Super Bowl LV Defensive Attrition
It’s Super Bowl Time. The Kid versus the GOAT. Back in my day no one wanted to be the goat of any championship game. Times have changed!
I really do not have much to say regarding Super Bowl LV. At the risk of being cliché, it is what it is. I’ve been contemplating over the last couple weeks what the latest Mahomes vs. Brady match up would look like, and I keep coming back to the same, quite boring, answer. It’s more of the same. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it is more of the same. My expectations are no expectations.
Prior to this latest edition Mahomes and Brady are .500 against each other having split 4 head-to-head encounters. I’m not going to dive into deep statistical analysis because numbers are something you can use to slant any kind of argument for or against, and I don’t even have an argument. I even don’t have an opinion. Hence the more of the same comment. Both quarterbacks are quite evenly matched. Mahomes shows why he’s the current NFL quarterback superstar (apologies to Dak and Aaron, but you’re well behind him), and will be for years to come. As for Brady, he’s the GOAT. There really is nothing more to expound upon beyond that. It is very apparent now what drove that Patriots machine for all those years, and while yes it was a seasoned battleship and crew the captain at the helm still has a lot to do with the how, why, and direction of the sail. One cannot get passed that. Brady is the GOAT for a reason, and even if Mahomes wins this match up he will not hold the GOAT crown until he has the numbers that come very close, or match, Brady. That will take time, and it will take more than two Super Bowl championships. Brady has six even though the Seahawks handed him one. That is the benchmark.
So who’ll win Super Bowl LV? Well, when one eliminates those items that are equal or close to then the eye must look to see what items diverge. The most obvious of these are, how will the defense play. If on offense Mahomes and Brady will dominate, the Super Bowl itself will come down to which defense can last long enough, bend not break, and hold on just long enough to be the deciding factor. It’ll be a defensive battle but not in the way we normally think of it. It won’t be 9-6 or 14-10, but rather more high scoring. More like defensive attrition in how long either side can last on the field. Mahomes will do what he does, and Brady will do what he does. We’ve seen plenty of highlights on both, and it’ll be no easy task. It may very well come down to which team, or which quarterback, has the ball last. Who has the final drive will probably be the determining factor. I also wouldn’t be the least surprised if that final drive doesn’t happen in overtime. Of course the only time that ever occurred in the Super Bowl the Patriots/Brady were the champions. Which means never go against the GOAT.