Blaine Gabbert sees parallel between this year’s Chiefs and Super Bowl champion Bucs
Three years ago, the Chiefs took a 17-point lead into the fourth quarter and defeated the Buccaneers in Tampa, Florida.
That was Tampa Bay’s third loss in four games and their record at the time dropped to 7-5. The Buccaneers were three games behind the NFC South leading Saints at the time.
There was reason to believe Tampa Bay’s playoff hopes could be in peril.
Instead, Tom Brady and the Buccaneers won their final four games of the regular season and made the postseason field as a wild card. Tampa Bay then won three straight road playoff games and beat the Chiefs in Super Bowl LV in Tampa.
Former Mizzou star Blaine Gabbert was Brady’s backup that season, and he told NBC Sports’ Peter King that the Chiefs’ struggles this season remind him of that 2020 Tampa Bay team.
Gabbert, who is in his first season as Patrick Mahomes’ backup with the Chiefs, said players and teams continually have to grow.
“In any NFL season, in any player’s career, every team each season has to find new ways to win,” Gabbert told King. “You have to evolve. They’re used to being extremely explosive here. They’ve been probably the best in the NFL in the last seven years at big plays. Defenses know that. It’s kind of a chess match back and forth. We’re just trying to find different ways to win. How can we attack this defense in a different way than, let’s say, in years past?
“Patrick knows every single season’s different and you have to find different ways to win. This year, we know that a punt isn’t necessarily the worst thing, right? We just gotta grind out these grimy wins.
“There’s eerie parallels between this season and the season that we had in 2020 in Tampa, where you gotta find different ways to win, and we ended up winning the Super Bowl. We had this conversation I think earlier this week.”
The 2020 Buccaneers closed their season by scoring 30 or more points in their last seven games, including the playoffs.
The 2023 Chiefs have three regular-season games remaining and hope to finish with a similar streak.
