Mahomes had gained 16 of 17 begins this season, however he and his staff collapsed amid a deluge of penalties, drops and strain from the Buccaneers, who, exploiting the Chiefs’ diluted offensive line, reveled in it, inflicted it, even embraced it. At halftime, Mahomes had 67 yards, and Kansas Metropolis trailed by 15 factors, tied for its largest deficit of the Mahomes period, in keeping with Professional Soccer Reference.
The one different time Mahomes’s staff had been behind by that many factors throughout his three seasons as Kansas Metropolis’s starter occurred in October 2018, in a loss to Brady at New England. Brady spent 20 years there, the place he and Belichick have been the immovable objects of the postseason, profitable six championships as probably the most well-known quarterback-coach tandem of this technology.
What Belichick should have been questioning Sunday evening as New England wept, watching Brady throw every landing to a former Patriots teammate — two to Rob Gronkowski, who got here out of retirement for the prospect to play once more together with his previous pal, and one, simply earlier than halftime, to Antonio Brown.
Brady’s time in New England will eternally be part of him, however now he wears a cranium and crossbones on his helmet, can costume in shorts to follow within the winter and experiences to a 68-year-old coach, Bruce Arians, who, popping out of retirement to teach the Buccaneers, represents the stylistic antithesis of Belichick. When requested not too long ago about pursuing Brady through the low season, Arians responded with a rhetorical query: “Do you sit and stay in a closet attempting to be secure, or are you going to have some enjoyable?”
Brady’s arrival in Tampa mirrored a sure harmonic convergence, a confluence of foresight, audacity and serendipity largely alien to the Buccaneers, who hadn’t gained a playoff sport since capturing their solely title within the 2002 season. Their quest was nicknamed Operation Shoeless Joe Jackson, a wink to the prophesy from the film “Discipline of Desires”: “Should you construct it, they’ll come.” Brady valued how Basic Supervisor Jason Licht had assembled a staff that solved issues round him as an alternative of asking him to resolve them himself.