Bucs coach Todd Bowles winces during the loss to the Bills. So too did Bucs fans.
Joe’s head is still spinning as to why the coach who applauded his quarterback, Baker Mayfield, for scolding his teammates last week for lacking a “killer instinct” showed on Sunday he didn’t have any either.
It was Buffalo 37, Bucs 32 with 7:48 left in the game. In the Bills’ previous three possessions, Buffalo had scored 16 points, including a one-play touchdown drive when Josh Allen threw to James Cook for 25 yards following a Baker Mayfield interception.
Everyone at the game and the millions watching across the nation on CBS knew if the Bucs didn’t put points on the board, Buffalo would get the ball back, score and seal the game.
Everyone, apparently, but Bucs coach Todd Bowles. On fourth-and-two from the Bucs-36, with two running backs who both averaged over five yards a carry during the game, the same man who applauded his quarterback for hollering at teammates for not having a killer instinct, himself went turtle and punted.
Naturally, Buffalo got the ball back, scored a touchdown and that was your ballgame.
Bowles defended his short-sighted decision afterwards.
> “There was plenty of time,” Bowles said about getting the ball back and perhaps taking the lead after the punt. “We felt like we had we had a chance.
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> “It was early in the fourth quarter, we felt like we had a chance to not give them a short field there.”
Well, it was midway through the quarter, not early. As in half-over. And what on earth gave Bowles the idea that his defense could hold Buffalo when the previous three Buffalo possessions the Bills ran through the Bucs like someone yelled “Free beer!” at a Bills’ table-breaking tailgate.
Joe understands a coach having faith in his players but you can’t coach with your heart. It was an alarming lack of awareness to think the Bucs would even hold Buffalo to a field goal.
That decision right there doomed the Bucs.