Bucs Celebrate 2nd Anniversary Of Super Bowl LV

Tuesday marks the second anniversary of the Bucs’ second Super Bowl, which they won on Feb. 7, 2021 by dominating the Chiefs in a 31-9 blowout at Raymond James Stadium. Tampa Bay became the first team in NFL history to win the Lombardi Trophy in its own stadium, doing so after winning three straight road games leading up to the meeting with Kansas City.

The win over the Chiefs was the Bucs’ eighth straight to close the season. Once standing at 7-5, they closed the regular season with four straight wins before beating Washington, New Orleans and Green Bay on their way to the second Super Bowl in franchise history.

Tampa Bay Ends A Wild Dream Season With A Huge Exclamation Point

Bucs QB Tom Brady – Photo by: USA Today

Of course, that run capped off what was a strangely surreal season — for a lot of reasons. For one, six-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady had left New England after 20 seasons during the 2020 offseason. And despite the fact that they hadn’t been to the playoffs since 2007, the Bucs lured Brady to town. Having an NFL icon under center instantly raised Tampa Bay’s profile in the landscape of the league, as the team became true contenders for the first time in over a decade.

Not to mention, all of this happened during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, meaning the typical experiences for players, coaches, fans and media were gone. In fact, the Bucs played most of their home games at reduced capacity and even the Super Bowl — which featured the biggest permitted crowd of the year — had 25,000 fans in the seats, mixed in among cardboard cutouts.

All of the weird circumstances aside, the game itself will be remembered for the way the Bucs attacked Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes from start to finish. Tampa Bay racked up 29 pressures on the Kansas City signal-caller, which meant he faced the most pressure of any quarterback in Super Bowl history. Mahomes did his best to will the Chiefs back into the game, but the pressure — and some key drops by some of his top receivers — made it impossible.

Bucs OLB Shaquil Barrett and Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes – Photo by: USA Today

Ndamukong Suh led the Bucs with 1.5 sacks in the game, while Shaquil Barrett added another and Cam Gill chipped in a half-sack. Barrett tallied four quarterback hits, accounting for nearly half of the Bucs’ total of 10 in the game.

Brady was named Super Bowl MVP for the fifth time in his career, completing 21 of his 29 passes for 201 yards and three touchdowns. Rob Gronkowski caught the first two of them and Antonio Brown hauled in the other before halftime. Then, out of the break, Leonard “Playoff Lenny” Fournette ran for a 27-yard touchdown to effectively put the game out of reach.

The true icing on the cake was Antoine Winfield Jr. dropping a peace sign in the face of Chiefs wide receiver Tyreek Hill, fitting retribution for Hill’s peace-sign celebration as he torched the Bucs when the two teams met during the regular season.

Bucs’ Run To Super Bowl LV Filled With Unforgettable Moments

Bucs head coach Bruce Arians and GM Jason Licht – Photo by: USA Today

Tampa Bay’s path to the Super Bowl was difficult. Former head coach and new Bucs Ring of Honor member Bruce Arians has often talked about how difficult it was for the team to navigate the pandemic while making their run to the Lombardi Trophy. But beyond that, the team had to win three games on the road — albeit in stadiums with reduced capacity due to the pandemic — to get back home for the Super Bowl. And what those three road games brought were a lot of memorable moments.

Starting in Washington, there was longtime Buccaneer captain Lavonte David coming through with a huge third-down sack to essentially close out the Wild Card win for Tampa Bay.

In New Orleans, it was Sean Murphy-Bunting intercepting Drew Brees, Winfield punching the ball loose from Jared Cook’s arms, Devin White intercepting Brees and Mike Edwards picking off a pass of his own late in the game to avenge the Bucs’ two regular season losses to the Saints. It ended their division rival’s Super Bowl hopes and served as the final game of Brees’ career.

The NFC Championship Game brought the toughest atmosphere to date for the Bucs, and they handled it well. Third-down conversion after third-down conversion on the opening drive led to a Mike Evans touchdown. Murphy-Bunting picked off Aaron Rodgers, marking his third straight playoff game with an interception. Brady and Scotty Miller linked up for a buzzer-beating touchdown just before halftime and the Bucs later held on in the second half to clinch their spot in the Super Bowl.

That all led to Feb. 7, 2021, when Tampa Bay won its second Lombardi Trophy — 18 years after its first. And with Brady’s retirement from football last week, this two-year anniversary of that magical night comes at a fitting time for the Bucs and their fans.