Now that’s a story, if you would of told me that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers
after signing Tom Brady during free agency and there was almost no NFL offseason due to the covid-19 pandemic where all 32 NFL teams had no training camp and preseason games to do full evaluation for the regular season. So what happens in the end, the Bucs win the Super Bowl 31-9 against the defending Super Bowl Champion Kansas City Chiefs in there own stadium. The Bucs at one point during the regular season were 7-5 and were coming off 2 tough loses to the LA Rams and the Kansas City Chiefs. Bucs won there final 4 games to end the season at 11-5 and then won 3 playoff games on the road to become the first team in NFL history to play in there own stadium for the Vince Lombardi Trophy in the Super Bowl.
after signing Tom Brady during free agency and there was almost no NFL offseason due to the covid-19 pandemic where all 32 NFL teams had no training camp and preseason games to do full evaluation for the regular season. So what happens in the end, the Bucs win the Super Bowl 31-9 against the defending Super Bowl Champion Kansas City Chiefs in there own stadium. The Bucs at one point during the regular season were 7-5 and were coming off 2 tough loses to the LA Rams and the Kansas City Chiefs. Bucs won there final 4 games to end the season at 11-5 and then won 3 playoff games on the road to become the first team in NFL history to play in there own stadium for the Vince Lombardi Trophy in the Super Bowl.The Bucs went up against the defending Super Bowl Champion Kansas City Chiefs led by the games best player in superstar quarterback Patrick Mahomes. The Chiefs offense is so explosive with speedy wide receiver Tyreek Hill, stud tight end Travis Kelce and all those fast weapons the Chiefs have. The two teams met in week 12 in Tampa on Thanksgiving weekend where the Chiefs won 27-24. The biggest story of the game was Tyreek Hill torching the Bucs with 13 catches for 269 yards and 3 touchdowns, in the first quarter alone he had 7 catches for 203 yards and 2 touchdowns as Mahomes had 462 yards passing. I think this was a huge learning lesson for the Bucs to play them during the regular season and that they got meet up again but this time in the big game. Bucs defensive coordinator Todd Bowles had to the perfect game plan to slow down the Mahomes led Chiefs explosive offense. In both of the Chiefs playoff wins against the Cleveland Browns and Buffalo Bills, Tyreek Hill and Travis Kelce both had over 100 yards receiving in each game. In the Chiefs AFC Championship game win over the Buffalo Bills, it came at a price as there star left tackle Eric Fisher suffered a torn Achilles injuiy and that was a big deal going into the big game. Meanwhile starting right tackle Mitchell Schwartz missed most of the season with a back injury so the Chiefs had to switch around there offensive line for the big game. The Bucs front 7 is so underrated with pass rushers Shaq Barrett and Jason Jason Pierre-Paul, inside linebackers Devin White and Lavonte David, Vita Vea, Ndamukong Suh and others on the defensive line. Days leading up for Super Bowl 55, Britt Reid who is the Chiefs outside linebackers coach and the son of Chiefs head coach Andy Reid was driving his Ram pickup truck which slammed into a car carrying two small children, one is hospitalized with life-threatening injuries. Prayers for everyone involved in the crash. This was so sad and so distracting not just for the Chiefs but for Andy Reid as well and I could only imagine what he had to deal with going into the big game.
Going into this game I thought this would be an instant classic because you have the greatest quarterback ever in Tom Brady on one side and the rising young star in Patrick Mahomes on the other side. Bucs dominated 31-9 with Tom Brady throwing for 201 yards with 3 touchdown passes, 2 of them to Rob Gronkowski and one to Antonio Brown. If you would of told me that the great Mike Evans would only catch one pass in the Super Bowl and the Bucs would win comfortably 31-9, I thought you would be crazy and Chris Godwin only had 2 catches for 9 yards. But this Super Bowl for the Bucs offense was about the new Bucs that GM Jason Licht was able to acquire. Like tight end Rob Gronkowski who came out of retirement and get traded to Tampa Bay and reunite with Tom Brady catching 6 passes for 67 yards and 2 touchdowns. Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski now have the NFL playoff record for most touchdowns by a quarterback-pass catcher tandem in NFL Playoff history at 13 surpassing Joe Montana and Jerry Rice at 12. Speaking of Antonio Brown the Bucs did sign him during the season when he was needed but I think Tom Brady really wanted to play with him despite his troubled pass, but hey it worked out in the end for both. Former Jaguars running back Leonard Fournette had 89 yards rushing with one touchdown run along with 46 yards receiving. Former Jaguars quarterback now Bucs offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich called a really good game as Tom Brady was only sacked once, only pressured on 4 passing attempts and had no turnovers even though on that interception he threw in the second quarter but was taken away because of a Chiefs holding penalty but personally I didn’t agree with that call.
The big story of the Super Bowl was the Bucs defense holding the Chiefs powerful offense to no touchdowns in the game, the Chiefs are the 3rd team in Super Bowl history not to score a single touchdown during the Super Bowl joining the 1971 Miami Dolphins who lost 24-3 to the Dallas Cowboys in Super Bowl 6 and the 2018 LA Rams who lost 13-3 to the New England Patriots in Super Bowl 53. Bucs defensive coordinator Todd Bowles called a really good game limiting the Chiefs to only 9 points on 3 field goals and only allowing 3-13 conversions on 3rd down. Here were three keys the Bucs did well on defense to totally dominate the Chiefs offense. Number one the Buccaneers’ defense aligned in a two-high safety shell on 87% of plays (59 of 68 plays), the HIGHEST rate by a Todd Bowles-led defense in a game over the last five seasons according to Next Gen Stats. Number two the Bucs pressured Mahomes without blitzing, The Bucs blitzed on 9.6% of dropbacks, the LOWEST rate by a Bowles-led defense over the last five seasons according to Next Gen Stats. Finally at number 3, the Bucs took away the sidelines from the Chiefs. According to Next Gen Stats Mahomes finished 10/22, 50 yards & 2 INT on passes targeting receivers outside the numbers in tonight’s big game. In Week 12, Mahomes was 18/22, 308 yards & 3 TD outside the numbers against this same Buccaneers defense. The Chiefs’ backup offensive tackles consisted of Andrew Wylie and Mike Remmers and they were no match for the Bucs front 7 as Patrick Mahomes was under pressure a Super Bowl record 29 times on his passing attempts. Mahomes scrambled 497 yards just to avoid either being sacked or throwing the ball as he was being chased all night by the Bucs defense. Bucs were able to get 3 sacks on Patrick Mahomes and 2 interceptions as well. If I had to vote for MVP of the Super Bowl I would of done Todd Bowles who is the Bucs defensive coordinator but since it has to go to a player I would of done Bucs linebacker Devin White who had 12 total tackles, 8 of them were solo, 2 for a loss and the one interception on the Chiefs final drive. Bucs got sacks from Shaq Barrett who had 1 sack along while Ndamukong Suh had 1.5 sacks and he also shared one with Cam Gill. Bucs rookie safety Anotonie Winfield Jr. also had the other interception for the Bucs defense. What a job by the Bucs defense limiting explosive Tyreek Hill to only 7 catches for 73 yards after he burned the Bucs in there week 12 meeting for over 200 yards, boy what a difference playing a team for the second time can do. Bucs defense rushed the passer very well and played outstanding coverage against a really good Chiefs receiving core. This is the first time in his NFL career that Patrick Mahomes didn’t throw a touchdown pass and lost an NFL game by double digits. Patrick Mahomes at times before down double digits has brought his team back to victory especially in all 3 Playoff wins which included there Super Bowl 54 win over the San Francisco 49ers from the 2019 NFL season.
How about these last 3 playoff wins for the Bucs who came against former Super Bowl MVP’s in Drew Brees against the New Orleans Saints in the Superdome in the Divisional round of the playoffs, MVP Aaron Rodgers and the Packers at cold Lambeau Field in the NFC Championship Game and last year’s Super Bowl MVP Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs which is a very impressive run for Tom Brady who now has 7 Super Bowl wins more than any NFL franchise in NFL history and Tom Brady now has one less ring than his former head coach in New England Bill Belichick who has 8 Super Bowl rings, 6 as a head coach of the Patriots and 2 when he was the defensive coordinator with the New York Giants under Hall of Fame Head Coach Bill Parcells when they won Super Bowls 21 and 25 together. I give so much credit to this Bucs team from head coach Bruce Arians who is the oldest head coach at 68 years old to win a Super Bowl from GM Jason Licht who over the years was on the hot seat to the Glazer family for sticking with the plan and now they got win the Super Bowl in there own stadium and let’s fire the cannons, what a story for the 2020 Tampa Bay Buccaneers.