Bucs head coach Todd Bowles – Photo by: Jeffrey Jones/PR

Clock management has never been a strong suit of Bucs head coach Todd Bowles. Each season we’ve witnessed situations where Bowles and Tampa Bay did not control the clock in the best way possible.

That continued on Sunday night in a 26-24 loss to the Cowboys in prime time in Dallas.

Bucs HC Todd Bowles – Photo by: Jeffrey Jones/PR

But before we even get to that, we should point out that we’ve already seen this similar mistake during the year. In Week 9 on Monday Night Football when the Bucs scored against the Chiefs late to tie the game up, but still left 27 seconds on the clock while Kansas City still had all three timeouts remaining. Tampa Bay got down to the 1-yard line on a 19-yard catch by Trey Palmer with 33 seconds to go when Bowles called the team’s last timeout instead of letting the clock continue to run.

The Bucs got out of regulation unscathed before losing in overtime, but it was still the wrong decision to even give the Chiefs a semblance of an opportunity to win it before the fourth quarter ended. By the way, this doesn’t include the decision NOT to go for two at the end instead of rolling the dice and playing for overtime. But that’s a conversation everyone’s already had.

Fast forward to Tampa Bay’s Sunday night game against Dallas and Todd Bowles once again called a timeout in a late situation, albeit this took place in the second quarter before halftime.

Todd Bowles Doesn’t Offer Much In His Explanation For Sudden Timeout

With the Bucs trailing, 20-7, at the time, they drove all the way down the field late at the end of the first half. Rachaad White ran the ball to the Dallas 10-yard line and the Bucs called their last timeout with 54 seconds to go. Rookie wide receiver Jalen McMillan scored a touchdown on the next play to cut the Cowboys’ lead to 20-14, which was nice, but it also gave Dallas the ball back with three timeouts and enough time at 48 seconds to move the ball against a Bucs’ defense that struggled in pass coverage all night.

What happened next was a masterclass in why Bowles should have let the clock run down, as the Cowboys took six plays to set up Brandon Aubrey to hit a 58-yard field goal to increase Dallas’ lead at halftime to 23-14.

As much as the blame should go to the Bucs defense for not being able to get a stop on the Cowboys’ late field goal drive, there also needs to be accountability for situational awareness – or lack thereof. The final score wound up being 26-24, as the Bucs lost by two points. If only they hadn’t allowed that late first half field goal to give the Cowboys an extra three points, perhaps we’re talking about a Bucs win on Monday.

Bucs HC Todd Bowles – Photo by: USA Today

Watching the situation play out is one thing. It’s another to hear the explanation for why it occurred. Todd Bowles was quite mum when he had his press conference on Monday, not giving much detail over why he called a timeout at the wrong time..again.

When asked about calling the timeout with just under a minute to go, Bowles responded with “We needed it offensively. We needed it.”

Asked a follow-up question on why the timeout was needed offensively, Bowles was short with his answer and didn’t delve into specifics.

“We needed the timeout,” Bowles said.

And that was it.

That’s all Todd Bowles had to say about yet another timeout blunder.

In a game where the Bucs fumbled the ball three times, this may have been the biggest fumble.

It’s evident that Bowles has not learned from his mistakes over the course of being a head coach. There’s still rampant clock mismanagement and a defense that struggles with the same issues that has hurt the team since the beginning of the year. Each week Bowles chalks it up to fundamentals and miscommunication, but that’s a terrible look if the same mistakes continue to be committed over and over and month by month.

Why Todd Bowles’ Timeout Wasn’t Needed

Bucs WR Jalen McMillan and TE Payne Durham – Photo by: USA Today

I’m still trying to figure why the offense “needed” that timeout so badly with 54 seconds remaining. I can somewhat understand where Todd Bowles was coming from with the Kansas City game, as the Bucs had to run 19 yards down the field after Trey Palmer’s catch with less time remaining, thus calling a timeout to settle everyone down and huddle up.

But the early timeout against Dallas with just under a minute left doesn’t make much sense.

Rachaad White’s first down run went for just four yards, so nobody had to move that far. Sure, at times their can be piles of players getting up after a running play, but Tampa Bay had plenty of time to get everyone up and call the next play even with about 35 seconds to go.

The previous two plays on that set of downs were a pass to Payne Durham on first down where he got out of bounds to stop the clock, followed by an incomplete pass. It’s not like the Bucs were winded since they previously had two clock-stopping plays.

There were several factors that went into why the Bucs lost on Sunday night football and no longer control their playoff destiny. But when we hear Bowles continue to be vague on his explanations for important game management moments, it just gets more mind boggling when it happens over and over again.