Buccaneers have a serious problem with head coach Todd Bowles
By Rob Leeds
Three and three was not the start that most of us expected for the Todd Bowles era with the Buccaneers. Something isn’t right here.
The way Todd Bowles got control of the Buccaneers was strange.
Bruce Arians handing the job over to a close friend that had been overlooked time and time again made for an excellent story, but the way all of it went down was rather strange.
Fans that want to buy the company line and agree that everything is great behind the scenes are more than welcome to that opinion, but it is all fair to say this was a relatively-unprecedented move from a fringe Hall of Fame coach to hand the job over to a successful defensive coordinator but unsuccessful head coach.
Regardless, here we are, and the results have been less than satisfying.
The Bucs look bad. The defense has looked great in categories like points scored against, sacks, and interceptions, but the failures on third down are getting a little ridiculous, and at what point will they stop seeing weak quarterbacks gouge this defense.
Bowles does still deserve some blame (as well as some praise) for the defense overall, but the offense is where the problems lie.
Tampa’s offense is downright terrible. Yes, guys like Ali Marpet and Ryan Jensen are missed, but acting like these struggles are solely on missing players is silly. The current wide receiver corps is stacked, and any team playing with Tom Brady should be one of the best in the league.
The offense is obviously different from what we saw under the Arians tree of influence (where Byron Leftwich still had freedom to call plays). One way or another, this is an issue for Bowles through two scenarios.
The first scenario is that Bowles is the one handicapping Leftwich and forcing him to run the ball in terrible situations and take the excitement away from the unit. This does track with what Bowles said during the offseason.
The other possibility is that Leftwich has just lost his spark, something that is also entirely on the table and falls to Bowles to deal with.
Either way, the Buccaneers are cruising for disaster with Bowles at the helm. A change is needed from the man on top before this really starts to become messy.
No one should be calling for Bowles’ firing yet, but it is fair to note that the Bucs were the best job for a new coach to inherit and they are playing like a team that won’t make the playoffs.
Todd Bowles and his staff have to be better. The problem has to stop here. Otherwise, Todd Bowles won’t be long for this job.
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