The Tampa Bay Buccaneers had more defensive success against the Kansas City Chiefs offense in Super Bowl LV than any team has in the past three seasons.
The Bucs and defensive coordinator Todd Bowles put up a masterful defensive game plan, thwarting one of the most high-powered passing attacks in the NFL. In Patrick Mahomes’ 53 prior starts as an NFL quarterback, his offense has never been held out of the endzone, but he failed to score a touchdown in the Super Bowl this time around.
When Mahomes spoke to the media on Monday, he broke down exactly what the Buccaneers did and how they were so successful.
“Yeah, it was— it was a good game plan,” Mahomes told reporters. “They did a good job of kind of taking away our easy stuff with the corners kind of pressed down to the outsides. They made sure to keep people over the top of our speed guys, especially Tyreek (Hill). The linebackers did a good job of finding (Travis) Kelce over the middle of the field. I mean they just rallied to the ball and tackled. Then on third down they kind of played like a two-man type of look, but they really paid attention to Travis and Tyreek.”
Basically, Tampa Bay took away everything the Chiefs wanted to do offensively. They took away the passes outside the numbers that Kansas City likes to mix in with their deep passing game. When they did try to throw it deep, the protection didn’t hold up long enough for players to get open because of the help over the top.
Then on the most important downs, they took away the two players who are Mahomes’ biggest safety net within the offense. The Chiefs tried to adjust, but screen passes failed. The run game got stuffed up at times. Really the only thing that was occasionally open was the center of the field.
“It was a good game plan,” Mahomes reiterated. “We had some good plays here and there, but overall they did a good job of finding ways to kind of stall our drives, especially as we got closer to the 50-yard-line.”
It may seem like a matter of too little, too late, but Mahomes is already looking at the film and figuring out ways to counter this defensive gameplan. In a copycat league, Mahomes knows that every NFL team is going to look to this tape as a model for how to shut the Chiefs’ offense down in the future.
“As of today, I’m going to do whatever I can to try and look at the film and try to find ways to get better,” Mahomes said. “Obviously, with our offense and the success that we’ve had. When teams see the defensive plan that they (Buccaneers) had and how well that it worked, they’re going to try and do the same thing. [I’m going to] try to find ways to combat that and kind of the evolution of our offense. We’re going to have to do better things and be more efficient. That really goes with me and not always looking for the big play, but finding ways to move the ball down the field.”
Not every team has the personnel to do what Tampa Bay did to Kansas City effectively, but rest assured that we’ll see teams try and replicate this performance. We’ll see what the Chiefs and Mahomes can come up with to counter the defensive blueprint in the next seven months.
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