HOUSTON: The New England Patriots came back from 25 points down with less than 24 minutes remaining, scoring 19 points in the fourth quarter and scoring a touchdown on the first drive of overtime to win their fifth Super Bowl of this millennium, 34-28 over the Atlanta Falcons.

It had seemed a coronation had turned into an implosion by the team used to embarrassing the rest of the NFL.

The Falcons led 21-0 in the second quarter and 28-3 midway through the third.

And then the Patriots defense stopped breaking and started making plays. Their offensive line stopped leaking and Tom Brady started completing passes.

Julian Edelman made a catch that defied all that should be believed about physics, with the ball going from being tipped to caroming off a defender’s foot before Edelman somehow came back and grabbed it inches before it hit the turf.

The Patriots scored two touchdowns in the final six minutes and converted a two-point conversion both times to tie the game with 57 seconds remaining.

They won the coin toss before the start of the first overtime period in 51 Super Bowls and drove 75 yards in eight plays, scoring on James White’s two-yard run that unleashed a shower of red, white and blue confetti to fall on the NRG Stadium floor.

And so it was that the Brady and Bill Belichick got their fifth Super Bowl victories, most ever by a coach and a quarterback.

No team had ever come back from more than a 10-point deficit to win a Super Bowl.

Of course, the Brady-led Patriots would be the first.

This was just the sixth time in his career Brady was quarterbacking a team that trailed by 21 points. He is now a preposterous 3-3 in those games.

The victory broke his tie with Joe Montana and Terry Bradshaw for most ever by a quarterback. And with Brady and Belichick’s fifth Super Bowl together since their first in 2001 Belichick broke his tie with former Steelers head coach Chuck Noll.

A game that at first seemed to take the Patriots back in time — as they appeared headed to a rout like the one they suffered in Super Bowl XX, 31 years prior, at the hands of the Chicago Bears — instead was an all-timer.

This was the 305th game of the Belichick era and just the 34th time the Patriots had trailed by double digits at halftime, the fourth time they had been behind by 18 or more at that juncture. They had never trailed at halftime in their six previous Brady-led Super Bowls.

A scoreless first quarter gave way to a 21-point burst by Atlanta that all but sealed the Falcons’ first Super Bowl title by halftime.

As effective as the Falcons offense was early on, they also flipped the script on the Patriots, turning two turnovers into scores.

Brady had been sacked just 19 times in 14 games this season. He went down twice on one first-quarter series and five times in the game (plus another knockdowns). Brady had thrown a record 247 passes in his six previous Super Bowls and been intercepted just four times. He would throw his first Super Bowl pick-six Sunday.

Then, after entering the fourth quarter 22-for-35 for 220 yards and a 78.3 passer rating that would have been his lowest in a Super Bowl, Brady completed 21 of his 27 fourth-quarter passes for 246 yards and a touchdown. He finished 43 of 62 for 466 yards and a 95.2 rating.

The finish couldn’t have been more different than the beginning.

The Patriots were driving early in the second quarter, seemingly headed to the game’s first score when Deion Jones ripped the ball from New England running back LeGarrette Blount’s hands, Robert Alford recovered and the Falcons took over at their 29-yard line.

Five plays later – two passes for 42 yards to Julio Jones, three runs by Devonta Freeman to cover the rest of the territory — the Falcons were up 7-0.

It was the first time in eight games the Patriots trailed.

The deficit was doubled 3½ minutes later after a Patriots three-and-out and another five-play touchdown drive by the Falcons. This one was for 62 yards, punctuated by a 19-yard pass from Ryan to Austin Hooper.

New England had never trailed by two touchdowns in their previous six Super Bowls of the Brady-Belichick era. And no team had ever come back from two-touchdown deficit in a Super Bowl.

The Patriots were again on the verge of scoring for the first time, having advanced from their 25 to the Falcons 23 when Robert Alford stepped in front of a Brady pass and ran unbothered 82 yards to the end zone to give Atlanta a 21-0 lead.

It was just the sixth time in Brady’s 270 starts the Patriots had been down by 21.

They got to 21-3 with a field goal just before halftime. And there was a sliver of hope, in that they won the only other game in the previous decade in which they had trailed by that much at the half, having turned a 24-0 deficit against the Broncos in 2013 into a 41-34 victory.

But the Falcons marched 85 yards for another touchdown to go up 28-3 midway through the third quarter.

By the time the Patriots got their first touchdown, with 2:06 remaining in the third quarter, the five-yard pass from Brady to James White seemed as inconsequential as the missed PAT by Stephen Gostkowski that followed and made it 28-9.

New England tried an onside kick that Atlanta recovered.

The Falcons, though, did not score.

The Patriots drove to a field goal to get to 28-12 with 9:44 remaining and did not attempt an onside kick. Atlanta took over at its 27. On third down, Don’t’a Hightower sacked and dislodged the ball from Ryan’s grasp. Alan Branch recovered the fumble at the 25.

The Patriots scored five plays later on a six-yard reception by Danny Amendola and got to within 28-20 with a two-point conversion.

The Falcons started the ensuing drive at the 10-yard line, quickly moved across midfield and got to the New England 22 with a leaping catch and toe-tap by Jones.

The Patriots would keep the Falcons from scoring, though, and they drove 91 yards in 10 plays, scoring on a one-yard run by White with 57 seconds remaining.

Published in Dawn, February 7th, 2017