For much of Kansas City’s 27-24 win over Tampa Bay on Sunday, the struggling Buccaneers were on the chase.
Tampa Bay fell behind 17-0 with 13:28 remaining in the second quarter. Pat Mahomes was never really stymied as he threw for 462 yards, completing 37 of 49 passes. Neither was his favorite target – Tyreek Hill – stopped as he caught 13 passes for 269 yards and three touchdowns.
Hill had 203 yards on seven catches in the first quarter alone as he continually broke coverage seemingly whenever he wanted to and it looked early like former Rams wide receiver Flipper Anderson’s 1989 NFL record 336 yards receiving yards might fall on a warm night in Tampa Bay.
For that matter, Mahomes had put up 359 passing yards by halftime and it looked like he might eclipse the 554 yards thrown by Rams quarterback Norm Van Brocklin in 1954.
Cornerback Carlton Davis, III, had major league problems with Hill as Mahomes completed a pass between Davis and Sean Murphy-Bunting on the first play of the game for 41 yards. The Chiefs’ aerial assault was then off and running.
“We tried to get a safety to him if we could – you’ve got (Travis) Kelce on the other side, too, so there’s a lot of weapons,” said Bucs coach Bruce Arians. “When we did play man-to-man, Patrick found him and they made some really good plays.”
The Buccaneers’ chase continued to the end of the game as they fell behind by 17 points twice before Brady led two fourth quarter touchdown drives to cut the Kansas City lead to 27-24.
After Bucs quarterback Tom Brady drove Tampa Bay 51 yards and 10 plays to hook up with wide receiver Mike Evans on a seven-yard touchdown pass, Mahomes took over the offense with 4:10 to play.
Mahomes was money on two scrambles on second down for four and eight yards. Tampa Bay, being out of time outs, saw the chase ending. On a third-and-seven on the Buccaneers’ 49-yard line, Mahomes finally lost Tampa Bay in his rear view mirror.
The third year dynamo took a snap, ran the option, faked the pitch and the entire Bucs defense reacted to the fake. With his quickness out of the end, Mahomes picked up eight yards and left the Buccaneers short of an amazing comeback.
“We stopped the run; we stopped the pass, but we don’t stop the quarterback scrambling,” noted Arians. “That was two big first downs. When you have an athletic guy, who can make plays – we knew they were going to throw it – we just had to keep him contained.”
Offensive Attrition: To keep up with the high-flying Chiefs offense, the Buccaneers had to come out sharp on the offensive side of the ball. Mahomes served notice on the first drive as he hit Hill between cornerback Carlton Davis, III, and safety Sean Murphy Bunting for a 41-yard gain on the first play from scrimmage.
Mahomes threw a jump ball to Hill on a 23-yard pass play to set up an early field goal. He found found him on touchdowns of 75 and 44 yards as Kansas City took a 17-0 lead with 13:28 left in the second quarter.
Meanwhile, the Bucs were three-and-out on four of the first five drives. The Chiefs had the upper hand with the fact that Tampa Bay could not use its running game as a change up against a Kansas City defense that was rated 26th in the NFL.
“Third-down conversions – most of them have been seven or less, where we’ve been pretty good all season,” Arians said. “Early in the game for whatever reason, we’re not making the plays. We’re not getting open; we’re not protecting. We were just not making enough plays.”
Capsizing a Potential Blow out: Leading 17-0, Kansas City was threatening to sink the Buccaneers permanently in the second quarter.
Mahomes dropped back to survey the field just as Bucs linebacker Shaq Barrett and defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul collapsed the left side of the Chiefs line. Barrett had the strip sack and a forced fumble that William Gholston recovered on the Bucs 14-yard line.
Adjustments by defensive coordinator Todd Bowles led to the big defensive play, along with the defense’s ability to work to keep contact with Kansas City after such a monumental play for Tampa Bay to be able to compete for the entire game.
“I think coach Bowles switched up the defense a little bit and just gave us a chance to get after the quarterback a little bit more and we were taking advantage of it – trying to get him off his spot as much as possible and keep him in the pocket as much as possible,” said Barrett said.
Tale of the Tape: Through 12 games, Tampa Bay is set at 7-5 with games remaining against the Falcons and the Lions and Vikings on the horizon. A four-game winning streak would most likely assure the Buccaneers of their first playoff berth in 13 years.
Arians says he is surprised, but then not surprised at the 7-5 mark as the Bucs have struggled against the elite teams on their schedule.
“I think defensively, we’ve had our chances to be better,” Arians noted. “Offensively, it was going to be a work in progress all season. I thought our kicking game has been outstanding for us, which was a problem in the first game only. I’ve seen us get better throughout the season.”
Expectations for the season were lofty as fans and media took off with the team just due to name recognition. Now, they are seeing foundational building and how it has to be in total place before you can have a huge winner.
“Everybody tried to hand us the Lombardi Trophy in August,” said Arians. “You don’t just throw guys out there with names – you’ve got to practice. You’ve got to learn to get in sync with each other and that takes time.”