After a loss to the Green Bay Packers in Week 4, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have fallen to 0-4 on the season, and 3-12 dating back to last year.
Todd Bowles' seat has become scalding hot as his team continues its downward spiral. Bowles' leadership is clearly going stale, as this Bucs roster is far too talented to continue to drop winnable games and sink to the bottom of the NFL standings.
Bowles was grilled in his postgame press conference about the team's ongoing slump, and remains confident that he's the right leader for this team and that the Bucs remain a tight-knit, focused group that simply just needs to execute better. But from an outsider's view, the problem seems to go way deeper than Bowles is letting on.
Todd Bowles calls out Tampa Bay Buccaneers' execution after 0-4 start
Bowles was asked what he can do as the leader of this football team to help guide them out of this rut.
"I'm the head coach. I can do more. I can always do more and I'll always take the blame on that. We're going to fight, we're going to stick together, and we're going to figure this thing out and I'll lead them to that. That's my job."
The problem is, Bowles hasn't offered any real solutions outside of blind optimism and empty platitudes. That approach might have worked when he had coached the team to three consecutive NFC South titles, but it's wearing thin now that the Buccaneers have gone from contending for a playoff berth to contending for the No. 1 overall draft pick.
"It's on us. We know what the problem is. It's on us. We can't keep getting close and not winning, that's not good enough. Our record shows what we are, we're 0-4 and until we acknowledge that and we correct our own mistakes it's going to keep happening."
If the Bucs continue to make unforced errors and beat themselves in close games with self-inflicted wounds week after week, at some point, the head coach will be held accountable.
That might be a bit unfair, as these are professionals at the top of their craft, and Bowles isn't the one out there on the field missing tackles, blowing coverages, missing blocks, or turning the football over.
I'm sympathetic to the reality that it's ultimately on the players to do their jobs, but when the team has dropped 12 out of 15 games and the same problems persist and hold this team back, it's hard to defend the head coach.
The Glazers have never fired a coach in-season, but if Bowles doesn't right this ship fast, the Buccaneers could see a change in leadership sooner rather than later.
Add us as a preferred source on Google