Atlanta Falcons

Robert Alford Takes Tom Brady To House With Huge Super Bowl Pick-Six (Video)

Updated Mar. 5, 2020 2:12 a.m. ET

Fansided, Cody Williams/FanSided via NFL Spin Zone

Robert Alford added to the New England Patriots’ woes in Super Bowl 51 with a monster pick-six off of Tom Brady.

Anyone expecting either a close game in Super Bowl 51 or even a dominant performance by the New England Patriots found themselves a bit dumbfounded in the first half. The first few drives for each team were predictably quiet. But then one team got rolling. However, the surprise was that it was the inexperienced (on this stage) Atlanta Falcons making noise. If that was the case, though, cornerback Robert Alford added the exclamation point.

Julio Jones and Devonta Freeman combined to torch the Patriots on Atlanta’s first scoring drive. Then it was Jones again coming up huge before tight end Austin Hooper made the big touchdown grab to push the Falcons ahead 14-0. That’s when Tom Brady started driving—benefitting from defensive penalties—and the Falcons looked like their lead might diminish a bit.

That’s when Alford came into the picture. Dropping seven back in coverage, Brady looked for his favorite target in Julian Edelman. However, he tried to squeeze the ball in a narrow window and Alford jumped the route. As he did so and got his mitts on the ball, there was nothing but daylight ahead as he went 82 yards for the monstrous pick-six:

???????? PICK-6 ALERT! ????????@rockorocky takes TB12's pass 82 yards the OTHER WAY! #SB51 #RiseUp https://t.co/F3zp4FUYva

— NFL (@NFL) February 6, 2017

That’s just mean to do that to Brady whenever his team has been getting hit in the mouth like they had been to that point.

For all of the talk that will be about the offense, how prepared Dan Quinn had his defense out of the gate is marvelous. He had them getting after Brady and then making plays everywhere else—just like on this interception.