It’s never easy against Tom Brady, but Chiefs’ defense slowed the Bucs just enough
In their previous two games, the Chiefs had allowed 31 points to each opponent and surrendered an average of 400 yards.
The numbers in Sunday’s 27-24 victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers weren’t much better. But there was improvement, perhaps enough to, if not reverse, than to at least slow down some recent trends.
The Bucs punted away their first four possessions, the final three after three downs. In the third quarter, the Chiefs came up with a pair of interceptions, making Sunday their second multi-turnover game this season.
“We keep playing like that on defense, being opportunistic, pressuring the quarterback ... For us to do what we did on defense was big,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said.
The task was difficult enough. With the ageless Tom Brady in his first year with the Bucs, along with some of his favorite weapons like tight end Rob Gronkowski from the Patriots’ glory days, Tampa Bay has become efficient. They entered Sunday sixth in the NFL in scoring.
But the Chiefs blitzed Brady often. Linebackers, safeties and cornerbacks all figured into a game plan of pressure. The Chiefs finished with only one sack, but early misfires and interceptions of Brady by Baushad Breeland and Tyrann Mathieu were the result of KC’s nonstop pressure.
Brady rallied Tampa Bay from a 27-10 deficit with a pair of fourth-quarter touchdown drives. But he didn’t get the ball back with a chance to tie or win the game. He finished with 345 passing yards, three touchdowns and the two picks, doing most of his damage in the second half.
“Tom Brady is going to make his plays,” Mathieu said. “But at the end of the day I thought we held up well.”
The first order of business after last weekend’s escape act at Las Vegas, when the Chiefs scored the game-winning touchdown with 28 seconds remaining, was to box up and store away that effort.
“After the Raiders game, there were a lot of opinions about us,” Mathieu said. “We forgot all about last week and moved on.”
The Chiefs surrendered 417 yards in this one, with 158 coming in the fourth quarter. The Chiefs’ rushing defense, which has been shaky at times this year, was aided by an early 17-0 lead that forced the Bucs into a more one-dimensional attack.
The Chiefs’ defense Sunday more closely resembled the unit that closed out last year’s regular season. After struggling through much of the first half of 2019 as they grew accustomed to new coordinator Steve Spagnuolo and new players like Mathieu and Frank Clark, the Chiefs showed improvement throughout the season that culminated in a championship.
That’s why their recent performances were troubling. It seemed the Chiefs were headed in the wrong direction. But for one game, anyway, their defense got enough stops of a future Hall of Fame quarterback.
If anything, it was the Chiefs’ offense that let down the defense in the second half. Those Breeland and Mathieu interceptions came on successive drives in Chiefs territory. But instead of taking advantage of the takeaways, the Chiefs went three and out both times.
“The two picks, and an opportunity for us to offensively take over and go, and weren’t able to get that thing going,” Reid said.
But the Chiefs did enough to never lose the lead, and to keep pace with the Pittsburgh Steelers in the chase for the AFC’s top playoff seed.
And to feel better about a defense that could now be trending in the right direction.
This story was originally published November 29, 2020 at 8:04 PM with the headline "It’s never easy against Tom Brady, but Chiefs’ defense slowed the Bucs just enough."