Bowles went aggressive at the wrong time which is kinda his MO.
hahaha that is a funny way to put it, but yes.
Bowles went aggressive at the wrong time which is kinda his MO.
hahaha that is a funny way to put it, but yes.
If he had gone bump and run it would have been fine but playing soft made no senseÂ
I dont think they are playing soft as much as the Cowboys are throwing slants etc. BUT to your point about mismatches between going for it and defense after, the reason you kick the FG there is because you are going to INTENTIONALLY keep everything in front of the defense, which posters here understandably interpret as "playing soft."Â You're going to do that because the clock is 100% your best defender.Â
And to some extent the Bucs did that on the drive that followed because they soaked up 3 of the eight minutes putting themselves in basic 4 minute-ish offense and knowing that they are likely to get a touchback type kickoff.
I think the thing is - and this is no right or wrong, just philosophical - is that there is a fan bias to "AGGRESSIVE." So the same who say "go for it" "send a message to the team" are the ones wantin g the Bucs to stay with CBs on an island after turning it over on downs. Aggression for the sake of agg us NOT usually wining football. There are appropriate times to play conservative. One. was kicking the FG the other was keeping everything in front of them. MOST NFL defenses, not just the Bucs, are not going to defend late in that game by putting their two CBs on an island against those receivers. It may be frustrating because its a departure from what is working EARLIER in the game but the key point is earlier. Imagine we turn it over on downs and in that same circumstance on 2nd and mid (for example) we go blitz and they hit Lamb for a TD and now only 42 seconds has gone off the clock.
So, again, just a different way to play it. And it worked even with the offense only coming back and taking 1:44 off the clock.
Not a fan. They should kick the FG and it took a defensive play, NOT the clock, to win the game
Bottom line is kick the fg.Â
By not kicking it we needed to stay aggressive with what worked.
If we're up 17 then playing 10 yards off makes sense to meÂ
