Headline: Tampa Bay Wins Super Bowl LV in Dominant Victory Over Kansas City

Author: Matt Mathias

The moment finally arrived Sunday night in Tampa Bay as Super Bowl LV was set in stone to be a battle between the two best teams in the NFL this season. The talk going into this matchup was centered around the quarterback matchup of Tom Brady versus Patrick Mahomes. Brady was attempting to win his seventh ring in his long and prosperous career while Mahomes and the Chiefs were looking to defend their title from the previous season.

The Chiefs put the first points of the contest up as Harrison Butker kicked a 49-yard field goal. From there, the Buccaneers began to set the tone for how this game would be played. At the end of the first quarter, Brady threw his first of three touchdown passes of the day to tight end Rob Gronkowski. This was his first-ever touchdown pass in the first quarter of the ten championship games he has played in. Following some defensive and special team blunders by the Chiefs during the second quarter, Brady once more found Gronkowski. He scored with six minutes left to play in the half leaving the score 14-3.

Butker would tack on another field goal with one minute to be played in the first half as Kansas City began to struggle offensively. At this point, they would take whatever points they could get and hope to make adjustments in the second half. However, the first half didn’t end there. Brady got the ball back after the Butker field goal and drove his team down the field 71 yards in five plays. He found wide receiver Antonio Brown in the endzone for a score with six seconds left on the clock, a drive that didn’t even take the Bucs a minute to produce. At the half, Tampa was up big, 21-6.

The Buccaneer’s game plan on the defensive side of the ball was clear heading into the game; put pressure on Mahomes and force him to make bad throws. The defense executed this plan perfectly and the Bucs defensive front had Mahomes scrambling out of the pocket and making tough throws all night. Mahomes didn’t receive much help from his weapons Tyreek Hill and Travis Kelce as they had crucial drops in moments where they needed big plays the most.

To start off the third quarter, Kansas City’s offensive struggles continued as they only could muster a field goal on their opening possession with the ball. Little did they know that this would be their final score of the game as Tampa continued to dominate on both sides of the ball. Bucs running back Leonard Fournette had a great showing during this game rushing for 89 yards and a score on 16 carries. His score came on a 27-yard run halfway through the third that pushed his team up even further with the score being 28-9. Late in the quarter, Ryan Succop booted a long 52-yard field goal for the Bucs leaving the score 31-9. These would be the final points in the contest as the fourth quarter would be scoreless for both teams.

In the end, Brady’s leadership and winning mentality as well as a dominant defensive showing were what drove the Buccaneers to glory in this year’s Super Bowl. Brady would go on to win his fifth Super Bowl MVP award, which is more than any other quarterback in NFL history has even won in Super Bowls alone. Brady and Gronkowski connected for 2 touchdowns on the day. This set a record for quarterback to receiver touchdown scores in postseason history with 14 touchdowns throughout their decorated careers. Brady will now without a doubt go down as one of the most decorated and celebrated quarterbacks for decades to come.