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

The Bucs’ absence from the postseason for the first time in the previous six years had a lot to do with the poor play on defense, which is led by head coach Todd Bowles as the team’s play-caller. Bucs fans have been very critical of Bowles and the defense for allowing too many big plays and playing  a complex style of defense that makes for confusion amongst players that the offense benefits off of.

A Series Of Bucs’ Defensive Mishaps

There are countless examples of explosive plays allowed by the Bucs in different situations. It started right from the get-go when Tampa Bay allowed a 50-yard catch-and-run touchdown to running back Bijan Robinson on the first defensive series of the season against Atlanta. Then Todd Bowles’ unit surrendered a 78-yard touchdown run by Jahmyr Gibbs when the Bucs were throttled by the Lions on Monday night Football.

Bucs HC Todd Bowles – Photo by: USA Today

Just a couple weeks later, the Bucs came out of the bye week to host the Patriots and allowed a 72-yard receiving touchdown, and rushing touchdowns covering 55 and 69 yards. Surely, the Buccaneers would clean that up the next against the Bills, right? Nope. They allowed a season-high 44 points, including touchdown passes of 43 yards and 52 yards.

Who could forget when the team tried to get into halftime on the road against the Panthers holding a lead with 12 seconds to go, only to unexplainably blitz and allow for the Panthers hit to Tetairoa McMillan from 22 yards out in the end zone. That score put Carolina up 13-10 instead of the Buccaneers going into the half with a 10-9 lead. Tampa Bay eventually lost at Carolina, 23-20.

Panthers WR Tetairoa McMillan – Photo by: IMAGN – Jim Dedmon

And of course, the most egregious of them all – blowing a 14-point fourth quarter lead the Falcons on Thursday Night Football while wearing the creamsicle uniforms. Tampa Bay’s defense had the chance to close out the game by getting stops on third-and-28 followed by a fourth-and-14 that the Buccaneers were not successful in achieving.

Todd Bowles Responds To Suggestions That His Defense Is Complex

These are all just examples to show how big of a issue the Buccaneers were on the defensive side of the ball. And those most vocal about Todd Bowles’ defense being too complicated feel vindicated by all of those big plays the team surrendered.

Yet Bowles disagrees with that assessment.

Speaking at the NFL Scouting Combine, Todd Bowles said to local media that his defense is not too sophisticated and they simplified things even more last season. That is a harrowing thought looking at all the big plays the unit allowed.

Bucs head coach Todd Bowles – Photo by: USA Today

“We probably did less this year than we’ve ever done,” Bowles said. “Ironically the plays we got beat on were bread and butter plays. They weren’t anything exotic. That’s the part that makes you sick about it. We just got to get better and we got to coach better and play it better.”

When it was brought up again, Todd Bowles interjected, “It’s not every complex. It’s really not.”

Another layer in the kerfuffle of Bowles’ scheme is that he drops outside linebackers back in coverage too much. In the 3-4 defensive scheme that the Bucs run, outside linebackers are asked to drop back in coverage at times, but not all are very successful at it.

Typically edge defenders are better at rushing after the quarterback than they are at trying to cover a certain area of the field or cover a speedy running back or tight end. Why does Bowles keep dropping his outside linebackers in coverage when they aren’t very good at it?

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

“Outside ‘backers have been dropping for the past 30-40 years,” Bowles said. “And we don’t we don’t ask them to drop very far, and we don’t ask them to match and go do all those things. When they drop it’s pretty much curl-to-flat, or straight hook. So that’s not very complicated to do. Obviously it puts you in space a little bit, but it’s not complicated for the things that we give up.”

For a team that had its worst year defensively under Bowles in Tampa Bay and allowed huge play after huge play, it’s a sign that the scheme he’s running might be too complicated for the players to master. Either that or the coaches are simply failing to teach it well enough to avoid the busts in coverage and in run fits.