Chiefs at Buccaneers

The Buccaneers and the Chiefs have both had impressive seasons, and that has paved the way for arguably the greatest Super Bowl quarterback matchup ever. The Buccaneers will be the first team to ever play the Super Bowl in their home stadium, giving them an advantage in this game. These two teams faced each other earlier this year and it proved to be a great game. The Buccaneers couldn’t stop Tyreek Hill at the beginning of the game, as he had over 200 yards in the first quarter. But in the second half, they figured out how to keep Hill under control. Expect Hill to be much less relevant in this game than he was in the first matchup between these teams. The Buccaneers will probably have a tough time guarding Travis Kelce with all of their attention on Hill, however, so even though the Bucs can slow the Chiefs offense, Kansas City will still be able to move the ball down the field. On the other side of the ball, the Chiefs defense looked great against the Bills. Unfortunately for them, Tom Brady isn’t Josh Allen, who looked like he couldn’t handle the pressure of such a big game. The Chiefs don’t have enough good members of their secondary to cover Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, Antonio Brown, and Rob Gronkowski. Brown missed last week but is looking like he will be able to play in this game. The Buccaneers may struggle to move the ball at times, however, as they have been somewhat inconsistent on offense this year. The Buccaneers’ inconsistency on offense has largely been because of the play of Tom Brady. At times he looks like his old self, but at other times he looks his age. Brady is usually at his best in the Super Bowl, however, so the Buccaneers will be able to score a fair number of points. On paper, this matchup seems pretty even. But, when it comes to the Super Bowl, experience is the most important thing. The Chiefs as a whole have more experience in big games than the Bucs. Tom Brady, however, has much more experience than Patrick Mahomes, and thus far that experience has seemingly rubbed off on the rest of the Buccaneers. Patrick Mahomes also didn’t play very well in his last Super Bowl, even though the Chiefs won, and if he repeats that performance the Chiefs will struggle to win. Ultimately, this game will be very close, but the Buccaneers are at home and have an incredibly clutch quarterback. On top of that, it’s incredibly hard to win back to back Super Bowls, no matter how good a team is, so past precedent indicates that the Chiefs won’t win. In a game this close, that is enough to give the Buccaneers a slight edge.

Expert Prediction: Buccaneers 28, Chiefs 27

Analytics-Based Prediction: Chiefs 33, Buccaneers 31