Bucs HC Bowles’ Explanation For Poor Clock Management Is Stunningly Bad
“He threw it on second down,” Bowles acknowledged. “He saw something and he got it in there and we called timeout.”
Yet by Bowles’ same reasoning, that second down throw from Brady could have picked off as well.
So why risk throwing it on second down at that point if that’s the logic?
“Yeah it could have been,” Bowles lamented. “It was a risky throw. But he got it in there. Tom’s been making those throws. But we felt good going into overtime the way the defense was playing, and we felt we had it right there. So that’s the call we made.”
Brady has only thrown two interceptions this season and is the best QB in the league at protecting the football so far in 2022. Keep in mind that Brady leads the league with 470 attempts – and yet just two interceptions!
This is mind-numbingly poor logic on Bowles part.
And of course the Bucs could have lost the coin toss in overtime and given up a touchdown to lose the game, so playing for overtime was far riskier than the chance of Brady throwing an ultra-rare interception to a team that simply can’t pick off passes.
Remember that Bowles could have used the first of three timeouts before their final drive on Cleveland’s game-tying drive. Bowles could have preserved some precious game clock after Lavonte David made a tackle in the field of play on third down. Over 20 additional seconds elapsed before Jacoby Brissett found David Njoku for a leaping, one-handed touchdown catch in the back of the end zone on fourth down.
“It could have been, but we didn’t want them to talk about it,” Bowles said. “We wanted them to just line up and play. So we let it go.”
It seems like the Bucs are playing ultra-conservatively on offense under their defensive-minded head coach.
“I don’t think we play conservative on offense at all,” Bowles said. “You could say that in hindsight about this game. But you don’t think about those things as coaches. You make the best decision possible based on everything that has been going on and you kind of go from there. We had not been moving the football. We had nine [drives that ended in punts with six three-and-outs]. So it wouldn’t have been wise to try to call that one. So I made it, I can live with that and I’m okay with that.”
No risk it, no biscuit has definitely left the building.
Bruce Arians has retired and apparently took all the biscuits with him and didn’t leave any for Bowles.
