Ahead of Super Bowl LV between the Kansas City Chiefs and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Sportsnet writers will break down why each team can win the Lombardi Trophy on Sunday.
First up, the Buccaneers.
It’s hard to add to a legacy when you’re already considered The Greatest of All Time, but Tom Brady can do just that this Sunday.
In search of his seventh Lombardi Trophy in his 10th Super Bowl appearance, Brady could join Peyton Manning as the only other quarterback to win a Super Bowl with two different teams, and would do so after having made the bold move out of Bill Belichick’s shadow last spring to branch out on his own.
A Super Bowl LV win would be another remarkable accomplishment in a career full of them.
Standing in the way is Patrick Mahomes, Andy Reid and the Kansas City Chiefs, as formidable an opponent as there is in the NFL.
Can the Buccaneers, underdogs as the first-ever true home Super Bowl team, overcome the defending champions and add to Brady’s collection of rings? We think they’ll do just that.
Here’s why.
THE SUPER BOWL GOAT
When Brady takes his first snap of the game on Sunday, he’ll become the oldest player to have ever played in a Super Bowl.
But age is just a number to TB12, and while others in their 40s who have played for the Lombardi Trophy have largely done so after taking a step back, Brady hasn’t lost a step entering his 10th Super Bowl.
We don’t really need to explain to you why Brady is a threat to the Chiefs capturing their second consecutive Super Bowl, but here goes.
Firstly, the 43-year-old future Hall of Famer is fresh off one of his best regular seasons in years – ranked behind only Aaron Rodgers by Pro Football Focus while throwing his most TD passes (40) since 2007 – and is leading a red-hot Bucs offence into the Super Bowl. Tampa has won seven straight games in which the team is averaging more than 34 points per game. Over that span, Brady has 19 touchdowns to just four interceptions.
With a top-notch supporting cast around him, Brady’s got game-breaking wide receivers in Mike Evans, Chris Godwin and Antonio Brown (more on them later), and lines up behind an offensive line that PFF ranked fifth in the NFL in the regular season. That type of support behind the GOAT should strike fear into any opponent.
Secondly, Brady is the best player the Super Bowl has ever seen. Not only does he own a ton of Super Bowl records and boasts a load of jaw-dropping Super Bowl stats, but every championship game he’s played in has come down to the wire – win or lose. All nine NFL title games in which Brady has started have been decided by one score, meaning No. 12 is going to have the Bucs in a position to win this Sunday.
Against a Chiefs defence that’s been just OK in 2020, including the league’s worst red-zone defence, we see Brady orchestrating his seventh Super Bowl–winning drive and lifting the Lombardi Trophy once again.
Finally, Brady brings leadership to the game that’s unrivalled in the league.
ADVANTAGE: BUCCANEERS DEFENSIVE LINE
How will Brady get into a position to win the game against these Chiefs? It comes down to the trenches, where the Bucs have their biggest advantage of the game.
While Brady and the offence get most of the attention, Tampa’s defence has been the team’s most consistent unit this season – and that’s thanks to one of the NFL’s best defensive fronts.
Tampa boasts two of the NFL’s most effective pass rushers in Jason Pierre-Paul and Shaq Barrett, a duo that combined for 17.5 sacks in the regular season and accounted for all five sacks of Aaron Rodgers in the NFC title game, dominating one of the league’s best offensive lines in the process.
In the interior are defensive tackles Ndamukong Suh and Vita Vea – one a three-time All-Pro who has made a name for himself across 11 NFL seasons as a game-wrecker and the other a third-year player who has flown under the radar this season after playing just five games due to a broken leg.
Together, Suh and Vea have the potential to give any offensive line fits, let alone a Chiefs line dealing with its share of issues heading into the Super Bowl.
And that’s where the Bucs’ advantage lies. Thanks to injuries and absences, the Chiefs will be starting a patchwork offensive line in Tampa on Sunday. If the Bucs can get pressure on Mahomes without blitzing, like it did in the NFC title game against Green Bay, it could alter the outcome of Sunday’s game.
Factor in that just behind that dominant defensive line is one of the best inside linebacker pairings in the NFL in Lavonte David and Devin White, and you’ve got a potential recipe for slowing down Mahomes and the Chiefs.
VERSATILE WEAPONS ON OFFENCE
We bring it back to the offence in our final reason for why the Bucs will win Super Bowl LV.
Undoubtedly, the Chiefs have one of the most talented groups of offensive skill position players in the game, but if there’s one team that can rival K.C. in that department, it’s Tampa.
In Evans, Godwin and Brown, the Buccaneers have one of the best wide receiver trios in the NFL. All three have elite skills possessed by few others at their position while each bringing something different to the table.
Against a Chiefs defence that has struggled to defend the pass at times this season, any one of them – or all three – could have a big game on Sunday.
Don’t sleep on the other weapons surrounding Brady, either. We all know about Rob Gronkowski, who hasn’t made the major impact coming out of retirement that we all expected, but has a history of coming up big in Super Bowls. Alongside Gronk, Cameron Brate and O.J. Howard offer Brady viable options to take advantage of the Chiefs’ weak red-zone defence.
And while the Bucs’ run game won’t get a lot of attention in the lead-up to the big game, Ronald Jones and Leonard Fournette could be factors on Sunday. K.C. ranked 21st against the run this season, and Jones was able to average more than five yards per carry as he came just 22 yards short of his first 1,000-yard rushing campaign.
Fournette was not a factor in the regular season, but he’s been Tampa’s go-to back so far in the post-season, and “Playoff Lenny” has shown flashes.
VANCOUVER – The Vancouver Whitecaps will begin their post-season campaign with a play-in game against the Timbers in Portland on Wednesday.
The ‘Caps (13-13-8) ended the regular season with a 2-1 loss to Real Salt Lake on Saturday and finished eighth in Major League Soccer’s Western Conference standings.
The eighth and ninth spots from each conference meet in a play-in game this week, with the winner going on to face the No. 1 seed in the first round of the playoffs.
Each eighth-place team was set to host the play-in game, but Vancouver announced Friday that its home stadium, B.C. Place, is not available, so the club will cede home-field advantage to Portland (12-11-11), the ninth-place team.
The ‘Caps and Timbers split their three-game series during regular-season play, with each side taking a win, a loss and a draw.
The first round of the MLS playoffs is set to begin next weekend.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 19, 2024.
SANDY, Utah (AP) — Diego Luna scored a tying goal in the 73rd minute and Real Salt Lake added another on an own goal for a 2-1 victory over the Vancouver Whitecaps on Saturday night to set a single-season club record for points.
Real Salt Lake (16-7-11) secured the No. 3 spot in the Western Conference and will face Minnesota in the first round of the Major League Soccer playoffs. RSL reached 59 points this season, topping the 2012 team with 57.
Vancouver (13-13-8) will play the Portland Timbers on Wednesday in a wild-card game for a chance to play top-seeded LAFC.
Luna settled a long cross from Braian Ojeda before taking four touches to slot home a shot inside the far post for his eighth goal of the season.
RSL went ahead in the 83rd when Vancouver goalkeeper Isaac Boehmer misplayed a lofted ball that rolled into the back of the net.
Vancouver midfielder Ryan Gauld opened the scoring in the 58th to become the first player in club history to produce multiple seasons with at least 10 goals and 10 assists.
CLEVELAND (AP) — Juan Soto’s arrival last winter was supposed to be that move that pushed the New York Yankees back to the top.
They’re one step away.
Soto hit a three-run homer with two outs in the 10th inning and the Yankees advanced to their 41st World Series — and first in 15 years — by beating the Cleveland Guardians 5-2 in Game 5 of the AL Championship Series on Saturday night.
Baseball’s biggest brand is going back to October’s main stage.
Soto, who was acquired in a seven-player trade from San Diego in December, pushed the Bronx Bombers into position with one big swing.
This was why he came, for this moment and for so many more.
“We’re right where we belong,” said Yankees general manager Brian Cashman, who pulled off the deal for Soto.
The Yankees will try to win their 28th title against either the New York Mets or Los Angeles Dodgers. Game 6 of the NL Championship Series is on Sunday at Dodger Stadium.
In the third consecutive tight game in three nights at Progressive Field, Austin Wells walked with one out in the 10th and Alex Verdugo followed with a grounder to Guardians second baseman Andrés Giménez, whose soft toss to the bag was dropped by rookie shortstop Brayan Rocchio for an error.
Hunter Gaddis struck out Gleyber Torres and had Soto in a 1-2 count before New York’s stylish outfielder sent a shot over the wall in center. Soto danced down the first-base line and paused to celebrate with his teammates before circling the bases.
“I was just saying to myself, `You’re all over that guy. You’re all over that guy. He ain’t got anything,’” said Soto, who moved alongside his manager, Aaron Boone, as the only New York players to homer in an extra-inning, series-clinching win.
Luke Weaver got the final three outs with Lane Thomas flying out for the last one, which was caught by Soto.
“We get to play for a world championship,” Boone said. “That’s pretty sweet.”
The 25-year-old Soto is eligible for free agency this winter, and Yankees fans chanted “Re-sign Soto!” during the postgame festivities. He’s expected to get a contract upwards of $600 million, and his heroics in Game 5 may have raised his price.
Giancarlo Stanton hit a two-run homer and was named ALCS MVP as the Yankees took care of the Guardians in five games. It wasn’t easy.
New York won the first two at Yankee Stadium without much fanfare or any major drama. However, it was a different story in Cleveland as all three games at Progressive Field were nail-biters.
The Guardians rallied to win Game 3 on two, two-run homers in their last two at-bats, and the Yankees held on to win Game 4 after blowing a four-run lead.
“This was a rollercoaster and we were able to just keep punching back,” Stanton said. “We know there’s much more work to do and it’s only uphill from here and we got to get it done.”
Cleveland just didn’t have enough and a surprising season under first-year manager Stephen Vogt ended just short of a World Series. The franchise remains without a title since 1948, baseball’s current longest drought.
“There’s only one team that gets to win the last game of the year, and unfortunately it’s not going to be us,” Vogt said. “But we accomplished a lot as a group. We got better. We worked extremely hard. I couldn’t be more proud of this group. We just didn’t get quite as far as we wanted to.”
The Yankees are back in the World Series, back where their fans expect them to be every year.
The club’s 82-80, fourth-place finish in the AL East last season led to some “soul searching as an organization” during the winter, according to Boone, who has been widely criticized but is one of just three managers to take New York to playoffs in six of his first seven seasons.
While the team’s core stayed mostly intact, getting Soto in a blockbuster trade on Dec. 7 — New York sent five players to San Diego for the three-time All-Star — accelerated the team returning to title contender.
“That was a good day,” Boone said with a laugh before the game.
Stanton’s 446-foot rocket into the left-field bleachers tied it at 2 in the sixth and chased Tanner Bibee, who had struck out New York’s dangerous DH in his first two at-bats and held the Yankees scoreless for the first five innings.
It was Stanton’s fourth homer in this series — his third in three days — and his 16th in the postseason, moving him into fourth place on the club’s career list behind Bernie Williams (22), Derek Jeter (20) and Mickey Mantle (18).
Before the game, Boone was asked what makes Stanton so good.
“He can hit it harder than anyone, first of all,” Boone said. “So there’s the physical nature of what he does that’s different than just about everyone in the world.”
But Boone went on to compliment Stanton’s discipline at the plate, “his approach, his process, how he studies guys.”
“There’s something that he does when he gets familiarity with people on top of being very physically gifted,” Boone said.
The Guardians took a 2-0 lead in the fifth off Carlos Rodón on Steven Kwan’s RBI single with two outs. But Cleveland missed a big chance for more, leaving the bases loaded when Lane Thomas grounded out on the first pitch to him from Mark Leiter Jr.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Yankees: LHP Nestor Cortes (elbow strain) had another successful live batting practice session. The reliever remains on track to join the Yankees on their World Series roster. Boone said Cortes would throw again early next week. Cortes went 9-10 with a 3.77 ERA in 30 starts.
