Logan Ryan, a native of Berlin, NJ, attended Eastern High School in Voorhees, NJ, now has two Super Bowl rings. Photo by Al Thompson

HOUSTON: The first thing players on both teams were asked after the New England Patriots erased a 25-point deficit midway through the third quarter and found a way to beat the Atlanta Falcons 34-28 in overtime of Super Bowl LI was…what happened? What switch went off in the minds of Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and New England’s defense to produce such a stunning comeback?

For defensive back Logan Ryan, a Berlin native who attended Eastern High School in Voorhees, and played for the Vikings football team said, in a one-on-one interview at his locker after the game, it was simple.

“It’s easy, you’ve got nothing else to lose,” Ryan said. “If you’re going down with the biggest embarrassment with your brothers, so be it. But at that point we had nothing to lose. Our backs were against the wall and we were playing to win. We were using every call we ever ran, every blitz we could think of, guys are playing on islands and we just tried to take this championship and that’s what we did.”

The Falcons looked like they had the game under control at the half and into the third quarter. Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan, a Philadelphia area native, connected on seven of his first eight passes for 115 yards and a touchdown as Atlanta bolted to a 21-3 lead at halftime.

Falcons running back Devonta Freeman boasted an 11.8 yards per carry average in the first half on six touches and a five-yard touchdown run. Going into the third quarter, the once-nicknamed “Dirty Birds” were flying.

Falcons All-Pro receiver Julio Jones had three catches for 60 yards at the half, one in the second half to finish with 87 yards. Several of Jones’ catches were brilliant, especially the one he caught in the fourth quarter for 27 yards that was made as he somehow kept his toes in bounds.
But in the end it wasn’t enough.

“This dude made tremendous catches,” said Ryan, who tied for the team lead with six tackles for the game. “That’s not going to discourage me. It’s my job. My job is to make it tough on him. Very few have been able to completely eliminate him, I didn’t think I was going to be able to that. I thought I was going to play smart, make everything tough on him. We had help on him at times but hats off to a tremendous player, but it’s a total team effort here. We know Julio Jones is good, we knew Freeman was good, we knew Matt Ryan was good but we had a whole defense that we felt like was good. We might not have as many All-Pros and stuff like that, but it’s a team game. I mean we’re down 25 and came back against a top offense, so what do you expect?”

Speaking of great catches, what were all the players talking about after the game? Mostly about the nightmare that happened to the Falcons secondary with 2:28 left in the fourth quarter when Julian Edelman made a circus 23-yard catch over, around and between defensive backs Ricardo Allen, Robert Alford and Keanu Neal. Brady then led the Patriots to a game-tying score that forced overtime and eventually the win.

Patriots Eric Rowe, a former Eagles defensive back, was asked if he had ever seen a catch like Edelman’s.

“No,” said Rowe without hesitation. “I was like…just the way he kept going for the ball, even though it was thrown into double coverage, it is the best catch I’ve ever seen. Caught it off the dude’s foot then scooped it not letting it hit the ground, it was just great concentration.”

Ryan finished 17 of 23 for 284 yards, two touchdown passes, no interceptions, one lost fumble and a quarterback rating of 144.8. Freeman finished with 75 yards on 11 carries.

Brady was pretty much the Patriots entire offense this night throwing 62 times, completing 43 for 466 yards, two touchdowns, a pick-six to Alford for 82 yards).

The six-point margin of victory – in overtime – was the widest margin in Tom Brady’s five Super Bowl wins. His two losses to the Giants were by four points and three points.

Ryan was asked if the Patriots will ever have an easy Super Bowl.

“It’s good for (TV) ratings but you know what?” Ryan asked. “Championships shouldn’t be easy, they have to be earned and I don’t think anyone can take this one from us.”