After trailing by 25 points in the third quarter and 19 points to begin the fourth, they had whittled Atlanta's seemingly unassailable lead down to just eight points. The fact that no team in the Super Bowl era had ever come back from a 17-point deficit to start the fourth quarter -- those teams were a tidy 0-for-120 before Sunday night -- didn't matter. Nor did their previous deficit.
All that Tom Brady and the Patriots knew was that they were on familiar ground. And no one watching realized that more than the Broncos and their fans.
With 91 yards to go and an eight-point deficit near the end of regulation Sunday, immediately, the mind's eye pictured Sports Authority Field at Mile High on a chilly, breezy January afternoon just over a year ago, when the Patriots trailed by eight points and needed one final burst to force an overtime that few had thought possible.