Kansas City barely got out of Arrowhead with a Monday night overtime win against Tampa Bay, but the Bucs made it perfectly clear the Chiefs aren’t unbeatable.
Few would have given the Tampa Bay Buccaneers a fighting chance on Monday night to become the first team to upset the high flying Kansas City Chiefs this season. Not when they had no wide receivers Mike Evans and Chris Godwin to utilize.
The football public got it right but the Bucs, at half their roster strength, might have outlined the Chiefs’ blueprint for the odd upset at the Super Bowl. First off, go for two when you are one play away from beating the unbeaten, defending champions at their backyard. Todd Bowles, Buccaneers coach, will have to take the heat for not going for the two point conversion near the end of regulation as Buccaneers lost to the Chiefs 30–24 in overtime. Kansas City will savor the seventh consecutive comeback victory as they go to 8–0 on he season.
Indeed, Tampa Bay looked literally hopeless for the first three quarters, but the Buccaneers stayed afloat with how Baker Mayfield utilized Cade Otton – the Bucs’ tight end great for moving forward against the best defense the NFL has seen in the past two and a half years. nitpicking, but it wasn’t a stretch to suggest that the Chiefs had a problem defending tight ends. Lastly, one had finally found an avenue through which to criticize Steve Spagnuolo’s defense.
Then the hunt for the Chiefs’ vulnerability ended when possibly the only way to defeat the champions in the playoffs was laid bare as Mahomes was limping off the field after a touchdown pass in the fourth quarter. For a few minutes, the Chiefs fans could only anxiously wonder if Mahomes would be all O.K. to step back onto the field to try to ensure another perfect season and thus, win a third straight Lombardi trophy. The social media doctors emerged in force speculating as to the severity of Mahomes’ ankle injury and the Chiefs’ opponents made their best effort to dismiss the evil thoughts that still creep into one’s mind.
No real competitor wants to beat the Chiefs if Mahomes is not on the field. Still, everyone at Arrowhead Stadium was able to breathe easily the moment Mahomes ran out of the blue medical tent. And the Buccaneers said bring it on as they gave the last undefeated team in the NFL a hard time, going to OT.
Tampa received much of the Buccaneers respect for making them only the second team in weeks to amass more than 20 points against Kansas City’s defense, and even more counter the momentum that Mahomes give the Chiefs after his return. Mayfield, led the team to a 10 play 71 yard game tying touchdown with only 27 seconds left in the game with a one yard pass to Ryan Miller. That’s when Bowles missed his chance at giving the Chiefs their first loss and maybe keeping the Bucs’ season alive. They are now 4–5 and are two games behind the first-place Atlanta Falcons in the NFC South division and have already dropped both games this year to Atlanta.
However, let’s get back to that one weakness Okay, future Chiefs’ opponents should focus on what Mayfield and Otton did from the start of the game up to the third quarter. And, of course, it’s nitpicking because Mahomes was great in the fourth quarter and ended the game 34 of 44, 291 yards, three touchdowns, and no interception.
The Chiefs’ defense has struggled in covering tight ends George Kittle, Mike Gesicki, Isaiah Likely and Otton, the latter having eight receptions for 77 yards and a touchdown on Monday night. But maybe it’s a waste of time looking for a chink in the armor of the Chiefs’ defense who are busy exposing secondaries to DeAndre Hopkins (eight receptions 88 receiving yards, two touchdowns) and Kareem Hunt, who is all over the field with 106 rushing yards, one touchdown. Oh, and Travis Kelce had another great outing – 100 yards for 14 receptions against the Buccaneers.
It was the first time this season the Chiefs’ offense scored more than 30 points and they most likely did it with the help of their best performance of the year. All is not gim.crm for those who are shutdown and frustrated every week watching the Chiefs and Mahomes emerge victorious. The Buccaneers have shown that the Chiefs are certainly vulnerable and it would not be very surprising if Kansas City underperforms and drops a couple of games before the Play-offs. However, if there is one thing many people could bet on about this team it would be that this team probably doesn’t care about a perfect season. They are going for the ultimate and that is to make it three Super Bowl wins on the trot.
It’s possible that the Buccaneers demonstrate something effective that the Baltimore Ravens, Buffalo Bills, Pittsburgh Steelers, or even the emerging Chargers want when the games are important. But remember, you come at the king you better not hit. Learn from Bowles’s mistake.
