In two weeks, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will make history, while the Kansas City Chiefs will attempt to make some history of their own. We know the Buccaneers will do something that has never been done before simply by taking the field at Raymond James Stadium on Feb. 7 at 6:30 pm ET on CBS.
In the 55 years of Super Bowl history, no team has ever played the Super Bowl on their home field. That is until Tom Brady and the Bucs do so at Super Bowl LV in Tampa, Fla.
Meanwhile, the Chiefs have a chance to become the eighth franchise in the Super Bowl era to repeat. The last to do so were the New England Patriots, with Brady at quarterback, when they went back-to-back after the 2003 and 2004 seasons.
Five times a team has returned to the Super Bowl with a chance to repeat but ended up losing the big game. That feat has happened three times in the last 25 years, including the Patriots after the 2017 season and the Seattle Seahawks after the 2014 season.
Traditionally, the Super Bowl line moves during the two weeks leading up to the game as news comes out and game plans are developed. The Chiefs have opened as three-point favorites at most books, 3.5 points at others.
The total for Super Bowl LV has opened anywhere between 56 points and 57.5 points, though the majority of the books have 56.5 as the total with days to go before kickoff.
The Chiefs are -175 on the moneyline, while the Bucs are +145
Dream Quarterback Matchup
CBS has to be in heaven with the Chiefs/Bucs matchup and the Patrick Mahomes/Brady quarterback angle. This will be Brady’s 10th Super Bowl and the second for Mahomes, and it gives the league and CBS a matchup between the last two winning quarterbacks.
These two have gone head-to-head four times, with each winning twice. Brady won the only playoff meeting in the 2018 AFC Championship Game.
It is tough to know what to expect from TV ratings these days, even without the COVID-19 pandemic. The Super Bowl viewership record (U.S. only) is 114.4 million viewers from Super Bowl XLIX in February 2015 when the Patriots beat the Seahawks 28-24.
Ten of the last 11 Super Bowls have drawn over 100 million viewers, and last year’s Chiefs win over the San Francisco 49ers was watched by 110.45 million people.
Regular-Season Rematch
This year, the AFC West teams played the NFC South teams, so the Chiefs and Bucs faced off on Nov. 29 at Raymond James Stadium. The final score was Kansas City winning, 27-24, but the game was never that close.
Mahomes threw touchdown passes of 75 yards and 44 yards, both to Tyreek Hill in the first quarter, as the Chiefs sprinted out to a 17-0 lead. The halftime score was 20-7, and another Hill score in the third quarter gave the visitors a 27-10 lead.
Brady made it close with two touchdown passes to Mike Evans in the fourth quarter that allowed Tampa Bay to cover the 3.5-point spread.
Mahomes finished with 462 yards on 37-of-49 passing and three touchdowns. He also ran for 28 yards and was sacked just two times.
Hill caught 13 passes for a career-high 269 yards and three touchdowns, while tight end Travis Kelce caught eight passes for 82 yards. Kansas City ran for just 87 yards on 20 carries, with Clyde Edwards-Helaire’s 27 yards leading the way.
Brady threw for 345 yards on 27-of-41 passing, and he had three touchdowns with two interceptions. Tight end Rob Gronkowski led the way with 106 yards on six receptions.
Chris Godwin caught eight balls for 97 yards, and Evans had three catches for 50 yards and two touchdowns. Ronald Jones ran for 66 yards on nine carries, while Leonard Fournette had 10 yards on three carries.
For more news and insight on the Super Bowl, check out our Super Bowl Betting Guide.