FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Between Bill Belichick’s insightful postgame interview on ESPN on Super Bowl Sunday (above), a humorous Monday night appearance by Belichick and Julian Edelman on the “Jimmy Fallon Show,” and Showtime’s “Inside the NFL” program on Tuesday night, a new level of insight and color has been learned about the New England Patriots’ victory over the Atlanta Falcons.
In addition to a brief discussion between Edelman and quarterback Tom Brady about winning for Brady’s mother, here are other things that stood out:
Patriots 34, Falcons 28 (OT)
• Complete coverage of epic comeback
• How the biggest plays went down
• Rank: This is best comeback ever
Edelman’s delayed celebration. After James White’s overtime touchdown run, Edelman kept telling everyone to get off the field because the play still needed to be reviewed. It wasn’t until he met up with Bill Belichick on the field, and Belichick told him the play was confirmed, that Edelman let loose. Some great emotion there.
Game declared itself by end of first quarter. Belichick said the coaching staff had a good feel for the game by the end of the first quarter, as the Falcons were playing primarily man coverage with a single-high safety. “It was a cover-1 game, absolutely,” Belichick said. “We didn’t have a lot of success running the ball. We were able to make enough throws outside, and that finally was the difference for us, when we were able to get the ball to the perimeter. … To me, the game declared at the end of the first quarter. It was a man-to-man game with free safety and it was an outside run game. We didn’t do a great job at either one of them, but it declared early and we played it from there.”
Belichick watched highlights at 4 a.m. to confirm it happened. Belichick said he had to make sure it wasn’t a dream, so he watched the highlights early in the morning to confirm it.
Falcons’ Sanu supremely confident. After Atlanta jumped out to a double-digit lead in the first half, receiver Mohamed Sanu was on the sideline talking with receiver Taylor Gabriel and said, “Shaking his head, he ain’t ever seen something like this,” Sanu said, before Gabriel responded. “That’s Tom Brady.”
The Hilltopper Play. Belichick said the fake kneel-down play in which running back Dion Lewis hurt his hamstring is called “The Hilltopper play.”
Edelman: ‘It’s going to be a helluva story.’ Trailing 21-3 at the half, Edelman was confident in a comeback. He said, ‘It’s going to be a helluva story” in the direction of Brady, who responded, “Hell yeah.” Later, Edelman told teammates in the huddle, and Bill Belichick in the postgame celebration, “You gotta believe.” Edelman’s reaction on his remarkable 23-yard catch was also notable.
Scarnecchia was forward thinking. After the Patriots had closed the gap to 28-20, offensive line coach Dante Scarnecchia was already prepping his players for the likelihood of another two-point conversion. “We’re still in a go-for-2 mode if we score again, when we score again,” he said. Likewise, running back LeGarrette Blount said on the sideline, “We’ve got Tom Brady. If we get into OT, it’s over with.”
A lot of love. Whether it was defensive coordinator Matt Patricia saying it to linebacker Dont’a Hightower, offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels saying it to Blount, Edelman saying it to Brady, or Bill Belichick telling Brady and Blount, this team says, “I love you” a lot.
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