Kansas City Chiefs (-3)(LOCK) @ Tampa Bay Buccaneers -
Tampa Bay has been getting a lot love recently and for good reason. They managed to take out all their opponents on the road and are now going to be rewarded with the first home game in Super Bowl History.Today will mark Tom Brady's 10th Super Bowl start and just the third time ever that a QB has started a Super Bowl since turning the age of 40:
— Field Yates (@FieldYates) February 7, 2021
Super Bowl LII: Tom Brady, 40
Super Bowl LIII: Tom Brady, 41
Super Bowl LV: Tom Brady, 43
Tom Brady looks like he even has his deep ball back with a nice 37 yard touchdown pass to Scotty Miller to close out the first half in the NFC matchup against the Packers. Brady is also the last quarterback to beat Mahomes in the playoffs in the 2019 AFC Conference Championship. The receiving corps will possibly be healthy including Mike Evans who has been banged up with injuries and Antonio Brown returns.
Still, Tom Brady may have 6 super bowl rings but he's also lost 3 of them meaning he isn't exactly unbeatable in these situations. Especially since Brady is now 43 years old. His deep ball has been rendered ineffective at times when teams can generate a pass rush against him. Washington was unable to do so with its vaunted defensive front but the Saints paired with a 41 year old Drew Brees could not get it done against Tampa's defense. They did a nice job of slowing down Rodgers although some had to do with poor pocket awareness by Rodgers who failed to run the ball on a critical 3rd and goal situation. While Rodgers played well for most of the season, he reverted back to his 2019-20 with two consecutive 3 and outs
Even the Packers managed to force 3 interceptions, including 2 interceptions in the 4th quarter. Even with that Brady became 3-1 in playoff games where he has thrown three picks showing that even through his illustrious run, that he has been fortunate at the times.
Brady says he's gonna work on his speed this offseason. He sees all these QBs running around these days, he's gotta work on his speed.
— Jon Ledyard (@LedyardNFLDraft) February 4, 2021
I don't know how much he was kidding lol.
Brady also says he's already thought about how he's going to train better this offseason
This game comes down to the fact that not only do the Chiefs have a better quarterback than any the Bucs have faced so far. Mahomes not only has a better deep ball but simply to improvise and make something out of nothing when the play breaks down(a la Eli Manning to David Tyree in Super Bowl). Mahomes still has plenty of experience including getting to the Conference Championship in his last 3 seasons and two Super Bowls himself, so Brady's experience shouldn't outweigh Mahomes as much as it did in the 2019 Conference Championship.
And of all the offensive weapons that Brady has, the Chiefs boast two that have been better this season including Tyreek Hill and Travis Kelce who appear unguardable at time especially with Andy Reid's creative playcalling paired with their own deep weapons including Mecole Hardman, Demarcus Robinson, and Sammy Watkins.
Patrick Mahomes says Travis Kelce's spirit animal is a giraffe, now Kelce says Mahomes' spirit animal is ... a frog.
— Matt Derrick (@mattderrick) February 1, 2021
"I think he's got a little frog in him. He's already got the voice of a frog. Maybe he'll kiss a princess and turn into a knight."
The AFC has had been deeper this seasson meaning that the Chiefs have been more battle tested even beating a very good Brown's running team without Mahomes out due to a concussion. The Chiefs defense is may also be a bit underrated giving up only 17 points to each the Browns and the Bills. The Chiefs defense also the previous season slowed down Derrick Henry so they are more than capable of slowing down Fournette.
Conference Championships - Against the Spread- 1-1
Conference Championships Straight-Up- 1-1
