The Tampa Bay Buccaneers totally collapsed in the fourth quarter in their loss to the Atlanta Falcons, and head coach Todd Bowles made it known that things cannot continue this way for a spiraling team.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers were supposed to have the edge heading into the NFC South Thursday Night Football matchup against the Atlanta Falcons. They finally had Mike Evans and Jalen McMillan back in the lineup. Everything collapsed in the fourth quarter, and the Falcons escaped with a narrow 29-28 win in the waning moments. Atlanta had 19 penalties for 125 yards. That should all but gift an opponent a win on a silver platter. Head coach Todd Bowles did not mince words in his postgame presser.
"We don't make excuses. We... you gotta *expletive* care enough to where the *expletive* hurts. You gotta *expletive* care enough to where the *expletive* hurts. It's gotta *expletive* mean something to you. It's more than a job. It's your *expletive* livelihood. How well do you know your job? How well can you do your job? We can't sugarcoat that *expletive.* It's in-*expletive*-excusable, and there no *expletive* answer for it. No excuse for it, and that's what you tell them in the locker room. Look in the *expletive* mirror."
Here is the full story from Bucs Roundtable writer Joe Smeltzer on Bowles’ comments and how they illustrated the brutal loss.
Tampa Bay led 28-20 with about eight minutes remaining when quarterback Baker Mayfield make a critical mistake and threw an interception that allowed Atlanta to creep back in. The Bucs had 12 men on the field on the final drive for the Falcons that gifted them a chance and then failed to stop them to creep into field goal range for the game-winning kick. There were blunders across the board from the team to the coaching decisions.
So, it was good for Bowles to show some emotion in his presser, and hopefully those words are self-reflective as well. Profanity doesn’t always land, but he needs to invoke some sort of response in his team.