Tom Brady now has more Super Bowls than any franchise in the entire NFL

Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have dismantled the highly favoured Kansas City Chiefs 31-9 at Super Bowl LV.

The win moves Brady to seven Super Bowl titles out of 10 appearances, as he overtakes his former Patriots team and the Pittsburgh Steelers who have six Super Bowl titles respectively.

Tampa Bay made history as the first team to play a Super Bowl at their home stadium and it would be naive to think this didn’t play a factor in the end result. This is not an attempt to take the shine off a great achievement against a team entering the game with the best record in the league, but it is important to understand.

The game wasn’t without controversy with a number of flags thrown against the Kansas City defence that was highly speculative. As per NFL Research, the Chiefs received 95 penalty yards which is the highest of any team this season.

The Chiefs' 95 penalty yards in the 1st half of Super Bowl LV are the most penalty yards against any team in the 1st half of a game this season#SuperBowl

— NFL Research (@NFLResearch) February 8, 2021

By the end of the second quarter, Tampa had received seven penalties to the Chiefs one. This led to many on Twitter complaining about officials being too involved in the game with former NFL Quarterback Dan Orlovsky joining in on the criticism.

The officiating crew know this game ain’t about them? Go home man

— Dan Orlovsky (@danorlovsky7) February 8, 2021

With this said, the Chiefs defence made a number of key mistakes leading to offsides and penalties. The biggest talking point being Bashaud Breeland’s offside call on a field goal attempt as the Buccs were 4th and 5 giving Tampa an automatic first down gifting Brady the opportunity to extend the scoreline before the end of the half.

It was an uphill battle for the defending champions as they were down 21-6 at the half. The Chiefs struggled to gain any momentum as Mahomes was unable to connect with his receivers, specifically, two dropped catches by Tyreke Hill and Travis Kelce. Hill was destined for a touchdown as the ball slipped through his hands hitting him straight in the visor of his helmet and Kelce failed to convert a crucial third-down play after a brilliant Mahomes scramble.

It’s important to recognise the strength of the Buccaneers defence. Tampa was able to create enough pressure against Mahomes, with more than 50% of total snaps resulting in scrambles. This became evident in the second half as the Chiefs QB was running all over the field trying to avoid being sacked.

Kansas City was without both their left and right tackles; Erik Fisher and Mitchell Schwartz, which is a huge loss for any team entering the biggest game of the year. Fisher who was drafted first in the 2o13 draft, tore his Achilles tendon in their win over the Buffalo Bills and Schwartz who is highly regarded as the best right tackle in the league has been absent with a back injury since week 6. Their replacements could not contain JPP (Jason Pierre-Paul) and Shaq Barrett which was the defining factor throughout the game.

The greatness of Tom Brady was on full display as he earned Super Bowl MVP a day after rival quarterback Aaron Rodgers took out the regular season MVP. He ended the game with three touchdowns and no interceptions a stark difference to Mahomes with 0 touchdowns and 2 interceptions.

ESPN personality Stephen A. Smith sent out a tweet saying he was contacted by a former Patriot saying Tyrann Matthieu “poked the bear.” The pair continued to go back and forth on the field and Brady targeted Matthieu throughout the game as Tampa dominated the Chiefs defence.

Just received a message from a former @Patriots: “Tyrann Matthieu made the wrong move. He poked the bear that is @TomBrady. Brady is targeting him now. Going right after him.” Damn! This is something to see. @Chiefs are in a world of trouble. And btw….where is @PatrickMahomes?

— Stephen A Smith (@stephenasmith) February 8, 2021

To be fair to Matthieu, he was the standout player from the Kansas defence, not to say that he played exceptional but in comparison to Bashaud Breeland and Daniel Sorensen he was basically the only consistent performer.

Kansas head coach Andy Reid in a post game interview declined the opportunity to excuse his teams loss on the midweek accident involving his son Britt Reid. The crash involved a five year old who is in critical condition and Andy said his “heart bleeds” for the injured children involved but insisted that the tragedy did not affect the Chiefs.

Deleted: ESPN anchor Chris Berman spoke about this in depth in a post-show analysis, saying that he did not want to overshadow the Buccaneers performance but wanted to make it clear that Reid is only human and anyone would be affected with a disaster of this magnitude.

As we head into the extended NFL off-season, pundits will be quick to claim that Patrick Mahomes quest to overtake Brady is over. Brady now sits on 7 Super Bowls to Mahomes 1 and is 3-2 in their head to head matches.

Deleted: The Chiefs franchise star is only 25 years old and has plenty of years left in his career, with an MVP, Super Bowl and Super Bowl MVP already added to his accolades, he can still reach Brady. It will be interesting to see how Mahomes returns next season and if he struggles with the failure to lift the Lombardi trophy or if he has fire in his belly.