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Monday, February 8, 2021

Super Bowl LV Data Points -- February 8, 2021

Probably the best game ever on so many levels. If you are a Brady fan. LOL. 

Brady:

  • beat Taylor Heinicke, Aaron Rogers, beat Drew Brees, all in their home stadia
  • beat Mahomes
  • seventh ring
  • not going to be repeated

Super Bowl LV memes:

  • "running for his life"
  • "passing the ball while horizontal"
  • "this is not basketball; one player does not make the team"

Bottom line: KCC schooled. 

Owner, coaches, players:

  • stayed in their lanes;
  • no distractions (can one imagine the Jerry Jones distractions had Dallas been playing? Quick: name the owner of the TBB; for that matter, quick: name the starting quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys this past season and the coach)
  • if you can, good for you; if you can't it's because the only names we heard all season re: DC was Jerry Jones and Dak Prescott;

Handicap:

  • not reported prior to the game to any great extent but perhaps biggest story was KCC's distractions off the field
  • KCC losing two first string inside linemen due to injuries

Defensive line, TBB:

  • under-reported
  • think: "purple people-eaters"; 
  • think: Chicago Bears
  • does anyone think of the TB Bucs when talking about their defensive line

Defensive line, coaching, TBB:

  • kept it simple, understood KCC: one-trick pony: a quarterback that could win by passing
  • solution: advice to front four -- pay no attention to anyone else; just go after Mahomes on every play;
  • learned that Mahomes preferred running to the right, then passing
  • solution: force Mahomes out of his comfort zone; push him to the left
  • even on a winning day, KCC had no running game
  • once they fell behind (and stopped in the red zone three times), KCC then had only one game: the passing game

Offense, TBB:

  • keep it simple, understood the concept of the "queen bee"; protect TB12 at all costs;
    • sacked once?
    • TB12 standing upright at end of 99% of all plays?
    • never scrambled, except that one time going after a loose ball after a bad snap;
  • multi-dimensional: strong running game when it counted
  • passing: TB12 had only 200 passing yards

Offense, KCC:

  • best (?) offense in the NFL going into the game;
  • not one touchdown in this Super Bowl LV
  • two "fails" in the red zone
  • receivers dropping perfectly thrown balls

Franchise:

  • KCC: Mahomes (quick: name four other players on the KCC team)
  • TBB: the team (quick: name four other players on the TBB team)
  • the media says the frachise was TB12
  • it's TB12, only if one sees Brady as the conditioning coach, quarterback, spiritual leader, role model, and "tough love" boss;
  • of all those, one wonders if "role model" was the most important; my hunch, despite being 43 years old, he pushed himself physically more than many players had seen before;

Special teams:

  • absent, as far as I could tell; not needed
  • long-distance field goals: kickers not getting the attention they deserve; valuable for two reasons

Penalties:

  • 120 yards against the KCC; third-worst in Super Bowl history
  • perhaps one or two should not have been called on the KCC and at least one was pivotal, favoring TBB, but "come on, man" -- a dozen penalties (or thereabout) on KCC and one on the TBBz

Composure:

  • penalties lead us back to composure
  • simply put: KCC lost their composure
  • TB12's leadership would ensure TBB would not lose their composure

TB12:

  • with all the above, Brady only had to play "smart." And he played very, very, very smart.
  • no interceptions; technically one but called back due to penalty on defense;
  • best TB play? high snap, ball sails over head; TB doesn't try to scoop it up and save the play; falls on it preventing a takeaway; how often have we seen a QB / running back try to scoop it up, only losing the ball in the process
  • the way his defense played and the way his team played, one wonders if 90% of NFL quarterbacks could have won that game for the Bucs?

Biggest question:

  • Really, how good was Belichick?

Occasionally someone mentions this:

4 comments:

  1. I turned it off after a few minutes. The woke commercials and such were too much for me.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's what remote controls are used for.

      I came in at the middle of the 2nd quarter -- pretty much on purpose. At that point the game was far enough to let me know whether it would be interesting or not. Very interesting to watch the KCC get schooled.

      But I never saw/heard one commercial: flipped to "Weakest Link" and TCM.

      Did not watch any of the half-time show except to see some guy in a purple (?) silk coat singing. Never turned up the volume and completely avoided the half-time analysis.

      Again, the game itself was incredible, watching a well-balanced run-pass team school a team that relied on a one-trick pony.

      Delete
  2. Not a fan of either one for various reasons but Belichek/Brady was a perfect match of two singular focus persons. Coach B is a master coaching genius while Brady is the master of perfecting repetition.
    SB proved that a great QB can bring an underachieving team to greatness, while even a great coach can do so much with an avg/mediocre team.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I can't disagree, but I think one can see a few chinks in Belichick's armor.

      Delete

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