Tom Brady earned his fifth Super Bowl MVP and his seventh ring as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers topped Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs 31-9 for their first Super Bowl victory since 2003.
With Brady winning his record-extending seventh Vince Lombardi Trophy, and his first with the Bucs, it is only fitting to look at seven major talking points from Super Bowl LV.
- Tom Brady has now won more Super Bowls than any NFL franchise
With the victory, 43-year-old Tom Brady now has more Super Bowl titles than any other franchise in the history of the NFL, surpassing the Pittsburgh Steelers (6) and the New England Patriots – who were guided by Brady himself in all six of their victories.
Embed from Getty Images- Buccaneers only had one Pro Bowler in their roster
Despite a phenomenal performance from the Bucs defence, who denied Mahomes a touchdown pass for the first time since the Detroit Lions in September 2019, only outside line-backer Jason Pierre-Paul made the 2021 Pro Bowl.
To put that into context, the Chiefs had seven Pro Bowlers in their roster and Tampa Bay faced 21 Pro Bowlers in their play-off run (Washington (2), Saints (5), Packers (7), Chiefs (7)).
- Winner of the last seven coin tosses has lost the Super Bowl
As soon as the Chiefs won the coin toss and elected to kick, the outcome of the match was seemingly decided before a single play had been called.
That’s right. Some may call it merely a coincidence, but the winner of the last seven coin tosses has gone on to lose the Super Bowl.
- Chiefs committed Super Bowl-record eight first-half penalties
The first 30 minutes were difficult viewing for Kansas City fans, as the Chiefs committed a catalogue of self-inflicted errors with eight first half penalties producing an unwelcome NFL record.
The penalties were a key factor in the game, with the Chiefs flagged 11 times for 120 yards, compared with the Bucs, who only drew four penalties for 39.
- Mahomes recorded the lowest single-game passer rating in his career
Mahomes completed 26 of his 49 passes for 270 yards, failed to score a touchdown and was picked off twice in the ball game. This resulted in the lowest single-game passer rating of Mahomes’ career so far at 53.2.
- Mahomes was pressured the most of any quarterback in Super Bowl history
The Bucs defence were unrelenting, pressuring Mahomes on 29 of the 56 dropbacks (52%). In fact, Mahomes was pressured more than any quarterback in the 55-year history of the Super Bowl. In the regular season, Mahomes was pressured just 22% of the time and the intensity from the Bucs paid dividends.
- Buccaneers become only the seventh Wild Card team to win a Super Bowl
In his first season with the Buccaneers, Tom Brady led his team to their first win since 2003 and only their second in franchise history.
The Bucs also became just the seventh Wild Card team to win and Brady had to overcome three future Hall-of-Famers in Drew Brees, Aaron Rodgers and Patrick Mahomes to do so.
The last time a Wild Card team won the Super Bowl was in 2010, when Aaron Rodgers led the Green Bay Packers to a 31-25 win over the Steelers.
You can check out the rest of SWL’s Super Bowl LV coverage here.
Featured image credit: Bernard Gagnon via Wikipedia Commons CC 3.0 license
