Last night was just the tip of the iceberg regarding Todd Bowles’ tenure with the Bucs. While there are plenty of complaints about his time management and demeanor, those aren’t his biggest issues. His downfall lies in the fact that his defense simply isn’t good—and hasn’t been for a long time.
Some fans may point fingers at the offensive coaches, special teams, or lack of talent, and while those are valid concerns, I want to focus on the area where Coach Bowles specializes: defense.
During last night’s postgame interview, Bowles mentioned that the coaches have done everything they can, and now it’s up to the players to take accountability. This overlooks the fact that he and his staff aren’t putting these players in positions to succeed. Players can be motivated to run through walls for their coach, but if the scheme isn’t right, their effort won’t matter.
Yes, there were fumbles and missed tackles, but this team—especially the defense—isn’t well-coached. They lack fundamental skills and often display confusion in the defensive backfield, leading to busted coverages (i.e. – the Falcons’ first touchdown of the game). When multiple different players consistently lose contain on the same play (as we saw last night), that falls squarely on coaching. Bowles started with his usual five down linemen, which was easily exploited by play action. The middle of his defense was again picked apart as it has been since he showed up in Tampa. If I’ve been discussing this for years, you can bet opposing offensive coordinators are noticing too. Bowles and his staff currently have no answers for slowing down the passing game.
The NFL is filled with talented players on every team, but what sets teams apart is coaching. Every year, we see new coaches come in and elevate losing teams to new heights in their first season. This year, look at Jacksonville’s Liam Coen and New England’s Mike Vrabel. They’ve taken teams with rosters that aren’t much different from the previous year and led them to the playoffs with 10 to 13 wins.
Falcons’ Kirk Cousins making adjustments as Bucs Haason Reddick watches closely – Photo by: Buccaneers.com
This team is in a rut the likes of which we haven’t seen since Bowles took over. They’ve now lost six of their last eight games, much of which can be attributed to our terrible pass defense—and now, we can’t even stop the run. If Kirk Cousins and Kyle Pitts played against this Bucs defense every week, Cousins would be the GOAT of the NFL, and Pitts would be a Hall of Fame tight end. Check out their stats against the Bucs compared to everyone else:
Kirk Cousins 24/25 Stats:
| Games Played | Yards | TDs | Ints | |
| Against Bucs | 3 | 1158 | 11 | 1 |
| ave per game | 386 | 3.6 | 0.3 | |
| Against Everyone Else | 15 | 3406 | 10 | 17 |
| ave per game | 227 | 1.2 | 1.13 |
Kyle Pitts’ 24/25 Stats:
| Games Played | Yards | TDs | |
| Against Bucs | 3 | 316 | 5 |
| ave per game | 105 | 3.6 | |
| Against Everyone Else | 28 | 827 | 0 |
| ave per game | 29 | 0 |
If Bowles could roll out even a top-20 pass defense, everything else on this team would start to look a little better. But he hasn’t been able to do that in Tampa. He and GM Jason Licht work closely together in trying to fill the team’s personnel needs, but Bowles’ ego has led him to believe he can create pressure without above-average players. He stated this early in his career. Problem is that approach isn’t working and it is damaging the team. He’s had enough time to figure this out, but a coach’s ego can be a team’s downfall.
This team has lost confidence in its own schemes, and there’s no easy fix for that.
Thank you to the Bucs for the pictures!
yeah, utter failure. he had one job.
we have a bottom 10 defense with some high draft capital and solid talent there; sure maybe not the best but certainly not bottom 10 worst. he isn't getting the most out of the players and it's on him
Would a new coaching staff get more out of the Bucs players? I think they would.
Would a new coaching staff get more out of the Bucs players? I think they would.
Absolutely. i posted this in another thread, but Vrabel has improved the Patriots defense from bottom 10 to top 5; and if you look at their depth chart, Bucs have more talent on defense; so what does that tell you about Bowles effectiveness in Tampa
What I know is that we continue to swap out front seven players and it never leads to better results, this tells us it's the scheme. This is akin to when Lovie Smith returned as head coach and tried to run a Tampa 2 scheme that had been figured out. Not an OC in the league has any fear going up against a Todd Bowles defense. I've never seen such a defense that gives up so many big plays. Tony Dungy was a nice guy too, but he needed to go and Malcolm knew it. His children don't understand how to build anything because they never have. I can tell you as fact that if Malcolm were still alive, and actively managing this franchise, either Canales or Coen would be our HC right now. Easy decision. Bowles has been figured out (years ago) and it's time for him to go.
Would a new coaching staff get more out of the Bucs players? I think they would.
probably I mean even an inferior new coach might do better in the short term just because of a new message, players less secure in their jobs etc.
it could go the other way too. We tried to improve on Dungy with Gruden. It worked short term less so long term. We tried to improve on Gruden with Morris. Worked done but then not so much.
the thing is a team should be trying to limit coaching change and that is really challenging.
much easier in my view to fire Bowles then to keep him. Few games though to impact that analysis
Would a new coaching staff get more out of the Bucs players? I think they would.
probably I mean even an inferior new coach might do better in the short term just because of a new message, players less secure in their jobs etc.
it could go the other way too. We tried to improve on Dungy with Gruden. It worked short term less so long term. We tried to improve on Gruden with Morris. Worked done but then not so much.
the thing is a team should be trying to limit coaching change and that is really challenging.
much easier in my view to fire Bowles then to keep him. Few games though to impact that analysis
Bowles has been playing with house money.
Bucs would have to win a playoff game at this point and they won’t even make the tournament to get that chance.
Bowles isn’t even a top 20 head coach. I mean shouldn’t be hard to upgrade if we go thru an actual process
Bowles isn’t even a top 20 head coach. I mean shouldn’t be hard to upgrade if we go thru an actual process
There's that pesky DEI/annointed thing. lol. "Dave" thread part two ... until DH kills it again with the "cunts" stuff lmao.
kidding but except at the edges (McVay Johnson down to whomever it's demoed total trash) it's pretty hard to rate NFL coaches because it's so subjective and also based on external factors. The Eagles are better than the Bucs but before yesterday one game better in record and about $400 million worse in void year contracts (ie all in plus plus). How much better is Siranni?
either way interested to watch it play out ... in year 50. Lots of bad coaching choices on those 50 years.
Biggs scoffing at division championships (for trolling attention) but he also once said playoffs didn't matter. lol. And the Cowboys are a great team because of their regular season performance.
oh yeah ... and White is RB1
Bowles has been playing with house money.
Bowles has been a stud inside OBP because he turned the "down Tradk years" into multiple division championships by finding two OCs and Mayfield.
that's why I've said he's a good coach for now ... but now might be up. Dungy was a great coach. Did the hardest work of pulling a team out of the ditch. His time ran out too.
Bowles isn’t even a top 20 head coach
But, division championships…
Are you being serious, or sarcastic?
The Bucs would not have been in the playoffs in any other NFC division during Bowles' tenure.
8-9. 9-8. 10-7. 7-7 so far. 34-31. 1-3 in playoffs. Total 35-34.
I've seen enough. Overdue for a change. Need an offense-minded HC with all new staff. Johnson in CHI and Coen in JAX have turned things around in one season. Vrabel is defense-minded, but again, one season turnaround. Why not here in TB? I'll bet OBP is already working on it.
