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Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Todd Bowles is taking heat after a major mistake cost his team on Sunday. With 1:40 left in the first half against the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Buccaneers went three-and-out and used just 12 seconds, which allowed the Steelers to drive and kick a 52-yard as time expired.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Todd Bowles is taking heat after a major mistake cost his team on Sunday.
With 1:40 left in the first half against the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Buccaneers went three-and-out and used just 12 seconds, which allowed the Steelers to drive and kick a 52-yard as time expired.
The kick cut the Bucs’ lead to 13-3 at Raymond James Stadium and ended their first-half shutout. It also shifted momentum, and Pittsburgh went on to force overtime and defeat the Bucs 26-19. This was just the latest clock-management blunder for Bowles, which seems to be a weekly occurrence.
Buccaneers rookie Rueben Bain Jr.’s first NFL sack forced a Steelers punt, and Tampa Bay took over at its own 25 with 1:52 left and two timeouts. Three plays later, the Bucs were punting with 1:40 still on the clock.
Aaron Rodgers and the Steelers took advantage. Pittsburgh was still at its own 34 with 45 seconds left, but Rodgers later hit rookie Germie Bernard for 13 yards to reach the Tampa Bay 47 with 15 seconds to go. Chris Boswell, who had missed an earlier attempt in the half, then connected from 52 on the final play of the half.
NFL podcaster Marcus Mosher called out Bowles’ decision-making in consecutive posts.
“Really bad clock management there by Tampa Bay,” Mosher wrote. “Todd Bowles gave Pittsburgh a free 3 points before halftime. Just awful coaching right there.”
“There’s the free space for bad Todd Bowles game management,” added a Steelers influencer.
Boswell’s kick didn’t cost Tampa Bay the lead, but it was still a self-inflicted mistake that gifted Pittsburgh a field goal in what ended up being an overtime thriller.
Buccaneers blogger JoeBucsFan called out the poor clock management as well.
“Not sure why the Bucs didn’t run the ball on that last drive and eat the clock,” he wrote, adding in a follow-up post that it was “bad clock management.”
Some went a step further and called out the pattern with Bowles and Co.
“Giving up easy points before the half. A Todd Bowles tradition like no other,” one Buccaneers influencer wrote.
“‘Bad clock management’ is the foundation of Bowles’ coaching career,” one Bucs fan added.
It remains to be seen what Bowles says about the sequence during his postgame press conference, but it ended up being an extremely costly mistake in the 26-19 loss.
The Bucs are now 1-5 on the season, and Bowles’ seat is heating up more and more with each loss.