Todd Bowles expands on controversial extra-point decision vs. Chiefs

During his postgame news conference, Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Todd Bowles suggested that the weather impacted his decision to kick a game-tying extra point instead of giving his offense a chance for a go-ahead two-point conversion late in regulation of what became a 30-24 overtime loss to the Kansas City Chiefs on Monday night. 

Bowles expanded on his mindset while speaking with reporters on Tuesday. 

"Well, it started raining more – it seemed like it picked up a little bit at the end," Bowles explained, as shared by the Buccaneers' website. "Even though we did a good job in it, I thought we could get a stop if we were on defense. And the momentum we had on offense, I thought that would carry us into overtime and get us some points."

Tampa Bay quarterback Baker Mayfield indicated following Monday's defeat that he was at least somewhat annoyed the visitors didn't play for the win and instead hoped the overtime coin toss would go their way. The Buccaneers ultimately lost that toss, and Kansas City's Patrick Mahomes guided the Chiefs down the field for a walk-off touchdown on the only offensive drive of overtime. 

Meanwhile, Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk criticized Bowles for calling a timeout after wide receiver Trey Palmer was tackled at the Kansas City one-yard line with 33 seconds left in regulation and the Buccaneers trailing by seven points. Tampa Bay found the end zone with 27 seconds left on the clock.

"With 27 seconds left, the smart move was to play for overtime," Florio added. "The smarter move would have been to score with closer to seven seconds left." 

Bowles addressed such takes on Tuesday. 

"We wanted to bleed the clock and bring it down," Bowles said, "but we had lost our composure a little bit on that play. So we needed to call a timeout so we can get composure and we didn't go down and get a penalty and get backed up and try to make it tough on ourselves. We definitely didn't want to leave Mahomes with time on the clock. We knew he had three timeouts, but we felt it was necessary that we had to call it to take care of ourselves so we could score, so we could have a chance to defend it."

Bowles and Co. need to quickly bounce back from Monday's result, as the 4-5 Buccaneers host the 4-4 San Francisco 49ers this coming Sunday. As of Wednesday morning, DraftKings Sportsbook listed Tampa Bay as a five-point underdog for that matchup.