In the early hours of Monday morning, history was made as Tom Brady led the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to a storming victory over the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LV.
A fifth Super Bowl MVP performance from Brady helped the Buccs to a 31-9 win over the defending champions with two touchdowns from Rob Gronkowski, as well as scores from Antonio Brown and Leonard Fournette.
The Buccaneers defence proved too much for Patrick Mahomes, and the Chiefs were unable to score a touchdown of their own, just kicking three field goals.
Tampa claimed its second Vince Lombardi trophy, their previous coming in the 2002 season, and became the first team to win it in their home arena at the Raymond James Stadium.
Brady won his seventh, meaning he now has more titles than any single NFL franchise.
On 36 previous occasions the team who scored first in the Super Bowl went on to win, but it was the Chiefs who opened the scoring in Super Bowl LV with a 49-yard field goal.
With under a minute remaining of the first quarter, Brady linked up with his long-time teammate Gronkowski to hand Tampa the lead.
The Buccs looked to extend their lead after a 31-yard pass to Mike Evans put them at first and goal however an incomplete pass to tackle Jon Haeg and a rush from Ronald Jones to within inches wasn’t enough.
Kansas failed to threaten on their next drive and a poor punt at the end of it put Tampa in a promising position.
Tampa initially scored a field goal, however following an offside call they were given another chance, and Brady connected with Gronkowski once more to take the score to 14-3.
Kansas reduced the deficit with another field goal leaving the Buccaneers with just a minute of the first half remaining.
A pass interference penalty from Bashaud Breeland for tripping Evans resulted in a big gain for Tampa before a second penalty interference, this time from the fired-up Tyrann Mathieu, put the Bucs within first and goal.
A one-yard pass to another former Patriot, this time Antonio Brown, left the score at 21-6 going into the halftime performance courtesy of The Weeknd.
The Chiefs needed a mammoth second half however their opening drive resulted in yet another field goal, this time from 52 yards.
The game was put to bed minutes later when Leonard Fournette lived up to his alias, Playoff Lenny, making a 27 yard dash to make the score 28-9.
Kansas’ attempt to get back in the game were cut short when Bucs safety Antoine Winfield Jr. made a crucial interception off a deflected catch attempt, which resulted in his side scoring a field goal.
The final quarter highlighted what had been a problem the entire game, Mahomes was put under constant pressure by the Tampa Bay defence.
Despite making some sensational pass attempts, his usually prolific receivers were unable to find the killer touch, and the talented young quarterback suffered his heaviest NFL career defeat.
The game was finally brought to an end when the Bucs linebacker Devin White made a decisive interception.
You can check out all of SWL’s Super Bowl LV coverage here.
Featured image credit: Doctorindy/Wikimedia
