Where have we seen this before?
The Chiefs line up offsides and Tom Brady capitalizes on a second chance.
Oh yeah, that’s the lasting memory of the 2018 AFC Championship Game. Somehow, the stakes were bigger the second time around.
In a scene that echoed the Chiefs’ last playoff loss before the five-game postseason winning streak that ended Sunday night, an offsides penalty in the second quarter was the turning point of Super Bowl 2021 as the Buccaneers pulled away for a 31-9 win.
Back then, Dee Ford’s penalty in the final minute of the fourth quarter wiped out an interception of Brady that would’ve sent the Chiefs to Super Bowl 53. The Brady-led Patriots responded with a score and beat the Chiefs in overtime – and Ford’s karmic fate was an offseason trade to the 49ers and a head-to-head loss to his former teammates in the next year’s Super Bowl.
This time?
Leading 7-3 early in the second quarter, the Brady-led Buccaneers tacked on a 40-yard field goal. Or at least it looked that way until Mecole Hardman was flagged for lining up offsides, which converted a fourth-and-five and took three points off the scoreboard.
Sensing the momentum swing, Brady threw a 17-yard dart to Rob Gronkowski on the next play to open up a 14-3 lead.
It wasn’t just the one offsides penalty that haunted the Buccaneers – and created social-media conspiracy theories about officials favoring Brady.
Earlier in the same drive, Brady was intercepted when Chris Jones deflected a pass that then bounced off of Leonard Fournette’s outstretched hand and into Tyrann Mathieu’s arms. It was the break the stagnant Chiefs needed – until the officials called defensive holding on Charvarius Ward.
So, the Brady-to-Gronkowski touchdown strike really was a third life on one touchdown drive.
And that was the story for the Chiefs throughout the first half: Giving too many extra opportunities to an all-time great player.
The Chiefs were called for eight penalties – the most by a team in either half of any Super Bowl and the most by the Chiefs in the first half of any game since coach Andy Reid took over in 2013. The Buccaneers were called for one first-half penalty.
The penalties covered 95 yards – or about half as many as the Buccaneers (194) otherwise gained in the first half. They were responsible for creating six of the Buccaneers’ first 18 first downs. And they kept coming in big moments.
Here’s how the first half ended: The Chiefs used timeouts trying to get the ball back to cut into a 14-6 deficit. Instead the Buccaneers picked up one first down and went into attack mode rather than running out the clock.
Bashuad Breeland committed a 34-yard pass interference penalty by tripping up a streaking Mike Evans, putting the ball in field-goal range. Still not satisfied by the possibility to take a two-score lead, Brady went back to Evans, who drew a pass interference penalty on Tyrann Matthieu in the end zone, setting up Anotnio Brown’s one-yard touchdown catch with six seconds to go.
Brady and Matthieu jawed at each other after the play. Unsportsmanlike conduct penalty against … Mathieu.
Cue those theories.