Todd Bowles of the Buccaneers explains the key fumble in the 4th quarter against the Commander

Margins are slim when it comes to playoff football; sometimes, one game is all it takes to separate two teams with Super Bowl aspirations. And on Sunday night, an unfortunate execution error struck The Tampa Bay Buccaneers lost to the Washington Commanders 23-20 in the NFL Wild Card round. With about 12 minutes left in the fourth quarter, the Buccaneers gave the ball to the Commanders on a fumble by quarterback Baker Mayfield. In the very next drive, the Commanders scored a goal and took the lead 20-17.

While this wasn’t the play that sealed the loss for the Buccaneers, you should look at that play and determine how crucial it was in the grand scheme of the game. That robbed the Buccaneers of a chance to go up by two touchdowns, which could have been enough breathing room in such a tough contest against the Commanders.

Accident from Mayfield, according to the Buccaneers head coach Todd Bowles, “it should have been jet-cleaned”according to Scott Smith of Buccaneers.com. It was obviously a play call, and Mayfield was ready to hand off the football to Jaylen McMillan, but the handoff was not executed properly, and the Commanders pounced on the loose ball.

Regardless, the Buccaneers offense just couldn’t find a way to click Sunday night even though Mike Evans had the edge against Marshawn Lattimore. Bowles admitted that they were shot themselves in the foot many times during the night, and they have no one to blame but themselves for this defeat.

Todd Bowles is once again at the center of some of the Buccaneers’ clock management issues

Todd Bowles may be wearing out his welcome in Tampa Bay. It is not the first time that Bowles has drawn much criticism for his poor management of the tempo; on Sunday, that it took him a long time before calling a timeout, which then resulted in the Commandos’ game-winning field goal just as time expired.

“On the next play, they only needed a yard for a first down, so we had to let it play out,” Bowles explained, via The Pewter Plank. “Before the last play, we were going to call a timeout to see where they were at … and then we had a personnel problem so we called it later than usual.”

Buccaneers fans also booed Bowles for the sack in last year’s playoffs when he chose not to call a timeout in their 31-23 loss to the Detroit Lions in the 2024 NFL Wild Card round.