Todd Bowles hasn’t been known for fiery press conferences over the years, but the Buccaneers head coach had one on Thursday night after his team blew a 14-point lead to the Falcons and lost for the fifth time in their last six games.
Bowles called the team’s performance “inexcusable” in a profanity-laced excoriation of their effort against Atlanta and said in a Friday morning videoconference that his comments weren’t meant to send a message to the locker room. Bowles said he sent the same message to the team in their postgame meeting and that everything he said on Thursday night was “honest, raw, and right off the top.”
Bowles also said that the response to the loss wasn’t because of any thoughts he might be having about how the team’s recent slide could impact his own job security.
“I don’t think I worry about it at all,” Bowles said. “It doesn’t creep into the locker room. Players play and coaches coach. I got more years behind me than I do ahead of me. I think we’re in a situation where we’re right back in it and our only focus is on winning a ball game.”
It’s too late in the season to make any significant changes to the personnel or schemes in Tampa, so the current players are going to have to play better and the current coaches are going to have to coach better in order for them to hold off the Panthers for a playoff berth that would quiet most of the questions about Bowles’ future in Tampa.
