You can excuse Robert Alford for being in shock. This isn't a clinical diagnosis, but a hunch based solely on the Falcons' systematic collapse over the final 25 minutes of Super Bowl LI that saw a 25-point lead evaporate into a six-point overtime loss.

There are any number of plays you can point to as the impetus for the turnaround, but the one that will haunt Alford took place with 2:34 to go in the fourth quarter and the Patriots trailing by eight. Facing a 2nd-and-10 from their own 25, Tom Brady dropped back, forced a throw into double coverage that should have been intercepted. Instead, this happened:

Seriously, this happened:

"I couldn't believe that he caught it," Alford said after the game. He was convinced that after he batted the pass into the air, either teammate Ricardo Allen or Keanu Neal would clean things up with an interception.

"It was a nice bat by me, I hit the ground, I was trying with everything in my will to get back up and at least make a play on it," Alford continued. "I thought that Rico or one of my brothers would get it, but they all were battling for it and Edelman came down with it."

Four plays later, the Patriots scored another touchdown -- and then converted a two-point conversion to tie the game with less than a minute remaining in regulation. After several more minutes of overtime, New England had its fifth Lombardi Trophy.

Here's Brady on Edelman's grab: "It's one of the greatest catches I've ever seen. I don't know how he caught it. I don't think he does either."

And here is how Edelman remembered it: "I knew I had a good grip on it. I didn't know if a piece of the ball was touching, and I don't know what the dang rule is about a catch. But I was pretty sure I caught it."

It sounds silly to say, given the Pats' unparalleled success, but after a spate of Super Bowl bad luck -- they've been on the business end of great plays by the likes of David Tyree and Mario Manningham -- it was their receiver who finally made a jaw-dropping, game-changing play.

"Yeah, it was kind of a flip of the script there," Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels said. "I think in some of these types of games, you need a play or two like that to go your way. When it went up in the air, all I could do was hold my breath, thinking it might be picked off."