Buccaneers coach gives bizarre explanation for baffling decision not to use timeout in final minute vs. Lions

When it comes to NFL coaching, the award for most baffling decision of the weekend probably goes to Tampa Bay’s Todd Bowles, who made a very questionable late-game decision during the Buccaneers’ 31-23 divisional-round loss to the Detroit Lions on Sunday. 

The Buccaneers had a chance to get the ball back with just under 40 seconds left to play against the Lions, but that didn’t happen, because Bowles refused to use his final timeout. When Detroit’s Derrick Barnes picked off Baker Mayfield with 1:33 left to play, the game appeared to be over, but the Buccaneers caught a break because the Lions weren’t using the entire play clock before taking a knee on their final three plays. 

Due to that fact, Jared Goff ended up kneeling the ball on third down with 36 seconds left to play. At that point, Bowles could have called a timeout, which would have made the Lions run a play on fourth-and-13 from Tampa Bay’s 31-yard line, but he decided to take the timeout home with him. 

After the game, Bowles tried to explain why he decided not to call a timeout in that situation. 

“They already had a field goal lined up and it would’ve been about 12 seconds left on the clock to end the ball game, we weren’t going to come back from that,” Bowles told the media. “No sense in prolonging the obvious.”

This is a bizarre explanation that makes absolutely no sense. For one, it makes it seem like Bowles wasn’t paying attention to the clock. There were 36 seconds left after Goff took a knee on third down, not 12. Goff did take his third-down snap with 14 seconds left on the play clock — which was a horrible decision by the Lions, but that’s another story — so maybe Bowles was expecting the Lions to use the entire play clock, but they didn’t and because of that, a timeout should have immediately been called. 

If Bowles had used his timeout, it would have forced Detroit to make a decision on fourth down. The…

Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/buccaneers-coach-gives-bizarre-explanation-for-baffling-decision-not-to-use-timeout-in-final-minute-vs-lions/

Author : John Breech

Publish date : 2024-01-22 18:46:38

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