NFL

20 Crazy Stats, Facts, and Records From Super Bowl LI

Everyone knows how absurd the Patriots' comeback was over the Falcons, but here are some things you may not know.

Sometimes words aren't enough. Sometimes, only seeing is believing.

That's really all there is to say about the New England Patriots' unbelievable, come-from-behind Super Bowl LI win over the Atlanta Falcons.

While I can't paint a picture well enough to capture the excitement of that game, these stats, facts, and records might do it some justice.

20 Stats, Facts, and Records From Super Bowl LI

1. The Falcons became the third team since 1994 to run a first-down play with an eight-point lead or more inside their opponent's 25 with fewer than five minutes remaining and lose.

2. On that first-down play with 4:40 left, numberFire Live gave them greater than a 96% chance to win, a mark that was actually lower than it was earlier in the fourth quarter.

3. After Stephen Gostkowski's 33-yard field goal to bring the score to 28-12 with 9:44 left in the fourth quarter, the Falcons had a 98.45% chance to win, per numberFire Live.

4. If that 1.55% chance for New England seems low in hindsight for a team as good as the Patriots with such a storied quarterback, just know that they had lost all 10 games when trailing by 14 to 16 points with fewer than 10 minutes to go in the Tom Brady era prior to Super Bowl LI.

5. After their mind-blowing comeback, the Patriots became the second team in NFL history to win an overtime game after overcoming a 16-point deficit in the fourth quarter by scoring two touchdowns with two two-point conversions.

6. In so doing, they set a Super Bowl record, as 10 points was the largest Super Bowl comeback ever, prior to Super Bowl LI. The Patriots trailed by 25 in the third quarter.

7. After falling behind 28-3 with 8:31 left in the third quarter, the Patriots ran 49 plays compared to just 16 for Atlanta.

8. They out-gained Atlanta 351 to 44 after that mark.

9. The Patriots' 93 offensive plays were the most by a team in Super Bowl history.

10. Atlanta's 46 offensive plays were second-fewest in Super Bowl history.

11. So, the Patriots both ran more plays (49) after trailing by 25 than the Falcons did all game (46) and bested Atlanta's 344 total yards by accumulating 351 after getting the ball down 25.

12. Among the 582 instances of a team playing in overtime since 2000, Atlanta's time of possession (23:27) ranked 574th. Put another way, only 8 teams in nearly 300 overtime games since 2000 possessed the ball for a shorter duration than the Falcons did.

13. On a very related note, Julio Jones had 4 targets (that led to 4 catches for 87 yards). In his 85 career games including the playoffs, he's seen fewer than 4 targets just once, back in his rookie season against the Minnesota Vikings. He was playing through a hamstring injury and missed the game prior.

14. Matt Ryan maintained a 144.1 passer rating on his 23 attempts, which is the ninth-highest quarterback rating from a losing quarterback in any game since 1950 with at least 20 attempts. It's the best passer rating from a Super Bowl-losing quarterback in history.

15. Now, three of the four highest passer ratings from Super Bowl-losing quarterbacks have come against the Patriots: Ryan (144.1) in 2017, Jake Delhomme (113.6) in 2004, and Russell Wilson (110.6) in 2015.

16. Tom Brady's passer rating of 95.2 ranked 29th among 43 Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks with at least 20 attempts.

17. The Patriots became the first team in Super Bowl history to win despite throwing a pick-six. Previous teams with an interception return for a touchdown were 12-0 in Super Bowl history.

18. Running back James White set or tied four different Super Bowl records. He set the record for catches (14), points scored (20), and touchdowns scored (3). He also tied the record for two-point conversions (with one) alongside Danny Amendola.

19. This was the largest margin of victory for the Patriots in a Super Bowl ever.

20. In all, 31 Super Bowl records were set or tied in this game.