The Super Bowl is here, the Bucs are in it, and it’s happening in our backyard at Raymond James Stadium.
This is pretty hype, right? I mean, no team has ever played the Super Bowl in its own stadium, and despite the NFL not allowing the cannons to be fired, Buccaneers players will at least have a slight advantage, being able to sleep in their own beds and practicing all week across the street from all the pre-Super-Bowl festivities, adding some extra motivation.
But, I’m unfortunately the bearer of bad news. Patrick Mahomes and these Kansas City Chiefs are an unstoppable force, and the Bucs are not an immovable object. Tom Brady and these scrappy Bucs will lose this Sunday, 34-28.
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Sorry, Tampa Bay, but the writing is on the wall. After Thanksgiving, the Bucs fell to the Chiefs 27-24 on the same field they’ll be playing on Sunday. That may sound like a score just close enough for the Bucs to have a chance, but it’s a mirage. The Bucs were never really in that game, and a big reason for that is their secondary getting torn apart by Mahomes and the fastest man in football, Tyreek Hill. Hill had 269 yards receiving and three touchdowns, two of which came in the first half.
Unless Carlton Davis or Jamel Dean somehow transformed into Richard Sherman or Darrelle Revis in the past couple months, I don’t see much changing. The Bucs’ secondary will hopefully receive a boost from its starting safeties, as Antoine Winfield, Jr. and Jordan Whitehead are listed as questionable and doubtful, respectively, after being out for most of the NFC Championship game against the Packers.
Both were at full strength during that Week 12 matchup against the Chiefs. To make matters worse, linebacker Lavonte David is questionable with a hamstring injury. Imagine how bad it’ll be with all of them banged up, or off the field.
Given, the Bucs have been firing on all cylinders in the playoffs, and Tampa Bay's defense is flying around and making plays like it’s 2002. Sean Murphy-Bunting has three interceptions in as many games in the playoffs and seems to be turning a corner. Plus, the Chiefs are going to be without starting left tackle Eric Fisher after he tore his Achilles tendon in practice, and are likely to be without their starting right tackle, Mitchell Schwartz, who has been sidelined with a back injury since Week seven. That sounds like a disaster waiting to happen for Kansas City, especially with Shaq Barrett and JPP coming off the edge and Vita Vea plugging up the middle. But Patrick Mahomes is a magician; if anyone can turn what seems like a huge disadvantage into a nonfactor, it’s him.
It has been a really fun season. The Bucs have been on fire in the past couple months, and it’s been a while since they’ve lost (the last game they lost was actually that Week 12 matchup against these Chiefs), so maybe they ride the wave of this seven-game winning streak and prove me wrong one last time.
Maybe.
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This article appears in Jan 28 – Feb 3, 2021.
