Tom Brady wins his seventh Super Bowl title as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers dominated the Kansas City Chiefs
A dominating performance by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers brought the second Lombardi Trophy to Tampa Bay and the seventh for the greatest of all time.
Tom Brady has closed any discussion for the greatest NFL player of all time, as he and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers beat the reigning Super Bowl MVP Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs in a blowout 31–9 win in Super Bowl LV. Brady brought a second Lombardi Trophy to the city of Tampa since the first one in 2002, and also became the man who has more Super Bowl rings than any other NFL franchises, with seven rings compared to the New England Patriots and Pittsburgh Steelers who have six each. Brady, who played in his 10th Super Bowl, gave a flawless, effective, and efficient performance in the game, which was the key to beat the Chiefs and also Steve Spagnuolo for the first time in a Super Bowl. He finished the night with 21-of-29 completion, 201 passing yards, and three touchdowns to bring home his fifth Super Bowl MVP award. His long time friend, Rob Gronkowski, joined in the fun with six receptions, 67 yards, and two touchdowns.
Patrick Mahomes was far from effective in this game. For the first time since he became a starter in the league, he lost by more than eight points and the Chiefs failed to score any touchdown. The loss of Eric Fisher at left tackle forced Mahomes to improvise a lot more as the Buccaneers’ pass rushers collapsed the pocket with ease throughout the game. Throwing only 270 passing yards from 49 attempts was not ideal, especially on a stage like the Super Bowl. Unlike in any games before, his receivers couldn’t be of help and drop key passes that could have made a difference in the game. Travis Kelce, who had 133 receiving yards, was the lone weapon for Mahomes. Tyreek Hill failed to replicate his explosive performance against the Buccaneers in week 12 and only caught the ball seven times for 73 yards, and no other receivers in the Chiefs offense peaked 50 receiving yards.
The game itself turned into a battle between offensive line and defensive line, and the Bucs dominated on both sides of the ball. Their offensive line only allowed four pressures on Brady’s 30 dropbacks according to ESPN Stats and Info, which turned out to be the best protection he ever had in the Super Bowl, and Brady is the most dangerous when given the time in the pocket to read the defense. Brady also helped his offensive line by not holding on to the ball for too long. His average snap-to-throw time in the Super Bowl was 2.27 seconds, his fastest since week 17 of 2016 (2.24 seconds) per Next Gen Stats.
Protection was a privilege that Mahomes didn’t have in the Super Bowl. Playing with backup players in the offensive line, they got overwhelmed by talents like Shaquil Barrett, Jason Pierre-Paul, Ndamukong Suh, and Vita Vea despite Tampa Bay only blitzing Mahomes on just 9.6% of his dropbacks according to NFL Next Gen Stats, which was the lowest blitz rate by a Todd Bowles-led defense in the last five season. Ironically, the Chiefs played with 5-man protection on 92% of the snaps during the game while playing with backup left and right tackle, knowing full well that the Buccaneers pass rushers are on an elite level. Mahomes got pressured 29 times on his 59 dropbacks throughout the game, which is the largest number of pressure by any defense in the Super Bowl.
The chart above shows how Mahomes and Brady operated before the throw. Because of the perfect protection called by the Buccaneers offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich, Brady (bottom) only needed to stay inside the pocket and comfortably make the perfect read everytime. Meanwhile, Mahomes (top) were forced to play sideline-to-sideline and ran outside the pocket to avoid getting sacked. Mahomes ran for a total of 497 yards before he made his throws or got sacked in the game, meanwhile Brady only moved for 37 yards.
The Buccaneers won by only sending four rushers to pressure Mahomes, so they could have defenders across the field covering the Chiefs receiving corps. To contain Travis Kelce and Tyreek Hill, the Bucs sent Lavonte David on Kelce and a mix between Carlton Davis, Sean Murphy-Bunting, and a double team on Hill. Their favorite coverage on the game was with two-high safeties, which they played in 87% of their plays, to make sure that they took away Mahomes deep shots and throws outside the number. This resulted in the Chiefs having no explosive plays and Mahomes didn’t complete any of his five deep throws with one of them getting intercepted. Other receivers not named Kelce or Hill were pretty much a non-factor in the game.
The Buccaneers won the game using the exact formula that people usually thought of to defeat Tom Brady, bring inside pressure and do it with four players or fewer to make the quarterback uncomfortable and bring extra defenders in coverage and that’s exactly what Tampa Bay did to Patrick Mahomes. The receivers also didn’t help Mahomes at all. The Chiefs would have at least two touchdowns if Tyreek Hill and Darrell Williams didn’t drop the ball in the endzone. Mahomes pretty much did everything alone to carry this team in the Super Bowl.
While the Chiefs failed to protect Mahomes from being decimated by the Buccaneers’ pass rushers, Brady got all the protection he needed to perform at his best. He could read the blitzes that Spagnuolo gave him, and adjust the protection when needed. Brady also utilized those blitzes to his advantage, by throwing the ball to empty spots left by Chiefs’ defenders blitzing him. His targets averaged 4.0 yards of separation and had 3+ yards of separation on 62% of their targets, which for both were their season-high per Next Gen Stats. That’s why Tom Brady was so effective in this game, and a better performance by both sides of the ball brought the Lombardi Trophy back to Tampa Bay.
Rafiandra Putra Andika is a writer, designer, video editor, photographer, content creator, or to sum up, a story-teller. He found his fond love for sports ever since a little kid, starts with Soccer, F1, Basketball, and now focusing his talent on growing the exposure of American Football, especially in Indonesia. He pledged his loyalty to LeBron James, Tom Brady, and the New England Patriots.
You can follow him on Instagram: @rafiandra21 for his recent audiovisual works (photo, video, and podcast), and on Twitter with the same handle for his unfiltered thoughts and written pieces like this one.
