2021 Super Bowl sees Tampa Bay Buccaneers blowout Kansas City Chiefs 31-9
By Brendan Makay, Contributor
The biggest sporting event of the year was played this weekend in Tampa Bay — that event, of course, is the Super Bowl. This year’s game pitted the ageless wonder Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers against the defending NFL champion Kansas City Chiefs, led by Patrick Mahomes.
The AFC champion Chiefs were 16-2 leading up to the Super Bowl, while the NFC champion Buccaneers were 14-5. This was the 55th installment of the Super Bowl and it was held at Raymond James Stadium. With the current COVID-19 landscape, attendance was topped at 25,000 fans.
In his first year donning the Buccaneers jersey, the 43-year old Brady was able to help lead his team to the record 10th Super Bowl appearance of his career. On the other side, the Chiefs were attempting to be the first team since Brady’s patriots in the 2004-2005 season to win the Lombardi trophy in back-to-back years.
The Buccaneers won the game by a score of 31-9. Their defence was tenacious and did not give Mahomes any time in the pocket. The Chiefs were only able to muster three field goals throughout the game.
Missing a few starters on the offensive line due to injury certainly did not help Mahomes and the Chiefs, but one also has to give credit to the Buccaneers’ offence who got things done when they had to.
Two old friends connected for the Buccaneers’ first two touchdowns, as Brady and Rob Gronkowski once again showed why they have long been heralded as such a dangerous combo. When Brady connected with Gronkowski for the first touchdown of the game, it marked the first time Brady had thrown a first-quarter touchdown in any of his Super Bowl appearances.
The Chiefs’ defence struggled early and often due to penalty trouble against the Buccaneers offence. Penalty flags cost the Chiefs badly when the Buccaneers scored their second touchdown because the Chiefs took a penalty. This gave the Buccaneers offence a first down when it looked like they would be forced to settle for a field goal. Penalties cost the Chiefs’ defence again when they took two pass interference penalties on the same Buccaneers drive, which once again ended in a Buccaneers touchdown.
The Buccaneers scored four touchdowns total in the game, two coming from Gronkowski, one from Antonio Brown and one from Leonard Fournette.
While a hobbling Mahomes tried to will his team to a comeback, the Chiefs’ plays could not develop enough to bring anything to fruition on offence.
Brady was awarded his 5th Super Bowl MVP award while winning his seventh Super Bowl ring. The win gives the Buccaneers their second Super Bowl win in franchise history. Bruce Arians, the Buccaneers head coach, also became the oldest coach to ever win a Super Bowl at the age of 68.
One of the great traditions of the Super Bowl is betting on game props such as the anthem length, coin toss and what colour of Gatorade was poured on the winning coach. So for the bettors out there, the anthem hit the over, the coin toss was heads and the Gatorade that drenched Arians was blue.
Canadian connections
Toronto artist The Weeknd performed at the illustrious Super Bowl halftime show, and was said to have put $7 million of his own money into the performance so it would turn out how he wanted.
Laurent Duvernay-Tardif, a native of Mont-Saint-Hilaire, Que. would have most likely been playing at this year’s Super Bowl with the Chiefs, had he not opted out at the start of the NFL season and returned to Canada to help fight COVID-19 on the front lines. Duvernay-Tardif is a McGill Medical School graduate.
