The wait was boring, but it’s time. Super Bowl LV, the most anticipated showdown of the season, is here! With more storylines than we can count and all sorts of records on the line, hopefully we can all agree that this Super Bowl was worth the wait. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers tackle defending champion Kansas City Chiefs. We have Tyreek Hill and Mike Evans, Travis Kelce and Chris Godwin, Jason Pierre-Paul and Chris Jones, Shaquil Barrett and Tyrann Mathieu – and of course Patrick Mahomes and Tom Brady. Talk about stingy defenses and explosive offenses!
We break it all down, but only here is how you can see the Super Bowl LV coverage today.
How to watch Super Bowl LV
Date: Sunday 7 February
Time: 18:30 ET
Location: Raymond James Stadium (Tampa, Florida)
TV: CBS | Current: FREE on CBSSports.com and the CBS Sports App.
How to see the coverage of the forecast
This year, CBS Sports offers extensive access to the predicted Super Bowl LV coverage.
CBS offers viewers seven hours of coverage for the Super Bowl preview on Sunday, starting with That Other Pregame Show (11:30 ET); followed by NFL Films special, Road to the Super Bowl (Noon, ET); Tony goes to the Super Bowl (13:00, ET), The Super Bowl Today (14:00, ET) and Super Bowl on CBS Kick-Off Show (18:00, ET).
CBS Sports HQ, the 24/7 streaming sports news network available for free on digital platforms, services and connected devices, will be live from Tampa to CBS Sports live during the week. From Monday, February 1st, CBS Sports HQ will deliver programs and reports throughout the day, and on the game day, live prediction coverage will be aired, plus postgame analysis and highlights.
From 2pm ET on Sunday, February 7, CBS Sports’ streaming coverage will also be available to viewers across a wide range of platforms and devices, including unauthorized at CBSSports.com and on the CBS Sports app for OTT devices and services, Smart TVs and mobile devices.
If the Chiefs have the ball
On Thursday, we outlined exactly what happened in the first game between the Chiefs and Bucs, when Patrick Mahomes and Tyreek Hill lit the secondary flame relatively easily. You can read the full story here, but the relevant excerpts are below:
Kansas City defeated the Buccaneers, 27-24, in Week 12 behind an explosive performance from Mahomes and Hill. Mahomes completed 37 of 49 passes for 462 yards and three touchdowns. Hill hit 13 of 15 targets for 269 yards and was on the receiving end of all three Mahomes’ scores.
Simply put, the Bucs had absolutely no answer for either, and because they did not, they lost the game. If they have to reverse the outcome this time, they have to figure something out. So it’s worthwhile to see exactly what happened in that first game, how it happened, and what the Bucs could possibly do about it on Sunday night …
Early in the game, the Bucs tried to use a bunch of ankle-high safety appearances (Cover-1 and Cover-3), and the Chiefs beat them. Later in the game, they went to more Cover-2 and Cover-4, and the Chiefs beat them. Poor Carlton Davis was given the task of following Hill where he was on the field most of the game, and roasted completely all afternoon. No matter what changes Tampa made, Mahomes and Hill had an answer …
The appearance of ankle-high safety burned down by Hill early in the game, and the Bucs changed things a bit in the second half … They also flashed much less frequently after the break. Mahomes lit their lightning by fetching 5 of 8 for 86 yards and a shot in the first half, so Todd Bowles sent just one lightning in the second half. It did not matter much. As Tampa sat backwards in soft areas, he constantly found Travis Kelce on underpasses. The Chiefs have repeatedly benefited from the fact that Kelce has been linked to a lineout or safety in space, where the Bucs had no hope of keeping him in check.
No matter how you cut it, the Chiefs have an advantage with Hill of Kelce almost every time. If the Bucs try to double both players, they will leave Sammy Watkins (if he assumes he fits, as it now seems somewhat likely), Mecole Hardman, or one of the fullbacks one-on-one, and will likely be vulnerable to Mahomes . take off and run too. Forcing the Chiefs to pursue one of the options is preferable to allowing Hill of Kelce your secondary torch, of course, but it’s still not ideal. (Especially since both Hill and Kelce can beat doubles anyway.)
That’s the key for the Bucs to speed up the Chiefs. They have to make Mahomes throw short and fast, as opposed to deep in the field. The game plan should look a lot like the NFC title game, where Jason Pierre-Paul and Shaquil Barrett dominated their games on the sidelines, putting Aaron Rodgers in the bag. Most importantly, they didn’t just get to the edge; they turn around and turn to Rodgers before he can escape to make something happen. It’s not enough to just push a QB like Rodgers or Mahomes. You need to place it on the ground. JPP and Barrett have plus games against Mike Remmers and Andrew Wylie, and if the Bucs want to win the game, it’s likely the duo will perform just as well or better than they did in the conference title.
The way Tampa conducts its defense encourages the opposing offense to throw the ball. The Bucs tackle the defense more often than most teams in the league with extra defenders, and they count on their infielders (Ndamukong Suh and Vita Vea) to link up the middle of the line and their lineouts (Lavonte David and Devin White) to flow along the margin. to the sidelines and sweep up ball carriers before breaking into the open field. Because the quartet players are so good at that job, the defense passed the ball much more often than expected against the Bucs based on distance, distance, time and score. The Chiefs – as we have seen throughout the year – are incredibly willing to dare opponents to throw the ball as often as possible. They will probably do the same on Sunday night. Down in the field, the Chiefs have the advantages. The Bucs need to turn them around by winning ahead.
When the Buccaneers have the ball
While the two key players for Tampa defense are JPP and Barrett, there are three keys to Kansas City’s defense: Chris Jones, L’Jarius Sneed and Charvarius Ward.
Why Jones? Because as everyone knows, the best way to disrupt an offense led by Tom Brady is to get pressure with your top four and keep seven in cover. This is obvious. This is the key against just about every quarter. But with Brady specifically, the key is to get pressure in the middle.
Brady is very good with a lot of things, but not escaping from the outside and throwing along the way is not one of them. He wants to act through the bag, recover himself and then drop the ball into the field. Against the edge pressure he can do it. But if the bag collapses in the middle, it’s much harder. This is where Jones comes in. The Bucs are without Alex Cappa for the Super Bowl, which leaves Aaron Stinnie on the right hats. The Bucs can give him a little help, but Jones should have enough opportunity to work on Stinnie and make things difficult for Brady. If he dominates that game, it will cause a lot of problems for Tampa’s offense.
Why Sneed? Because he spends most of his time in the slot, bringing 53% of his snaps, according to Pro Football Focus, in line. That means he would see more of Chris Godwin than any other Chiefs corner would do. Godwin stood on 66 percent of his snaps inside the queue and inflicted a lot of damage there. Sneed had an excellent rookie season, despite his interruption due to injury, but he also suffered a concussion during the AFC title game. Protecting Godwin is already a difficult task, and because it has been limited in practice over the past few weeks, it will do just as much.
Why Ward? Mostly because he is not Bashaud Breeland. The Chiefs play side with their corners, using Breeland on the right and Ward on the left. Thus, opposing offenders can largely choose which of the two they want to attack. Ward is a good player, but Breeland is a better player. So it is likely that if the Bucs want to get Mike Evans or Antonio Brown or Rob Gronkowski an isolation match, they will rather try to go work on Ward. He has been up for most of the past two seasons, but he will definitely be tested again on Sunday.
It will be tempting for the Bucs to follow a sluggishness and execute the ball in their throat strategy against the Kansas City defense. They must resist that temptation. In the first place, the striking power of Tampa is the strength of the team – much more than Leonard Fournette and Ronald Jones running the ball. Second, the Chiefs lost just ten games during the Mahomes era. In just two of the ten games, the winning team scored less than 30 points – and in one of the two they had 29. the ten teams that beat the Chiefs scored an average of 36.4 points per game. That means you have to score five touchdowns if you want to give yourself a good chance of winning. You do not do this by relying on Fournette and Jones. You do it with Brady, Evans, Godwin, Brown and Gronk. This is Tampa’s best shot.
Last chance:
Tampa Bay Buccaneers +3
Prediction: Chiefs 33, Buccaneers 27