Bucs HC Bowles: “Dumb Mistakes” Led To Loss

In any losing football game, you can point to certain plays and moments that caused a team to come up short. For the Bucs, it was fairly obvious that penalties and costly turnovers were the main culprit in their 14-12 loss to the Packers.

Bucs QB Tom Brady – Photo by: USA Today

The Bucs committed six penalties for 40 yards in the game. The most excruciating of them all came on a delay of game penalty during a two-point conversion attempt. It moved  the Bucs back five yards to the seven-yard line, leading to a pass that was broken up and closed things out with only 14 seconds to go.

Following the game, head coach Todd Bowles didn’t sugarcoat how frustrating the loss was since they felt that they beat themselves with mental errors. But the delay of game penalty wasn’t the only reason why they were defeated.

“It wasn’t just a moment, there were a few things that happened,” Bowles said. “We got six crucial penalties at different times that cost us the ball game shooting ourselves in the foot to give us a chance to win. We know that they’re a good football team, hats off to them. But we made some dumb mistakes ourselves.”

So what happened on that delay of game? Bowles didn’t reveal a lot about it.

“We didn’t set up fast enough,” Bowles said. “It’s something that can’t happen.”

Bucs Had Two Critical Fumbles

Bucs WR Breshad Perriman – Photo by: USA Today

Penalties weren’t the only issue for the Bucs. They fumbled twice when moving down the field when Breshad Perriman and Russell Gage coughed up the ball. Perriman lost it when Tampa Bay was in a two minute drill at the end of the first half and in Packers territory.

Gage fumbled on the opening drive of the third quarter as the Bucs began to sustain a consistent rhythm. He lost control of the football at the 49-yard line as the Bucs were moving the ball down the field. Each time it stalled momentum when the offense was getting things going, which was a struggle for most of the game.

“Anytime you turn the ball over it hurts,” Bowles said. “It hurts us, it hurts them, but when we turn the ball over at crucial times and we can’t get points in a tough ball game, that’s going to be a deciding factor.”

Although the Bucs were able to get away with their committed turnovers in Week 1 and 2, they didn’t have the same luck this time around. It’s something that needs to be cleaned up by the next game. The Bucs were missing multiple players on offense, but it was no excuse for the amount of mistakes that popped up.

“We just needed to play smarter,” Bowles said. “We shot ourselves in the foot and that’s things we can’t do. Talent had nothing to do with the way we shot ourselves in the foot.”