Chiefs vs Bucs: Steve Spagnuolo and Tom Brady have met on the Big Stage
Steve Spagnuolo is no stranger when it comes to facing Tom Brady on the big stage. As defensive coordinator for the Giants in 2007, Spagnuolo and his underdog unit shocked the world in Super Bowl 42 upsetting the Patriots 17-14. With a perfect record of 18-0, Tom Brady was in the midst of an outstanding […]
Steve Spagnuolo is no stranger when it comes to facing Tom Brady on the big stage.
As defensive coordinator for the Giants in 2007, Spagnuolo and his underdog unit shocked the world in Super Bowl 42 upsetting the Patriots 17-14.
With a perfect record of 18-0, Tom Brady was in the midst of an outstanding MVP year. He had tossed 50 touchdowns, which was a new NFL record, and was merely unstoppable all season.
Let's do remember his targets were Randy Moss, Donté Stallworth, and Wes Welker, though.
The script was flipped, however, when Spagnuolo came up with a gameplan that was able to halt the Patriots.
This gameplan consisted of two keys, and Spags has been implementing them into his Chiefs defense.
Key 1: Hit Tom Brady
Spagnuolo's mindset was to apply nonstop pressure on Brady in Super Bowl 42. He came up with this gameplan in hopes it would frustrate the quarterback.
Well, the strategy turned out to be effective, as Brady threw for 266 yards, one TD, and was sacked five times. This was his worst outing of his MVP 2007 season.
At practice during the week leading up to the Super Bowl, Spagnuolo had this to say to Jessie Armstead:
‘Look, it doesn’t matter whether we stop him from throwing it or not, let’s just make sure that we hit him.'
There is no doubt that Chris Jones, Frank Clark, and the Chiefs defensive front have been hearing this all week.
This plan was more than effective in the AFC Championship where Josh Allen was sacked four times losing 53 yards in doing so.
Expect the veteran Defensive Coordinator to have a gameplan that consists of getting after the Bucs quarterback hard and fast.
With Brady being the age of 43, he is much more immobile than he already was before.
If the Chiefs can win at the line of scrimmage defensively, Brady could be in for a long night.
Key 2: Limit Tom Brady Throwing Downfield
Given the season that Brady was having, Spagnuolo might have sounded crazy making a key to their success "Limit passes over 20 yards", but it absolutely worked.
Spags did not want Brady to throw the ball down the field more than 20 yards. Well, the Patriot's longest throw of the night went for 19 yards.
It is clear that Spagnuolo knows what it takes to beat Brady, the question now becomes will he do it and how will he do it.
If the Chiefs win the turnover margin and force plenty of big plays defensively, they will bring the Lombardi home to Kansas City.
The Chiefs must keep up the high intensity on defense that they have shown as of late and collapse the pocket early.
Brady was not seen often throwing outside of the pocket and when he did, there was not much success.
As you can see from this tweet (@NextGenStats), on the season the Tampa Bay quarterback has just attempted 3.1% of his passes on the run (Lowest in NFL).
Pressure Tom Brady, Chiefs Win
We can highly expect Spagnuolo to use an attack from all angles approach in Super Bowl 55.
Brady does have a solid offensive line, but the Chiefs front four have been relentless as of late.
There has been a fire burning underneath this Chiefs defense throughout the playoffs and is not going to be put out.
Spags track record against Brady is something to take a look at as well.
In the NFC Championship Game where Tampa Bay faced Green Bay, it was very clear that the 43-year-old veteran quarterback can absolutely still make big-time throws.
However, it was also apparent that his age is taking a toll on his game. There were multiple plays where viewers could clearly see this is not the same Tom Brady we have seen in years past.
Brady played decently but he missed a wide-open Mike Evans high for a tipped interception.
There was another play where Brady was under duress on a third down and just completely chucked the ball up for grabs, leading to his third interception of the game.
Steve Spagnuolo will continue to bring various sorts of blitz packages and intelligent defensive schemes in order to rattle Brady.
If Kansas City can pressure him consistently, it is very likely they could be looking at a repeat.
Featured Image Via: Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports
