Thanks to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ dominance in Super Bowl LV, the Buccaneers have officially broken the Kansas City Chiefs and effectively ended their quasi-dynasty.
They say that the only thing harder than winning a Super Bowl is repeating the feat the next season. Boy has that rang true so far. Granted, the Buccaneers have a lot of pigskin to be played, but their offense has been humming in a way not seen in Tampa Bay. That’s not the point though. The main talking point here is the defense, and what they’ve done to Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs.
The 31-9 beatdown in Super Bowl LV saw the Bucs become the first team not to allow Mahomes to get his offense in the end zone, a feat which the Tennessee Titans accomplished this past Sunday. The offense has never quite been the same, and it’s almost as if the anointed second coming is still seeing ghosts from his evening in Raymon James Stadium many moons ago.
Patrick Mahomes clearly still sees ghosts of Shaq Barrett, Devin White and the crew pic.twitter.com/dGwfxDTCH7
— Brandon Thornton (@BThornton_33) October 24, 2021
The once-potent offense of the Chiefs has not really come close to being the same since the Super Bowl and has seemingly regressed with each passing week. It seems like people love throwing the word “dynasty” out there any time a team emerges in any sport that has the making to be good for a long time, ignoring just how hard it is to actually reach the pinnacle. The Chiefs have been the latest example.
With that offense, that coach, that quarterback, and front office, it was natural to assume they’d be the next great NFL dynasty. However, they’ve now appeared to resemble the Joe Gibbs-coached Washington teams in the early 1980s. They too had a potent offense led by an MVP quarterback in Joe Theismann. They won Super Bowl XVII in the 1982 (strike-shortened) season, then put scored the most points in NFL history at the time in 1983. They were then blown out by the Raiders in Super Bowl XVIII and it was time to rebuild.
The Chiefs very well could get their act together. However, with the way their offense has looked, compared to how the offense of the Buccaneers has looked, it’s safe to say that the Bucs broke the Chiefs in the Super Bowl. Who would have thought Tom Brady at 44 would look leaps and bounds better than Mahomes a 26? How’s that for a Madden curse.