Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are Super Bowl Champions. Here are my top 5 takeaways from the big game.

The GOAT Conversation Has Been Put To Rest – And Maybe Out Of Reach Forever

For the record, we’ve known who the greatest quarterback is for a while now (the comeback against Atlanta in Super Bowl LI cemented things in my opinion), but now we can officially lay the debate to rest. 

Tom Brady won his seventh Super Bowl ring. 

On 10 Super Bowl appearances. 

Defeating Drew Brees, Aaron Rodgers, and Patrick Mahomes in the process.

On a new team without Bill Belichick. 

At 43 years old. 

The debate for the title of Greatest Football Player of All Time is done, finished, eulogized, and buried.  Brady has turned the NFL Playoffs into his own personal buffet, piling his plate with all he can eat while everyone else has to sit down and order.

At this point, the only question that we can ask regarding the GOAT conversation is this:  Is it even possible for anyone to catch Tom Brady? 

Patrick Mahomes is the only player in the league who is set up to make a run at GOAT status but this loss makes things murkier than ever.  Mahomes is now 0-2 verses Brady in the playoffs and the Super Bowl gap is now 7-1 in favor of Brady.  Had the Chiefs won and Mahomes closed the Super Bowl gap to 6-2 (in only his fourth season), the possibility of catching Brady would have felt fairly realistic.  Now, however, Mahomes will need to win 6 more Super Bowls at minimum to even get into the conversation.  Because of his 0-2 record against Brady in the playoffs, Mahomes will need to win 8 Super Bowls in his career to be considered the greatest.  And Brady isn’t finished yet.  There will be no reason to revisit this conversation until the next decade.

I Grossly Underestimated The Impact Of The Chiefs Missing Offensive Linemen

When I made my Super Bowl picks I casually mentioned that Kansas City’s patchwork offensive line could become a major story if Tampa Bay was able to consistently break them down, but I never imagined that it would go down the way it did. 

According to ESPN Stats & Info, Patrick Mahomes dropped back to pass 56 times and was pressured 29 times (that’s a 52% rate for the game). Of those 29 pressures, 27 of them came with only 4 or fewer defenders – almost no blitzing.  That’s the second most pressures with a 4-man pass rush over the last decade.

It felt like Mahomes literally ran for his life on every single play. In fact, Next Gen Stats tracked Mahomes running a jaw-dropping 497 yards before throwing a pass or being sacked.  By contrast, Brady was only pressured 4 times the entire game. The graph below, illustrating the paths that both quarterbacks had to run before throwing a pass is wild to say the least:

Solute To Todd Bowles And Byron Leftwich

Tom Brady was named Super Bowl MVP because he did what he does best:  Managed the game plan to perfection and did not make mistakes.  But let’s give some credit to the Tampa Bay coaching staff for crafting a perfect game plan and outclassing the Kansas City coaching staff in every way. 

Defensive Coordinator Todd Bowles came in with a specific game plan, followed it to the end, and it paid off. Two defenders covered Tyreek Hill deep, two defenders covered Travis Kelce over the middle, and Bowles resisted the urge to blitz, relying on his front four to apply the pressure and force the ball out of Mahomes hands early and often.  Kansas City was never able to adjust. 

Offensive Coordinator Byron Leftwich was prepared for Kansas City’s pressure and threw them off balance using screen passes, draw plays, and quick reads for Brady.  He never asked Brady to do too much, resisted the temptation to be overly aggressive, and allowed the world’s greatest game manager to wear the Chiefs down, make zero mistakes, and put a cool 31 points on the board. 

The adjustments made by the Tampa Bay coaching staff by learning lessons from the regular season loss to the Chiefs was a masterclass in championship coaching.

The Refs Were Bad – But KC Lost Because They Didn’t Learn Lessons From Green Bay

Yes, the referees were far too present in this game, particularly in the second quarter.  Kansas City had 8 first half penalties for 95 yards which is astounding.  A few of those flags were questionable at best but none of those cringeworthy calls earlier in the game were as damaging to Kansas City as their slew of self-inflicted mistakes to end the first half. 

Kansas City didn’t learn from Green Bay’s mistakes and were undone by the Bucs in a similar manner. 

Flashback to the end of the first half of the NFC Championship Game where a conservative approach and egregious defensive play-calling by the Packers led to Tom Brady making one the best throws of his entire career on a 39-yard touchdown strike to Scotty Miller at the buzzer.  Green Bay went into the locker room down 21-10 instead of a one-possession game and they were never able to recover against the Bucs solid defense.

Similarly, Kansas city made two royal blunders to end the first half that led directly to Buccaneer points and created an insurmountable lead.

As Tampa Bay lined up for a second quarter field goal on 4th-and-5, Chiefs wide receiver Mecole Hardman (#17 below) was comically offsides. He might as well have put on a Tampa Bay jersey on this play.

Instead of 4th-and-5, the penalty gave Tampa Bay a first down. Brady promptly hit Rob Gronkowski in the endzone on the next play for a touchdown. 

On the very next drive for the Bucs, Tampa Bay seemed content to run the clock and take a one-possession lead into halftime, but Andy Reid shockingly opted to call TWO TIMEOUTS in an attempt to get the ball back for a last second Mahomes heave.  Brady capitalized and ended the half with a touchdown pass to Antonio Brown and took a 21-6 lead into the locker room. 

Did the refs help Brady out on that final drive?  Yes.  The pass interference call in the endzone that placed the ball on the 1-yard line was uncatchable and should never have been called in a Super Bowl.  But the point is that Andy Reid’s ludicrous decision to call two timeouts put his team in that situation.

The Packers and the Chiefs were both bitten by outthinking themselves in the most crucial moments of the game and both times, Tom Brady took advantage.

Despite The Worst Statistical Game Of His Career, Patrick Mahomes Showed Us Why He Is The Most Talented Quarterback Of All Time

If your takeaway from this game is that Patrick Mahomes was the reason for the loss and that he is not as great of a quarterback as everyone says he is, then I don’t know what to tell you.  Get to your local optometrist ASAP and get your eyes checked.

Mahomes reached deep into his already unprecedented bag and pulled out every last throw in his arsenal to try to get the Chiefs back in this game, but it just wasn’t meant to be.  We’ve come to think of Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs as this inevitable force that you can only contain for so long before the explosion of points eventually sinks you, but Super Bowl LV was the perfect storm of errors for Kansas City.  Mahomes ran for his life on every single play.  Perfectly placed balls doinked off of receivers helmets.  Everyone outside of Mahomes looked lethargic and the coaching staff made shockingly few adjustments. 

The entire game was encapsulated by this throw:

I mean look at Mahomes, fully stretched out parallel to the ground, gliding through the air in a shot that looks like it was filmed in an overly dramatic sports movie.  Not only does he get this throw off, this ball – from that position – travels 30 yards and hits the intended receiver in the endzone straight in the facemask. 

Dropped.

The greatest incompletion of all time that should have been the greatest throw in Super Bowl history.  

Mahomes made 4 or 5 more passes in this game under intense pressure that were mesmerizing, so much so that the Buccaneers receivers were reportedly in awe of Mahomes’ ability.

If Kansas City’s receivers had simply caught the footballs that hit them in the hands (or the face for that matter), we would be talking about an all-time performance from Mahomes.  Appreciate the ability that Mahomes flashed and take note, because we’re absolutely going to see more of it in the future and an all-time classic is looming.