Tampa Bay’s Defense Is Good But Not As Good As They Looked In Super Bowl

[kskboys]

There are a lot of you fans who really really really need to read what was written!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[CowboysFaninHouston]

EDIT: I apologize for the length here, but a lot of this post is a radio show that I transcribed what Trent Dilfer said about Tampa’s defense in the Super Bowl. Obviously, it might be too long for some to read but some might enjoy hearing an Ex-NFL QB explaining what happened in that game, and why their defense isn’t as good as they looked that day. When I’m transcribing what Dilfer says, I put it in italics. What I say is in normal font.

I keep hearing people talking about how great the Tampa defense is, mainly in relation to how ordinary they made Mahomes look in the super bowl… particularly how much their pass rush got to Patrick.

I have to say, they are a good defense and they can get to the QB, for sure. However, they aren’t the dominant defense that they appeared to be in the super bowl. They have some talent but they are very well coached, both from the head coach (Arians is good) and from their defensive coordinator Todd Bowles, which makes them look better than their talent says they should be.

Their defense looked solid against Green Bay and Washington but they didn’t look nearly as great as they looked against the Mahomes led Chiefs. In fact, the terrible Washington offense looked better than KC against them. Why was that?

Was it the KC missing both OT’s? No it was not. Tampa’d D didn’t dominate Kansas City in the SB because KC was missing their two OT’s (although that helped for sure), they dominated because Arians and Bowles completely changed what they had been doing in defense for the past couple of years.

Trent Dilfer was on the Doug Gottlieb show on Fox Sports Radio right after the Super Bowl last year and Doug Gottlieb asked him how TB so thoroughly shut down a high powered KC attack and asked if the OT’s being out made that much of a difference. Trent said it wasn’t just the OT’s being out, that it was more what Tampa was doing schematically against KC that made it so lopsided.

What Dilfer said was interesting because he has played QB in the NFL (and in a super bowl) and knows more than just about anyone else in the media about reading defenses and what defenses are trying to do to a QB and the offense. Despite just being an average QB, he is very, very good at analysis and has a ton of knowledge.

Anyway, I couldn’t remember exactly what he said, so I had to go back and find the Podcast of that show and re-listen to how Trent describes it. I pretty much had to listen to a couple of sentences and then write down what he was saying. Below, I describe what he said that explains why Tampa was so dominant against the Chiefs:

Here is the link to the podcasts if anyone wants to go find the February 8th podcast and listen for themselves. It was in the first hour of the show.

https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1-the-doug-gottlieb-show-28117179/

Here is what Dilfer said about the Tampa Bay Defense on the Super Bowl:

Start Dilfer.

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////

KC went in wanting to throw short, perimeter screens to slow down the Tampa Bay pass rush, which is a typical west coast offense philosophy on how to combat a good pass rush. Todd Bowles and the Tampa defense knew that’s what Andy Reid was going to do.

Dilfer said that Tampa and Todd Bowles really reconstructed their defense for the super bowl. Not only were they anticipating and prepared for KC answers to their pass rush, but they were giving Mahomes pictures on the sidelines of a defense that they hadn’t seen. He said that there was no way that KC could have prepared for that Tampa defense because it was so out of character for what they had done all season long. The previous season too.

Bowles is a pressure guy. He normally likes to get the safety involved in bracket coverage. He’s a lot of man coverage guy with some unique looks he gives you. In this game they changed their front up a little bit. They lightened the box and played as deep as Dilfer had ever seen a Bowles defense play in the secondary. They lined up in a real high 3-shell or 2-shell and then dropped what he calls an insert person that comes up to support the run but also handles crossing routes, TE over the middle and handled a lot of the RPO and screen stuff. He said that Bowles essentially bet that a front 6 (instead of front 7) would be able to stop the KC run game. He said that Bowles was also banking on Andy Reid’s history that he would abandon the run game. Andy wants to throw more than he runs it.

He said Bowles was basically saying “I dare you to run it 28 times in the A and B gaps… I know that your DNA won’t let you do that.” So Tampa built a defense around Reid’s DNA. They build a very detailed, pass coverage concepts and flooded the passing lanes to disrupt what KC wanted to do in the passing game. And Tampa said that no matter what, we’re not going to let Tyreek Hill (or anyone) get vertical on us. No matter what, they had a deeper guy than Hill on every single play.

None of that is how Bowles defenses had been at any point in his time with Tampa Bay. He said Tampa is normally a lot more aggressive on defense but in this game they more just kept everything in front of them and flooded the passing lanes.

Dilfer said that KC really needed to run the ball against that defense and they just didn’t. He said they needed to have some time of possession and keep the ball but instead they kept having really short possessions and giving the ball back to Brady. He said KC needed some play action and to establish a running game against this defense. However, the KC game plan was what you should do against the normal Bowles Tampa defense… not the odd way that Bowles was playing that was so different than any they had seen… and Reid just didn’t make any adjustments to Bowles trickery.

He said that early on, when KC did actually run the ball, it was successful. They just didn’t do it very often at all.

He said he gives Bowles and Tampa a ton of credit for how they approached that match-up and how they changed just about everything they did on defense to utterly surprise KC. He said Bowles did a great job of teaching his defenders how to do a bunch of new stuff in a very short amount of time. He said that KC just had no counter to it because they had practiced against a completely different defense for the entire time.

He said that Bruce Arians offense also went completely against his own DNA in this game as well, catching the KC defense off guard a little bit too. They played differently on offense than they had, calling a much more patient game than Arians normally does. Very little deep passing when Arians is normally very aggressive. Normally he’s a “no risk it, no biscuit” coach but he called completely different game. They put in what Dilfer said are some college plays… some RPO’s and things that he’s never seen Brady do. They wanted to control the ball and took a lot less risks than normal.

END Dilfer

///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

It wasn’t a matter of Tampa’s defense and players just being dominant. They weren’t simply that much better than KC. They basically completely surprised Mahomes and Andy Reid, and Reid never really adjusted for some reason.

It wasn’t that the OL just couldn’t protect Mahomes, it was that Mahomes was seeing something completely different than what he had prepared for in the two weeks leading up to the game. He was confused and holding on to the ball too long or was making bad decisions about where to throw the ball. It completely messed up everything that KC was going to do on offense because it was essentially like they had prepared for the wrong team before the game. Everything was different.

Throw in that KC had lost both OT’s and it just made it that much worse… but make no mistake, their starting tackles wouldn’t have helped KC much in that game. They were doomed from the kickoff because of Arians and Bowles brilliant sneak attack. They absolutely surprised and confused KC in the biggest game of the year.

That parallels common sense too in that they didn’t look nearly so dominant against other teams in the playoffs, including a putrid Washington offense that looked much better than Kansas City against them.

What does that mean for Dallas on Thursday? Well, for starters it means that Tampa’s defense isn’t nearly the dominant unit that we all remember last seeing. They looked so good because schematically, they changed everything… which likely won’t happen in the first game of the year. Bowles will again likely be doing what he always does. They are a good defense but they aren’t the 85 Bears, which is how they looked in the SB.

Dallas has a chance to score some points, even with Martin out. I think they will have some success against Tampa’s defense. How much is the question.

Ultimately, it will come down to the Dallas defense against Brady’s offense and how much they can slow them down.

so essentially, coaching matters. making the right calls matters. game planning matters.....essentially you take your players and put them in position to win.....and that comes from coaches.

thanks you garrett!!!!! for doing exactly the opposite.

 

[jazzcat22]

Being honest and objective is now known as being a "hater" in the social media society.

But he, as others are not honest and objective. I has been proven time and time again.

 

[BourbonBalz]

Our oline is already beat up, missing it’s best player and rusty. Dak hasn’t played in over a year. And our defense can’t stop Brady.

So the game has already been played? Who knew!

 

[CoachD]

......and will certainly get one censored and banned

Free speech my azzzzzzzz.

Truer words haven't been spoken in here in a long time.

 

[blueblood70]

EDIT: I apologize for the length here, but a lot of this post is a radio show that I transcribed what Trent Dilfer said about Tampa’s defense in the Super Bowl. Obviously, it might be too long for some to read but some might enjoy hearing an Ex-NFL QB explaining what happened in that game, and why their defense isn’t as good as they looked that day. When I’m transcribing what Dilfer says, I put it in italics. What I say is in normal font.

I keep hearing people talking about how great the Tampa defense is, mainly in relation to how ordinary they made Mahomes look in the super bowl… particularly how much their pass rush got to Patrick.

I have to say, they are a good defense and they can get to the QB, for sure. However, they aren’t the dominant defense that they appeared to be in the super bowl. They have some talent but they are very well coached, both from the head coach (Arians is good) and from their defensive coordinator Todd Bowles, which makes them look better than their talent says they should be.

Their defense looked solid against Green Bay and Washington but they didn’t look nearly as great as they looked against the Mahomes led Chiefs. In fact, the terrible Washington offense looked better than KC against them. Why was that?

Was it the KC missing both OT’s? No it was not. Tampa’d D didn’t dominate Kansas City in the SB because KC was missing their two OT’s (although that helped for sure), they dominated because Arians and Bowles completely changed what they had been doing in defense for the past couple of years.

Trent Dilfer was on the Doug Gottlieb show on Fox Sports Radio right after the Super Bowl last year and Doug Gottlieb asked him how TB so thoroughly shut down a high powered KC attack and asked if the OT’s being out made that much of a difference. Trent said it wasn’t just the OT’s being out, that it was more what Tampa was doing schematically against KC that made it so lopsided.

What Dilfer said was interesting because he has played QB in the NFL (and in a super bowl) and knows more than just about anyone else in the media about reading defenses and what defenses are trying to do to a QB and the offense. Despite just being an average QB, he is very, very good at analysis and has a ton of knowledge.

Anyway, I couldn’t remember exactly what he said, so I had to go back and find the Podcast of that show and re-listen to how Trent describes it. I pretty much had to listen to a couple of sentences and then write down what he was saying. Below, I describe what he said that explains why Tampa was so dominant against the Chiefs:

Here is the link to the podcasts if anyone wants to go find the February 8th podcast and listen for themselves. It was in the first hour of the show.

https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1-the-doug-gottlieb-show-28117179/

Here is what Dilfer said about the Tampa Bay Defense on the Super Bowl:

Start Dilfer.

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////

KC went in wanting to throw short, perimeter screens to slow down the Tampa Bay pass rush, which is a typical west coast offense philosophy on how to combat a good pass rush. Todd Bowles and the Tampa defense knew that’s what Andy Reid was going to do.

Dilfer said that Tampa and Todd Bowles really reconstructed their defense for the super bowl. Not only were they anticipating and prepared for KC answers to their pass rush, but they were giving Mahomes pictures on the sidelines of a defense that they hadn’t seen. He said that there was no way that KC could have prepared for that Tampa defense because it was so out of character for what they had done all season long. The previous season too.

Bowles is a pressure guy. He normally likes to get the safety involved in bracket coverage. He’s a lot of man coverage guy with some unique looks he gives you. In this game they changed their front up a little bit. They lightened the box and played as deep as Dilfer had ever seen a Bowles defense play in the secondary. They lined up in a real high 3-shell or 2-shell and then dropped what he calls an insert person that comes up to support the run but also handles crossing routes, TE over the middle and handled a lot of the RPO and screen stuff. He said that Bowles essentially bet that a front 6 (instead of front 7) would be able to stop the KC run game. He said that Bowles was also banking on Andy Reid’s history that he would abandon the run game. Andy wants to throw more than he runs it.

He said Bowles was basically saying “I dare you to run it 28 times in the A and B gaps… I know that your DNA won’t let you do that.” So Tampa built a defense around Reid’s DNA. They build a very detailed, pass coverage concepts and flooded the passing lanes to disrupt what KC wanted to do in the passing game. And Tampa said that no matter what, we’re not going to let Tyreek Hill (or anyone) get vertical on us. No matter what, they had a deeper guy than Hill on every single play.

None of that is how Bowles defenses had been at any point in his time with Tampa Bay. He said Tampa is normally a lot more aggressive on defense but in this game they more just kept everything in front of them and flooded the passing lanes.

Dilfer said that KC really needed to run the ball against that defense and they just didn’t. He said they needed to have some time of possession and keep the ball but instead they kept having really short possessions and giving the ball back to Brady. He said KC needed some play action and to establish a running game against this defense. However, the KC game plan was what you should do against the normal Bowles Tampa defense… not the odd way that Bowles was playing that was so different than any they had seen… and Reid just didn’t make any adjustments to Bowles trickery.

He said that early on, when KC did actually run the ball, it was successful. They just didn’t do it very often at all.

He said he gives Bowles and Tampa a ton of credit for how they approached that match-up and how they changed just about everything they did on defense to utterly surprise KC. He said Bowles did a great job of teaching his defenders how to do a bunch of new stuff in a very short amount of time. He said that KC just had no counter to it because they had practiced against a completely different defense for the entire time.

He said that Bruce Arians offense also went completely against his own DNA in this game as well, catching the KC defense off guard a little bit too. They played differently on offense than they had, calling a much more patient game than Arians normally does. Very little deep passing when Arians is normally very aggressive. Normally he’s a “no risk it, no biscuit” coach but he called completely different game. They put in what Dilfer said are some college plays… some RPO’s and things that he’s never seen Brady do. They wanted to control the ball and took a lot less risks than normal.

END Dilfer

///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

It wasn’t a matter of Tampa’s defense and players just being dominant. They weren’t simply that much better than KC. They basically completely surprised Mahomes and Andy Reid, and Reid never really adjusted for some reason.

It wasn’t that the OL just couldn’t protect Mahomes, it was that Mahomes was seeing something completely different than what he had prepared for in the two weeks leading up to the game. He was confused and holding on to the ball too long or was making bad decisions about where to throw the ball. It completely messed up everything that KC was going to do on offense because it was essentially like they had prepared for the wrong team before the game. Everything was different.

Throw in that KC had lost both OT’s and it just made it that much worse… but make no mistake, their starting tackles wouldn’t have helped KC much in that game. They were doomed from the kickoff because of Arians and Bowles brilliant sneak attack. They absolutely surprised and confused KC in the biggest game of the year.

That parallels common sense too in that they didn’t look nearly so dominant against other teams in the playoffs, including a putrid Washington offense that looked much better than Kansas City against them.

What does that mean for Dallas on Thursday? Well, for starters it means that Tampa’s defense isn’t nearly the dominant unit that we all remember last seeing. They looked so good because schematically, they changed everything… which likely won’t happen in the first game of the year. Bowles will again likely be doing what he always does. They are a good defense but they aren’t the 85 Bears, which is how they looked in the SB.

Dallas has a chance to score some points, even with Martin out. I think they will have some success against Tampa’s defense. How much is the question.

Ultimately, it will come down to the Dallas defense against Brady’s offense and how much they can slow them down.

i'm sure the Game plan and scheme had some effect on the game but iMO this is an opinion i dont agree with, period end of story.

first off it wasnt just 2 OT out Mahomes had a bad toe he had to have surgery on .

so making him run seemingly with less then 2 secs form the snap on bad toe was more the reason he looked less then himself..if PM had 1more sec and allowed to set his feet he would get the ball to his stars..seriously qb on bad foot with no time to throw and had record set for most scramble yards in a game behind the LOS..he was running for his life on bad foot..get his OT back and i'm betting its different game, sure TB may still have won but KC would have looked a lot better.

odd it didn't matter, yet KC went and rebuilt their entire OL, why would a SB team do this, because it matters and mattered...

reid and mahomes are equally and creative in beating schemes..they werent healthy and it showed..

 

[blueblood70]

While all of that might very well be true, the fact that KC was missing it’s two starting tackles and that Mahomes was hobbled with an injury certainly had a huge effect as well.

on point

 

[AsthmaField]

im sure the Gameplan and scheme had some effect on the game but iMO this is an opinion i dont agree with, period end of story

first off it wasnt just 2 OT out Mahomes had bad toe he had to have surgery on so making him run seemingly with less then 2 secs form the snap on bad toe was more the reason he looked less then himself..if PM had 1more sec and allowed to set his feet he would get the ball to his stars..seriously qb on bad foot with no time to throw and had record set for most scramble yards in a game behind the LOS..he was running for his life on bad foot..get his OT back and im betting its different game, sure TB may still have won but KC would have looked a lot better.

odd it didnt matter, yet KC went and rebuilt their entire OL, why would SB do this, because it matters and mattered...

reid and mahomes are equally and creative in beating schemes..they werent healthy and it showed..

Different opinions make this board go. It’s all good man.

 

[AsthmaField]

so essentially, coaching matters. making the right calls matters. game planning matters.....essentially you take your players and put them in position to win.....and that comes from coaches.

thanks you garrett!!!!! for doing exactly the opposite.

 

[blueblood70]

Tampa and Bowles will do the opposite to us. Shut down running lanes nd Zeke and let the qb beat you. We know we got no Mahomes, well that too after 1yr hiatus.

come on apparently you dont watch the TB games or listen to their pros and cons..they were by far the best Run stopping defense last year at 80YPG allowed..no one runs on them and they obviously go into every game with stop the run at all coasts and allow qb to have a shot..not any different because its dak and not mahomes..thats silly but it for sure their game plan as it was all last year and the fact that they know zeke/pollard are threats....

however if they choose to OVERplay the run and leave our 3 wrs one on one al game Dak will shred them..we have 3 weapons' at WR plus two capable TEs..i hope they do that very thing and bring extra guys in the box.I know zeke is ready to have great season but this is the wrong team to use as measuring stick, they will try hard to take away the run..

 

[JayFord]

both of Kansas City OTs were out that game and it showed because Tampa was all over Mahomes

 

[AsthmaField]

both of Kansas City OTs were out that game and it showed because Tampa was all over Mahomes

Haha, you definitely didn’t read the OP. It’s cool. That was a loooong post.

 

[nalam]

Wow are you over thinking this.

That's Mahomes. They don't have to be clever this time. Just show up and they will beat this QB.

2-3 score lead at the half. Maybe a 2nd half rally but nobody cares. Bucs win.

Are you a Cowboys fan or Buccs one?

 

[AsthmaField]

So you’re saying that the coaching staff that was able to out coach and out think Reid and Mahomes in 2 weeks won’t be able to do the same to the great MM and Dak given the entire off season?

yep, sounds logical

I didn’t really even talk about what will happen between Dallas and Tampa. I was basically talking about how Tampa looked in the super bowl vs how they looked in the rest of last season and the playoffs.

No telling what will happen Thursday night.

 

[WillieBeamen]

Thanks for the insight. The great news is that Dak should have big success against a defense that wasn’t as good the previous year. If our defense can hold Brady and company to 24 points and under, Dak will certainly hoist up 28 points with him being a top 5 paid Qb and the offensive firepower around him

#noexcuses

Go Cowboys!!!!

Even if our defense held TB to 10 points, Dak would lead us to 9 and an L…


Its what he does against good teams

 

[kskboys]

I didn’t really even talk about what will happen between Dallas and Tampa. I was basically talking about how Tampa looked in the super bowl vs how they looked in the rest of last season and the playoffs.

No telling what will happen Thursday night.

There's been some very strange responses in this thread. I'm starting to wonder about reading ability.

 

[CowboyRoy]

So the game has already been played? Who knew!

What’s the point of saying something stupid?

Is anything I said there incorrect?

This is the reality we face. trying to educate you so if we lose we don’t jump off a cliff like many homers do when we lose.

 

[75boyz]

So you’re saying that the coaching staff that was able to out coach and out think Reid and Mahomes in 2 weeks won’t be able to do the same to the great MM and Dak given the entire off season?

yep, sounds logical

Totally agree with this at face value.

But in interacting with AsthmaField, I've found he does possess a genuine level of humility over the other guys that pretend to be know it all field experts here. Not saying he is one of those.

Internal bias along with subjectivity is only natural to be expected on a specific team's message board imo.

But with that said, Ive learned through experience not to mention too often that the other team has good players and coaches too.

Lotsa disrespect comes when ya do that too often, lol.

jmo

 

[AsthmaField]

Too long to read. can;t boil that down sheeze!

So.....just to be clear.....you are using a a REAL game, and then your imgination...to say they "aren;t the same"?

Should you watch ...you know...a couple games first?

Sure man, I can boil it down a bit.

I was saying that in the SB, Tampa completely changed everything they did on defense the last two years and totally blindsided KC and Mahomes. That was said right after the SB by Trent Dilfer. I translated what Dilfer said, which helped make it very long.

Tamp’s defense was good but not dominant against teams like Washington… which aren’t nearly as good on offense as KC. So why so successful against Mahomes and not Taylor Heineke and Washington (and KC in the regular season)? Because they blindsided KC in the SB by changing everything they did on defense. Dilfer said that it was like Mahomes and Reid game planned and practiced for a different team than the one they saw in the SB.

Dilfer said (and I agree) that having their starting OT’s in KC wouldn’t have mattered that ,UCB.

Basically, Tampa has a good defense but not one that is as dominant as they looked against Mahomes.

I didn’t really draw many conclusions as to what it means for Dallas on Thursday.

Maybe I should have done this in the OP, lol. I know it was too long.

 

[Swagger]

EDIT: I apologize for the length here, but a lot of this post is a radio show that I transcribed what Trent Dilfer said about Tampa’s defense in the Super Bowl. Obviously, it might be too long for some to read but some might enjoy hearing an Ex-NFL QB explaining what happened in that game, and why their defense isn’t as good as they looked that day. When I’m transcribing what Dilfer says, I put it in italics. What I say is in normal font.

I keep hearing people talking about how great the Tampa defense is, mainly in relation to how ordinary they made Mahomes look in the super bowl… particularly how much their pass rush got to Patrick.

I have to say, they are a good defense and they can get to the QB, for sure. However, they aren’t the dominant defense that they appeared to be in the super bowl. They have some talent but they are very well coached, both from the head coach (Arians is good) and from their defensive coordinator Todd Bowles, which makes them look better than their talent says they should be.

Their defense looked solid against Green Bay and Washington but they didn’t look nearly as great as they looked against the Mahomes led Chiefs. In fact, the terrible Washington offense looked better than KC against them. Why was that?

Was it the KC missing both OT’s? No it was not. Tampa’d D didn’t dominate Kansas City in the SB because KC was missing their two OT’s (although that helped for sure), they dominated because Arians and Bowles completely changed what they had been doing in defense for the past couple of years.

Trent Dilfer was on the Doug Gottlieb show on Fox Sports Radio right after the Super Bowl last year and Doug Gottlieb asked him how TB so thoroughly shut down a high powered KC attack and asked if the OT’s being out made that much of a difference. Trent said it wasn’t just the OT’s being out, that it was more what Tampa was doing schematically against KC that made it so lopsided.

What Dilfer said was interesting because he has played QB in the NFL (and in a super bowl) and knows more than just about anyone else in the media about reading defenses and what defenses are trying to do to a QB and the offense. Despite just being an average QB, he is very, very good at analysis and has a ton of knowledge.

Anyway, I couldn’t remember exactly what he said, so I had to go back and find the Podcast of that show and re-listen to how Trent describes it. I pretty much had to listen to a couple of sentences and then write down what he was saying. Below, I describe what he said that explains why Tampa was so dominant against the Chiefs:

Here is the link to the podcasts if anyone wants to go find the February 8th podcast and listen for themselves. It was in the first hour of the show.

https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1-the-doug-gottlieb-show-28117179/

Here is what Dilfer said about the Tampa Bay Defense on the Super Bowl:

Start Dilfer.

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////

KC went in wanting to throw short, perimeter screens to slow down the Tampa Bay pass rush, which is a typical west coast offense philosophy on how to combat a good pass rush. Todd Bowles and the Tampa defense knew that’s what Andy Reid was going to do.

Dilfer said that Tampa and Todd Bowles really reconstructed their defense for the super bowl. Not only were they anticipating and prepared for KC answers to their pass rush, but they were giving Mahomes pictures on the sidelines of a defense that they hadn’t seen. He said that there was no way that KC could have prepared for that Tampa defense because it was so out of character for what they had done all season long. The previous season too.

Bowles is a pressure guy. He normally likes to get the safety involved in bracket coverage. He’s a lot of man coverage guy with some unique looks he gives you. In this game they changed their front up a little bit. They lightened the box and played as deep as Dilfer had ever seen a Bowles defense play in the secondary. They lined up in a real high 3-shell or 2-shell and then dropped what he calls an insert person that comes up to support the run but also handles crossing routes, TE over the middle and handled a lot of the RPO and screen stuff. He said that Bowles essentially bet that a front 6 (instead of front 7) would be able to stop the KC run game. He said that Bowles was also banking on Andy Reid’s history that he would abandon the run game. Andy wants to throw more than he runs it.

He said Bowles was basically saying “I dare you to run it 28 times in the A and B gaps… I know that your DNA won’t let you do that.” So Tampa built a defense around Reid’s DNA. They build a very detailed, pass coverage concepts and flooded the passing lanes to disrupt what KC wanted to do in the passing game. And Tampa said that no matter what, we’re not going to let Tyreek Hill (or anyone) get vertical on us. No matter what, they had a deeper guy than Hill on every single play.

None of that is how Bowles defenses had been at any point in his time with Tampa Bay. He said Tampa is normally a lot more aggressive on defense but in this game they more just kept everything in front of them and flooded the passing lanes.

Dilfer said that KC really needed to run the ball against that defense and they just didn’t. He said they needed to have some time of possession and keep the ball but instead they kept having really short possessions and giving the ball back to Brady. He said KC needed some play action and to establish a running game against this defense. However, the KC game plan was what you should do against the normal Bowles Tampa defense… not the odd way that Bowles was playing that was so different than any they had seen… and Reid just didn’t make any adjustments to Bowles trickery.

He said that early on, when KC did actually run the ball, it was successful. They just didn’t do it very often at all.

He said he gives Bowles and Tampa a ton of credit for how they approached that match-up and how they changed just about everything they did on defense to utterly surprise KC. He said Bowles did a great job of teaching his defenders how to do a bunch of new stuff in a very short amount of time. He said that KC just had no counter to it because they had practiced against a completely different defense for the entire time.

He said that Bruce Arians offense also went completely against his own DNA in this game as well, catching the KC defense off guard a little bit too. They played differently on offense than they had, calling a much more patient game than Arians normally does. Very little deep passing when Arians is normally very aggressive. Normally he’s a “no risk it, no biscuit” coach but he called completely different game. They put in what Dilfer said are some college plays… some RPO’s and things that he’s never seen Brady do. They wanted to control the ball and took a lot less risks than normal.

END Dilfer

///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

It wasn’t a matter of Tampa’s defense and players just being dominant. They weren’t simply that much better than KC. They basically completely surprised Mahomes and Andy Reid, and Reid never really adjusted for some reason.

It wasn’t that the OL just couldn’t protect Mahomes, it was that Mahomes was seeing something completely different than what he had prepared for in the two weeks leading up to the game. He was confused and holding on to the ball too long or was making bad decisions about where to throw the ball. It completely messed up everything that KC was going to do on offense because it was essentially like they had prepared for the wrong team before the game. Everything was different.

Throw in that KC had lost both OT’s and it just made it that much worse… but make no mistake, their starting tackles wouldn’t have helped KC much in that game. They were doomed from the kickoff because of Arians and Bowles brilliant sneak attack. They absolutely surprised and confused KC in the biggest game of the year.

That parallels common sense too in that they didn’t look nearly so dominant against other teams in the playoffs, including a putrid Washington offense that looked much better than Kansas City against them.

What does that mean for Dallas on Thursday? Well, for starters it means that Tampa’s defense isn’t nearly the dominant unit that we all remember last seeing. They looked so good because schematically, they changed everything… which likely won’t happen in the first game of the year. Bowles will again likely be doing what he always does. They are a good defense but they aren’t the 85 Bears, which is how they looked in the SB.

Dallas has a chance to score some points, even with Martin out. I think they will have some success against Tampa’s defense. How much is the question.

Ultimately, it will come down to the Dallas defense against Brady’s offense and how much they can slow them down.

I appreciate the effort that went into the post. Very interesting comments - well worth reading.