Steve’s Super Bowl Preview
By Steve Risser
On Sunday, Patrick Mahomes and the defending champion, Kanas City Chiefs, take on Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The game has been hyped up all week as a match up between the greatest QB of all time and the best QB of this generation. I also think these are 2 great teams and we should have a great game on Sunday. Outside of the 2 quarterbacks, the biggest storyline of this game is the mismatch between Tampa’s front and the Chiefs offensive line. One of the biggest reasons that Tampa is in the Super Bowl is because of their defensive line and the Chiefs will have their 2 starting tackles out- Eric Fisher and Mitchell Schwartz. If I am Todd Bowles, I am rushing 4, dropping 7, playing zone coverage and not blitzing, against the blitz. Mahomes has 17 TD’s and 0 INT’s this season and in the week 12 match up, 2 of his 3 TD passes were against the blitz. Even though, the Chiefs are banged up on the offensive line. I expect Andy Reid to have a game plan where Mahomes gets rid of the ball quick and they avoid 3rd and longs, so Tampa’s front 4 can’t wreck the game. Another interesting storyline is how the Chiefs defense will attack the Bucs offense. I think Steve Spagnuolo is going to blitz Brady a lot because it’s going to be tough for them to get pressure with 4 and the 2 picks Brady had in the week 12 match up came against the blitz. For the Bucs on offense, I feel like they have to establish the running game with Ronald Jones and Lenard Fournette that will keep Mahomes and Chiefs offense off the field. This will set up play action for Brady, which he is great at and this season, the Bucs are 8–1 when they rush for over 100 yards and they’re 6–4 when they don’t. Lastly, my prediction for the game is 31–24 Chiefs. I’m going with the better coach and QB. All season long, I haven’t picked against Mahomes and the Chiefs, so I’m not going to on Sunday.
