Will the Super Bowl Be A High Scoring Matchup? | Bucs Insider

for the game to be here. But at least we have this to be able to talk about all Bucks things until that time. UM, So if you guys have questions for us, make sure you put them in the comment section underneath the Facebook Live video. Now, I know,

injuries is definitely where we're gonna start. Um, as of yesterday, we were still sort of operating off of the injury report from last week that had the designations as if it had been the game was last time, and you know, yeah, they kind of had a walk through Tuesday, but those aren't as helpful. So now at least we do have more recent information. There was a practice, there was an injury report, so what can you tell us about some of those updates. Yeah, first off, I'm gonna have to

disagree with you. I think it was a very good thing that we had these two weeks because some of these guys might not have been ready to go last Sunday. Oh yeah, I was just talking about my poor little heart. I wasn't talking about for the sake of the team. I was just talking about my anxiety over here. That is number one. So I understand. Um, yeah, it's I

think it was good news. Uh, all four of the guys that were concerned about are did practice, Yes, but the only player who didn't practice was Jason Pierre Paul. And honestly, I'm not sure he's practiced in a month. He just they're really made I'm not kidding. I think I really don't think he's practicing in a month, and they're just trying to maintain that knee. He knows what he's doing. On game day, as we can tell, he's

playing very well. So, um, if the guys we were concerned about obviously are Lavante David with the hamstring, Jordan whitehead shoulder, Antoine Winfield Junior with the ankle, and Antonio Brown at the knee. So a full gamut there. Um, they all practiced in a limited fashion yesterday, which is I think what you were hoping for heading into this week,

that by the beginning they're at least running around. Um, Jordan wy ight Head had a black jersey on, which meant no contact, so make sure you don't hit him. But he's coaching. He's running around fine, which you know, of course it's a shoulder injury, so just don't hit him on the shoulder right now. Um, you know, it's a good start to the week. I think that's about all I can say about that. It's just it's it was the right It was the right first step in.

And by the way, Super Bowl Pro practices are a little different than usual because they're actually not open to the media, and we included ourselves in that. So the only person going to practice is the pool report reporter, which in this case was Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times, so he shared all that information. Of course, coach talked about it, but he also pointed out that the Bucks broke off in the middle of practice, went into the indoor facility and stayed there for twenty six

minutes because they were simulating. He wanted to get used to how long halftimes are the Super Bowl, Because they're usually like thirteen minutes. You basically have time to go in, sit down, take care of a few things, maybe talk to your coaches for a couple of mints, and go right back out. But this one is going to feel like an extended period for those guys. That's an interesting point. I like the idea of getting in used to that

that that's a that is an interesting point. Um Jay asked what is the deal with Kansas City and their COVID scare What's the deal? I mean, the way I understand it, Uh, they have Uh they had a barber probably you know, we've seen this before. Back when we were allowed in the building. There'd be guys people in the service industry who would sometimes come by because it's hard for these guys to find time in their day,

so maybe they're buying suits or something like this. That in this case, um, they were all a lot of Chiefs were gonna get their hair cut by the same guy. So, and I don't know if it's in a facility or somewhere else, but um, he the chiefs decided to arranged to have him tested for COVID and it came back positive and at that point he'd only cut two guys hair, so they had to put those guys into quarantine. Those guys in testing for five straight days. Assuming they're negative,

they should be able to play. But he was supposed to to cut the hair of like twenty people, including Patrick Mahomes. So depending upon the time of when he did that, you know, and if any of them are atually contracted the virus, I could have been a pretty crazy thing that happened right before the Super Bowl, but it seems like they have it in check. Yeah, absolutely, Um,

all right, so this is an interesting question. Chris is talking about how he wanted to know how are we going to cover Hill while also containing Kelsey and Mahomes. And you know, we've talked about each of these guys individually, but I do think it is important to say that with all three of them together, that they really do affect your game point because there's one thing of how you might cover Hill if Kelsey didn't exist or vice versa, and if Mahomes wasn't the kind of quarterback he was.

So let's kind of talk about all three of those guys together and the way they influence how you can try to attack each It's kind of like when you play one with one of these NBA teams with with the Big Three, which is all in vogue now. You know, you get three superstars and some of them just sort of have a gravity of their own, you know, like if you have Lebron James on your team, obviously he's pulling defenders towards him and that, you know, makes it easier.

And all three of those guys do that for each other. And that's the case here with the Chiefs, because Travis Kelsey has a incredible knack for getting open, for finding spots in his zone if it's his own, or he runs some amazing routes. Uh you know, he'll do like a out and then a pivot and up and um. You know, they're just really hard to cover man demand,

So he's really good at getting open. Then you have Tyreek Hill, who you have to make a choice on how tightly you want to cover him and if you want to press him, and he beats the press and it's gonna go. There isn't quarterback in the league that's gonna catch up to him if you've give him too much space. However, because you're worried about getting run by. Then they do a lot of underneath stuff where he

gets yards after the catch. Then you have Patrick Mahomes who led the league with nine and fifty one passing yards while running uh this season, and that's defined as as moving at least eight miles per hour, which is easily the most in the league. As you would imagine, Um, he also is just absolutely lethal against the blitz, like

a thirty passer rating. So again you see Mahomes goes on the run that has a gravity of its own, and that creates more open spaces and obviously creates more time for and and usually when he's on the run, his favorite target is Travis Kelsey, but you also have Tyreek Hill out there running around. So how you stop it? Well, you know, that's been a conundrigan for just about every defense in the last two years, and it's been hard

to do. I think it's like sometimes when we used to play the Saints and Drew Brees and all his weapons. You would go into that saying, well, we're not going to stop him. He might get two in orn eighty yards. Um, this guy might get this many, Michael Thomas might get this money. But we have to contain them as much

as we can and then keep up. And I think that's what you have to hope for here, Um, that you can contain them to the best of your ability, hopefully with some pressure on the homes, and then just outscore them right well. And that actually leads perfectly to the next question Richard had asked, do you think nerves might limit how much of a shootout we're expecting so kind of overall, maybe whether it's from nerves or anything else with the game, I think a lot of people

are expecting is to be a shootout. Is there any situation where you don't see it panting out that way? No, I wouldn't think it would be nerves if if, if it doesn't end up being a shootout. And I guess you could compare this to UM Super Bowl a couple of years ago, the last one that Tom Brady was in, when the Patriots beat the Rams, and those are two teams that had pretty good offenses, and the game ended up being ten three and it wasn't a touchdown until

the fourth quarter. UM, nobody expected that, And I guess in that case it was just two defenses that were very well coached. You know we Todd Bowles has had two weeks to work on this problem we're talking about and uh and Steve Spagnolo has had two weeks to work on Tom Brady and the Buccaneers. So you could possibly have a coordinator that comes in with just an incredible plan. That would be one way and the other

way I guess would be turnovers. But again, sometimes turnovers lead to points, so that doesn't necessarily kill the uh the shootout, but um, if you saw like the last time we played the Chiefs, it was right. I don't know if anybody would call that a shootout, particularly with two teams that averaged more than that during the regular season. But the Buccaneers struggled early on third downs and in the second half the offense was great, but there were

two interceptions and that took away two scoring opportunities. So there's ways that it can happen. But my money would still be on a game that you need to score thirty points to win. Okay, and Mike asked, do you think we have the kicker edge? Uh? He in terms of just our field goal kicker versus their's, and how that could potentially affect some of the game decisions. I know that our kicker has been very good thirty six and thirty nine including the playoffs. And also, you know

he maybe there's a home field advantage there. He's been kicking there all all year and Harrison Butker has had just one game there. Maybe he understands the wins a little bit better. Um, but I think Harrison Bucker is a pretty good kicker. I'm not sure i'd say there's

an advantage for either team there. Yeah, that's an interesting point. Okay, Well, that's gonna do it for us on this edition of Buccaneers Insider Live presented by Miller Lte thinks as always for joining us, and again we'll be back here tomorrow morning again ten am, and that will be our final Buccaneers Insider Live before the Super Bowl. To make sure you're here to get all those last minute questions in. We'll see then,