Another Title To Tampa

This is becoming a recurring theme as of late. For both the City of Tampa Bay and for Tom Brady. In a game that had a lot of hype going into it, Super Bowl LV didn't quite match the full expectation. At least not for one side of it. Tampa Bay rolled over Kansas City to the tune of a 31-9 Bucs victory, giving them their second title in franchise history. Its also the second title for the city in the last year, as the Tampa Bay Lighting had come off a Stanley Cup title run back in October, as well as a World Series appearance for the Tampa Bay Rays. As for Tom Brady, this gives him a 7th Super Bowl title, more than any other player in the history of the game, as well as a 5th Super Bowl MVP.

In reality, as good as Brady was, the MVP award could have easily gone to the Bucs defense all the same. They were putting pressure on Mahomes most of the day, forcing him to make throws he wasn't comfortable making. Some of the throw Mahomes made while on the run were outstanding. He managed to gun a pass, side arm, while falling down, and it was still almost caught by his receiver, before hitting him in the face mask and falling for an incomplete pass. Mahomes seemed like he was under fire most of the second half, his line was bad. That's putting it nicely. Missing two of his starting linemen due to injury didn't help his cause and the pressure that the Bucs were dialing up were on point on Sunday. Mahomes finished 26 of 49 for 27 and 2 picks. He was able to work well with Travis Kelce, who finished with 10 catches for 133 yards. Those two guys are still a damn good combination.

So to are Brady and Gronk. Gronk caught two TD passes from Brady, giving them fifteen in the playoffs, more than any other QB-Receiver combination in the history of the game. Brady was effective on Sunday, going 20 of 29 for 270 and three touchdowns. He swooped up MVP honors for the 5th time in his career, and at 43, he's the oldest player to ever win MVP. The next closest player with MVP awards is Joe Montana with three. Brady is also one of five guys, all quarterbacks, who've won multiple MVP awards. The others are Joe Montana, Bart Starr, Terry Bradshaw and Eli Manning.

Part of what cost KC this game was the line not protecting Mahomes. The other part was penalty trouble, most notably on the defensive side of the football. Kansas City had 95 yards in penalties in the first half, a bulk of which came late in the 2nd quarter, setting a record for most penalty yards in a half. The old record had been 91 by the Cowboys in Super Bowl V. Those kinds of mental mistakes ended up killing any hope that Kansas City even remotely had. Or at least took away any of their momentum. Do not give a guy the talent level of Tom Brady, even at his age, any second chances to operate on a football field. He will carve you up. That's exactly what happened.

Whatever could have gone wrong for Kansas City did. Whatever could have gone right for Tampa did.

Congratulations to the Buccaneers on their 2nd Super Bowl Title!