Tony Dungy Calls Out Todd Bowles for Bad Mistake During Buccaneers-Cowboys

From one Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach to another.

Nov 17, 2024; Inglewood, California, USA; Tony Dungy attends the game between the Cincinnati Bengals and the Los Angeles Chargers at SoFi Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers had a few things go wrong in their 26-24 loss to the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday Night Football. But there was one particular moment that fans have been thinking about a day after the game.

The Buccaneers were able to score their second touchdown of the night when quarterback Baker Mayfield hit wideout Jalen McMillan for a touchdown with 48 seconds left. That's all well and good, but the Bucs had a timeout that they used the play before instead of letting the clock wind down farther than 48 seconds — and with the extra time the Bucs gave them, the Cowboys scored three points as the half expired.

Todd Bowles was criticized for the decision to keep the clock moving. When asked why he took the timeout, he simply asserted that the offense required it.

“Yeah, we needed it. Offensively, we needed it," Bowles said. "We were disheveled. We needed the timeout."

Former Buccaneers head coach Tony Dungy, who works with NBC, mentioned the decision on Football Night in America's postgame show, per JoeBucsFan. Dungy himself wasn't a fan of leaving that much time on the clock for the Cowboys.

“I thought this was not the right thing to do,” Dungy said “Go up there. Run your next play. You want to score. You’re going to have plenty of time, but they scored with 48 seconds left. [Then] Dallas moves it down; they’ve got a great long-range kicker. He makes it — three points that comes back to haunt you at the end of the game… The thing to do is line up, run your next play and if you need a timeout, then take it when it’s in the 30s (seconds left) in the 20s. Don’t take it with [54 seconds left].”

Bowles has been noted for clock management issues in the past — a spare timeout at the end of the team's playoff game against the Detroit Lions was the subject of much controversy — but he was still at the helm when the team rattled off four wins in a row after their bye week. You're only as good as your last game, though, so there will be a lot to fix when the Buccaneers host the Carolina Panthers at home.

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