TAMPA, Fla. — Todd Bowles delivered a message to his team with an uncharacteristic profanity-laced reaction during a postgame news conference after the Tampa Bay Buccaneers blew a 14-point fourth-quarter lead last week.
Whether it impacts the team’s performance will be known Sunday.
The Buccaneers (7-7) have lost five of their past six games and six of their past eight heading into a showdown for first place in the NFC South Division against the Carolina Panthers (7-7) at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina.
“Accountability could be doing little things right, it could be teammates talking to each other, you’re talking to yourself, coaches talking to each other,” Bowles said Wednesday. “We understood the message after the ballgame. We met on it, we talked about it, we got it out of our system. Everybody is hard at work and trying to do the right things to win the ballgame.”
Bowles lashed out at his team directly and in a news conference after the Bucs wasted a 28-14 lead at home and lost 29-28 in a Thursday night game to Atlanta Falcons, a struggling division rival that was already out of the running for a playoff spot.
“They got the message,” he said. “It’s football, guys. I don’t know. There have probably been a billion stories written when coaches have lost that got pissed off and said something to their guys. It’s not an issue. We’re fine.”
The Bucs technically don’t have to win Sunday in the first of two meetings over the next three weeks against the Panthers. They will secure their fifth straight division title with two victories in the final three games. Or, they would clinch with one win out of two games against the Panthers if Carolina also loses to the NFC West’s Seattle Seahawks, a playoff hopeful, in between the matchups with the Bucs.
Tampa Bay visits the Miami Dolphins, already eliminated from postseason contention, in between facing the Panthers.
“You’re going to lose some games in this league,” Bowles said. “We’ve all lost some throughout our entire lives. You don’t like it that day, but you get up the next day, put your head down, you go to work, and you try to correct the little things, and you move on. You don’t hold it and make it any tougher than it has to be. It’s a football game.”
The Bucs started this season 5-1 and were 6-2 entering their open date. They’ve lost to the New England Patriots, Buffalo Bills, Los Angeles Rams, New Orleans Saints and Atlanta since coming back. Their only win was 20-17 against the lowly Arizona Cardinals.
“We still have everything right in front of us,” Bowles said. “We’ve got some things to clean up, but it’s about right where you need to be at this time with everybody fighting for a playoff spot. We’re playing meaningful games in December, and that’s all you can ask for.”
Bowles questioned whether some players care enough after the loss to the Falcons. Quarterback Baker Mayfield also has called out teammates previously, and All-Pro left tackle Tristan Wirfs hoped players would “stew” over the loss to Atlanta last weekend.
Still, players aren’t pointing fingers directly.
“The finger pointing (is) only happening if you have bad culture in the building,” Mayfield said. “That’s not a problem we have to deal with. We met on Monday with the offense, and I told them what I said in the postgame press conference. I said it’s on me, it’s on this group, I expect us to be able to score more than 28 (points) in a situation like that and put the game out of reach. You just nip it in the bud in the beginning.”