Todd Bowles apparently doesn’t believe in miracles.
The Buccaneers coach defended what seemed like a bizarre decision to not use his final timeout during Sunday’s 31-23 divisional round road loss to the Lions despite having an opportunity to get the ball back.
“They already had a field goal lined up and it would’ve been about 12 seconds left on the clock to end the ball game, we weren’t going to come back from that,” Bowles told reporters after the game. “No point in prolonging the obvious.”
While Bowles is right in saying his decision likely would not have affected the game, it’s odd that he didn’t even attempt to give his team a chance with its season on the line.
It came after Green Bay’s Matt LaFleur didn’t use all his timeouts when all San Francisco had to do was kneel twice to secure its 24-21 victory on Saturday night, however in that scenario the Packers had no opportunity to get the back barring a fumbled 49ers snap.
Detroit would have needed to convert a long field goal to ice the game or Tampa Bay potentially could have had a shot at a Hail Mary or lateral play.
What particularly makes it look odd is that Bowles did not call his timeout despite Jared Goff kneeling on the final play with 36 seconds remaining in the game.
Tampa Bay would have had plenty of time had it called the timeout in that spot.
However, the optics of that appear to be worse since it appears Bowles made the conscious decision to punt on a possible comeback before the drive started and didn’t change his tactic.
The Lions had the ball at the Buccaneers’ 29-yard line with 1:33 remaining in the fourth quarter after Baker Mayfield threw an interception with a chance to tie the game.
Tampa Bay had one timeout remaining, meaning it could, at best, have the fourth-down play happen with about seven seconds remaining should each play take no more than two seconds.
When Bowles did not call a timeout after the first kneel, the Lions then kneeled again with 1:06 remaining in the game instead of using the full 40 seconds.
The third kneel came with 36 seconds left in the game, another example of Goff kneeling with time left on the clock, and that’s where some thought Bowles could have used his timeout.
Former Giants running back Rashad Jennings called out Bowles for not taking a timeout in that moment.
“As an NFL player, this makes zero sense,” Jennings said. “Make that make sense. I see why people say the NFL is rigged — it’s absolutely not — but this is the type of stuff, when you have this kind of mental error as a staff, somebody should see this.”
It seems that Bowles did not want to deviate from his plan no matter what the Lions did, although the Lions surely would have used all the time on the clock for their plays had a timeout been called after first down.
Had Tampa Bay used a timeout, whether with 36 seconds remaining or earlier in the drive, Detroit would have then had the option to attempt a field goal in the 47-50-yard range, or perhaps punt to leave the Buccaneers the whole field to travel to potentially tie the game.
All that being said, it’s fair to wonder why Bowles didn’t at least give his team a chance — even if it’s one in a thousand — of sending the game to overtime.