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Besides Brady, These 2 Keys Fueled Tampa Bay To Super Bowl Success

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Gallons of ink have already spilled out about 7-time Super Bowl Champion quarterback Tom Brady leading the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to their first Lombardi Trophy in 18 seasons. National media outlets had already hit send on hundreds of tributes to TB-12 as he and his teammates set sail around the City of Tampa’s riverfront for their celebratory parade. Brady has won more Super Bowl titles than any NFL franchise, but let's not exhaust this space by throwing extra superlatives – and more “ink” – his way. 

Instead, let’s focus on two angles that received very little attention when the confetti, hugs, and high-fives dominated the championship view.

The first is defense. Sure, it’s not sexy—but the defense was the magnet that attracted winning ways for the Bucs on the NFL’s biggest stage.

This game was truly won in the trenches—down and dirty with a defense that only allowed 350 total yards to a team that lead the league with an average of 414 yards per game. All three levels of Tampa’s defense (defensive line, linebacking core, secondary) performed well, limiting the explosive Kansas City offense to just three field goals while making life difficult for former MVP Patrick Mahomes. The defense sacked Mahomes three times, intercepted him twice, and stifled KC’s big-play tendencies. At no point in the game were the Chiefs able to connect on a play that went longer than 33 yards. 

That’s a stamp of approval for the brilliant strategy put in place by Defensive coordinator Todd Bowles—who was highly respected in the league for his relentless approach to blitzing opposing quarterbacks. The brilliance displayed was in part because Bowles changed his typical game strategy. Known the entire season as a team that loved to bring pressure, Bowles and the Bucs only executed five blitzes the entire game and instead dropped defenders back in coverage to shut down KC’s trademark deep passes. You have to believe KC practiced all week with an extreme focus on protecting against Tampa’s blitz—especially with injuries and inexperience on its offensive line. Then the blitz almost never came!

There’s value in stepping away from tendencies and being willing to make your opponent readjust. The Chiefs weren’t ready to adjust. The bright lights undoubtedly seemed brighter when the typical big plays down the field were taken away. Rather than settling for shorter passes and dinking-and-dunking with small gains, the Chiefs failed to adjust—and ultimately failed to find the endzone.

The second angle dives deeper into that collection of castaways and reclaimed talent. Tampa Bay was a good team last year under head coach Bruce Arians. Statistically, they were near the top of the league in both offensive and defensive categories—yet they missed the playoffs. So, they evaluated their roster, infused confidence in the personnel that had high potential, and then upgraded areas that needed it most. 

Aside from the most obvious upgrade at the QB position from Jameis Winston to Brady, the Bucs used this season to reclaim treasures that many had written off. Tight end Rob Gronkowski caught two touchdown passes in the Super Bowl after coming out of retirement. Running back Leonard Fournette scored the only rushing touchdown of the big game—this is the same former first round draft pick who had fallen so far out of favor that he began the year getting released by the Jacksonville Jaguars and going unclaimed by every other team in the league. Troubled wide receiver Antonio Brown was brought in mid-season and hadn’t shown any real glimpses of that All-Pro talent he displayed for years with the Pittsburgh Steelers. He, too, scored for the Bucs on a short pass from Brady. 

Defensively, rookie Antonio Winfield, Jr. was largely responsible for blanketing Chiefs’ playmaker Tyreek Hill throughout the game, limiting him to just 73 yards and no touchdowns. Then there were once feared pass rushers like Ndamukong Suh, Jason Pierre-Paul, and Shaquil Barrett who reclaimed their top form and applied the pressure to make life miserable for Mahomes.

Many of these players were very significant in previous stages of their career but, for varying reasons, had lost their luster until finding the right framework with Tampa. I’m not encouraging that the grass is always greener. However, for these players, that new environment became a paradise. 

The Bucs could have looked at Fournette, Brown, or Suh and scoffed at how tarnished they had become at their previous stops, but they took a step further to see if they could be a right fit.

Perhaps a recruit or prospective employee doesn’t look flashy based on their work history at XYZ Corporation. But it is worth evaluating whether that's simply because that XYZ Corporation was the Jacksonville Jaguars stage in their career—where their struggle through circumstances made them more experienced and, in some cases, more humbled for bigger opportunities.

The ability to identify players who can be the right fit for the team, along with a willingness to adjust defensive tendencies, turned the Tampa Bay franchise from watching the Super Bowl to hoisting the Super Bowl trophy. 

And because of the way the Buccaneers pillaged the gems of Kansas City’s vaunted offense and claimed bragging rights, they also positioned themselves for future voyages in the NFL championship seas.

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