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The 16 Best Things That Happened at Super Bowl 49

super bowl, carrie underwood
1 of 16 NBC

1. Carrie Underwood made the first tackle with a slammin' opening song.

And, no surprise, she looked great doing it.

John Legend, Gallery, Super Bowl XLIX
2 of 16 Tannen maurv/Landov

2. John Legend sang "America the Beautiful," looking about as adorable as you would expect.

Add in some montages of the Grand Canyon, Boston and Seattle and you just can't help but love 'Murica even more than you already did.

3 of 16 Larry W. Smith/Landov

3. Idina Menzel did a terrible version of "Let It Go."

That's a joke, people. The song was the national anthem, which probably confused a lot of 6-year-old football fans out there.

4 of 16 eSurance

4. Lindsay Lohan and Bryan Cranston's Heisenberg character both appeared in eSurance spots.

We're not sure which commercial we liked better; all we know is that we want to buy some insurance now.

5 of 16 Corbis

5. Jeremy Lane intercepted at the goal line.

It cost him a world of hurt -- Lane suffered a nasty-looking arm injury -- but that just made his intercept of a Tom Brady pass all the more amazing.

6 of 16 Chevy Colorado

6. A Chevy Colorado commercial punked the world.

The sneaky commercial made it look like our TV reception had failed for a split second. We you fooled too? So was half the Twitterverse.

7 of 16 Corbis

7. Seahawks fans Anna Faris and Chris Pratt partied the Phoenix airport and live Tweeted the game.

The cute comedy couple kept fans entertained with their posts, pics and totally infectious attitude.

8 of 16 MAXA/Landov; Kevin Dietsch/UPI /Landov

8. Celebrities packed the stands.

Kevin Hart, Will Ferrell, Kenny Chesney, Mark Wahlberg, Steven Tyler, John Travolta, Sir Paul McCartney, John Travolta -- they were all there. But the biggest star of the night? Totally Tom Brady.

9 of 16 Brian Snyder/Reuters/Landov

9. Chris Matthews made his first two catches of his career and later scored a touchdown.

This little-known Seahawk pretty much won the first half of the Super Bowl. Too bad about the rest.

10 of 16 Chris Coduto/Icon Sportswire

10. Katy Perry rode in on a giant silver lion puppet.

Because all the giant tigers were busy last night.

11 of 16 Francis Specker/Landov

11. Missy killed it.

Things got way more energetic when Missy Elliott joined Perry onstage. And those jumpsuits!

12 of 16 Larry W. Smith/EPA/Landov

12. Perry performed "Teenage Dream" in front of sentient beach balls and singing sharks with feet.

Which is actually what teenagers dream about, at least 80 percent of the time. True fact.

13 of 16 Roy Dabner/EPA/Landov

13. Perry turned the football field into a venue suited for another game altogether -- chess.

Now that was real witchcraft. We've never seen "Dark Horse" performed with such cool production value.

14 of 16 Erik S. Lesser/Landov

14. This became an instant meme.

15 of 16 Larry W. Smith/EPA/Landov

15. Malcolm Butler made an incredible interception to seal the game for his team.

The elated Patriot said he had a vision that he was going to make an amazing play. Guy should really try the lottery.

16 of 16 Budweiser

16. A friendship between a puppy and some horses made us ugly cry.

Yet another Budweiser commercial owned the Super Bowl this year. If a bunch of horses saving a puppy from a wolf attack didn't move you to weep, then you're a big meanie.