I don't have strong feelings about either team. But I really don't care for Tom Brady or his egomaniac GOAT narrative, so I was half rooting for the Chiefs. KC had a bad night and I think the second string OL was a big part. They also got destroyed on holding calls at critical moments... some deserved, others maybe not so much. It was not a very fun game, because it was basically over at halftime. Nail-biters are more fun when you are at the pinnacle of the season. First Super Bowl with a female on the ref squad, really no reason more women shouldn't get involved with the NFL in ways that don't involve go-go boots.
The halftime show seemed to be pretty divisive this year, with a lot of love and hate online. I rate it middle of the road but definitely overhyped by the artist ahead of time. It wasn't my taste in music and I thought parts were too dark to really see the artist, but it was more entertaining than the bands that just stand there. Pregame, the ASL interpreter was the star of the show, but otherwise it was one of my least favorite renditions of the Star Spangled Banner. Ads were below average this year, but to be expected because some of the key advertisers took the year off, big budget ad productions were probably difficult this year, and advertisers seemed keen to avoid pushing the envelope into controversial waters.
agree on anthem and half time show. Halftime was okay. I missed the message trying to be sent with the masked dancers (anti plastic surgery I guess....reminded me of twilight zone with Donna Douglas). I like Eric Church but his voice isn’t great for anthem and duet didn’t mess. And I’m anti-guitar when it comes to the anthem.
From what I was hearing today, Tampa’s pass defense really took away the short passes that KC often breaks into big gains with their speed. Much of that was getting a TON of pressure against a beat up line with only 4 rushers. Tony Romo commented about the two deep safeties taking away the deep routes, but they could do that because KC couldn’t run and they could stuff the short passes with the other 5.
-They had a makeshift OL that couldn't block for Mahomes. I think I saw the Bucs pressured Mahomes 29 times and only two of those they sent more than four rushers. If you're getting home with only four guys, nobody's going to be open.
-The Chiefs dropped some passes. I think there were two instances of Chiefs receivers who had balls hit them in the facemask. Kelce dropped an easy one early also on a 3rd down.
-Chiefs made dumb mistakes. Lining up offsides on 4th and 5 FG attempt? Inexcusable. That led to 7 instead of 3. Calling a timeout down 8 when the Bucs seem content to let the clock run out and you get the ball to start the second half? Horrible coaching decision. That led to 7 instead of 0. Take those two out and it's 10-6 at half instead of 21-6.
-Refs didn't help. The PI call on Evans in the end zone was bogus. That was uncatchable. The earlier one on the same drive was soft but a 50-50 call. Soft unnecessary roughness on KC for a light shove when the TB player shoved first. And regardless of that, if were calling that a penalty, you're going to have 20 penalties a game for shoving. I don't see how you can call 4-5 PI/defensive holding penalties on KC in the first half but none on TB. You're telling me nobody held Kelce or Hill to keep them in check?
Mahomes was off a bit also. Even early in the game, he missed a wide open Hardman on what would have been a huge gain. Wasn't a tough throw, wasn't pressured. Just missed him.
I think KC was the better team on the season - they went 14-1 when they played their starters in the better conference. But it's not like Tampa was a bad team. So when you have a great team matched up with a good team and the great team plays about as poorly as possible while the good team plays flawlessly, a result like this happens. I mean, the Raiders were mediocre but went to Arrowhead and beat KC this year.