Running game still has a place in Super Bowl

More specifically, the Buccaneers prevented Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, other than a few instances early in the game, from beating Tampa Bay with his feet. The Chiefs are at their best when Mahomes can keep drives alive with his legs. But the Bucs’ defense kept Mahomes penned in the backfield for a majority of the game and while content with him running east, west and backward, the Buccaneers’ defense did not allow Mahomes to get to the edge.

The Tampa Bay offense, meanwhile, simply kept battering away at the Kansas City offense. Even when the Buccaneers were stuffed on fourth down at the goal line, they did not abandon the run game.

The diligence paid off as Tampa went on to average 4.4 yards per carry and finished with 145 yards on 33 carries, compared to just 107 yards on 17 carries for Kansas City.

In a game in which the two quarterbacks combined for nearly 10,000 yards passing and almost 80 touchdowns this season, it was an age-old football adage that proved to be the difference.

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The Chiefs defense certainly did not do the team any favors with a number of crucial penalties, especially in the first half, that allowed Tampa Bay to take control of the game.

The holding and pass interference penalties on the Kansas City secondary were particularly penal as those offenses wiped out a Chiefs interception and also gave the Buccaneers their third touchdown just before halftime.

The simple fact of the matter was the Chiefs, who live by a physical defense, died because the officials decided to call out the Chiefs for their play with a number of costly penalties.

But the fact is, much like an offensive line, the Chiefs’ secondary could be called for holding or pass interference on nearly every play. They buy into the Seattle Seahawks mindset of holding on every play because the referees can’t call it every time, can they?

Maybe not every play and there is no doubt both the Chiefs — and Buccaneers — got away with it a lot.

But all it took was for a handful of those calls to be made the flip the game into Tampa’s favor.

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I know there is a certain segment of the population who watch the Super Bowl for the commercials. While there have been some phenomenal ones over the years, Super Bowl LV will not be remembered for being one of those years.

To me, it seemed like a lot of companies simply mailed it in. The main theme for a majority of the companies seemed to be to find a celebrity and build an advertisement around them.

Here is a list of actors that I saw in Super Bowl commercials Sunday: Jason Alexander, Anthony Anderson, Cardi B, Dana Carvey, Timothee Chalamet, Daveed Diggs, Drake, Samuel L. Jackson, Mila Kunis, Ashton Kutcher, Adam Levine, Matthew McConaughey, Helen Mirren, Tracy Morgan, Mike Myers, Paul Rudd, Amy Schumer, Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani.

To me, the best was the State Farm commercial, with Paul Rudd serving as Patrick Mahomes’ “stand-in,” while Jake from State Farm’s double was rapper Drake.

The worst may have been Amy Schumer serving as some kind of mayonnaise fairy.

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I am not one to watch the 15 hours of pre-game Super Bowl hype. Last year, for instance, we went to the Blackhawk Museum before the Chiefs-49ers game. This year, as I said in my previous column, I had to work, so I was looking for things on TV to kill the time before the game.

Turned out to quite the eventful television sports day. I opened the day by turning on the Manchester City-Liverpool English Premier League soccer game. With the score tied at 1-all with about 20 minutes to play, the Liverpool goalkeeper bungled a pair of clearance passes that directly resulted in two Man City strikes as it scored three times in the final 20 minutes to post a 4-1 victory, its first win at Liverpool since 2003.

From there, it was time to head into the office, arriving a little after 11 a.m. As I scrolled through the channels, there was the Kitten Bowl on the Hallmark Channel. I watched that until a commercial came on then headed to Animal Planet and the annual Puppy Bowl.

Again, first commercial and it was time to move on.

On the scroll again, I settled on a professional bowling tournament on FS1 — just in time to see Chris Via put the finishing touches on a perfect 300 game — just the 30th perfect bowling game broadcast on television.

After about 45 minutes of bowling, I switched over to the Phoenix Open golf tournament. With a number of guys in position to grab the win, it was Brooks Koepka’s unbelievable chip for eagle from nearly 100 yards that proved to be the difference.

That took me to about 3 p.m. and at that point, it was time to head over to CBS to begin tuning in for the Super Bowl.

Following the game, I had about another hour of work to finish. So what better way to cap a day of (mostly) sports to take in the first-round action from the Australian Open?