Patrick Mahomes Was The Most Valuable Player of Super Bowl LV

Not even kidding.

Patrick Mahomes was the MVP of Super Bowl LV. And it shouldn't have been close.

It's the truth, and those who value truth would easily confirm this.

But wait, his team got clobbered by the Buccaneers!

So what. There have been MVPs of Super Bowl losing teams. Chuck Howley, a linebacker for the Cowboys, comes to mind in Super Bowl V. The Colts not only won but their overall defense just-plain played better. But a player on the losing team still got it.

Let's compare the popular choice, Tom Brady, who did get it, and the one who deserved it more by far, the GOAT, Patrick Mahomes. And yes, Mahomes is the GOAT, not Brady. After this Super Bowl I'm sure 9 of 10 blappers will try to make the case that after this one, Tom is GOAT and, sorry, Patrick will never catch him because he just couldn't beat him in the Super Bowl.

Please. The GOAT issue later, but first, this Super Bowl.

The real issue was our offensive line inadequacies, and everyone knows it. Patrick Mahomes was not playing against Tom Brady, he was playing against the Bucs defense. I'm not complaining about losing the Super Bowl mind you. The Buccaneers did great, they deserved it. Good for them.

But let's look at this in relation to Patrick. They said Mahomes was the most pressured quarterback of any in any Super Bowl. I think it was 52% of the time by way of how they measure it. Someone also figured out how many yards he ran around in the backfield trying avoid that pass rush surging through our sieve-like O-line.

500.

As in 500 yards of scrambling or rushing and gaining yardage after being flushed out of the pocket.

500 yards?! Are you kidding me?

And he still got off amazing passes that our receivers simply refused to pull in.

I have not gone back to look at the tape, I simply can't do it. But I do remember these plays in particular:

Early on Mahomes made an incredible deep throw to Tyreek Hill, who in a crowd right at the end zone simply let the ball go right through his hands. It was there, he just didn't pull it in. It would have been an incredible play for the touchdown, but in a game like this you've got to make that play. Hill has made those plays before -- he just didn't that time. Still, an unbelievable throw by Mahomes.

A little later, I just don't remember when, Travis Kelce needed to squeeze another tough throw, but didn't. We stalled and of course, did not get the touchdown we needed to be in it.

One time Mecole Hardman looked like he didn't even know where he was supposed to be when Mahomes threw a strike. It flew way behind him incomplete. On another play Hardman inexplicably stalled his route, and Mahomes' perfect loft pass sailed just beyond his reach.

With just over 13 minutes left when we might have been able to make a go of it, start a bit of a comeback -- enough time for three good scores -- Mahomes made the play of the game. He was scampering for his life back there yet again, got tripped up at I think around the 20, 25 yard-line, and got vertical just before going down. He still managed to throw a strike to Darrel Williams, who was in a bit of a crowd but right at the goal line, in position to at least get the first down, and he refused to pull it in. The ball harmlessly bonked off his chin.

There were four times we got deep enough into Bucs territory, there may have been more but I just don't remember, but each of those times ended in a field goal or a tipped interception. If I remember the way things are scored in football... If I'm not mistaken... we get touchdowns those times and that's 28 points right there. Then we have a game.

In that the Buccaneers exploited one of the critical weaknesses that plagued the Chiefs all year long -- our inability to really get those touchdown scores in the red zone. The defense can now play on a shorter field, so in the Super Bowl the Buccaneers had less field and able to do more to flood the defensive backfield.

And this is why in those situations a weak offensive line is what hurts the most.

It seems to me the red zone is where you need your offensive line to be at its best. And when you think about it, our O-line was suffering all year long from that one of the Four Horseman of the Football Apocalypse.

You know, just before the Super Bowl I thought, "We've got this. This'll be great. We should win easily. And one reason why is our team has stayed really pretty healthy all year long. We haven't really had any major injury issues. Woo-hoo!" I actually thought that, and for much of the rest of the team that was indeed true.

But I was so wrong. I never really thought about how decimated was our O-line and how the Covid hysteria and the injuries clobbered us there. I liken this Horseman of the Football Apocalypse to the real one in The Revelation: Death. (Those Four Horsemen of the Football Apocalypse, by the way: Injuries, Penalties, Turnovers, Bad Calls -- you could easily say we were seriously afflicted by all of them in Super Bowl LV.)

But yeah, having those major deficiencies on the offensive line was death to our Super Bowl hopes.

That didn't mean Mahomes didn't play like the life of everyone on the planet depended on it. Really, when you think about it, our O-line was pretty much like this for the season -- how in the world did we even make it to the Super Bowl?

You know the answer.

Give the MVP to the Bucs offensive line, that's cool. Give every other Chiefs player the RNIAWMVP award for that matter, that's cool too. RNIAWMVP? Really-Not-In-Any-Way-Most-Valuable-Player. Something like that. Forgive me, some Chiefs should get a bit of credit, they actually did have somewhat decent games -- Clyde Edwards-Helaire, he's one I can think of, and I can't neglect to put in some good word for an O-line that helped get him some good runs and at least played their hearts out for the Chiefs Kingdom. But still.

Puh-leeze.

Do not give the MVP to Tom Brady when there was another player in particular far more deserving.

Brady is a very good quarterback, no one denies that. But let's look at the ways he's won Super Bowls, because certainly many are looking at the record -- He's won seven wowwie-wow-wow! Let's look. Here're a few of the most striking.

One time in the playoffs an opposing player got a fumble with a minute left that would've sealed the victory keeping the Patriots out of the Super Bowl, but he foolishly got up, tried to run, and fumbled it back to the Patriots. They scored and went on to one of Brady's Super Bowl wins.

Another time in a Super Bowl a team could have just handed the ball to their bruising back at the goal line and scored the game-winning touchdown. Instead the opposing coach made what is considered one of the stupidest decisions in Super Bowl history leading to an interception allowing the Patriots to win the game.

In the 2018 AFC Championship Game they called our defensive end offsides on a call that was never made before when other linemen were that much offsides, nullifying a Brady interception that would've kept the Patriots out of that Super Bowl, one they eventually won.

There are other kinds of arguments to make here, and I know any good player gets the benefit of some opponents' bonehead mistakes or twists of bad luck, but let's be very honestly truthful about all this, Brady never had to work with the offensive line Mahomes had to in this Super Bowl. Ever. If Brady had our O-line in this game? He'd have been sacked eight times, at least. If we had the O-line we should have had without the attack by that one evil Horseman, this Super Bowl would have been 45-14 Chiefs. Absolutely. Again, I'm not taking anything away from the Bucs. Kudos to them. They're Super Bowl champs, they earned it, no worries.

But Brady as MVP. Come on. That's one of the things that makes the NFL so aggravating now. It isn't like it isn't expected -- these guys need to make their money, nothing wrong with that. But it doesn't make it truthful.

I recently saw that this Super Bowl got the lowest ratings in a long time. I truly think this had way less to do with people just not being interested in Mahomes-Brady, but I believe people are fed up with all the Covid hysteria (cardboard cutouts of fans in the stands, gimme a break), and they especially can't stand all the racialist browbeating (it was still out there in various places). I also feel it does have something to do with the teams themselves -- two teams that are really not major media-market-darlings in the biggest game of the year. Sure we can say Mahomes-Brady can transcend that, but what if the matchup were Steelers-Packers? Giants-Patriots?

What if Mahomes were instead on a good New York Jets team and they were there playing in that game?

Fughedabouditt.

Yes, already, Mahomes is the GOAT. He showed it in this Super Bowl. Brady is an all-time great quarterback yet also a phenomenally lucky athlete who's benefitted from the craziest wildest strokes of luck anyone can have. To his credit that does have something to do with his legendary fitness regiment and intense preparation, that's all good.

Ultimately the MVP award itself is not much of anything, and anyone can be GOAT in some area or another. Makes for great conversation and putting up an impassioned blog post. Here's to looking for Patrick Mahomes and his now reinvigorated motivation to continue to prove who he is and what he can do.

Also a quick shout out to Marty Schottenheimer who passed away today from Alzheimer's. What a great coach and stellar part of the Chiefs Kingdom. No one should ever neglect to afford him the cred for what he did for this organization in 1989. It may actually be the one single greatest thing that ever happened for the Chiefs. I know some will justifiably say that 2017 draft was the greatest thing, and I understand that especially in light of what we've been talking about here, but think about the immense impact Schottenheimer had back in the early 1990s. It is definitely a major Kingdom moment.

Thank you Marty Schottenheimer.

__

The photo is by Kevin C. Cox of Getty Images. Thank you.

__