Todd Bowles explains what went wrong before Bijan Robinson’s rushing touchdown

The Bucs had just nine men on the field when Falcons RB Bijan Robinson punched in a rushing TD, and Bowles explained why.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers may have gotten the win against the Atlanta Falcons in Week 14, but it didn’t come without some problems. And there was one notable one that fans and pundits talked about after the game.

With 11:13 minutes left in the fourth quarter, the Atlanta Falcons moved all the way down the field on a screen pass to running back Bijan Robinson. He didn’t get into the end zone then, but he did on the next play, punching it in on a straightforward run into the end zone to put the Falcons within two points of Tampa Bay’s lead. It looked fairly routine, but if you look closer, you’ll notice something wrong — there were only nine players on the field. There’s supposed to be 11, obviously, so there was a key breakdown that occurred to make that happen on that play.

This was the play in question:

When asked about it on Monday by media members, head coach Todd Bowles revealed that it was indeed a communication error and that it resulted from an injury to Bucs defensive lineman Will Gholston.

“Will [Gholston] got hurt a little before that and it [did not get] back to the coaches in time, so that happened with one and then we had somebody come off the field on the other one.”

Gholston’s presence is easily missed here, as there are only three defensive linemen on the field between outside linebackers Yaya Diaby and Anthony Nelson. The All-22 tape, when it comes out, could likely reveal which second player is missing that Bowles is referring to.

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