Bucs head coach Todd Bowles has come under the ire of Bucs fans and has been questioned by national and local media for some of his decision-making during Monday night’s loss to the Chiefs in overtime.

It was a close, but no cigar situation for the Bucs, who had a chance to knock off the undefeated Chiefs in their own house in primetime. They fought hard, but instead of putting their fate in their own hands and going for two points at the end of the game Bowles opted for the extra point and for overtime to take place. The problem is the Bucs never got the ball back.

Bucs head coach Todd Bowles – Photo by: USA Today

So at the end of the day, there are no moral victories to come from it. The reality is the Bucs have now lost three games in a row and their season is hanging in the balance.

You can kiss the division championship goodbye. Atlanta now has a two-game lead over Tampa Bay, plus the tiebreaker, which essentially makes it a three-game lead with just eight games left in the season. Barring an epic collapse by the Falcons, the Bucs will have to fight for a wild card playoff berth instead, and that won’t be easy.

“It is tough,” Bowles said after the game. “You don’t take the loss. You don’t want to get used to losing. That is the biggest thing, and they aren’t going to get used to losing. We had some big plays and big swings. They connected more than we did. We fought, but it wasn’t good enough. We will be ready next week for another one.”

Tampa Bay has now lost four of its last five games. With the exception of defeat at the hands of the Ravens, the team’s other three losses in that stretch – two to the Falcons and one to the Chiefs – were all close games that the Bucs could’ve won. That’s why Bowles isn’t entirely down about the loss, and he reiterated his message to the team following the game.

“Don’t get used to losing,”Bowles said. “We have another one next week. We did a lot of good things, but not enough to win the ball game. We have to do the little things to win the ball game.”

Todd Bowles’ Message Has Backfired Before

While I respect the confidence that Todd Bowles has in his team, I’m not sure how much this message will ring true. Haven’t we heard something like this before from Bowles?

That answer is yes.

Last season Bowles made a proclamation following a Thursday night football loss to the Bills that the losing “wouldn’t snowball.”

At that time the Bucs started the year 3-1 and then lost the next three up until Bowles declared they’d stop the bleeding.

What happened next? Tampa Bay’s defense had an egregious choke late against the Texans, making if four losses in a row. They did win the following week but then lost the next two, making it six losses in seven games.

In other words, it did snowball.

Bucs ILB Lavonte David and Chiefs RB Kareem Hunt – Photo by: USA Today

To Bowles’ credit, the Bucs were able to turn it around with four wins in a row and winning five of their last six to win the division. He proved that the players will compete for him and that the team can be resilient.

The problem is, though, that the 2023 Tampa Bay had room for error in a weaker division, as a 9-8 record proved to be good enough to win the NFC South. The 2024 Bucs do not have that luxury. It’ll take 10, maybe even 11 wins to win the division championship because the Falcons are that much more competitive. There are also a lot of good team in the whole NFC, so the wild card isn’t a lock if the Bucs were to go 9-8 again.

Sitting at 4-5, the Bucs have another tough game this Sunday against the 49ers, who have given Tampa Bay fits over the last two seasons. Once again the Bucs began the season 3-1, only to put themselves into a hole with a losing record and could be 4-6 once more with another loss on Sunday.

The good news is the Bucs have a very favorable schedule after the bye with games against the Giants, Panthers, Raiders, Chargers, Cowboys and then a rematch with Saints and they’ll play the Panthers twice. These are all very winnable games, and it’s mathematically possible that they could run the table and go 11-6.

But Tampa Bay’s defense, which is led by Bowles himself, has been absolutely dreadful. Asking the team to be perfect down the stretch is a tall task.

“It’s disappointing overall but our guys fought,” quarterback Baker Mayfield said after the game. “Against a team with an offense like that, you can only give them so many chances. They win the coin toss and that’s what happens. I’m proud of our guys on offense that stepped up. Todd (Head Coach Todd Bowles) had a good message – ‘That we’re that close. Don’t get used to losing but just turn this thing around. We’ve got a home game next week against an NFC opponent and we’ve got to find a way to win. That’s it.”

Todd Bowles’ Rationale For Going To Overtime Made No Sense

It’s hard to buy into Todd Bowles when his own words blew up on him last season and could very well do so again this year. His in-game strategic decisions are another reason not to feel great about Tampa Bay’s chances down the stretch after a 4-5 start.

Pewter Report’s Josh Queipo went into great detail about Bowles’ miscues from last night, but I couldn’t help but give my thoughts on it, too. This was Bowles’ explanation for not going for a two-point conversion with less than 30 seconds left to possibly win the game, 25-24, instead of kicking the extra point to tie the game and send it into overtime.

“We wanted to get it to overtime,” Todd Bowles said. “With the wet conditions on the field, we wanted overtime instead of going for two. We had our shots, and we lost the game.”

Bucs HC Todd Bowles – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Wait, what?

Tampa Bay had just gone 71 yards down the field in 1:19 to score a touchdown in rainy conditions, but now all of a sudden, it was too wet to go for the win?

Was there some rain of biblical proportions that only happened in between the touchdown and the decision to either kick a PAT or try a two-point conversion?

Who among us wouldn’t want to try to win the game right there against the undefeated Chiefs rather than give Patrick Mahomes another opportunity in overtime? After all, it’s not like Mahomes is the type of player to rise to the occasion in big moments, right?

Sarcasm intended.

Bowles has a habit of making bad in-game decisions and then looking even worse when doubling down and trying to rationalize what he did in the following press conference.

There was the time in 2022 when the Bucs lost in overtime to the Browns where Bowles tried to explain not being aggressive late out of fear of throwing an interceptions despite Tom Brady having thrown only two at that point and Cleveland had only picked off three passes at that time as an entire team.

Then in the 2023 NFC Divisional round of the playoffs against the Lions, he didn’t call a timeout at the end of the game and explained it away by saying the Bucs wouldn’t have had enough time to comeback. All the while, the Bucs could’ve forced the Lions to at least attempt a field goal or punt – either of which could’ve been blocked or perhaps the field goal would have missed.

Those were some bad moments in some bad post-game pressers, but what Bowles said on Monday night may have taken the cake. The 2024 season isn’t over the for the 4-5 Bucs. It’s an uphill battle for sure, but if they’ve done it once before, can they do it again?

Todd Bowles’ coaching fate may depend on it.