Dwight Freeney had a very good Super Bowl performance for the Falcons

On Sunday night the New England Patriots won Super Bowl LI in thrilling fashion, mounting a 25-point comeback to defeat the Atlanta Falcons in overtime 34-28.

For much of the first three quarters of the game, the Falcons were dominating and they had Tom Brady rattled. Unfortunately for Atlanta Brady caught fire and led an incredible comeback while the Falcons horribly mismanaged the fourth quarter, but a large part of why Atlanta had such a big lead in the first place was thanks to their pass rush being able to disrupt Brady.

One of the stars of the night for the Falcons was former Colts pass rusher Dwight Freeney, who was incredibly disruptive in the Super Bowl. He recorded a sack, a quarterback hit, and a tackle for loss, and on several other plays he applied pressure. According to Pro Football Focus, Freeney pressured Brady six times and was the second-highest rated Falcons defender.

It was cool to see Freeney, who was so good during his eleven year career with the Colts, being his traditional disruptive self in the Super Bowl against Tom Brady. Unfortunately for Freeney, however, he fell just short of getting his second ring.

“Mind-boggling,” he said of the loss last night, according to CBS4’s Mike Chappell. “Mind-boggling. We had our opportunities. We basically shut ’em out in the first half. If we make just one more play in the second half, it’s a different story.”

Freeney told Chappell that he will take some time before deciding whether to return for another season, but he was still very effective on Sunday night. He recorded just three sacks in the regular season, but he still has been able to get after the quarterback. That was on display last night as the Falcons had Tom Brady rattled early, and Dwight Freeney was a big part of that.

Unfortunately for Atlanta, they just couldn’t keep it up all game.