaFleur, Raheem Morris, and Mike McDaniel. A group so impressive that they represent 15.625% of all head coaches in the league at the moment, including Quinn himself.

And yet for all that firepower, the defense led by Belichick Matt Patricia and Brian Flores held Atlanta two 21 points (let's not ignore a Pick-6 by Brady) which was the Falcons second fewest of the season, and just 344 yards, their third fewest. 

After Atlanta scored to make it 28-3, they had four more possessions with the chance to put the game utterly out of reach. The results:

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• 3 plays, -15 yards, punt
• 3 plays, -2 yards, fumble
• 6 plays, 45 yards, punt
• 4 plays, 16 yards, punt

First let's look at the fumble. Which was the result of Patriots new inside linebackers coach Dont'a Hightower making the second of three Super Bowl winning defensive plays in a career filled with so much winning we eventually said "We're sick of winning! No more winning!" Due to the fact Belichick noted that Tevin Coleman, the Falcons go-to pass protection back, left the game with an injury. So with Freeman in instead, they split Hightower out wide and blitzed him. The result is that you are currently closer to me that Freeman was to Hightower as he blew by. And blew up Ryan for the strip sack, recovered by New England at the Atlanta 25:

Five plays and a successful 2-point conversion by White made it a 28-20 game. 

Yet of all those final four drives I mentioned, paradoxically enough, the most impressive might be the one where Atlanta actually moved the ball. A screen to Freeman picked up 39 yards. A bomb that Jones hauled in at the sideline picked up another 27 and gave them a 1st & 10 at the New England 22. And the best anyone could reasonably hope for was holding them to a field goal, which would've made it an 11-point game. 

What we got instead was something that hadn't happened in the entire league that year. This was the first time all season a team drove as far as their opponent's 22, had a 1st down, and ended up punting. Thanks to another edge rush by Hightower (off the right side this time), Kyle Van Noy taking away the shallow middle while spying the backfield, and Trey Flowers bullrushing the center from the left side C-G gap:

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… to set up a 3rd & 23. An offensive holding penalty made it a 3rd & 33. And Quinn/Ryan were rattled badly enough to play it safe, take a checkdown and punt. By the time they'd touch the ball again, it was a tie game. And it would take just one possession in overtime to complete a turnaround so startling it inspired a million t-shirts, flags, and memes. And earned it's own capitalized shorthand, The Comeback.

Still three more to go on this list, that are actually more impressive than this. So buy a shirt and we'll do this again tomorrow with the bronze medal winner.