As reigning champions, the Kansas City Chiefs go into their second-straight Super Bowl as favourites and it would be difficult to claim the bookmakers have this wrong.
Such is the expectation around Andy Reid’s team, the Chiefs arguably went under the radar in 2020 and yet ended the regular season with the best record in the NFL. They then went on to topple the Cleveland Browns – despite an injury scare to star quarterback Patrick Mahomes – before setting aside the Buffalo Bills with relative ease in the AFC Championship game.
The Chiefs were fancied to reach this point from the very start of the season, and nothing along the way has derailed them.
Kansas City are one of the better-oiled machines we’ve ever seen in the NFL and a dynasty waiting to happen, so there was perhaps a touch of curiosity when the betting lines landed at the end of Championship Sunday, and the Chiefs were only favoured by three points in the Super Bowl.
That line has hardly shifted at all over the fortnight since, and there’s only one logical reason why.
Thomas Edward Patrick Brady Jr.
The only way I can imagine Mahomes not scooping MVP honours is if Tampa Bay come up with a way of significantly disrupting the Chiefs’ offence.
This is something that certainly is possible going into this game, due to two notable absences in the Kansas City line-up. Both Eric Fisher and Mitchell Schwartz are set to be out, leaving two pretty gaping holes at either end of the offensive line.
With the form that Jason Pierre-Paul and Shaq Barrett are in (five combined sacks in the NFC Championship game) this creates a real issue in the game and it will be a source of hope for Buccaneers fans everywhere.
If you’re looking for a big-price MVP fancy this year, and might be more up your street, although be advised that they will almost certainly depend on an overall Tampa Bay victory.
If that excellent pass-rush can find a way through the Kansas City blockade and consistently cause Mahomes problems all night though, we really might have a game on our hands.
In that instance, the duty of course falls to Brady.
However, I do foresee the Buccaneers falling away as we approach the latter stages. If the Chiefs grab a lead, they don’t tend to let it go and that will cause some desperation in Bruce Arians’ game-plan.
Although I do believe the Bucs will put up a good account of themselves, make the game a high-scoring affair and perhaps even worry Kansas City early, I just don’t see Tampa Bay outlasting Mahomes and co. over the course of the 60 minutes. We don’t get the opportunity to say this often, but Sunday will not be Tom Brady’s night.
Patrick Mahomes is the new king of the NFL and, if you don’t believe it by now, you will on Monday morning.
Prediction: Tampa Bay Buccaneers 28-35 Kansas City Chiefs
Odds correct at 1815 GMT (05/02/21)
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