NFL: Kansas City Chiefs at Tampa Bay Buccaneers
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The Kansas City Chiefs are looking to not only become the first team to win back-to-back Super Bowls in nearly two decades, but another Lombardi Trophy could elevate the franchise to dynasty status. The person standing in the way of that is Tom Brady, who led the previous dynasty in New England for 20 years. While his Patriots days are behind him, he's still in the thick of Super Bowl contention with his Buccaneers squad and looking to crash the Chiefs' coronation on Sunday. 

How can Kansas City overcome that? We're here to highlight a handful of key X factors for the Chiefs as they look to go back to back and defeat the Bucs in their home stadium. As we await the festivities of Super Bowl Sunday on CBS, here are some key aspects of this game to keep an eye on after kickoff.

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1. Pressure Tom Brady early and often

Attacking and protecting the quarterback is going to be a looming theme for Kansas City on this list and for good reason. Starting with the defense, the book on Brady -- like most quarterbacks -- is providing consistent pressure. Specifically, Brady has been known to struggle and start seeing ghosts when that pressure is brought up the middle and directly in his face, as opposed to coming off the edge. If Chiefs pass rushers, starting with Chris Jones, who led the defense with seven pressures in the AFC championship, can get in Brady's line of sight, they should find success. 

When Brady has had a clean pocket and hasn't been pressured this season, he's statistically a top-10 quarterback. When defenses are able to apply pressure, however, his production falls down a canyon. Under pressure, Brady's TD-INT ratio ranks 23rd in the league, his yards per attempt are 24th, and his passer rating is 26th among 35 qualified quarterbacks. 

2. Keep Patrick Mahomes upright

You know those pressure stats I just mentioned with Brady above? Under the same circumstances, Mahomes maintains being a top-10 quarterback. When pressured, his TD-INT ratio is tied for fifth-best in the league among 35 qualified quarterbacks, and his yards per attempt (eighth) and passer rating (ninth) are all still in the top 10. Despite Mahomes' ability to beat pressure, limiting how often he'll have to overcome that and keeping him upright is going to be a major challenge for Kansas City. 

They'll come into Super Bowl LV with an extremely banged-up offensive line that will be down both of its starting tackles. Left tackle Eric Fisher suffered a torn Achilles in the AFC Championship against Buffalo while right tackle Mitchell Schwartz has already been placed on IR due to a back injury. That's also not mentioning prior injuries and opt-outs impacting the interior. Now, the projected starting offensive line for K.C. consists of journeymen and Day 3 picks. 

Meanwhile, the Buccaneers come into this game after recording 16 pressures in the NFC championship and lead the NFL in pressures, averaging 15.8 per game. Even if Mahomes historically performs well when pressured, this is an entirely different can of worms.  

3. Get Tyreek Hill cooking again

The Buccaneers secondary had absolutely zero answers for Tyreek Hill in their Week 12 matchup. The receiver came out of the gate as hot as any receiver n NFL history has ever entered a game, totaling over 200 yards receiving in the first quarter. He finished with 269 yards for the day and three touchdowns on 13 catches. Of course, given that big outing over the regular season, Bucs DC Todd Bowles and company will likely put an even greater emphasis on stopping Hill, but if the receiver can even give them half that production, Kansas City will be sitting pretty and it should open up more opportunities for Chiefs pass catchers. 

4. Limit Brady's impact throwing deep

We generally think of Brady as a quarterback who thrives on short and quick passes to slice his way up and down the field. While that's still true, he's also molded that style of play with Bruce Arians' "chuck-it-deep" method, which does make things a bit tricky for Kansas City's secondary. Brady led the NFL with a career-high 9.4 air yards per attempt. That number has only increased in the playoffs with Brady averaging 11 air yards per attempt. That, of course, was on full display when he completed a dagger touchdown bomb to Scotty Miller in the NFC championship against the Packers prior to halftime. 

Clearly, this is a preferred area of attack for Tampa Bay at the moment, but the Chiefs do have a strong history of defending the deep ball. The secondary is allowing the lowest completion percentage, TD-INT ratio, and passer rating of throws 10 yards or more downfield. If Brady and the Bucs continue to try to win with deep shots, Kansas City should be able to counteract it.

5. Avoid takeaways

This one is obvious but worth pointing out simply because of how Kansas City's opponent reached the Super Bowl. Especially in their previous two playoff contests, Tampa Bay has been able to advance thanks to timely turnovers created by its defense. 

In the divisional round against New Orleans, safety Antoine Winfield Jr. was able to punch the ball out of Saints tight end Jared Cook's hands, and the Bucs were able to recover the fumble. After that turnover, Tampa Bay scored 17 unanswered points and ran away with the win. As for the NFC championship against the Packers, the Bucs were not only able to force turnovers but immediately answered with corresponding touchdowns. 

As this relates to the Chiefs, they can't let Tampa Bay's defense continue to be an opportunistic group. If the Bucs do force turnovers, their offense has shown it can compound the problem by putting up points, which brings further emphasis for Mahomes and company to protect the ball.