Super Bowl LV Thoughts

[Dave Gray]

In general, a pretty boring game.

Tom Brady played well and is worthy of praise in general, but he wasn't even close to being the story of the game.  Mahomes scrambled on every single play and there just wasn't offensive protection/great pass rush -- depending on how you look at it.  You held the best offense in the league to 0 TDs.  It was a total beatdown, front to back.

It didn't affect the outcome, because it was so lopsided, but the officiating was not only one-sided, but it was heavy-handed.  There were a lot of big flags and bailouts for calls that might be technically correct by the letter of the law, but not related to what was happening in the play and not evenly called.  Disappointing...not sure if that was homefield advantage, the Brady effect or what....

Halftime -- I didn't love the performance, but it was fine.  I like when they take an artist and let them do their thing, rather than a weird mash-up where they're trying to appease all tastes and age ground.  The Weekend wasn't as good as Bruno Mars, for example, but I'll take that all day over Aerosmith featuring Brittney Spears.

Commercials were fine.  I think my favorite joke of the night was the M&M commercial where the guy says "I'm sorry for mansplaining.  ...that's when a man"  Surprised at how so many of the commercials seemed to look backwards to really old references.  95 South, Shaggy, these super old Bud Light references from the 80s....I mean...whatever, but most of that stuff was lost on the people who were watching with me.

[ArtieChokePhin]

Todd Bowles used to be our secondary coach and if I recall correctly, he was the interim head coach after Sparano got fired.  He's the DC for the Bucs now.  All head coaching positions have been filled, but he is going to be a hot commodity next offseason after his unit's performance last night. 

Nobody, and I mean NOBODY keeps Mahomes out of the end zone.

[EDGECRUSHER]

I read that KC's O-Line was decimated with injuries and combine that with Mahomes injured foot and it wasn't a surprise. Not even the great Mahomes can succeed when he has no protection.

[masterfins]

I read that KC's O-Line was decimated with injuries and combine that with Mahomes injured foot and it wasn't a surprise. Not even the great Mahomes can succeed when he has no protection.

Yeah they lost their starting left tackle at the end of the Buffalo game.  So, right tackle moved to left tackle, guard moved to right tackle, and new guard starting.  That's a lot of movement on the O-line, and it really showed because that O-line was a mess from the start of the game and it got worse; not to mention the Bucs defense played great.

Note: this was Super Bowl LV, LIV was last year.

[masterfins]

Best thing about this game was I didn't make it to the casino Saturday to place some bets, I would have lost.

[stinkfish]

Typical boring superbowl where one team showed up to play and one team just got shown up.

[Spider-Dan]

My takeaway was that Mahomes throws a better ball when he's parallel to the ground and being tackled than any Dolphin QB since Marino.  30 yards downfield and hits his receiver in the facemask.  And there were a couple of plays like that (almost all dropped).

Hard to overstate the value of a QB like that.

[dolphins4life]

- Chiefs fans demonstrating clear Bad Call Syndrome in some cases, particularly Pat Mahomes' mother.  Seriously, do they realize that when you commit a penalty, the refs are supposed to throw a flag?  Oddly, Gisele didn't respond back by pointing out that the Chiefs got the bye en route to their Super Bowl victory last year because of CLEARLY incorrect calls in the KC/NE game last year.    

- Andy Reid was a moron before the half.  Even if they stopped Tampa, they would have had almost no chance to score before the half.  The Bucs were gifting them the chance to go into halftime down one score and getting the ball to start the second half.  Again, coaches did this with Brady all during his career in New England.  Also, how did he not teach his team how to line-up onsides?  Did he not learn anything with Dee Ford?

- (Begin Sarcasm) Brady really is the GOAT.  He pressured Mahomes all night.  He forced the Chiefs to line-up offsides, to commit stupid penalties, to make dumb decisions. (End Sarcasm)  No, Brady is not the GOAT.  If anything, every time he wins a Super Bowl, he proves to me more and more why it is not fair to compare quarterbacks by Super Bowls.  The numbers completely back this up.  Unless this is an intangible that I cannot account for.  

Double Edit:  Watch this video of all the calls in question:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nLraMI5Au8

EVERY SINGLE CALL is correct. 

[CF DolFan]

Tampa's defense did a number on KC but Tampa just played clock management for much of the second half. This game was bad but could have been much worse for Chief fans.

[Dolphster]

I thought the bad cell phone connection commercial where Gwen Stefani ended up on a blind date with Blake Shelton was pretty funny. 

[CF DolFan]

I thought the bad cell phone connection commercial where Gwen Stefani ended up on a blind date with Blake Shelton was pretty funny. 

There is a similar Brady/Gronk one showing how they ended up playing for Tampa that is pretty funny too.

[EDGECRUSHER]

Complete side note, if I'm Robert Kraft and my coach allowed me to be talked in to walking away from my franchise QB only to watch what just happened this past weekend -- I don't know if you can come back from that. 

Especially when there was no Plan B in place. Pats are in that "Miami Dolphins Purgatory" now where they aren't bad enough to get a Top 5 pick to help a rebuild but they certainly won't be contending next year either, not in the AFC East. 8-8 next year is to be expected without some drastic moves in free agency and the draft, and even that might be generous since they have no one at QB. 

I'm still surprised that it went down the way it did. Not the way the relationship should've ended and not what Brady deserved either. Even if he stunk up the joint all year, he earned that right to go out on his own terms after winning them 6 Super Bowl titles.

[EDGECRUSHER]

If the Pats fail to win more than 8 games the next 2 years, it will basically destroy Belichick's legacy.

[CF DolFan]

If the Pats fail to win more than 8 games the next 2 years, it will basically destroy Belichick's legacy.

I said something similar and people acted like I was looney. If BB doesn't make a legitimate run next year, or at least the year after, the NE fans will turn on him like mad. TB doing what he did in Tampa raises expectations on BB regardless of its warranted.

with that said ... interesting take from Maine about Robert Kraft. He's probably at the top in regretting letting Tom leave.

[EDGECRUSHER]

I said something similar and people acted like I was looney. If BB doesn't make a legitimate run next year, or at least the year after, the NE fans will turn on him like mad. TB doing what he did in Tampa raises expectations on BB regardless of its warranted.

with that said ... interesting take from Maine about Robert Kraft. He's probably at the top in regretting letting Tom leave.

Kraft is a good owner because he lets his football people run things without his interference. Unfortunately, his football people were feuding with his star QB and it was going to go bad one way or the other.

Belichick runs the whole operation so if they don't at least make the playoffs the next 2 years while Brady keeps going, then he becomes a Phil Jackson type. Overrated "genius" who couldn't do it without the star players.