Please, please, please before you bring out these “Patrick Mahomes will never be the GOAT Takes” I beg of you to really dissect the game you just watched.
The circumstances that Mahomes faced during Super Bowl LV would have been unmanageable for any quarterback in NFL history including Tom Brady.
I know for the last two weeks pundits have filled your head with this nonsense that if Mahomes loses to Brady the young star will never have a chance of surpassing the legend as the GOAT. If you believed them, I’m here to tell you that you’re smarter than that.
Anyone who watched that game last night understands that the Chiefs’ offensive line never truly gave this man a chance.
Mahomes was pummeled all night from the pressure of the Tampa Bay front seven. He was playing behind an offensive line that only had one original starter left and that was center Austin Reiter. Kelechi Osemele, Mitchell Schwartz, and most recently tackle Eric Fisher were all lost to season-ending injuries. Not to mention guard Dr. Laurent Duvernay-Tardif selflessly opted out to combat COVID-19 at a long-term care facility in Quebec.
According to ESPN Stats and Info, Mahomes was pressured on 52 percent of his total dropbacks. He was the most pressured quarterback in Super Bowl history.
To make matters worse, Buccaneers defensive coordinator Todd Bowles didn’t even have to dial up a lot of pressure against the young star. Mahomes only faced a blitz on 6 of his dropbacks. Out of the 29 times, he was pressured on Sunday, 27 of them were the result of a four-man rush or fewer.
Ladies and Gentlemen that is absurd when you consider the fact that there are five offensive linemen in the game on every snap from scrimmage.
The offensive line’s inability to protect Mahomes forced him to run nearly 500 yards on his dropbacks. If I hadn’t known any better I would have thought I was watching Forrest Gump on the field.
The saddest part about the whole night was the fact that Mahomes was still giving his team a chance despite having to do more tricks than a Bourbon street magician looking for tips. Even after an atrocious performance from his offensive line, he was only sacked three times which is a testament to his athleticism more than his teammates. There were also two very crucial drops that swung momentum in this game.
One was a Travis Kelce drop in the second quarter that stalled the drive and forced the Chiefs to punt. The Buccaneers would score on the following possession.
The second one was the drop that solidified the game for the Buccaneers. At the start of the fourth quarter, it was 4th down and the Chiefs needed a touchdown to keep their hopes alive. Mahomes runs for three miles to avoid getting sacked and as he falls to the ground somehow gets off a perfect pass as he’s horizontal to Darrel Williams that bounces off his helmet and falls incomplete.
Combine these things with the fact that the Chiefs were racking up more penalty flags like they were on a two for one sale, and you realize exactly why the Chiefs got curb stomped in Super Bowl LV.
Yet, as time goes on, the memory of this game will fade and the final result will be that Brady was victorious over Mahomes. Many will forget the circumstances Mahomes played under and use this Super Bowl as a tiebreaker between the two for a GOAT conversation years down the road.
For all my fellow sports fans, let’s please not forget what exactly happened in this Super Bowl.
Mahomes was overwhelmed by injuries to his line and the shortcomings of his teammates in this game.
It’s a Super Bowl loss that will taint his record, but as we look back 15 years later, this should not be the game we judge his greatness on if he enters the same stratosphere as Brady.
Even Brady took his lumps on the biggest stage. Two of them were to Eli Manning of all people. When you are that great you usually win big and lose big.
We allowed Brady to have more than 20 seasons to show us exactly why he’s the GOAT for now. Let’s just make sure we give Mahomes that same luxury.
This game won’t settle any GOAT conversations; only time can do that.