What went wrong in Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl loss: Penalties, pressure and more
The Chiefs’ dream to run it back woke up to a harsh reality in Super Bowl LV.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady dissected the Chiefs’ defense with three touchdown passes en route to a convincing 31-9 win Sunday at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida.
The Chiefs were down 21-6 at halftime and then tried to play catch-up the rest of the way.
Tampa Bay’s defense quieted the Chiefs’ offense, which finished the regular season ranked No. 1 in the league at 415.8 yards per game. The Chiefs amassed 350 yards Sunday but couldn’t connect down the field as the Bucs played their safeties deep.
The Chiefs’ offense found no semblance of rhythm. Quarterback Patrick Mahomes was flushed out of the pocket numerous times behind a shuffled offensive line.
“It was a bad day to have a bad day,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said. “I’m not going to lay it on the offensive line. When we lose, we all lose together on this.”
The Chiefs converted a paltry three of 13 third-down attempts (23%). Mahomes was sacked three times, hit eight times and picked off twice.
Add it up and the result was a one-sided Chiefs loss in the biggest game in football.
“They played better than we did, and that’s my responsibility,” Reid said. “I take full responsibility for it. You can’t do the things we did and beat a good football team like that, particularly at this level.”
SELF-INFLICTED WOUNDS
While the Chiefs were let down on numerous fronts, nothing stood out more than the yellow flags littering the ground.
Penalties became the theme for the Chiefs in the first half: eight for 98 yards, the most in Super Bowl history.
“You can’t have penalties, not that many,” Reid said.
Were some calls questionable? Perhaps; a pass-interference call on safety Tyrann Mathieu in the end zone comes to mind. The Buccaneers capitalized on the next play from the Chiefs’ 1-yard line, when Brady threw a laser to wide receiver Antonio Brown for a touchdown and a 21-6 halftime lead.
The Chiefs, however, hurt themselves repeatedly in the first half, especially on Tampa Bay’s fifth possession.
Brady’s interception was wiped out by a defensive holding call on KC cornerback Charvarius Ward. The Chiefs’ defense held to force a 40-yard field goal attempt, which kicker Ryan Succop, the former Chiefs kicker, nailed. A neutral-zone penalty on wide receiver Mecole Hardman gave the Buccaneers a first down instead.
Brady made the Chiefs pay with a bullet to streaking tight end Rob Gronkowski, who raced down the right sideline for a 17-yard touchdown. Gronkowski finished with six catches for 67 yards and two touchdowns.
The Chiefs’ undisciplined play was highly uncharacteristic and greatly contributed to their downfall. They finished the game with 11 penalties for 120 yards.
“Penalties cost the game either way,” Chiefs defensive tackle Chris Jones said. “Only the referees can call the penalties. So the penalties affect the game 1,000 percent. What can I say? We had a lot of penalties called on us today.”
MAHOMES IS HUMAN
Sunday presented the first Super Bowl matchup between QBs who’d won each of the two most recent Super Bowls. Mahomes won Super Bowl LIV, Brady Super Bowl LIII with the New England Patriots.
While Brady has now won seven Super Bowl rings and five Super Bowl MVPs, Mahomes’ career is really still just getting started. And until Sunday night, Mahomes had usually been able to take over a game in the clutch.
Mahomes completed 26 of 49 passes for 270 yards and two interceptions for a 52.3 passer rating against the Bucs. Most of his production came late in the fourth quarter with the game out of hand.
I just think we weren’t on the same page as an offense in general,” Mahomes said. “I wasn’t getting the ball out on time. The receivers were running routes not exactly where I thought they were going to be at, and then the offensive line, they were good at some times and some times they let guys through.
“When you play a good defense like that, you’ve got to be on the same page as an offense, and we weren’t today. And that’s why we played so bad.”
Mahomes made some typically miraculous throws only to be let down on the receiving end. In the first half, his off-balance pass to wide receiver Tyreek Hill would have been a touchdown, but the ball bounced off Hill’s facemask. Mahomes also threw a pass in the third quarter on a fourth-and-9 play when he was parallel to the ground. The pass was intended for running back Darrel Williams near the end zone it caromed off Williams’ facemask.
Forced to scramble a lot, Mahomes ran for 33 yards on five carries.
The big passing plays down the field were missing.
The Bucs seemed well prepared for Hill, who torched them with 13 catches for 269 yards and three touchdowns in Week 12. Sunday night, Hill had seven catches for 73 yards.
Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce had 10 catches for 133 yards on 15 targets.
“(Buccaneers defensive coordinator) Todd (Bowles) had a good plan,” Reid said. “But like I said, I could’ve done a whole lot better of putting these guys in a better position to make plays.”
DEFENSIVE LETDOWN
The Chiefs’ defense was a no-show.
Kansas City finished the season allowing 22.6 points per game, 10th fewest in the league, but couldn’t stop the Buccaneers from putting up 31 points.
The Chiefs also couldn’t get pressure on Brady, producing a single sack (defensive end Frank Clark) and just two quarterback hits. With time in the pocket, Brady picked apart the Chiefs with play-action passes and a deadly screen game.
Kansas City also had no answer for the Buccaneers’ run game, which produced 145 yards and a touchdown on 33 carries. Running back Leonard Fournette ranked up 135 total yards (89 rushing) and the touchdown.
“You can’t expect to go out there and win games when you’re missing tackles,” Chiefs defensive end Frank Clark said. “Running backs, they’re getting an extra yard, they’re getting an extra 4 or 5 yards here, an extra 4 or 5 yards there. That all comes from playing gap-sound defense and trusting each other.”
SPECIAL TEAMS NOT SPECIAL
Special teams coordinator Dave Toub likely didn’t expect the type of game he received from his unit.
In addition to Hardman’s neutral-zone infraction, rookie punter Tommy Townsend picked a bad time to have the worst game of his fledgling career.
Townsend had punts of just 27 and 29 yards in the first half, with the latter setting up the Bucs’ fifth possession of the game. Tampa Bay capitalized with a touchdown eight plays later.
Kicker Harrison Butker was a bright spot, with three field goals.
INJURIES
None of note.
UP NEXT
With the season officially over, the Chiefs can now look ahead to free agency in March, followed by the 2021 NFL Draft.
This story was originally published February 7, 2021 at 9:37 PM.
