Bucs' Todd Bowles showed some unusual fire in halftime interview during win over Panthers
It's not every day you hear Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Todd Bowles speak his mind about his players or their performance. The veteran head coach is typically measured with his words and calm with his delivery when speaking with the media. He is pretty relaxed on the sideline as well. However, he wasn't that […]
It's not every day you hear Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Todd Bowles speak his mind about his players or their performance. The veteran head coach is typically measured with his words and calm with his delivery when speaking with the media. He is pretty relaxed on the sideline as well.
However, he wasn't that way as the teams trotted into the locker room at halftime during the team's 48-14 win over the Carolina Panthers on Sunday.
With the score at 27-14 after Carolina got a late touchdown and missed a late field goal just a minute before the halftime whistle, Bowles unleashed on one particular positional group on his defense, per Bucs pre and postgame host Tom Krasniqi.
The criticism was warranted. Despite an offensive explosion during the first half, where the game should have been well out of range, a handful of mishaps on the back end of the Bucs defense gave Carolina some life, at least temporarily.
The Panthers answered the Bucs' opening 6-play, 70-yard touchdown drive with an one of their own to match. The big play was a gain of 31 yards on a throw from Bryce Young that was placed perfectly to Adam Thielen – who finished with 5 catches for 110 yards and 2 touchdowns – just past Zyon McCollum. Sometimes that just happens.
But the touchdown was anything but. What appeared to have been a miscommunication between Jamel Dean and Mike Edwards resulted in an open Thielen in the end zone for a 17-yard score.
Then, with the Bucs up 27-7 with 50 seconds left, Thielen got behind Tykee Smith and Jordan Whitehead for a 40-yard touchdown. Inexcusable to get beaten deep with that little amount of time left on the clock.
It was obviously terrific day for the home fans, as evidenced by the final score after a great overall showing by the team (thanks to 5 Baker Mayfield touchdown passes and a blocked punt for a touchdown). But defending the pass has been this defense's biggest problem this year, as evidenced by career performances from players like Kirk Cousins and Cooper Rush. And it's something that's going to get them beat in the playoffs absent better play – provided they win next week against New Orleans, which they certainly should.
It's nice to see Bowles shown the frustration that many have felt this year at times watching this defense try to defend opposing passing attacks. We'll see if the message was received this week as the Bucs get ready to try to claim their fourth straight NFC South title.
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