5 reasons Buccaneers will win Super Bowl LV

By Adam Hill

Las Vegas Review-Journal

4 years ago

Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady reacts after winning the NFC championship NFL footba ... — Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady reacts after winning the NFC championship NFL football game against the Green Bay Packers in Green Bay, Wis., Sunday, Jan. 24, 2021. The Buccaneers defeated the Packers 31-26 to advance to the Super Bowl. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Phelps)

FILE – In this Jan. 17, 2021, file photo, Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Bruce Arians, left, speaks with quarterback Tom Brady before the team’s NFL divisional round playoff football game against the New Orleans Saints in New Orleans. Both Andy Reid and Arians are considered players’ coaches, though they do it in different ways. It’s a quality that’s helped them reach the Super Bowl. (AP Photo/Brett Duke, File)

Raymond James Stadium, the site of NFL football Super Bowl LV, is shown Thursday, Jan. 28, 2021, in Tampa, Fla. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers play the Kansas City Chiefs on Feb. 7. (AP Photo/Chris O’Meara)

The Buccaneers are back in the Super Bowl for the first time since their only NFL title, when Jon Gruden raised the trophy in 2003.

While it has been a long and treacherous journey, they are not about to settle for just being there.

Tampa Bay didn’t sign Tom Brady to make the Super Bowl. He was brought there to win one.

So here are five reasons it’s actually going to happen:

1. Tom Brady

It may have been difficult to find doubters of Tom Brady’s legacy before this season, but it’s impossible now.

Any flimsy critique back then could have been about Brady benefiting from playing for Bill Belichick or preying on a weak division. But those arguments are now officially gone.

Brady left the Patriots to strike out on his own after nearly two decades and somehow, some way, led the Buccaneers to just their second Super Bowl in franchise history and first in 18 years.

He has now been to 10 NFL championship games and is in search of his seventh ring. At age 43, Brady has defied the naysayers and Father Time to make it happen.

It’s becoming harder and harder to pick against him.

2. Defense wins championships

Kansas City’s defense shows up in spots and has been particularly effective in the team’s most important games over the past two years.

Tampa Bay’s defense is far more consistent. In fact, it’s one of the best units in the league.

The Buccaneers are elite, particularly up front. Football Outsiders ranked them as the fifth-best schedule-adjusted defense in the NFL. They are at or near the top of the league in most metrics against the run.

Most analytics people will insist a great offense beats a great defense, and that’s probably true. Tampa Bay definitely won’t make it easy on the Chiefs, though.

3. Home field

It’s difficult to quantify how much it will mean for the Bucs to be playing this game on their home field. Not only is there no history to look back upon as it has never happened before, but Super Bowl crowds are typically corporate and geographically diverse.

This should be a very pro-Bucs crowd, however. While it will be far from a capacity gathering, a large percentage will be local front-line health care workers who are more likely to support the home team.

Those in attendance who don’t have a rooting interest are also more likely to gravitate toward the underdog Bucs, particularly because of Brady.

That’s not even the most important factor in the home-field edge. Because of enhanced health and safety protocols, Kansas City won’t get to town until the weekend.

Tampa Bay gets to practice right in the shadow of the stadium without the burden of travel and additional logistics that go along with that this season.

4. Battle-tested

The Bucs have gone on the road and come home with victories over the NFC East, NFC South and NFC North champions already this postseason.

Green Bay and New Orleans had combined to go 14-3 in the regular and postseason at home before the Buccaneers ended their seasons in consecutive weeks.

Kansas City hasn’t had nearly as difficult a path. They held off a pesky Browns team despite an injury to Patrick Mahomes and then blew out Buffalo and their not-ready-for-prime-time quarterback, Josh Allen, who had his third nightmarish playoff game in four career postseason starts.

5. The GOAT

One of the most enduring Super Bowl traditions is the gimmicky ways different media outlets try to come up with to make a selection in the game.

The first to be posted in the days after the matchup was a goat who would theoretically decide the winner by eating either a bowl of food with Brady’s face or Mahomes’ face.

Get it? A goat for two of the greatest of all time?

Anyway, it chose the Mahomes bowl. But guess what, goats know nothing about football. So let’s go ahead and dismiss that one.

Need something more solid?

How about the postseason record of Tampa’s Jason Pierre-Paul.

Between his time with the Giants and Buccaneers, he is now 7-0 in playoff games, the third-most postseason games of any player in NFL history without a loss.

Take that, goat.

Contact Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AdamHillLVRJ on Twitter.