By Ron Griffitts
Contributing columnist
Super Bowl LV was played on February 7, 2021 in Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida between the defending champion Kansas City Chiefs (16-2) coached by Andy Reid who had as his offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers coached by Bruce Arians who had as his offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich.
The Chiefs defeated the Cleveland Browns 22-17 in the divisional round and were led on offense by quarterback Patrick Mahomes who threw for 4740 yards and 38 touchdowns with a passer rating of 108.2, running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire (803 yards, 4 TD’s) and receivers Tyreek Hill (1276 yards, 15 TD’s), Travis Kelce (1416 yards, 11 TD’s) and Mecole Robinson (560 yards, 4 TD’s).
They were led on defense by Daniel Sorensen who had 68 tackles, Chris Jones with 7.5 sacks, Frank Clark with 6 and Tyrann Mathieu with 6 interceptions. Their place kicker was Harrison Butker who converted on 25 of 27 field goal attempts.
Tampa Bay was a wild card team that advanced to the Super Bowl and was led on offense by 43-year old Tom Brady, appearing in his tenth Super Bowl who passed for 4633 yards, 40 touchdowns and had a passer rating of 102.2.
They were led in rushing by Ronald Jones II (978 yards, 7 TD’s) and in receiving by Mike Evans (1006 yards, 13 TD’s), Chris Godwin (840, 7 TD’s) and Rob Gronkowski (623 yards, 7 TD’s).
The Buccaneers were led on defense by Devin White with 97 tackles and 9 sacks, Lavonte David 82 tackles, Shaquil Barrett with 8 sacks and Jason Pierre-Paul with 9.5 sacks. Carlton Davis led in interceptions with 4 and their place kicker was Ryan Succop who made 28 of his 31 field goal tries.
The game was a matchup of two former Super Bowl game MVP’s in Mahomes and Brady, who after 20 seasons playing for New England and six Super Bowl wins there could not agree to a contract with them and signed with Tampa Bay.
Kansas City scored first on a 49-yard Harrison Butker field goal to give the Chiefs a 3-0 lead. Later in the first quarter, Brady found Rob Gronkowski (who also came along from New England to join the Buccaneers) in the end zone for an eight yard touchdown pass. Ryan Succop made the extra point and Tampa Bay led 7-3 after the first quarter.
In the second quarter, Brady again completed a touchdown pass to Rob Gronkowski, this time for 17 yards. The extra point was good and the Buccaneers led 14-3.
Harrison Butker kicked a 34-yard field goal to make it 14-6 but the Bucs were able to score a touchdown with 10 seconds left in the half for a 21-6 halftime lead.
In the third quarter, Harrison Butker kicked a 52-yard field goal to bring the score to 21-9 in favor of Tampa Bay but Brady lead the Buccaneers downfield for a score on a 27-yard Leonard Fournette run set up by a 25-yard completion from Brady to Gronkowski. They again converted the extra point and the Bucs were up 28-9.
Ryan Succop added a 53-yard field goal and there was no scoring in the fourth quarter as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers won their second Super Bowl, 31-9, to give Tom Brady his seventh Super Bowl win and he got the game MVP, his fifth MVP award.
A key factor in the victory was the Tampa Bay defense not allowing Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City offense to score even one touchdown in the game.
Neither team returned to the Super Bowl the following year.
Statistics for this article were from pro-football-reference-com.
