Todd Bowles Shares Tom Brady and Starters Playing Status for Week 18
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are getting used to rallying in the fourth quarter or overtime this season. In four of the team's last five wins, they've been forced to overcome a deficit in the final couple of minutes to escape with a victory from the jaws of defeat.
That was the storyline yet again on Sunday afternoon when the Buccaneers found themselves trailing 21-10 in the final frame against the Carolina Panthers. A loss meant the NFC South title and a playoff berth would be at stake for the franchise.
Instead, Tom Brady turned back the clock and Mike Evans stepped up as Tampa Bay outscored Carolina 20-10 in the fourth quarter to pull out a win.
Entering the final week of the regular season with a spot in the postseason guaranteed, there was some wonder if head coach Todd Bowles would rest his starters or give them time off.
On Monday, Bowles clarified his plans. He thinks it's more beneficial for the team to build momentum on the field against Atlanta prior to the playoffs rather than decreasing the intensity for a week.
“Right now I’m planning on playing them,” Bowles said on Monday. “We’ll see as the week goes forward, but we can get better at a lot of things that we need to work on, and we don’t need to take our foot off the gas.”
Obviously, that leaves the possibility of an impact player suffering an injury against the Falcons. It's something to balance but Bowles believes that's not a topic that the team can let consume their thought process.
“I mean, it’s football. You can’t play 16 games and then worry about the 17th,” Bowles said. “You can’t play three preseason games and 16 games and practice every day and say you may get hurt in the 17th game. You can get hurt the first week, you can get hurt in training camp. If you worry about that, you’re probably going to get hurt anyway.
“We signed up to play football and coach football, that’s what we’re going to do. Everybody that loves football, that loves to play, will play the game," Bowles continued. "Injuries are going to happen. That doesn’t mean it happens in Week 17, the playoff game or preseason. You’ve just got to coach it and you’ve got to play it. If you worry about injuries, you probably don’t need to be playing this sport.”
Football is physical, and injuries are bound to pop up. Just look at starting center Ryan Jensen, who went down due to a non-contact injury in the preseason and is working his way toward a return.
Plus, this gives Brady a better chance of not finishing with a below .500 record for the first time in his professional career.
The Buccaneers and Falcons will kick off at 1 p.m. on Sunday in Atlanta.
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