By Brandon Simmons
Super Bowl LV is here, with the Kansas City Chiefs visiting the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, which is not only a rematch of their Week 12 matchup that Tampa hosted; it will be the first time in NFL history that a team will play for a Super Bowl title in their home stadium. To add to this monumental occasion, this game will also feature 2 of the more prominent QB’s of the past 20 years, but at different points of their careers. The Kansas City Chiefs are coming into town with QB Patrick Mahomes, the young phenom who is starting his career at historic levels, and quickly positioned himself as an elite quarterback in this league. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers will be at home with their QB Tom Brady, the proven, all-time great veteran who turned a 7-9 team into a Super Bowl participant after one season. This will be another chapter in what has become a newly minted rivalry between the stars representing the NFL’s past and future. It doesn’t seem fair to show so much favor to just these two individuals, because they are backed by some great teams, from top to bottom. But at the end of the day, these two will decide the outcome of the game.
The Kansas City Chiefs are coming into this game just as dangerous as expected. Their playoff run has been near flawless, much like their regular season performance. The Chiefs went 14-2 and shot to the number one seed of the AFC playoffs. Mahomes has been playing lights out, half of the reason this team has become the league leader in passing offense. The other half reason belongs to Chiefs wide receiver Tyreek Hill, who was 2nd in the league in touchdown receptions. It might seem like he was quiet this year, but he has made some loud moments. In the game against the Buccaneers, he put up 269 receiving yards, on Tampa Bay’s home turf. In the Chiefs’ playoff win s, he had 8 catches for 110 in the divisional round and 9 catches for 172 yards in the conference championship. The defense has been quietly better than last season, ranking 10th in the league in points allowed. Chiefs safety Tyrann Mathieu is going to be a key figure on defense, as the All Pro was 3rd in the league with 6 interceptions.
It’s hard to argue for another team that had a storyline better than the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Bucs signed QB Tom Brady after concluding his 20-year tenure with the New England Patriots. Brady then took this Tampa Bay team from 7-9, to becoming the first team in NFL history to host the Super Bowl in their own stadium, ironically after entering the playoffs with a small chance of seeing homefield through the first 3 rounds. But the headlines didn’t stop there. This team reunited Brady with his former Patriots weapon, tight end Rob Gronkowski, and sought to sponsor the redemption tour of wide receiver Antonio Brown, another former New England teammate of Brady’s. Tampa had their own explosive victories throughout the year and found themselves in the middle of a glorious playoff run, which included beating Drew Brees in New Orleans and Aaron Rodgers in Green Bay. Those victories could be credited to their defense – lead by linebacker Devin White – that was also ranked 1st against the run.
The key for the Chiefs will be how they can protect Mahomes from the Bucs pass rush. Tampa is going to do everything they can to bring the pressure on Mahomes and stall this Chiefs offense. In the game against the Las Vegas Raiders, Mahomes faced his highest percentage of pressure of the season and it resulted in a loss. The upside to this is that the Chiefs have receivers – outside of Tyreek Hill – who can make plays off quick routes, to avoid any type of pass rush, such as wide receiver Mecole Hardman and Sammy Watkins if he’s healthy. Tight end Travis Kelce is also another receiving option for quick routes, as he can that can catch the ball any place you get throw it to him on the field and he’ll get you some extra yardage. While they do have some great receivers, there might be a time to call upon them to run the ball if the pressure becomes too much. Obviously, KC is not known for their running game, but rookie Clyde Edwards-Helaire, as well as former Pittsburgh Steeler and New York Jet, Le’Veon Bell should add a huge boost to that backfield.
The key for the Bucs will be how their defense can slow down the Chiefs offensively. Brady is loaded with weapons at his disposal, but that Kansas City offense will light that scoreboard up. Tampa’s defense has come up big in their past 2 games by forcing turnovers to either take or protect the lead. This unit’s performance was crucial in the Packers win when Brady threw those 3 picks in the 2nd half. The Chiefs have the components on defense to give Brady a hard time in the pocket and force him to make some mistakes. He got away with those mistakes against Rodgers because of Green Bay’s own mishaps, but the Chiefs will not be as careless.
At the end of the day, the Kansas City Chiefs will prevail in the toughest battle of Mahomes’ career. They will not have the advantage of neutral ground but going into the Bucs’ stadium did not seem to affect them too much in the first game. The Chiefs have been playing like a complete team this postseason, meaning they have showed what they can do without Mahomes. People saw it when he was knocked out of the divisional game against the Browns, and his backup Chad Henne came in to help secure the win. It showed in the conference championship against the Bills, when the defense got 4 sacks, including 2 by defensive end Frank Clark. On the flip side, in that same game, it showed what they can do with Mahomes, when they were down at the end of the 1st quarter, but outscored Buffalo 21-3 in the 2nd quarter. However, it’s more than what just single units of offense and defense can do; this whole team is becoming something special right now because are not only learning how to win, but they are proving they can win the big games right now with this group and this quarterback. And with all of that, Kansas City doesn’t appear to let this go to their head or take it for granted. That is what it’s going to take when going up against Tom Brady, the epitome of winning in all of sports. Brady is having another tremendous playoff run, and it’s even more spectacular this season because of his age; but he has shown to be vulnerable as well, just like in the 2nd half of the conference championship against the Packers. The Chiefs are not a team you get to be vulnerable against and expect to beat. All the KC offense needs is one play to break things open, and the points will start pouring in. Expect the Chiefs to walk away with this game and try to build a championship run.