TAMPA, Fla. – While the Tampa Bay Buccaneers dismantled the Kansas City Chiefs in the Super Bowl LV, Byron Leftwich and Todd Bowles, offensive and defensive coordinators of the Bucs, respectively, were under the lights all night.
Yes, coach Bruce Arians received most of the credit and deservedly, for the Buccaneers ’stunning 31-9 victory, but the two men, both African Americans, whom Bruce Arians give the power to lead the offensive and defensive of the Buccaneers, many flatteries were also taken. Make no mistake: Bowles and Leftwich played important roles in planning and executing a party that lasted until the early hours of Monday at Raymond James Stadium.
This is exactly what Arians hired them for.
“Our three guys had great game plans,” Arians, special teams coordinator Keith Armstrong, who is also African American, said. Byron did a great, great job of shuffling runs and passes and attacking (with the ground play) when we needed to and Todd had a great plan to keep them (the Chiefs receivers) in front of us and leave let our fronts chase Muhammad. They chased him everywhere all night. “
Surely they did.
Before we examine the Xs and Bones (strategies), allow us a moment to explain why what Leftwich and Bowles put in the video could, and probably will, if NFL owners were blind to the color of the skin, benefiting NFL African-American assistant coaches. Despite the best efforts of Commissioner Roger Goodell to improve diversity and inclusion from the board at the club level, the latest recruitment cycle left several assistant coaches frustrated once again by the general absence of advancement in coaching positions.
For the coordinators, Leftwich and Bowles gave virtuous performances in the Super Bowl that should be elevated to the top of the recruitment list in the next cycle. Considering the constant aversion to adopting inclusive hiring in high-level positions, however, it’s fair to wonder if the owners will choose to ignore what they achieved. God knows this has happened before. Just ask Eric Bieniemy, the Chiefs ’offensive coordinator.
At the very least, Bowles said, the Buccaneers ’overall performance on the top stage shows that Arians hire people who know what they’re doing and when it comes to color assistants, that point can’t stand out enough.
“This shows that we are good at our jobs and that inspires young people, hopefully they see us as coaches and see that we can be one of those kind of people (head coaches) if we mentalize ourselves. That anything is possible. “Bowles said.
Objectively, his ability to train well is not in dispute.
In revenge for a 27-24 loss to Tampa in Week 12 against AFC champions, the Buccaneers, the first NFL franchise to play and win the Super Bowl at its own stadium, precisely followed the lead. of its offensive and defensive coordinators. The results could not have been better for an organization that won its second Vince Lombardi Trophy. Leftwich and Bowles pressed so many correct buttons from start to finish, that the Chiefs looked, well, not like the Chiefs.
During quarterback Patrick Mahomes’ historic career start, NFL fans have become accustomed to the Chiefs producing yards and points at a crazy pace. Muhammad has the ability to make several spectacular plays in just one series and the Chiefs defense has done its part. This combination has allowed Kansas City to become the first franchise to play three consecutive AFC Championship Games.
To put it in simple terms, the Chiefs, who were trying to repeat as Super Bowl champions, are the best the NFL has, but with Leftwich and Bowles doing their job while the world saw them, they weren’t in the last game of the 2020-21 NFL season.
Leftwich and quarterback Tom Brady (we’ll talk more about GOAT later) were clearly in sync. In the first half, Leftwich was on pace with the sending of plays and Brady made it look wonderful by connecting with closed wing Rob Gronkowski for two touchdown passes and adding to receiver Antonio Brown . The 21-6 lead at halftime and with the way the Buccaneers ’defense subdued Muhammad and nullified their options in deep play, the game was over.
Bowles positioned the Tampa Bay Safeties superbly to assist in coverage against impressively fast receivers like Tyreek Hill and Mecole Hardman. Superstar closed wing Travis Kelce could not easily evade coverage in short areas as he regularly does before most Chiefs rivals and on the few occasions that Hill, Hardman or Kelce briefly created separation, Muhammad did not have the time requirement to connect with them.
Just the way Bowles planned it, Arians said.
“Patrick wasn’t going to beat us running,” Bowles said. “We let it run all day. Just keep chasing us everywhere and see if we could make a few plays.”
In addition to the superb Bowles plan, the Chiefs clearly missed starting offensive linemen Eric Fisher and Mitchell Schwartz. After suffering an Achilles tendon injury in Kansas City’s victory in the AFC Championship Game over the Buffalo Bills, Fisher was left out of the Super Bowl. Schwartz had been out of action with a back injury. The combination of Bowles with two weeks of preparation and the Chiefs ’offensive line deficiencies without Fisher and Schwartz proved to be too much for Kansas City.
The Buccaneers are one of the few teams capable of consistently generating strong pressure without sending load packs (blitz), by leaning on their front line, especially outside linebackers Jason Pierre-Paul and Shaquil Barrett. Bowles had exactly the pressure he needed and made adjustments in the second half of the Week 12 duel, the duel in which Hill shattered the perimeter of the Buccaneers soon and several times, to keep the Chiefs out. the final area. Really, this is a next level achievement in itself.
Muhammad completed just 26 of 49 passes. He finished with 270 yards per air (a poor average of 5.5 yards) and two interceptions. Tampa Bay captured Muhammad three times, including one by Barrett.
It looked like Muhammad was running backwards 10 or 15 yards on each pass play in futile attempts to extend the actions that, in no way characteristic of the Chiefs, did not work well. A little perspective on Muhammad: In the last three seasons, including the Playoffs, Muhammad is first among NFL quarterbacks in wins, touchdowns per pass, yards per air, games of 300 or more yards, yards per attempt, and Total QBR.
The revenge, decisively, was for Bowles.
“The most important thing was to try to cancel the first reading,” Bowles said of the battle with Muhammad. “He can run and play with his feet, but we didn’t want him to just stay in the protection bag being able to throw short passes all day, either. The defensive line pressed him, made him run and make him uncomfortable and that was key for us. “
Regularly, the characteristic actions of Muhammad are given from a variety of angles of the arm. However, against the Buccaneers, he was forced to use his entire repertoire to just throw the ball off the field to avoid being caught. With Bowles on the attack from start to finish, it was a bad night for the player who is apparently Brady’s heir.
Now, back to Brady. On his way to winning his fifth Pete Rozelle Trophy, which is given to the Super Bowl MVP, Brady completed 21 of 29 passes for 201 yards and 3 touchdowns in the first half. Perhaps some to point out that Leftwich had an easy job being the one who sent the plays to the greatest quarterback in history (Brady extended his total records to 10 Super Bowl appearances and seven wins). Brady has played 18 percent of every Super Bowls game, so he definitely knows how to behave at this time of year. Leftwich and Brady, however, are in their first year together, after Brady spent 20 years building his career for the Hall of Fame with the New England Patriots. At the start of the current season, the Buccaneers had problems on the offensive that they had to resolve. They fixed them and obviously everything went well. As Arians mentioned, for his pleasure, Leftwich also supported the ground attack: Tampa Bay ran for 145 yards (averaging 4.4 yards). Leonard Fournette was the leader with 89 yards on the ground (average 5.6 yards), including a 27-yard running touchdown that extended Tampa Bay’s lead to 28-9 in the middle of the third quarter. In video conferences with reporters after finishing their work, the Tampa Bay players, one after another, praised Leftwich and Bowles for both their leadership as men and their ability to coach. Despite being led by an incredible coach and the greatest player in history, Tampa Bay would not be on top of the mountain without Leftwich and Bowles, they noted. “Coach Bowles put his players in the right position to win,” cornerback Sean Murphy-Bunting said. “He believes in them (as people) and he believes in their abilities. He doesn’t get out of the script. “He just clings to it and stays with you. He always motivates you, he always gives you really good information that you take from the field in real life and you can use it to be a better man,” he added. Leftwich and Bowles are coaches. They are masters and men’s leaders and then do their part to help the Buccaneers dispatch the skilled Chiefs and finish the NFL season, they are also Super Bowl champions. Are they paying attention, NFL owners?