It’s been a while since I’ve blogged about sports, due to the COVID-19 pandemic fucking up the entire world. So yeah, I didn’t blog my predictions for the 17 regular season weeks of the 2020-21 NFL season nor did I blog my predictions for the three prior postseason weeks.
However, there will be a Super Bowl 55 prediction because after all, it’s the fucking Super Bowl and it wouldn’t feel right if I didn’t blog about that. Especially since the NFC champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers are taking on the reigning Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs in their own home stadium (Raymond James Stadium), which is an NFL first for a team whose city (Tampa Bay) is the host city for the big game. Now onto some of the subplots for this big game via the next three paragraphs.
For the past 20 NFL seasons, no quarterback has been quite the winner that Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady has been, as he has the most combined regular season and postseason wins (263) as a starting quarterback, with six of those wins coming in one ninth of the 54 Super Bowl games. And while he’s been the best to ever do it up to this point, the quarterback (Patrick Mahomes) on the opposing side is the most likely one to catch and/or pass Brady for all of those astronomical career win totals. In his four-year career, the Chiefs signal caller and Super Bowl 54 MVP has 45 combined wins (regular season and postseason), along with never losing a career start (nine total losses as a starter) by more than eight points. And given how tough that the Chiefs have been with Mahomes as their starter, this game will be decided by eight points or less. Plus, it will be high scoring.
The Chiefs have mostly been winning too close for comfort from Week 9 on, as eight of their last nine wins were decided by six points or less. And while they defeated the Buffalo Bills 38-24 in the AFC Championship game, the Bills did have them down 9-0 early on, which also marked the fifth time in seven postseason games where they have trailed. They are 4-1 in such games, with that one loss coming against Brady in the 2018-19 AFC Championship Game, as he was a member of the New England Patriots. Now they face him in the postseason for the second time in three seasons, with it being both on the NFL’s biggest stage and him on the NFC side this time around. And with that being said, how will they fare against Brady and his Buccaneers team?
Well for one, the Buccaneers won’t be down 17-0 after the first quarter nor will they be down 24-10 at halftime, as they are a different team from that Week 12 meeting against the Chiefs. As a matter of fact, it will be the Buccaneers jumping out to an early double-digit lead and they’ll keep their foot on the gas throughout, as they’ll utilize a good balance of both the pass and run to keep Mahomes & Company off the field for most of this game. Look for either Ronald Jones or Leonard Fournette to have 100 yards or more rushing, look for Todd Bowles’ defense to exploit the Chiefs’ reshuffled offensive line and look for the score to be decided by one possession for the Buccaneers. It will be 38-31, Buccaneers, and one of those running backs, along with Shaquil Barrett, will be co-MVP.
Yes, I’m picking against the reigning Super Bowl champions, because I feel that they have been playing with fire way too much this season and playing that way will finally catch up to them. Plus, I’ve played with fire myself, as I’ve gone against Brady on many occasions and have gotten burned quite a bit, so I’m not going against the six-time Super Bowl winning quarterback this time around.
Okay, well that does it for this edition of Steve Believes. Tune in next Monday to my recap of Super Bowl 55 to see how I did. So until then, so long everybody!