TAMPA, Fla. — Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Todd Bowles stated his staff not utilizing its closing timeout within the Bucs’ 31-23 divisional spherical playoff loss to the Detroit Lions was not a matter of teaching etiquette.
As a substitute, he stated, it was recognizing that “the sport was over.”
“It isn’t a gents’s settlement,” Bowles stated Monday. “They had been in discipline purpose vary. We would have had 12 seconds, calculated, after utilizing that timeout to come back again from it. Then we would have been down 11 factors, so it is type of pointless. You type of know when the sport is over. The sport was over.”
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With the Bucs trailing 31-23, quarterback Baker Mayfield was intercepted by Lions inside linebacker Derrick Barnes with 1:39 to go. Lions quarterback Jared Goff proceeded to take a knee on three consecutive snaps, along with his closing kneel-down at 37 seconds. Middle Frank Ragnow snapped the ball with 14 seconds left on the play clock.
Lions coach Dan Campbell stated he was conscious that the Bucs had a closing timeout left and will have gone down the sector.
“Yeah, look, nicely, to start with, we did not deal with that complete factor nicely on our finish. We should always’ve bled it greater than we did,” Campbell stated. “Look, I will be the primary to confess that. And that is on me. However yeah, we knew they’d a timeout left, and I may inform he wasn’t going to name it. And so, that is simply — that is the way it ended.”
Had Bowles used his closing timeout, the Lions may have tried a protracted discipline purpose or punted. Bowles assumed the sector purpose would have been made, however there have been no ensures that Lions kicker Michael Badgley would have made the kick from 49 yards out, as Badgley is 5-of-13 (38.5%) in his profession on kicks of 50-plus yards. On kicks of exactly 49 yards out, Badgley is 3-of-4, along with his one miss towards the New England Patriots in Week 15 of the 2021 season.
A missed discipline purpose would have resulted in a turnover on downs and will have put the Bucs inside hanging distance at their very own 39-yard line with 30 seconds left. A punt would have pinned the Bucs deep and nonetheless afforded them a shot at a Hail Mary, though they’d have wanted a profitable 2-point conversion to enter additional time. The Bucs failed on their earlier 2-point conversion try after Mike Evans’ 16-yard landing reception with 4:41 to go.
Bowles stated, “I do not know what good utilizing a timeout is if you cannot reap the benefits of it.”
This is not the primary time timeouts have gone unused for Bowles. Within the Bucs’ 23-17 additional time loss to the Cleveland Browns in 2022, Bowles didn’t name timeout after a third-down cease by Lavonte David, simply earlier than David Njoku scored a 12-yard landing on fourth-and-10, which might have preserved time on their closing possession. Bowles’ rationalization was that he did not wish to give the Browns extra time to attract up a play.
The Bucs acquired the ball pack with 32 seconds remaining after the Browns had tied it up 17-17. Once more, as a substitute of utilizing a timeout, Bowles had his staff hurry to the road of scrimmage and run a play, which burned 12 seconds off the clock earlier than the ball was snapped. It wasn’t till after a 26-yard completion to Julio Jones on second-and-9 that Bowles used his first timeout with 8 seconds.
