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Pewter Report’s Scott Reynolds answers your questions from the @PewterReport Twitter account this week in the Bucs Mailbag. Submit your question to the Bucs Mailbag each week via Twitter using the hashtag #PRMailbag.  Here are the Bucs questions we chose to answer for this week’s edition.

QUESTION: How does Todd Bowles still have a job with the Bucs? If not for a forced fumble, the Bucs should’ve lost this game. Team seems unprepared and his defense gets out-played by bad QBs on a regular. He has to know he’s on the hot seat.

Bucs OLB Anthony Nelson – Photo by: USA Today

ANSWER: Todd Bowles has always thought very highly of Bucs outside linebacker Anthony Nelson. He appreciates his heady, steady play, Nelson’s length as an edge setter, and his penchant for seeming to be always in the right place at the right time. Nelson was certainly in the right place at the right time in overtime as he forced a crucial fumble as he stripped the ball from Carolina running back Chuba Hubbard to create a turnover that led to Tampa Bay’s 26-23 overtime win against the Panthers. Now the team’s head coach likely appreciates Nelson even more as that takeaway could play a factor into Bowles’ job security moving forward.

While the defense didn’t play great against second-year quarterback Bryce Young, who threw for a touchdown and ran for one more, Bowles’ unit did a great job against Hubbard, who was held to just 43 yards on 12 carries. Tampa Bay’s offense struggled with uncharacteristic miscues like a slew of penalties and a pair of interceptions thrown by Baker Mayfield in regulation. And it didn’t help that the Bucs were 0-of-8 on third downs to start the game before finishing 2-of-12.

But I will say this about Bowles’ defense. Tampa Bay held Carolina to just two field goal attempts after Mayfield’s picks. And while the defense benefited from a pair of missed field goals, the Panthers did score just 23 points. That’s better than the 30 points the defense has allowed on four occasions this season.

Yes, it did take a good bit of fortune for the Bucs to win Sunday’s game against a quickly improving Panthers team that is better than it’s 3-9 record would indicate. A loss in Carolina would certainly have put Bowles’ future with the team in jeopardy – and hurt Tampa Bay’s chances at making the playoffs. There are still five games to go and a lot can happen down the stretch that can either get this team into the playoffs – perhaps as division champions again – or lead to Bowles’ dismissal. Let’s let it play out and see what happens.

QUESTION: We know the Glazers won’t fire Todd Bowles midseason, but why can’t Jason Licht strip Bowles of defensive play-calling responsibilities?

Bucs head coach Todd Bowles and TE Payne Durham – Photo by: USA Today

ANSWER: While this is Jason Licht’s team and as the general manager, he’s responsible for pretty much everything that has to do with the football side of the organization, stripping Todd Bowles of his defensive play-calling duties isn’t something that he’s going to do. Licht respects Bowles and allows him to make the coaching decisions in-season while he sticks to bolstering the team’s roster with waiver wire pick-ups and in-season signings. Most general managers allow their coaches to coach during the season.

And to be perfectly candid with you, I trust Bowles as a play-caller on defense more than I do either of the team’s co-defensive coordinators. Kacy Rodgers didn’t have a lot of success in New York with the Jets in his role as play-caller, and Larry Foote doesn’t have any play-calling experience. So as the old saying goes, the devil you know is better than the devil you don’t. Not suggesting that Bowles is a devil by any means, but he has had moments of brilliance as Tampa Bay’s play-caller, as well as moments of complete catastrophe, which has been maddening to watch.

The Bucs are 6-6 with Sunday’s win over the Panthers and the defense has played better the last two weeks after the bye, so maybe the unit is turning the corner. We’ll see. It is fair to note that the combined record of the Giants and Panthers is just 5-19, so the Bucs have beaten two of the lesser teams in recent weeks. The Bucs will get a bigger test against a good quarterback in Justin Herbert when they square off against the Chargers in Los Angeles in two weeks and we’ll know more about the supposed progress of the defense at that time.

QUESTION: The lack of edge pass rush is so concerning. Joe Tryon-Shoyinka wasn’t missed at all, YaYa Diaby has pressures, but not many sacks. What can be done?

Bucs OLB Yaya Diaby – Photo by: USA Today

ANSWER: Personally, I think several of the Bucs defensive coaches need to go in the offseason if Todd Bowles is to remain as the team’s head coach. I’ve gone on record saying that I don’t think much of outside linebackers coach George Edwards. I think he’s an awful coach and I’m not alone in that opinion. So in part, I blame him the lack of development of young pass rushers Yaya Diaby and rookie Chris Braswell. I would be there is some untapped potential in those two that a better coach can bring out.

I agree that Joe Tryon-Shoyinka wasn’t missed. I like JTS as a person. He’s a good guy, but he’s too finesse and he’s as good as he’s going to get, which is nothing more than an athletic, rotational edge defender. When he comes back from his ankle injury, Anthony Nelson should be the starter. He’s better against the run, a better pass rusher and makes more impactful plays.

If JTS returns to the starting lineup, it should be an indictment of just how bad of a coach Edwards is, as he is responsible for the outside linebacker rotation in games. Of course Bowles has some say so in the matter too, and he loves Tryon-Shoyinka. All the more reason to consider a coaching change next year with poor personnel usage like this as an example.

QUESTION: How is Trenton Gill still punting for us? We cannot find a better punter from another roster? I just feel like he doesn’t do anything well.

Bucs K Chase McLaughlin and OLB Anthony Nelson – Photo by: USA Today

ANSWER: I have no idea. I get that Jake Camarda’s inconsistencies were driving both the coaching staff and the Tampa Bay front office mad during the preseason and the start of the regular season. But both the coaches and the Bucs’ brass have to be fuming over Gill’s incompetent play on Sunday in Carolina. On the surface, Gill averaged 45.6 yards per punt with a 43.6-yard average. But he had an awful 22-yard punt out of the Bucs’ end zone that only went to the Tampa Bay 36-yard line in the first half.

That led to Bryce Young’s 10-yard touchdown run on the ensuing drive. Then after the Bucs took a 20-16 lead late in the fourth quarter, his kickoff fell short of the landing zone and resulted in the Panthers getting the ball at their own 40-yard line with 3:05 left. Carolina would go down and score a go-ahead touchdown on that drive, and luckily the Bucs would come back.

About the only thing Gill did well on the regular on Sunday was hold for Chase McLaughlin’s field goals and extra points. The Bucs need to figure this out because poor punting and/or poor kickoffs could doom the Bucs down the stretch. Whether it’s bringing Camarda back on the practice squad, or finding someone else, Tampa Bay needs to have a backup ready in case Gill’s gaffes prove to be costly.