Bucs D Dominates

Patrick Mahomes had lost just one of his past 26 games as the Chiefs’ starting quarterback going into Super Bowl 55. In his three seasons at the helm, he had never experienced more than a one-possession loss, operated a touchdown-less offense or seen his team score fewer than double-digit points.

That all came to a screeching halt when Kansas City was routed by Tampa Bay 31-9 on Sunday. The Chiefs were denied a chance to repeat as Super Bowl champions and Mahomes failed to get his second consecutive ring at age 25. He was shell-shocked in his worst game as a professional and in what will go down as one of the most legendary team defensive performances in NFL history, right up there with the 1985 Bears, 2000 Ravens and 2002 Buccaneers.

What the 2020 Buccaneers did to rattle Mahomes in Super Bowl 55 would make Warren Sapp, Derrick Brooks and brand-new Hall of Famer John Lynch proud. The Chiefs were kept out of the end zone while Mahomes was sacked three times and pressured a Super Bowl-record 29 times on an uncomfortable and inefficient night (26-of-49 passing, 270 yards, zero TDs, two INTs). His 5.2 yards per attempt set a personal NFL low and his 69.3 passer rating was his second-lowest single-game mark.

“They were the better team today. They beat us pretty good. It’s the worst I’ve been beaten in a long time,” Mahomes said.

The Chiefs’ 350 yards of total offense were empty, and they were diminished further by the offense going 3 of 13 on third down and 0 for 3 in the red zone. The Chiefs did rush for 107 yards on just 17 attempts against the Bucs’ No. 1 run defense, but a good chunk of that yardage came on Mahomes’ desperate scrambles and two bursts on a single drive by rookie Clyde Edwards-Helaire. 

This wasn’t just slowing down Mahomes and the Chiefs’ offense. This was an uttter beatdown, on every level. The Bucs’ defense had been building to this with strong performances against Drew Brees’ Saints in the divisional playoffs and Aaron Rodgers’ Packers in the NFC championship game. They saved their best for last against the greatest challenge of Mahomes’ Chiefs.

So how did the Buccaneers pull off what every team has failed to do against Mahomes in all of his NFL games? They simply won their battles against everyone around Mahomes and kept their foot on the gas with speed, quickness and power, doing what the Chiefs’ offense tends to do to its opponents.

The Buccaneers went in with one major personnel advantage: red-hot edge pass rushers Shaquil Barrett and Jason Pierre-Paul working on Chiefs backup offensive tackles Andrew Wylie and Mike Remmers. They exploited that mismatch, with Barrett getting another sack and Pierre-Paul disrupting other plays, including a batted ball.

After seeing his team drop Rodgers four times, defensive coordinator Todd Bowles, one of the most frequent blitz-callers in the NFL (39 percent in the regular season), changed tendencies for a second straight game. He sent more than four rushers after Mahomes only five times. Barrett and JPP did win as expected, but as a literal massive bonus, defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh helped by turning back the clock, going Sapp-like with inside pressure to account for half of Mahomes’ sacks.

Blazing-fast second-year linebacker Devin White had another massive game flying around in coverage and getting sideline-to-sideline to make tackles. The older Lavonte David was right there with him. With the Bucs settling into zone coverage like they did against Rodgers, both looked like Brooks making big plays in the old “Tampa 2.”

Mahomes couldn’t hold the ball long with the constant heat, and when he got it out quickly on short to intermediate routes, the Bucs swarmed to the ball with sound tackling to limit the damage from wide receiver Tyreek Hill and Travis Kelce after the catch. When it wasn’t White or David owning the middle of the field, it was rookie safety Antoine Winfield Jr., who channeled Lynch and joined White in the interception fun.