Buccaneers’ Todd Bowles explains crucial 4th quarter fumble vs. Commanders

The margins are thin when it comes to playoff football; sometimes, one play is all it takes to separate two teams with Super Bowl aspirations. And on Sunday night, an unfortunate execution error beset the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in their 23-20 loss to the Washington Commanders in the NFL Wild Card Round. With around 12 minutes left in the fourth quarter, the Buccaneers gave the ball away to the Commanders on a fumble by quarterback Baker Mayfield. On the very next drive, the Commanders scored and took a 20-17 lead.

While this wasn’t the play that sealed the Buccaneers’ defeat, one would have to take a look at that play and determine how pivotal it was in the grand scheme of the game. It robbed the Buccaneers of an opportunity to go up by two touchdowns, which could have been all the breathing room they needed in such a tight contest against the Commanders.

The fumble from Mayfield, according to Buccaneers head coach Todd Bowles, “was supposed to be a jet sweep”, as per Scott Smith of Buccaneers.com. It was clearly the playcall, with Mayfield set to hand over the football to Jalen McMillan, but the handoff was not executed properly, and the Commanders pounced on the loose ball.

Regardless, the Buccaneers’ offense simply could not find a way to click on Sunday night even though Mike Evans was having the upper hand against Marshon Lattimore. Bowles admitted that they shot themselves on the foot plenty of times on the night, and they have no one but themselves to blame for this defeat.

Todd Bowles is once again at the center of some Buccaneers clock management issues

Todd Bowles may be wearing out his welcome in Tampa Bay. It’s not the first time that Bowles drew plenty of criticism for his subpar clock management; on Sunday, it took him quite a while before calling a timeout, which then resulted in the Commanders’ game-winning field goal just as the time expired.

“After the next play they only needed a yard for the first down, so we had to let it play out,” Bowles explained, via The Pewter Plank. “Before the last play, we wanted to call timeout to see where they were … and then we had a personnel problem so we called it later than normal.”

Bowles was also put on blast by Buccaneers fans for giving up in last year’s playoffs when he decided not to call a timeout in their 31-23 loss to the Detroit Lions in the 2024 NFL Wild Card Round.