Winners & Losers: Super Bowl LV

Super Bowl LV is a wrap and another NFL season is in the books. Tom Brady is once again a Super Bowl champion and has essentially ended all GOAT debates, if those were even still a thing. He now has seven Super Bowl wins in 10 games. That’s insane to think about. Especially when you consider the fact that he just did it with a whole new team.

As we all start to go back and breakdown the game, it’s clear that the Buccaneers simply had a perfect gameplan to stop Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs, which is wild because nobody has been able to do that. Mahomes was running for his life the entire game and could never get into a groove. It was mindblowing to see the Chiefs offense struggle so much. Then there was Brady and the Bucs. He had three first half touchdowns and looked at ease the entire game. Almost like it was easy. 

There will be plenty of breakdown of this one for weeks to come, but for now, we’re running through all of the winners and losers from Super Bowl LV. 

We simply have never seen Patrick Mahomes look as rattled as he did last night. And make no mistake, it is surely not all on him. The Chiefs offensive line was wildly outmatched the entire game and Mahomes had to try and make miracles happen throughout the night. The insane part is that Mahomes made some absoltely unreal throws after scrambling in the pocket that were then dropped by his receivers. Just look at this throw: 

mAhOmEs iS oVeRrAtEd pic.twitter.com/8PN4Nyh6lJ

— Geoff Schwartz (@geoffschwartz) February 8, 2021

It was just an overall dreadful night for the Chiefs, which nobody really saw coming. They didn’t score a single touchdown. Nobody predicted that. This Mahomes rushing stat below blew my mind. 

This Patrick Mahomes scrambling yards stat is of the wilder stats I’ve ever seen (via @axios) pic.twitter.com/gx2b5xwwPg

— Eric Kay (@ekaycbs) February 8, 2021

Tom Brady may have won Super Bowl MVP, but Todd Bowles and this Tampa Bay Buccaneers defense deserve all of the love they’re getting right now. What an absolutely unreal performance by Devin White, Shaq Barrett, Antonie Winfield Jr., and this entire group. They had a perfect gameplan from Bowels from the first play and never let Mahomes get into any kind rhythm. I keep saying it, but we’ve just never seen that happen to this Chiefs offense. The key to the game was simply the fact that the Bucs were able to get pressure on Mahomes without blitzing. Barrett and JPP wrecked havoc and it allowed the Bucs secondary to take away Tyreke Hill the entire game. Let’s go ahead and get Todd Bowles another head coaching interview this next cycle. 

Everything starts up front in football.

Super Bowl LV showed us exactly how. pic.twitter.com/RRNJQshhF9

— Field Yates (@FieldYates) February 8, 2021

It’s hard to call one of the most accomplished coaches in NFL a loser, but man, Tom Brady left the Patriots and went and won a Super Bowl in his first year with the Bucs. While the Patriots missed the playoffs. And Brady brought Gronk with him and he scored two TDs in the Super Bowl. That’s just… damn. Who knows where the Patriots and Belichick go from here, but Brady already proved that he wasn’t done and they probably shouldn’t have let him walk so easily. At least the Patriots Twitter account had some nice things to say after the game. 

Congratulations to the greatest of all time.

— New England Patriots (@Patriots) February 8, 2021

Who had Drake as a big winner of the Super Bowl on a night that the Weeknd was headlining the halftime show? Well, that’s what happened after Drake starred in a surprise State Farm ad, which was easily one of the biggest highlights of the night on the commercial side. Props to Drizzy. 

DRAKE FROM STATE FARM 🤯pic.twitter.com/fuz4fwQtVe

— Complex (@Complex) February 8, 2021

Sometimes NFL teams aren’t very smart. When you think about the fact that there were teams that didn’t want to sign Tom Brady when he became a free agent last year, you really, really realize that sometimes NFL teams really aren’t smart. Brady’s free agency apparently came down to the Chargers and Bucs, but according to Mike Florio, Brady wanted to home and play for the 49ers. They missed the playoffs. We all know the Patriots moved on. They missed the playoffs. There has to be others, and there’s no way to guarantee that if a team signed Brady they would have won the Super Bowl, but he did just win it in his first year with the Bucs. Maybe more times should have tried to sign the greatest NFL QB of all-time. Just a thought. 

Tom Brady wanted to sign with the 49ers. They passed.

— ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) February 8, 2021

You can’t tell me the Bucs didn’t carry a massive amount of pettiness with them this season. From Brady and Gronk proving that they could win outside of the Patriots, to Antonie Winfield Jr’s epic taunt of Tyreke Hill to close the game, the Bucs proved that being petty can be fun and work out in the end. Just look at this greatness: 

Tyreek Hill gave Antoine Winfield Jr. the peace sign in the regular season 👀

Winfield got the last laugh. @brgridiron pic.twitter.com/mCpXSvPcls

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) February 8, 2021

This was a tough game for Honey Badger and the Chiefs defense. Brady and the Bucs completely dominated them up front and basically got in their heads the entire game. Things really boiled over when Mathieu ended up getting into Tom Brady’s face to end the first half and the Chiefs safety later said after that game that Brady had said something to him to get him to react. Whatever the case, the Chiefs defense didn’t look prepared for the phsycicality of the Bucs offense from the first play of the game. They got punched in the mouth and never punched back. 

Tyrann Mathieu on his exchange with Tom Brady: “He called me something I won’t repeat..." https://t.co/RhmhEXlWHK

— Complex Sports (@ComplexSports) February 8, 2021