Super Bowl LV: KC Chiefs fall apart against Buccaneers
By Matt Conner
The Kansas City Chiefs began the season with a stated goal to “run it back” as defending Super Bowl Champs. Patrick Mahomes and company made it all the way back to the biggest game of the year, but a number of injuries and self-inflicted wounds gave the Tampa Bay Buccaneers the opportunities they needed to put the Chiefs away by a final score of 31-9 in Super Bowl LV.
The misery started early for Andy Reid’s team. The Chiefs turned in the single worst first half of the season in the biggest game of the year. From careless mistakes to dropped passes to sloppy special teams play, Andy Reid had to be livid at halftime after what he saw from his team in the first half. The Chiefs traded punts with the Bucs to open the game, the first of several solid stops by the Chiefs. Unfortunately the first drive was killed due to an odd miscommunication of some kind with Mecole Hardman on a key third down. The Chiefs next drive also stalled early when Tyreek Hill dropped a pass that hit him in the face.
After a 49-yard field goal by Harrison Butker, the Chiefs led 3-0 in the first quarter, but the Buccaneers took total control from that point on. Tom Brady orchestrated an impressive 8-play drive that featured Rob Gronkowski with two key catches, including an 8-yard touchdown to give Tampa Bay the lead. From there, the Chiefs offense would go from bad to worse, as an odd series of play calls on the next drive resulted in a short three-and-out on the next drive.
From there, the Chiefs had a chance to alter the first half momentum going Tampa Bay’s way, but ultimately they failed to capitalize on a golden opportunity provided by the defense. The Chiefs watched Brady and the Bucs offense move downfield to the goal line after a nice 31-yard haul by Mike Evans. However, the Chiefs came up big with a tremendous goal-line stop on 4th-and-1. The Chiefs got the ball back but ended up punting four plays later .
Brady and the Bucs offense would make the Chiefs pay at that point, although they were certainly aided by multiple questionable penalties and careless errors by the Chiefs. One of multiple short punt by Tommy Townsend gave the Bucs short field position and the Chiefs defense seemed to come up big, but successive calls against Mecole Hardman and Bashaud Breeland took the Pats from a field goal to a touchdown, as Brady took advantage of an extra first down and hit Gronkowski for his second score of the half. Bucs up 14-3.
The Chiefs were unsuccessful in their bid to repeat as Super Bowl champions.
After the Chiefs settled for another short field goal after their only really effective drive of the game, the Bucs got the ball back with less than a minute left. Brady took a deep shot and got a pass interference call on Breeland to move the chains 34 yards. From there, another penalty got the ball on the one-yard line and Antonio Brown caught a short pass just before halftime to extend the Bucs lead to 15, 21-6.
The Chiefs offense took the field after halftime, but Mahomes and company were unable to sustain a drive long enough to score more than three points on another long Butker field goal from 52 yards out. The Bucs responded with another touchdown on a long run by Leonard Fournette to go up 28-9. Antoine Winfield, Jr. then intercepted Mahomes for the game’s only turnover on the next drive to give the Bucs offense another chance. A Ryan Succop field goal gave them a 31-9 lead.
From there, the Chiefs turned it over on downs on successive drives as Mahomes took one hit after another, while also trying to pull off incredible heroics. Dropped passes continued to plague the Chiefs into the second half, while Mahomes had absolutely no time to throw at any point. Here’s one such example from late in the game:
The Buccaneers took care of the Chiefs late and intercepted Mahomes in the end zone on a tipped pass late to seal the win, which gave Brady his seventh Super Bowl win in his career. For the Chiefs, the repeat bid is over and an offseason with some key questions will begin.