Tag: Todd Bowles

Good Morning Football sounds off on Todd Bowles’ unused timeout

Todd Bowles’ last timeout in the second half has been a big point of controversy in the NFL world, and the GMFB crew gave their takes on the matter.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ season may be over, but one incident in their Divisional Round matchup against the Detroit Lions might not be going away any time soon.

Bucs head coach [autotag]Todd Bowles[/autotag] was criticized on Sunday after he held a timeout at the end of the game when the Detroit Lions were kneeling down far too early. Had he used that timeout, the clock would have stopped with about 36 seconds left, and the Lions could have been forced to kick a field goal or punt on fourth down. Bowles has defended his decision in the media, most recently telling reporters on Monday that he thought there was no point — while some have speculated that there was a gentleman’s agreement between him and Dan Campbell, Bowles asserted there was no such thing.

“It’s not a gentleman’s agreement. They were in field goal range. We’d have had 12 seconds, calculated, after using that timeout to come back from it,” Bowles told reporters. “Then we’d have been down 11 points, so it’s kind of pointless. You kind of know when the game is over. The game was over.”

The crew at Good Morning Football discussed this event during the “We In Or We Out” segment, where the panelists give their support or derision for the topic. All four were “out” on Bowles’ decision, and it came with some harsh words from the panelists.

“I don’t even want to hear the word ‘probability’,” GMFB panelist Kyle Brandt said. “You’re like, ‘yeah, but then they have to make the two [point conversion]. So maybe they make the two [point conversion] — we’ll never know. It’s the playoffs.”

You can take a look at the five-minute segment above.

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Social media reacts to HC Todd Bowles’ timeout blunder at end of Lions game

Todd Bowles had a bit of a gaff with by not using his last time out as the Lions kneeled down on 3rd and 12. The internet not only noticed, but they weren’t satisfied with his explanation.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers fought hard and competed blow for blow with the Detroit Lions in their 31-23 loss in the Divisional Round. Fans and pundits, however, are noticing that the Bucs may have been able to get one more blow in at the end of the game.

The Detroit Lions went to kneel down to ice the game once quarterback Baker Mayfield threw his interception on Tampa Bay’s final drive, but they did it too quick. When quarterback Jared Goff went to kneel down on 3rd and 12, he did so with 36 seconds left — the Bucs had a timeout, and should they have used it, they would have forced the Lions to kick a field goal with little time remaining. While unlikely, a missed kick or a block could have extended Tampa Bay’s life, but instead, head coach Todd Bowles did not use the timeout and ended the game.

When asked about this after the game, he gave his explanation:

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

Fans were not happy, and many online were baffled that Bowles seemed to simply give up when his team had a chance, however slim. Here’s what the internet had to say about this coaching decision:

Jared Goff beat the Buccaneers in Week 6, and he can do it again

The Buccaneers threw everything at Jared Goff in Week 6, and Goff had no problems. Might be time for a different plan in the playoffs.

In the locker room after the Detroit Lions’ 24-23 wild-card win over the Los Angeles Rams, head coach Dan Campbell wanted everyone to know that he was more than fine with the 2021 trade with the Rams that flipped Goff for Matthew Stafford.

There was no question in that game who Campbell trusted to make the final play that sealed the game for his team.

The Lions placed their ultimate faith in Jared Goff, and it absolutely paid off

Now, the Lions are hoping to make it to the NFC Championship game, and they’ll have to beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to do so. Goff will likely be a major component of that equation. When these two teams faced off in Week 6, the Lions ran the ball 22 times… for 40 yards and no touchdowns. Rookie Jahmyr Gibbs was unavailable for that game, and he’ll be ready to go for this one, but it’s not a guarantee that any team will do well against Tampa Bay’s run defense.

Detroit’s 20-6 win was keyed by a defense that frustrated Baler Mayfield over and over, and Goff’s performance. He completed 30 of 44 passes for 353 yards, two touchdowns, no interceptions, and a passer rating of 107.5. Buccaneers head coach and defensive shot-caller Todd Bowles is great at designing different and effective blitzes, and disguised coverages, but Goff had no issue with any of it. Perhaps more than any other game this season, this one showed how far Goff has come as a quarterback from a mental perspective.

In that game, Bowles sent five-man rushes on 17 of Goff’s 44 attempts, and he completed 13 of those passes for 9.2 yards per attempt, and 3.7 average yards of separation for his receivers. This 27-yard pass to receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown at the start of the fourth quarter featured two staples of the Lions’ passing game — under-center play-action, and heavy personnel — in this case, two tight ends. This was a five-man rush as opposed to a blitz, but the Bucs also switched from a single-high look to Cover-6, and Goff had no issue whatsoever with that. St. Brown perfectly exposed the void in that coverage switch.

Goff’s 45-yard touchdown pass to receiver Jameson Williams with 3:27 left in the third quarter was another example of Goff’s acuity against a complex defense.

This was a zone exchange in which edge-rusher Joe Tryon-Shoyinka dropped into flat coverage, and safety Christian Izien rushed from the second level on the other side. At the same time, the Buccaneers showed a nebulous coverage look that resembled Cover-4 to a point, but flipped to Cover-3 post-snap. Safety Antoine Winfield Jr. came down to cover receiver Josh Reynolds, making Ryan Neal the deep-third defender.

The Lions had a great plan for either coverage with a flood concept out of trips right in which Reynolds, Jameson Williams, and Amon-Ra St. Brown worked all three levels of the field with out-breaking routes. Williams had Neal beaten on the deep route, cornerback Carlton Davis was confused as to which receiver to cover, and that’s one way to get yourself a 45-yard score.

In this week’s “Xs and Os with Greg Cosell and Doug Farrar,” the guys go deeper on what Goff did to the Bucs in Week 6, and why Todd Bowles might want to investigate different parts of his playbook.

You can watch this week’s episode of “The Xs and Os,” featuring all the most important matchups of the divisional round, right here:

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You can also listen and subscribe to “The Xs and Os” podcast on Spotify…

…and on Apple Podcasts.

The Xs and Os with Greg Cosell: Previewing the divisional round of the playoffs

In this week’s “Xs and Os with Greg Cosell and Doug Farrar,” the guys preview all the big matchups in the NFL’s divisional round.

And then, there were eight! It’s time for the divisional round of the NFL playoffs. and Greg Cosell of NFL Films and ESPN’s NFL Matchup, and Doug Farrar of Touchdown Wire and the USA Today Sports Media Group, are here to get you ready for the most interesting matchups that could decide who advances to the conference championships.

Houston Texans at Baltimore Ravens: The Week 1 game between these two teams doesn’t mean a lot, because the Ravens were dealing with C.J. Stroud in his rookie debut, and Stroud is an alien at this point. The Ravens are aware, and here’s how they can counter the Texans’ outstanding defense. Also, both of these teams have a ton of great, underrated talent on defense.

Green Bay Packers at San Francisco 49ers: The Packers have seen desperately-needed defensive improvement over the last three weeks, but is that enough to stop Kyle Shanahan’s offense? And how will Jordan Love do against a San Francisco defense that doesn’t really have one type of staple coverage?

Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Detroit Lions: When these teams played in Week 6, Baker Mayfield had his worst game of the season. But this is a different Buccaneers team than it was then, and there are ways for Mayfield to engineer a different result. The problem for the Bucs is that Jared Goff has proven that he’s ready for whatever Todd Bowles throws at him.

Kansas City Chiefs at Buffalo Bills: The Bills have far too many injuries on defense, and Patrick Mahomes is finding winning concepts with at least one receiver, so this will have to be a Josh Allen game if the Bills are to advance.

You can watch this week’s episode of “The Xs and Os,” featuring all the most important matchups of the divisional round, right here:

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You can also listen and subscribe to “The Xs and Os” podcast on Spotify…

…and on Apple Podcasts.

Dan Campbell and Todd Bowles agree: The Bucs are a lot better now than in the Week 6 meeting

Detroit head coach Dan Campbell and Tamp Bay head coach Todd Bowles agree: The Bucs are a lot better now than in the Week 6 meeting

The Detroit Lions went into Tampa and beat the Buccaneers, 20-6, back in Week 6. Now the two teams, winners of their respective NFC divisions, will rematch in Ford Field in the Divisional Round of the playoffs on Sunday.

Both Lions head coach Dan Campbell and Buccaneers head coach Todd Bowles know not to expect a replay of the first matchup. The Buccaneers are playing some very sharp football lately, coming from third place and 4-6 after Week 11 to win the NFC South.

“We were where we were at that time of the year,” Bowles said via Rick Stroud of TampaBay.com. “I don’t wish we would’ve done anything different or we wouldn’t have learned from it. They’re a very good team. They’re coached very well. Very fast, very physical. An electric crowd is going to be up there. Wish we hadn’t done anything different, but we’ve got to learn from it.”

Bowles continued,

“We’re a different team now. We’re mentally tougher. I think we’ve gotten stronger from it, and we learned some things. We’re still piecing it together, but we’re happy where we’re at.”

Bowles can look at Monday night for validation. The Eagles had beaten the Buccaneers, 25-11, on Monday Night Football in Week 3 in Tampa Bay. The Bucs dominated the rematch in the wild card round, however. Bowles’ team won 32-9 and it wasn’t that close of a contest, either.

His Lions counterpart agrees. Campbell noted on Wednesday,

“They’re another one of these hottest teams going getting into the playoffs. So, they’re doing things right. They had to find a way to get over the hump and clean a few things up, but they never got panicked and never went in the tank.”

Or, as Campbell succinctly surmised,

“This is a better team than when we faced them. They’re playing better football, but we’re better too.”

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Todd Bowles has to remind reporter Lions play in domed stadium

A reporter obviously has no idea the Lions play in a domed stadium and asked Todd Bowles about weather conditions

Well, that was awkward.

Tampa Bay Bucs head coach Todd Bowles held media availability on Tuesday.

One question he was asked was particularly off the mark.

A reporter mentioned it being cold in Detroit, like 13 degrees, and how was he preparing the team for those conditions.

Bowles handled the query nicely, reminding the person who asked the question the Lions play indoors.

You know, Ford Field, and before that they had the Silverdome for many seasons.

America demolishes Eagles after wild-card implosion against Buccaneers

The Philadelphia Eagles embarrassed themselves in a ridiculous wild-card loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and America was fed up with it.

The defending NFC champion Philadelphia Eagles did their level best to make their wild-card playoff game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers look like a preseason game. Between the horrible schemes on offense and defense, the poor execution on both sides of the ball, the miserable coverage and tackling on defense, and the complete lack of a blitz plan on offense against a Bucs defense that had blitzed at the third-highest rate in the regular season (40.1% behind only the Minnesota Vikings and the New York Giants), head coach Nick Sirianni, offensive coordinator Brian Johnson, and defensive coordinator Matt Patricia were both singularly and collectively unprepared for what became a 32-9 rout at the hands of the Bucs.

Now that the 2023 Eagles’ season is over, ending as it did with six losses in the team’s last seven games (including this embarrassment) after a 10-1 start, one has to wonder what team owner Jeffrey Lurie and general manager Howie Roseman will have to say about the coaching issues.

What we already know is that based on social media reactions, America has had ENOUGH of his particular Eagles team.

Eagles eliminated from playoffs after 32-9 loss to Buccaneers

Eagles eliminated from playoffs after 32-9 loss to Buccaneers

The Eagles are set for a dramatic overhaul following the team’s shocking 32-9 loss to the Buccaneers in the wild-card round of the NFC playoffs.

Philadelphia was 0-11 on third and fourth downs combined, tallying 268 total yards on ten offensive drives in a sloppy affair that saw missed tackles and no answer for the Tampa blitz as the Eagles were held to 38 rushing yards on the night.

Baker Mayfield outplayed Jalen Hurts, going 22-36 passing for 337 yards, three touchdowns, and 0 interceptions with a 119 quarterback rating.

Rachaad White was strong on the ground, rushing 18 times for 62 yards on the night.

The Eagles will now head into an uncertain offseason, having lost six of the final seven games played, and an overhaul could include head coach Nick Sirianni with the likes of Jim Harbaugh, Bill Belichick, and others available after mass changes around the league.

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Eagles Twitter reacts to humiliating 32-9 loss to Buccaneers in wild-card round

We’re looking at the social media reaction from Philadelphia fans after the Eagles loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the Wild Card round

The Eagles are set for a dramatic overhaul, and there’s nobody safe outside of Jalen Hurts, A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith, and Jalen Carter following the team’s shocking 32-9 loss to the Buccaneers in the wild-card round of the NFC playoffs.

Philadelphia was 0-11 on third and fourth downs combined, tallying 268 total yards on ten offensive drives in a sloppy affair that saw missed tackles and no answer for the Tampa blitz as the Eagles were held to 38 rushing yards on the night.

With a long offseason set to begin, here’s how Twitter reacted to the madness.

Eagles vs. Bucs: 10 takeaways from first half as Tampa leads 16-9 in NFC wild card game

We’re looking at then takeaways from the first half as tthe Buccaneers hold a 16-9 lead over the Eagles in the NFC wild card game

The Eagles were nearly run out of Raymond James Stadium, but after some timely drops by the Buccaneers and a renewed effort on defense, they trailed 16-9 at halftime.

Julio Jones had three catches in the first half for 22 yards before exiting with a concussion, and Philadelphia held Mike Evans and Chris Godwin to a combined two catches for 30 yards on seven targets.

With the second half set to begin, we’re looking at takeaways from a hard-fought first half.