Tom Brady’s Seventh Ring – 2021 Super Bowl

 The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are Super Bowl LV champions after a victory that exceeded expectations and made all kinds of history on Sunday night at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida. After taking control of the Kansas City Chiefs 31-9, the Bucs won their second Super Bowl and became the first team to win a Super Bowl in their home stadium. Quarterback Thomas Edward Patrick Brady Jr. or Tom Brady ensured his seventh Lombardi Trophy, two more than any player in NFL history and one more than any entire NFL franchise has achieved.

    Brady’s performance at age 43 was nearly flawless, and the pressure of Todd Bowles’ defense was a perfect counterpart to the offense’s effort. The future Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback completed 21 of 29 passes for 201 yards and three touchdowns, including a pair to his long-time favorite target in tight end Rob Gronkowski and another to wide receiver Antonio Brown. He easily threw the ball to his team of pass-catchers and was especially successful over the middle. Brady and Gronk now have 14 postseason scoring connections in their legendary careers.

Tampa’s defensive backs and linebackers deserve their praises as well after rebounding from a terrible Week 12 performance against this same Kansas City team. After running over the Bucs at that Week 12 game for 269 yards and three touchdowns, Chiefs explosive WR (Wide Receiver) Tyreek Hill recorded only seven grabs for 73 yards in the Super Bowl, making almost no impact on the game. Tight end and Patrick Mahomes favorite target, Travis Kelce, was a bit more productive, but it didn’t matter much. Hill and the rest of the wide-receivers were forgotten the whole game. The frustration was real on the defensive end of the ball too for KC, which committed 10 penalties for 100 yards in the game with many miscues coming in key situations that cost the Chiefs on the scoreboard. Brady, meanwhile, had the good fortune of being well protected throughout the game, by his offensive line that the Buccaneers have built for him. That group also opened big holes for Leonard Fournette and Ronald JonesⅡ (both running backs)to run in to combine for 150 yards rushing on 28 carries, including Fournette’s 27-yard touchdown run that broke the game open for good in the third quarter.

The Buc’s forced the Chiefs into their worst offensive performance of the Patrick Mahomes era as Tampa Bay’s defensive front completely controlled the line of scrimmage through all four quarters. Mahomes was under attack all night, continuously firing the ball into the ground and having to tuck and run away from the constant pressure. Mahomes took three sacks and threw two interceptions on tipped passes. Even those figures allowed the degree to which the Bucs made his life miserable. Mahomes ended the night with 270 passing yards, much of which came in toward the end of the game and when the outcome was already decided by the score. While being held without a touchdown for just the second time in 56 games since taking over KC’s starting job in 2018. It was also the first double-digit loss of Mahomes’ career. But I believe this will not be Mahomes’ last Super Bowl. He will come back for more Lambardi trophies. In the end, the Bucs had a good idea of what they could become with Brady leading the team. Both sides favored the living legend as a player that would lead Tampa Bay to a championship, and they turned out to be right. In the strangest NFL season of all time, the league’s greatest player found a way to win it all yet again.