The staff has come to a split decision
Ian Longtin / Your favorite Sports Editor’s favorite sports editor
This is my third and final year making a Super Bowl prediction here at The
Spectrum, and thus far I am 2-0 in my picks. I feel pressure to leave my time here at the paper with an unblemished record.
Is Tom Brady the greatest quarterback of all-time? Yep. Does Tampa Bay’s
front seven seem to be peaking at the right time? Sure. Home field advantage in the Super Bowl for the Bucs? Fine.
Yet somehow, none of these points matter. Patrick Mahomes is the best
football player on the planet playing on a team that was one Dee Ford offsides penalty away from this game being their potential third straight Super Bowl win.
Somehow the Chiefs have almost become underrated. Dating back to week 11 of the 2019 season, the Chiefs are 25-1 in games in which they played their starters. Yet we’ve all somehow still found time to talk about how the
fraudulent 11-0 Steelers or the year-to-soon Bills were primed to take them
down.
The fact of the matter is, no team has figured out how to stop Kansas City’s
offense over the last three years. Heck, the closest any team has come was the 49ers in last year’s Super Bowl before the Chiefs scored three touchdowns in the final eight minutes to win the game.
Tampa Bay earned every right to be here and counting Tom Brady out of any game is a mistake. And yes, the loss of left tackle Eric Fisher may force
Mahomes to get the ball out a little quicker and limit Kansas City’s home run ability.
But the Chiefs’ offense is too potent, and their weapons are too explosive
that stopping them completely looks nearly impossible at this point.
Also, when asked, one anonymous NDSU student (you know who you are) who watches next to no football thinks Kansas City will in because they will be wearing red and the Bucs will be wearing white, and ‘R’ comes before ‘W’ in the alphabet.
What more evidence could you possibly need than that right there.
Chiefs by two scores, Mahomes wins MVP, again. Also, the Gatorade will be orange.
Kansas City: 33 Tampa Bay: 21
Mason Urban / Elite basketball mind
Super Bowl 55 has the possibility to be one for the ages. It’s going to be the GOAT Tom Brady going up against the possible future GOAT Patrick Mahomes.
In my head, this seems like an easy pick. The Chiefs have been the best team in the league all season long, they have the best player in the league and they already beat the Bucs in Tampa earlier this season.
However, I have a feeling that Brady and company are going to find a way to steal this one. They have the formula to give Mahomes problems as they have two good pass rushers in Jason Pierre-Paul and Shaquille Barrett. The key to having success against the Chiefs is getting pressure by rushing only four and dropping the rest into coverage.
The Chiefs will also be without both left tackle Eric Fisher and right tackle Mitchell Schwartz. These are big losses for a team going up against two good pass rushers.
The biggest thing for the Bucs is that they can’t let Tyreek Hill loose like they did in week 12. Hill had 269 yards receiving and three touchdowns as he torched Carlton Davis all game long. Tampa will have to double Hill and make someone else beat them.
It’s hard to doubt Mahomes, but it’s even harder to doubt Brady, especially when it comes to the Super Bowl.
Tampa Bay: 34 Kansas City: 30
John Swanson / Photographer, Jon Bellion fan
I’ve bet against Brady in the playoffs before. As an unknowing child, I chose to root for the Giants while my sister cheered for the Patriots in the fabled 2012 matchup. Or maybe it was 2008… It doesn’t matter either way because the Patriots lost both.
That being said, Patrick Mahomes is no Eli Manning. He’s almost undoubtedly far better. Still, I don’t think Tom Brady is going down easy in this matchup, and—against the innocence of my youth—I’m going to say that the Buccaneers win this Super Bowl. If the Bucs lose, 12-year-old me will be saying, “I told you so,” but I can deal with that.
Tampa Bay: 31 Kansas City: 28
Abby Petersen / Correctly guessed Kansas City’s point total in last years Super Bowl
Honestly, I’m just happy that the Packers aren’t in this game.
This game is going to be special no matter who takes the win. We’re going to be watching one of the best quarterback matchups in Super Bowl history. Tom Brady vs Patrick Mahomes feels like if we ever got to see Kobe vs Lebron in an NBA finals.
The Chiefs are looking at becoming back-to-back Super Bowl champions which were last done by *checks notes* Tom Brady in 2004.
Patrick Mahomes was 9 years old at that time.
These are two really great teams. The Chiefs have the best offense in the NFL, not only with Patrick Mahomes but also with Tyreek Hill and Travis Kelce who have been playing at an elite level all season. However, the Chiefs’ biggest weakness is their defense, which Tampa will look to exploit.
Tampa is no underdog though. With Tom Brady being the best quarterback to ever live aside, the Bucs have other offensive weapons in Mike Evans, Scotty Miller, and of course, Rob Gronkowski. The Bucs also have a much better defense than Kansas City, which I think will be the deciding factor in who wins the ring.
I’m taking the Chiefs to win this game. I think at this point in time, Patrick Mahomes is the better QB and has more weapons around him that will be exceptionally difficult for the Bucs to answer to.
Kansas City: 31 Tampa Bay: 24
David Hoffman / Sad Packers fan
This is a hard one to write as a Packers fan. Another year, another NFC championship loss. I’ll have to be cheering for Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs for the second year in a row. It’s time for Tom Brady to go down and the Mahomes era to begin.
Putting my Packers pain aside, I do think that this one will go to the Chiefs. The Chiefs are pretty much the same team they were last year. Despite signing Mahomes to the crazy NFL deal of all time, they somehow retained their key players and coaching staff.
The Chiefs are one of the most electric teams of all time. Travis Kelce, Tyreek Hill, Le’Veon Bell, Tyrann Mathieu and Sammy Watkins would bankrupt any other team with the salaries they deserve, but somehow, they all stuck together.
I think that togetherness is what will be the biggest weapon for them. As we saw in the playoffs, Tom Brady is still one of the best clutch, big-game athletes of all time. The man plays well in the spotlight, and he has a roster around him of equally big names on both sides of the ball.
Antonio Brown, Rob Gronkowski, Mike Evans, Leonard Fournette, Ndamukong Suh and Jordan Whitehead are just a few of the studs on the Tampa roster. They have come together as a team in the past couple of months, but it can’t compare to the 2-3 years of team bonding the Chiefs have done so well.
I think the Chiefs will take home the dub.
Kansas City: 38 Tampa Bay: 34
Andrew Haugland / Even more sad Vikings fan
In what seems like the battle of the ages (quite literally), Super Bowl week is finally here. While this year might be a little bit different than most, it is still sure to be the most-watched sporting event in the United States, (last year’s Super Bowl had 99.9 million viewers).
Now to the game itself. While this might be a hot take, I like the Buccaneers right now a lot more than the Chiefs. I think Tampa Bay’s momentum coming into this game is going to play a huge factor for this team, and Tom Brady’s Super Bowl track record speaks for itself coming into this game.
I will say I am expecting to see a little bit more of the Buccaneers run game coming into this game with Ronald Jones II and Leonard Fournette, just because Brady threw three picks last game. I also think that Brady is going to look for Rob Gronkowski a little more than in previous games, especially if Gronkowski can find open space.
I believe this game is going to be decided by whose defense is going to be able to shut the other team down because both of these teams have elite offenses. I am interested to see how Tampa Bay’s secondary can hold up against this explosive and dynamic Chiefs offense, as well as how the Chiefs’ defense can make adjustments to Tom Brady’s pre-snap audibles.
Tampa Bay: 30 Kansas City: 23