Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Todd Bowles opted to force overtime against Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs rather than attempt a go-ahead two-point try. He .
Bowles said Monday following the 30-24 OT loss that he briefly thought about going for the two-point attempt to take the lead.
"Very minor. We wanted to get it to overtime," he said, via the official transcript. "With the wet conditions on the field, we wanted overtime instead of going for two. We had our shots, and we lost the game."
Bowles was pressed on whether anyone in the booth suggested he go for two.
"No, we went for one. We took our shots," he said. "We had our chances the whole game. It didn't come down to that."
Ultimately, it came down to the overtime coin toss, which Tampa lost. In those wet conditions, the Chiefs drove down the field and scored a game-ending TD.
The Bucs scored with a touchdown with 27 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter, so there is some logic to thinking even if the two-point try had succeeded, Mahomes might have had enough time to get into field goal range for the win in regulation. Bowles didn't relay that as a reason he didn't try to take the lead.
The thornier issue than deciding not to go for two was Tampa's timeout with 33 seconds left after Trey Palmer was tackled at the 1-yard-line. That stoppage ensured that Mahomes would get another shot in regulation instead of the Bucs completely controlling the end of the game. At the very least, make the Chiefs use a timeout to save clock. Instead, Tampa called their final timeout, making their final play calls obvious and saving time for Mahomes.
The entire drive should have been planned not to give the ball back to Mahomes, either in regulation or overtime. In a rarity, it set up for Tampa to potentially have that option. Instead, a coin toss was the decider.
It's admirable that Bowles trusted his defense to get a stop. Given how the Chiefs rolled through them for much of the game, he should have trusted his offense more in those final seconds to pull the upset over an undefeated defending champion on the road.
Chiefs coach Andy Reid was asked after the win if he was surprised Bowles didn't go for two.
"No, but I'm glad he didn't," Reid responded.
When your opponent is happy with your decision, it's probably a poor one.
