Buccaneers Todd Bowles explains controversial final drive field goal vs. Commanders

When the Buccaneers, fresh off of watching the Washington Comanders score a touchdown to go up 20-17, decided to kick a field goal at the end of what ended up being their final drive of Wild Card Weekend to tie things up at 20-all, it looked like the definitive play of the game for Tampa Bay.

Sitting at fourth-and-3 with 4:41 left to play at Washington’s 14-yard line, the Buccaneers had a choice to make: go for the touchdown, or at least the first down, to run down more clock and stress out Dan Quinn’s offense even more, or tie things up and play defense against a team that was clearly in the zone.

In the moment, Todd Bowles went for the tie, as his run game was just stuffed for -2 yards on the previous play, but in hindsight, that call will be questioned forever, as it set up a game-winning drive where Jayden Daniels marched down the field and set up the Zane Gonzalez for the game-winning field goal.

Understandably asked after the game about his decision to be conservative in the face of an at-times overly aggressive opponent, Bowles noted that, after gaining negative yards on third down, he wasn’t confident enough in his offense to trust that they would get the job done.

“It was third-and-1, obviously … and we go backwards… it was fourth-and-3. We shot ourselves in the foot a few times on that drive, so it was easier to tie the ballgame in that [situation],” Bowles told reporters. “If we were moving the ball at ease and getting down there every single time, we probably would’ve went for it. At the time when we were going for it, we had it third-and-1, and we thought we had two downs to get 1 yard. We didn’t get it; we went backward. If we didn’t get it, it was 20-17, and we possibly lose the ballgame, so at least we had the tie and try to get the defense to get the ball back.”

On paper, it’s pretty hard to argue with Bowles’ statement, as the Buccaneers’ offense was sputtering down the stretch, with multiple negative plays, including a brutal fumble on the previous drive that took Tampa Bay out of the driver’s seat. Still, as a whole, Bowles was proud of how his defense played in the game and during the season as a whole, as they overcame injuries to turn in a formidable effort.

“I don’t know, it changed so much. It’s not so much about deploying a defense as it is about executing what we call. I thought those guys, for the most part, did a good job of coming in and executing what we called with what they can do well,” Bowles noted. “That was the defense we were going to play. We had a chance to be successful if they executed the defense, and they did a good job after the Bye Week of coming in and doing that, so I was proud of them for that.”

Would the Buccaneers have pulled out the win if they went for it on fourth-and-3 instead of kicking the field goal? Frankly, it’s impossible to know, but that “What If” will hang over the season for the next few months.