At the start of the second quarter Thursday night, with the Falcons leading the Bucs 10-7 and driving, Atlanta guard Andy Levitre was called for a facemask on third-and-7. That could’ve set up third-and-22 from the Bucs 38-yard line which, in turn, would’ve set up a 56-yard field goal, provided the defense could hold.

Instead, the Bucs cut their losses and declined the penalty to make it fourth-and-7, setting kicker Matt Bryant up for a 41-yard field goal.

Many saw coach Dirk Koetter’s decision as a lack of confidence in his defense. After basically admitting as much after the game – “We thought [giving Atlanta another down] was probably going to end up about the same way and possibly worse” – Koetter walked back his statement and decision to decline the penalty on Friday.

“If I had that to do over again, we should have taken that penalty,” Koetter said. “And that’s on me.”

Before the flag on third-and-7, the Bucs had already been bailed out once on the same play when Falcons’ tight end Austin Hooper dropped a wide-open touchdown. A lack of confidence in the defense, one that had already surrendered four plays of over 15 yards by that point in the game, wouldn’t have been without reason.

But Koetter insisted that wasn’t the case.

“I don’t want anyone to read into that, that we didn’t have confidence or anything like that,” Koetter said. “That was just a bad decision by me … “I mean, you’re going to read into it what you read into it, but I just told you, that’s a bad decision by me.”