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Bucs coach Todd Bowles.
It’s a running joke for Joe because it is comical.
Joe watches a lot of football. Often squeezes in four games on a Saturday. That’s not counting some Monday, Thursday and Friday nights (oh yeah, and when the MAC and Conference USA play on Tuesday and Wednesday nights). If Joe’s not otherwise occupied covering the Bucs in some way, it is a very, very good bet Joe’s watching football.
As a result, Joe watches a fair share of games on ABC/BSPN. Not a lot but some. Last football season, in 2024, Joe began to hear announcers say when a team was facing fourth down, “ESPN Analytics say ‘Go for it.'”
It’s gotten to a point where Joe may hear this a half-dozen times a game. Doesn’t matter the down, distance, time of the game, yard line… none of that. It’s always “ESPN Analytics say ‘Go for it.'”
Except once. Just once in the past two seasons has Joe heard an announcer say, “ESPN Analytics say ‘Punt.'” Once Joe has heard this. Once. In nearly two full seasons of football.
Joe swears it could be fourth-and-40 from a team’s own-10 and Joe would hear “ESPN Analytics say ‘Go for it.'” Zero context given. Zero consequences weighed or debated. Just blindly slam into a brick wall and to hell with any consequences.
Might cost a team a bowl game or a playoff berth or an undefeated season. Might cost a coach his job or his assistants their jobs or livelihoods. Doesn’t matter. Just “Go for it!”
Like teaching your kid how to drive and when he pulls up to a stop sign at the intersection of a busy highway scream at him to stomp on the gas pedal without checking for traffic.
Just “Go for it!”
Well, even though Sunday’s debacle in Los Angeles was an NBC broadcast, Joe swears “ESPN Analytics say ‘Go for it.'” was ringing in Todd Bowles’ head.
The Bucs head coach, seeing his defense getting throttled (again) by a stud quarterback, decided to tap into ESPN Analytics.
The Bucs, down 28-7, with 1:48 left in the first half, Bowles decided to go for it. The pass to Sterling Shepard failed and the Rams took over with a layup chance for points. They kicked a field goal after the Bucs’ defense finally found a pair and forced the Rams to settle for a field goal.
Joe was up in the press box and completely in shock. Joe thought Bowles gave the game away at that point. Sure, 28-7 is tough to overcome. But just a few hours earlier, Dallas rallied from a 20-point deficit to beat Philadelphia.
Difficult to overcome a three-touchdown deficit? Certainly. Impossible? No.
Joe could easily see Bowles or any team trying to convert a fourth down deep in their own territory, trailing by three in the fourth quarter. But with nearly two minutes left in the first half? Sort of early to give up, isn’t it?
Joe was in the Bucs locker room after the game and didn’t get a chance to ask Bowles about this on Sunday night but Joe did have a chance to ask him today. Here was Bowles’ answer to why he pulled such a rash, perhaps reckless move (some say a white flag moment).
> “Because we were down a great deal,” Bowles said. “We wanted to get something going.
>
> “And fourth and two, we wanted to get some points on the board.”
Joe gets that. Try something to jump-start the offense. But there were less risky ways to get something going.
Would it have somehow been against California state law to run a two-minute offense to get a spark? Joe guesses that would have worked just as well as those waste-of-time wide receiver screens to the sideline for two yards.
Joe guesses one reason he was so triggered by Bowles’ move was the week before in Buffalo, when his offense was moving the ball with a powerful run game, Bowles did not go for it on fourth-and-two from the Bucs-39 with the Bucs trailing by five midway through the fourth quarter.
Like in Los Angeles facing Matt Stafford, the Bucs had no prayer slowing down Josh Allen in Buffalo. So punting there in Buffalo basically gave the game away. Everyone watching saw it and knew it but Bowles, it seemed.
Then he goes for it against Los Angeles in the second quarter down 21 from the Bucs-28?
Joe gets that Bowles wanted to ignite his offense against the Rams, but it just confuses Joe how Bowles wouldn’t try a fourth-down conversion with the game on the line in Buffalo, then a week later, decide to try a fourth-down conversion in the second quarter where the downside is basically conceding a loss.