Buccaneers head coach Todd Bowles dropped seven f-bombs during his postgame press conference Thursday night, one for every loss his team has suffered this season.
The Buccaneers had a chance to right the ship Thursday night with a crucial late-season matchup against division-rival Atlanta. Instead, the Bucs lost 29-28.
In his postgame press conference, Bowles unleashed a torrent of frustration at his players, questioning their effort and commitment, and punctuated those concerns with four-letter expletives to make sure the message got through.
“It’s inexcusable,” Bowles said. “You don’t make excuses. You’ve got to f—ing care enough where this s— hurts. You’ve got to f—ing care enough where this s— hurts. It’s got to f—ing mean something to you. It’s more than a job, it’s your f—ing livelihood.
“How well do you know your job? How well can you do your job? Well, you can’t sugarcoat that s—. It was in-f—ing-excusable, and there’s no f—ing answer for it. No excuse for it. That’s what you tell them in the locker room. Look in the f—ing mirror.”
Anyone who thinks Bowles’ profanity-laced tirade was theatrics or all for show should rewatch the game. The Bucs lost at home in a game in which the Falcons committed an absurd 19 penalties and were led by backup QB Kirk Cousins, who somehow was allowed to complete a 4th-and-14 after facing a 3rd-and-28.
“At this point, you’ve seen everything in the season,” Bowles said. “The coaches have done everything they can do. This is a player-driven team in the last four or five weeks. You’ve got to execute, and they’ve got to hold each other accountable. As a coach, you can sit there until you’re blue in the face. Until they start holding each other accountable and doing the little things right — and that’s not everybody, you know, we’re talking about a small, select few. But the small, select few is what’s getting us beat. And until that happens, it’s not going to get right.”
The good news is that Tampa has plenty of division matchups left to try to win its division. The bad news is, like Bowles said, if they play like they did Thursday night, it won’t happen.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.