Bucs impress with shutdown defense
TAMPA, Fla. — Around here, the people still rave about Derrick Brooks, about Warren Sapp, about Ronde Barber and Shelton Quarles and John Lynch and all the 2002-03 defenders who brought Super Bowl glee to a football place so often glee-less.
Give it another generation, and will they rave about Shaquil Barrett, about the phenomenal Devin White, about Lavonte David and Jason Pierre-Paul and Sean Murphy-Bunting? Might a pedestrian on the Tampa Riverwalk in the year 2040 spot the occasional Vita Vea jersey amid all the old Tom Bradys?
Nah, they’ll probably just yammer on about Brady.
Yet the big fact hovers that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers just reached 2-0 in lifetime Super Bowls because their defense managed to spend their last three games shutting down Drew Brees, Aaron Rodgers and, in Sunday’s 31-9 Super Bowl LV victory, Patrick Mahomes.
Clearly, they became unstoppable once they survived Taylor Heinicke.
Brees wound up 19-for-34 for 134 yards with three interceptions and a toothless second half. Rodgers went 33-for-48 for 346 but got sacked five times and found Tampa Bay too thorny when Green Bay had chances. Mahomes reached halftime Sunday night at 9for-19 for 67 yards.
Those numbers just looked bad-dream wrong.
By the end, he stood at 26-for-49 for 270 yards. Even Mahomes’ improvisational theater came to suggest desperation more than imagination. Kansas City did not get any touchdowns. Kansas City did not get any touchdowns. Repeat it enough and you might coax yourself into believing it.
“Yeah, I can’t give them enough credit,” Buccaneers coach Bruce Arians said after the game, having said beforehand, “We’ve been winning with defense.”
So, while the 2020-21 Bucs finished sixth in the league in total defense and those 2002-03 Bucs had finished first, the former does have one edge. It overcame three greats where the old guys solved some verygoods: Jeff Garcia, Donovan McNabb and Rich Gannon.
“While the guys up front hunted, the guys in the back covered, so we worked hand-in-hand tonight,” said Bucs defensive coordinator Todd Bowles, having himself one doozy of a winter. The collaboration included some worldclass “pushing the pocket” from one 34-year-old Ndamukong Suh.
“Especially when you’re struggling and playing a really good defense,” Mahomes said, “it’s hard to get drives going and get in the end zone.”
Hints of the red tide came in Week 12, when the two teams met. The Chiefs looked like the Chiefs in surging to a quick 17-0 lead, but the Bucs figured out some things and drew within 27-24 by the end. While conscientious sorts ought to remember that Kansas City lost left tackle Eric Fisher in the AFC Championship Game, and left tackles do matter deeply in American life, the Tampa Bay defense still seemed to gather excellence as the postseason went along. By the time it lined up opposite Kansas City again, it had become about as much of a beast as modern times will let a defense become.
The NFL’s state-of-theart offense wound up with its ideas looking spent and its space looking scarce. Its big show had been ground into granular plays.
Bowles managed to direct pressure on 57 percent of Mahomes’ dropbacks in the first half, according to ESPN. Barrett and David kept turning up in ideal places at pivotal moments. White was marvelous again in his first postseason and second year in the league, with 12 tackles, eight solo tackles and a fitting, closing interception in the end zone. A secondary of a rookie, two second-year players and two third-year players seemed to keep getting older and wiser, all for a team that bolted from 7-5 to a closing 15-5.
Last Super Bowl, the Chiefs reached the sevenminute mark down 20-10 but still rich in realistic hope against a defense that had just about solved them. This time, they reached the seven-minute mark down 31-9 and obviously done against a defense that already had solved them.
“You could honestly feel it with the change and the growth in the locker room,” said Barrett, “and that’s why we’re leaving with the Lombardi Trophy.”