The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

This year’s Super Bowl will be broadcast live on Sunday, February 7th at 6:30 E.T (3:30 p.m. local time), on CBS. The Kansas City Chiefs will travel to Tampa Bay to play the Buccaneers. This is the first time in Super Bowl history a team gets to play in their home stadium.

Kansas City is the favored team but is still dealing with a few injuries going into the championship game. The Chief’s wide receiver, Sammy Watkins, is listed as questionable with a calf injury. Both wide receiver Demarcus Robinson and center Daniel Kilgore are placed on the reserve/COVID-19 list. Linebacker Willie Gay will also miss the game, having just had knee surgery. Also, offensive tackle Eric Fisher is out with a torn Achilles.

Tampa Bay lists linebacker Lavonte David as questionable with what the team is calling a slight hamstring injury. Wide receiver Antonio Brown who has been dealing with a knee injury, is also listed as questionable but is “getting close.” Wide receiver Mike Evans, and safeties Antoine Winfield Jr., and Jordan Whitehead are all listed as questionable. Both safeties have missed multiple practices.

These teams played against each other in week twelve of the regular season, with Kansas City beating Tampa Bay 27-24 in Tampa Bay. Patrick Mahomes of the Chiefs had a great game going 37-49 with 462 yards passing and three touchdowns. Kansas went into halftime with a 20-7 lead.

Tom Brady started slow and threw two interceptions deep in Kansas City territory in the second quarter on back-to-back possessions. Coming back strong in the second half, Brady ended the game 27-41 with 345 yards passing with three touchdowns and the two interceptions mentioned earlier.

I’m expecting this game to come down to the quarterbacks. If this game were played anywhere else, I’d be picking Kansas City to win. However, Tom Brady at home in his tenth Super Bowl game with the better defensive team makes me think that the Buccaneers will prevail in an upset. Should the Chiefs win, it will be another first as no AFC team has ever beaten an NFC team twice in the same season.