Former Buccaneers QB blasts Todd Bowles: "He's a meathead"
By Josh Hill
Sunday's loss in Houston remains stuck in the craw of Buccaneers, as it becomes more and more furtrating the more and more we all think about it.
It's one thing to have the highlights of C.J. Stroud torching the Bucs defense played on a loop all week, but the more folks dig into exactly what went wrong the harder it is to stomach what happened. For the first tima ll season the offense produced points -- even if that was also a frustrating process -- but the defense failed to hold up its end of the bargain.
Baker Mayfield and the offense scored a season-high 37-points, but the defense bled out 39-points in addition to allowing a performance by Stroud that might win him Rookie of the Year. Todd Bowles has already been the source of angst for Bucs fans going back to last year, and the way his defense dropped the ball literally and figuratively didn't do him ay favors.
It's not just BUcs fans who are harping on Bowles. The national media has set its sights on him again amind the four-game losing streak and things are starting to get chippy.
Chris Simms keeps ripping Todd Bowles over Bucs loss to Texans
During the weekly predictions segment of PFT PM, Simms continued to lay into Bowles for how he called the defense in Sunday's loss to Houston. Specifically, he remains flabergasted over how the Bucs refused to adjust off defending the run when Stroud was gashing them through the ais.
He used it as a way of predicting how another rookie quarterback will beat the Bucs, but he made sure to give Bowles a pretty cheap shot before he was done.
“He’s still got eight guys at the line of scrimmage, ‘Like, they might run it all over us still.’ No, they’re not, Todd. They’re throwing all over you, adjust," Simms said. “And I just think he’s a meathead that way, and their defensive coaches there to where they’re going to go all-in and worry about the running game all that. They’re going to leave some opportunities for Will Levis in the passing game like we’ve seen."
It's a little immature to resort to name-calling, even if it might be cathartic for some Bucs fans. The fact of the matter is Bowles might be doing a poor job coaching but resorting to calling him a 'meathead' is a bit much.
Name-calling aside, the point does stand that the Bucs refusal to adjust its defense while Stroud was shredding the secondary is baffling. Houston was without Dameon Pierce, its leading rusher, which means the strategy was to defend against backup Devin Singletary.
Bucs coaches have struggled mightily with adjustments this year, whether it be at halftime or on-the-fly when certain play calls and schemes aren't working. There seems to be a reliance on sticking to the plan and avoiding improvisation, but it's clearly not working. Criticisms like the one from Simms might be overly barbed, but seats are going to get hotter the more the Bucs stay stuck in their losing ways.
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