ATLANTA — Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Todd Bowles said Friday morning that he wishes his defense had done more to slow the Atlanta Falcons on their final drive of regulation in Thursday night’s 36-30 overtime loss.
Instead, the Falcons were able to spike the ball with 0:01 left to set up a 52-yard, game-tying field goal from Atlanta kicker Younghoe Koo.
“We should have laid on ’em more. We kind of got up,” Bowles said.
The Bucs had quickly gone three-and-out after a Lavonte David interception, with two negative run plays and a holding call on center Graham Barton. The Falcons then got the ball back at their own 20-yard line with 1:14 to go in regulation. The Falcons ran six offensive plays and spiked the ball twice in that period.
Bowles, who was appointed to the NFL’s competition committee in August, also said that he is hopeful that the NFL can review face mask calls, or non-calls, after a blatant one was missed on running back Bucky Irving. The NFL rulebook states that “if a player grasps an opponent’s facemask, he must immediately release it.”
“Hopefully we can get to that and we’re trying to get to that right there,” Bowles said. “I think it should be reviewed from the top or at least be reviewed by the coaches, if anything else so they don’t miss much calls.”
