Buccaneers’ Bowles Defends Late Game Decisions

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers had the table set for another Tom Brady comeback. The game was tied, the Buccaneers had ALL of their timeouts and 32 seconds to go. All they needed was to get in field goal range. But in the infinite wisdom of one Todd Bowles got in the way.

The Bucs had just hit a long strike to Julio Jones, time to call a timeout right? Nope, Bowles just let the clock continue to run. His explanation didn’t exactly help, actually it raises more questions.

“No. That clock was going to run down,” Bowles stated. “We didn’t have enough to stop it right there, so, it was overtime right there right off the top. Once we couldn’t get the other play — Julio made a great play, then we couldn’t get there — it was going to overtime.”

This is alarming, they wasted no less than 14 seconds of clock in between plays on that final drive. Those 14 seconds were easily enough to run two more plays. Two more plays would of most likely out the team in position to attempt a game winning field goal. But Bowles decided to play for overtime, essentially playing not to lose. THIS is the issue with this team’s leadership.

Via the Associated Press’ Rob Maaddi, “The Buccaneers had three timeouts and the ball at their 25 with 32 seconds to go in the fourth quarter after the Browns tied the game at 17-17.

In Week 9, Brady needed just 35 seconds with all of his timeouts to drive the Buccaneers 60 yards for a comeback win against the Rams.”

At some point we have to wonder, does Bowles not have confidence in his players? Does he not know Tom Brady’s resume in these situations? Is Bowles gun-shy because of his experience as the Jets head coach? It has to be one of those, or Bowles just doesn’t know how to manage a game. Either way, this team and it’s talents are being wasted with this philosophy.

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