Super Bowl LI
2017 edition of the Super Bowl
Super Bowl LI was an American football game played at NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas, on February 5, 2017, to determine the champion of the National Football League (NFL) for the 2016 season. The American Football Conference (AFC) champion New England Patriots defeated the National Football Conference (NFC) champion Atlanta Falcons 34–28 in overtime. Super Bowl LI featured the largest comeback in Super Bowl history, with the Patriots overcoming a 28–3 deficit to emerge victorious. The game was also the first Super Bowl (and first league championship since 1958) to be decided in overtime.
The Patriots' victory was their fifth, moving them into a three-way tie with the Dallas Cowboys and the San Francisco 49ers for the second-most Super Bowl wins. After finishing the regular season with a league-best 14–2 record, New England advanced to their record-setting ninth Super Bowl appearance and their seventh under the leadership of head coach Bill Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady. The Falcons, led by the league's top offense and MVP quarterback Matt Ryan, finished the regular season with an 11–5 record and the NFC's second seed. They were seeking their first Super Bowl title in their second appearance after last playing in 1998's Super Bowl XXXIII.
Atlanta scored three consecutive touchdowns to take a 21–3 halftime lead, which they increased to 28–3 midway through the third quarter. However, the Patriots scored 25 unanswered points to tie the game in the final seconds of regulation. In overtime, New England received the kickoff after winning the coin toss and scored a touchdown to claim the title.
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This entry incorporates text from “Super Bowl LI” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.