Buccaneers defense rises to occasion again in Super Bowl win

 Tampa Bay’s defense finished its redemption tour with a Super Bowl championship.

Overwhelmed by Patrick Mahomes and Tyreek Hill during a loss to Kansas City in Week 12 of regular season, a young Buccaneers secondary flipped script in Sunday night’s NFL championship game by shutting down Chiefs’ electric duo in a 31-9 victory.

Rookie safety Antoine Winfield Jr., and second-year linebacker Devin White had team’s sixth and seventh interceptions of a postseason run that also included wins over future Hall of Famers Drew Brees and Aaron Rodgers, and Bucs limited Kansas City’s high-scoring offense to 350 yards and touchdowns, quite turnaround from a poor performance in what wound up being Tampa Bay’s final loss of season.

Coach Bruce Arians credited defensive coordinator Todd Bowles’ game plan, which mixed and tried to disguise covers and force Mahomes to hold ball long eugh for Tampa Bay’s pass rushers to make Chiefs' quarterback uncomfortable.

“I think he got a little tired hearing how unstoppable y were,” Arians said.

“He had a great plan to keep m in front of us and give guys up front time to hunt,” Arians added. “y chased him around pretty good.”

Hill had 13 receptions for 269 yards and three touchdowns in regular-season matchup, including seven catches for 203 yards and two TDs in first quarter alone, when speedy receiver took advant of single cover to help Kansas City build a 17-point lead.

Mahomes went 26 of 49 for 270 yards and was sacked three times Sunday night after throwing for 462 yards without an interception in first meeting.

“re was thing that was gonna stop us from winning this game. I knew we was going to keep pressure up,” linebacker Shaquil Barrett said.

“I did t think we was going to keep m from scoring a touchdown but we stepped up, we showed up, we held m to three every time y was down re,” Barrett added, “and Coach Bowles had a great game plan. We had guys up re to make it work and we made it work, baby.”

Travis Kelce finished with 10 catches for 133 yards for Chiefs, but Hill was held to 73 yards on seven receptions while bracketed by double cover much of night.

“We took away some of underneath throws, and it takes time for guys get deep. That allowed guys up front to get after him,” Bowles said. “ biggest thing we were trying to do was take away his first read, make him hold ball to look at ( defense) long eugh to get after him.”

27-24 setback on v. 29 finished a stretch in which Bucs dropped three of four games — all at home — to enter ir bye week searching for answers to ir inconsistency on both offense and defense.

team didn’t lose again, finishing on an eight-game winning streak that included playoff road wins over Washington, New Orleans and Green Bay to become first team to play a Super Bowl in ir home stadium.

steady improvement of defense down stretch was one of biggest reason Bucs were confident Sunday’s result would be different.

“It was very personal,” cornerback Sean Murphy-Bunting said. “As a secondary, we had some rough patches, just like every or team. It just seemed like we took a little more heat, people saying we weren’t good eugh.”

White said he and rest of defense couldn’t understand how Tampa Bay was considered underdogs Sunday night after taking down Brees and n Rodgers.

He also took exception with Tampa Bay having only one Pro Bowl selection on its roster, linebacker Jason Pierre-Paul.

“That doesn’t even sound right,” White said. “One Pro Bowl player and team goes on to win Super Bowl? That’s OK. That trophy, Lombardi, that’s what we play for.”

(Im credit: AP)