The memory of the Chiefs vs Buccaneers Super Bowl is usually just a blurry image of Patrick Mahomes running for his life. Honestly, it looked more like a track meet than a football game, with Mahomes retreating 497 yards before even getting a pass off. That’s a real stat, by the way. He spent nearly half a kilometer just trying to survive.
People love to say Tom Brady simply "outplayed" the young superstar, but that’s a pretty lazy way to look at what happened on February 7, 2021. It was more like a perfect storm of bad luck for Kansas City and a masterclass in defensive coordination that basically broke the modern NFL's most explosive offense.
The Offensive Line Disaster Nobody Predicted
You can’t talk about this game without mentioning the trenches. It was a massacre. Kansas City came into the game missing both starting tackles, Eric Fisher and Mitchell Schwartz. That’s like trying to win a Formula 1 race with two flat tires. Mike Remmers, who had a rough go of it years prior in Super Bowl 50, was forced to play left tackle. Andrew Wylie moved to the right.
It didn't work. At all.
Shaquil Barrett and Jason Pierre-Paul spent the entire night in the backfield. Mahomes was pressured on 29 of his 56 dropbacks. That 52% pressure rate is the highest in Super Bowl history. Usually, a quarterback gets hit and moves on. In this game, Mahomes was getting chased by 270-pound defensive ends while playing on a turf toe injury that required surgery just days later. He was literally hobbling and sprinting at the same time.
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Why the Todd Bowles Masterplan Worked
Most defensive coordinators are terrified of the Chiefs. They blitz, they get burned. They sit back, and Travis Kelce finds a hole in the zone. But Todd Bowles, the Bucs' defensive coordinator, did something kinda counterintuitive. He stopped blitzing.
The Bucs only brought extra pressure on 9.6% of Mahomes' dropbacks. It was their lowest blitz rate of the entire season. Why? Because they knew their front four could win the 1-on-1 battles against those backup tackles. This let Bowles keep two safeties deep—the "two-high shell" you hear analysts talk about—to take away Tyreek Hill's speed.
- Tyreek Hill in Week 12: 269 yards, 3 TDs.
- Tyreek Hill in the Super Bowl: 73 yards, 0 TDs.
It was a total shutdown. The Bucs took away the deep ball and forced Mahomes to wait for underneath routes that never opened up because Devin White and Lavonte David were playing like men possessed in the middle of the field. White ended the night with 12 tackles and a game-sealing interception. He was everywhere.
The Brady and Gronk Connection (One More Time)
While the Chiefs were imploding, Tom Brady was playing a remarkably clean game. It wasn't his most prolific Super Bowl, but it was efficient. He finished 21-of-29 for 201 yards and three touchdowns. Two of those went to Rob Gronkowski, who had literally come out of retirement just to have a season like this.
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There was a moment in the first quarter when things still felt competitive. The Chiefs were up 3-0. Then, Brady hit Gronk for an 8-yard score. That was the first time a Brady-led team had ever scored a first-quarter touchdown in a Super Bowl. Think about that. After nine tries with New England, he finally did it in Tampa.
The game really got away from Kansas City right before halftime. A series of penalties—including a controversial pass interference call against Tyrann Mathieu—set the Bucs up at the 1-yard line. Brady found Antonio Brown for a score with six seconds left in the half. The score went from 14-6 to 21-6 in a heartbeat. Mathieu and Brady got into a shouting match heading to the locker room, and honestly, you could tell the Chiefs were rattled.
The "Superman" Throw That Fell Incomplete
If you want to know how weird this game was, look at the fourth quarter. Mahomes is parallel to the ground, flying through the air, and he flings a ball 30 yards that hits Darrel Williams right in the face mask in the end zone.
It dropped.
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If that catch is made, maybe we’re talking about the greatest play in NFL history. Instead, it’s just a highlight of a 31-9 blowout. It was that kind of night. The Chiefs didn't score a single touchdown. It was the first time Mahomes had lost by double digits in his entire NFL career up to that point.
Legacy and Real-World Impact
This game changed the "GOAT" conversation forever. If Mahomes wins that game, he’s 2-0 in Super Bowls and has a head-to-head win over Brady. Instead, Brady moved to 7 rings, and Mahomes fell to 1-1 at the time.
It also forced the Chiefs to completely rebuild their philosophy. That offseason, they traded for Orlando Brown Jr., signed Joe Thuney, and drafted Creed Humphrey. They realized that you can have the best quarterback in the universe, but if he’s running 500 yards horizontally, it doesn't matter.
Actionable Takeaways for Football Fans
- Watch the Trenches: Next time you watch a big game, don't just follow the ball. Look at the tackles. If a team loses its starting LT and RT, the spread doesn't matter; the game is probably over.
- The "Two-High" Blueprint: If you want to see how to beat a "video game" offense, rewatch the second half of this game. It’s the gold standard for disciplined zone defense.
- Health Over Everything: Mahomes was playing on a toe that needed surgery. In the NFL, "available" is often better than "talented but broken."
The Chiefs vs Buccaneers matchup wasn't just a win for Tampa; it was a reality check for the rest of the league. It proved that even in a pass-heavy era, a dominant pass rush and a smart defensive shell can still humiliate a generational talent.
To really understand the tactical side of this game, look up the "Next Gen Stats" heat map of Mahomes' scrambles from that night. It looks like a toddler took a crayon to a football field. It’s the most chaotic visual representation of a "bad day at the office" you’ll ever see. By the time Leonard Fournette ripped off that 27-yard touchdown run in the third quarter to make it 28-9, the energy in Raymond James Stadium had shifted from "big game" to "coronation." Tampa Bay became the first team to win a Super Bowl in their home stadium, and they did it by breaking the most dangerous team in the league.