The Buccaneers are led by Tom Brady, who is playing in his 10th Super Bowl, but his first as a Buc after playing 20 seasons with the New England Patriots. The Chiefs are led by young phenom Patrick Mahomes, who was last year’s Super Bowl LIV MVP and the 2018 NFL MVP.
Super Bowl LV will be this Sunday, February 7 in Tampa, Florida. Here are six reasons the hometown Buccaneers will hoist the Lombardi Trophy that night:
Offseason moves The Buccaneers aggressively pursued former New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady last offseason, and they eventually landed him in mid-March of 2020. The Bucs shored up their pass rush by placing the franchise tag on linebacker Shaquil Barrett and they signed outside linebacker Jason Pierre-Paul to a 2-year deal worth $27 million. They acquired tight end Rob Gronkowski in a trade with New England, they brought in former Jacksonville Jaguars running back Leonard Fournette and they signed wide receiver Antonio Brown during the season, giving the Bucs an arsenal of weapons Brady never had in New England. These weapons are in addition to Mike Evans, Cameron Brate and Scotty Miller.
In particular, signing so many veterans last offseason paid big dividends as there was limited time together and no preseason games because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Buccaneers still went 11-5 in the regular season and 3-0 in the playoffs so far.
Buccaneers defense Tom Brady always flourished in New England alongside a stout Patriots defense. Well, the Buccaneers have a defense that can hold the potent Chiefs in check just enough for the Bucs to score enough points to win. Defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh said facing the Chiefs once already this year will help the Bucs game plan better. The Buccaneers are stacked at every level of the defense, and they’ve held Drew Brees and Aaron Rodgers in check the last two games. Linebacker Devin White is overlooked—and the biggest Pro Bowl snub. Antoine Winfield Jr. should be in the defensive backfield again, and defensive coordinator Todd Bowles should have a game plan to contain Mahomes and the Chiefs offense. Did we mention hometown kid Jason Pierre-Paul wanting to win a Super Bowl on his home turf?
Super Bowl game rematches from regular season Super Bowl games have been a rematch from a regular season matchup 13 times in history, with the team winning the regular-season matchup winning the Super Bowl rematch just six of those times. In the last seven rematches, the team that lost the regular-season game is 5-2 in the Super Bowl rematch—advantage Tampa Bay. (Note: Brady is 1-2 in rematch games, losing both Super Bowls to the New York Giants, although he beat the Giants in the 2007 regular-season game). Brady’s win came after the 2001 season when he led the Patriots to a win over the St. Louis Rams, which beat New England that regular season.
Difficulty of repeating It’s hard to repeat. A team has won back-to-back Super Bowls just eight times in history. The Pittsburgh Steelers did it twice in the 1970s, which means only seven franchises have accomplished this feat. The last team to win consecutive Super Bowls was the Tom Brady-led New England Patriots following the 2003 and 2004 seasons. The last team to make a Super Bowl the year after winning it was the Brady-led Patriots in 2018, but they lost to the Philadelphia Eagles. The last team before them was the Seattle Seahawks, who beat Denver (43-8) in 2014 before losing to Brady’s Patriots, 28-24, the following season.
The Vocal “Cannons” The game will only have 25,000 fans at Raymond James Stadium, and the homefield cannon likely won’t fire during Buccaneers touchdowns. But Buccaneers season-ticket holders who get to attend the game will be loud on a warm South Florida evening, and it’ll be hard for neutral out-of-towners to root against the hometown underdogs—even if they have an old dog at quarterback.
Speaking of old dogs Tom Brady. The Buccaneers quarterback is already called the greatest of all time, but this would quell all conversations who still doubt him. The 43-year-old signal caller still looks spry, and he’s programmed to win championships. His team will feed off of him and his experience of playing nine Super Bowls (going 6-3 in those games). Brady is 2-2 all-time against Mahomes, and this could be their last meeting. Advantage Brady and the Bucs.
