Todd Bowles Addresses Goal Line Failures
October 31st, 2025
What was running through Todd Bowles’ head when he watched his offense fail over and over and over at the Saints’ 1 yard line like it did Sunday?
The question was posed to Bowles on the Ira Kaufman Podcast episode published yesterday.
“We gotta be able to punch it in there,” Bowles said. “The back’s gotta slam it in there. The line’s gotta block and we gotta have the right call on, too. I mean, they’re packing it in there and we don’t have it, you gotta be able to do something else as well. We can’t be stubborn and just beat our heads up against the wall. We gotta understand that. So from a players and a coaches standpoint, we gotta be better.”
Joe hopes the Bucs going 1-for-8 Sunday from the 1 yard line became an incredibly valuable learning experience for the entire Bucs staff.
What a nightmare it was.
Joe suspects if there is a next struggling time, Baker Mayfield (a healthy version) will run a quarterback sneak and expect his linemen to have his back. Or Bowles will call a timeout to gather his offense. Or playcaller Josh Grizzard will have something more innovative than channeling the Bucs’ 1976 offense.
October 31st, 2025 at 4:57 pm
I agree. On the first futile series I saw Grizz pissed on the sidelines like he was saying ” we can’t run it in from one yard?” but I think he was cussing. So was I. Didn’t see the second series, I turned it off cause I was down to my working remote, the others being demolition derby participants.
October 31st, 2025 at 5:01 pm
As much heat as Grizz took for that playcalling, our O line has never struggled like that. That should have been an easy score.
October 31st, 2025 at 5:03 pm
I really think Bucky would have got it in. He’s so little and shifty. He can squeeze through tighter windows. I’d still spread out a wide formation and let him fine a gap.
White runs soft. He’s done a good job this year but he’s more Marshall Falk than Derrick Henry.
Tucker got it done … but here’s the thing … Tucker is one of the fastest guys on the field. Let him run to the edges. He’ll likely beat the defense in a foot race.
October 31st, 2025 at 5:08 pm
Inevitable we got a TD a few plays later (Nelson), which wouldn’t have happened without the misses. Then we got in the next time we were down there. It’s good to be working on those issues when effectively no TDs were lost.
October 31st, 2025 at 6:04 pm
“…Baker Mayfield (a healthy version)…”
So Joe’s smelling that as well. So far it’s just been jibber jabber from us in the peanut gallery.
October 31st, 2025 at 6:06 pm
Wasn’t it technically 1-9 from the 1 yard line? I recall the slimy Saints getting flagged on first down and we took the penalty since we didn’t score. Then followed that up with 0-4 up the gut from the 1/2 yd line. So that’s 1-9 on the day. After it was clear we were losing the battle up front, Grizz should’ve pivoted. Will be interesting to see what he does next time.
October 31st, 2025 at 6:19 pm
Watch the tape, the only reason Tucker got in was because Heck grabbed him and pushed him over the line. The o line was getting owned, out muscled and humiliated. They better get their act together against NE, the Bills and the Rams.
October 31st, 2025 at 6:23 pm
grizzard two weeks in a row getting spanked in public by the boss. he seems to have forgotten his third down guru playbook when he got promoted.
October 31st, 2025 at 6:26 pm
Wonder what happened to the old “dive play”? Seems like every team used to run it.
That goal line series was hard to watch 🤬
Definitely going to be interesting after the bye. We HAVE to run the ball! Grizz and Carbs are going to be working hard, I’m sure, to fix it. Not going to be easy with missing pieces but that’s what they’re paid for.
October 31st, 2025 at 6:26 pm
Todd, time to be a head coach and make sure that embarrassing stank gets fixed. Not only on the goal line. The blocking for pass and run has gone into the sewer.
Hey, it looks like you fixed the Magoo Special Bus. You have a rookie play caller. Help him evolve. LFG.
October 31st, 2025 at 6:55 pm
Vita vea goal line package
October 31st, 2025 at 6:58 pm
Todd Bowles in his remarks covered the waterfront. We gotta, gotta , gotta……..No kidding? Todd B you are the head coach. How are you going to fix it besides saying “ we gotta.”
October 31st, 2025 at 6:59 pm
Big V….and I mean give him the ball…the last time i saw him attempt, he was blocking and flew right past the d line, they tackled the rb behind him for no gain.
October 31st, 2025 at 7:08 pm
we got it in against the texans so credit the saints… but bounce tucker outside and he’ll race to the pylon like he’s done many times
October 31st, 2025 at 7:38 pm
Could be Grizzard has his reasons for those play calls. The 2 fade routes to short guys were as dumb or dumber than the slammed runs time after time. He’s a tad stubborn too, it appears. And Baker could have audibled out of any of those snaps. I think maybe Grizz and Baker were on the same page. Baker is stubborn too. Lessons learned sometimes don’t pay off in the short term.
October 31st, 2025 at 7:42 pm
Could be Grizzard has his reasons for those play calls. The 2 fade routes to short guys were as dumb or dumber than the slammed runs time after time. He’s a tad stubborn too, it appears. May be Grizz is playing chess. Mayfield could have audibled out of any of those calls and didn’t. Maybe Grizz and Mayfield were testing our offense.
October 31st, 2025 at 7:49 pm
If I had to put a dollar in the vacation jar for every sware word I shouted at Grizz during those goal line efforts last Sunday, I would have owed somewhere around 250 dollars!! DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT!!!! PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!
October 31st, 2025 at 7:51 pm
I can tell you what went through my head. Why don’t one if these RB’s bounce it outside. If we had all our Oline starters healthy it probably would have worked.
.
October 31st, 2025 at 7:51 pm
Right on Gipper. I said the same in a post that’s being digested.
October 31st, 2025 at 7:56 pm
Fake up the middle, Baker keep around the outside with Otten leading… that would have been my call on 3rd down.
October 31st, 2025 at 8:08 pm
If he didnt say that he is incompetent everything else is BS.
October 31st, 2025 at 8:10 pm
We ran around the end in Seattle and against SF. All of a sudden we just had to jam it up the middle?
October 31st, 2025 at 9:07 pm
Everybody thinks they need to score a TD on every drive. Sometimes you just have to kick the FG. Look at what happened with USF against Memphis. They lost that game because they refused to kick the FG up 31-17 & then Memphis took over after that & won. Just because of something so simple but instead everybody thinks they need to rely on all of these analytics now instead of just kicking the FG or just punting the ball.
October 31st, 2025 at 9:12 pm
Tony
If you can’t score from the one against the Saints with five tries.. you’ve got huge problems.
Chase hit three 50+ FGs. We good there.
October 31st, 2025 at 9:14 pm
It doesn’t sound like Todd Bowles is too happy with the offensive coordinator. Has Bowles ever fired a Coach?
October 31st, 2025 at 9:23 pm
Oline playing beat and out of sync
October 31st, 2025 at 9:41 pm
Baker hasn’t been able to run in the last 2 games. What would make anyone think he was going to run anywhere?
October 31st, 2025 at 10:30 pm
with all due respect running up the middle reminded me of canales which makes me wonder if bowles was involved in both coaches play calling. so when the offensive coordinator lights it up bowles had genius picks of all the coordinators now hes has nothing to do with it?
October 31st, 2025 at 11:08 pm
There’s a whole season’s worth of excellent run game blocking (and running) to watch from last year’s games. Compare and contrast. Plan changes and execute the changes. Got a whole week.
You go, Todd and Griz. Do that coaching stuff.
October 31st, 2025 at 11:27 pm
Bucs released a video about players favorite scary movie and Goedeke was in it, in pads I think. Wondering how new that video is… would be so huge to have him and Godwin and Bucky after the bye.
November 1st, 2025 at 4:38 am
“Has Bowles ever fired a Coach?”
Leftwich was fired and replaced by Canales. That said, what are you suggesting? That we fire our O.C. midseason? And then what? Replace him with who?
November 1st, 2025 at 9:51 am
Looks like AquaBung is still at it, being entertaining. If Grizzard is smart, he’s thoroughly reviewing his first 8 games. The ridiculous referees are playing a part in messing up these games, too. How come we don’t see/hear more bootlegs and other creative calls when we’re near the promised land (goal line)?
November 1st, 2025 at 9:55 am
I was waiting and hoping for the ole tight end to fake block at the end of the line, and then release free into the end zone uncovered for an easy TD! That play should have been called and almost always seems to work
November 1st, 2025 at 10:06 am
Vita vea with a tush push. There isn’t anyone stopping that!
November 1st, 2025 at 10:37 am
Slow. Predictable. Zero imagination. Trying to jam a square peg into a round hole. Just AWFUL. Same goes for the entire rest of the gameplan. From opening drive to redzone to goal-line to you name it.
November 1st, 2025 at 12:08 pm
1st & Goal from the 1/2 yd line – can someone tell me why RWhite or Tucker didn’t just go airborne? It would have caught the Saints completely off guard and I’m certain both are athletic enough to jump and land in the endzone from the 1/2 yd line.
November 1st, 2025 at 1:22 pm
No problem with running multiple times but there was zero creativity or misdirection. Also a great time for play action to a back or TE but instead we call a fade to a super short WR?
Playcalling was just bad. O-line blocking was even worse.
November 1st, 2025 at 4:14 pm
Vita Vea as lead blocker or running it in is definitely something the Saints wouldn’t want any part of. The other play I would have tried is a PA bootleg with Baker. The defense was crowding the middle of the line. Now, whether Baker is healthy enough to potentially take on a direct hit is another story, but I wouldn’t be surprised if a PA bootleg would have been a walk-in TD with the heavy middle of the OL stack by the D – especially after running it 2 straight times down the middle.
November 2nd, 2025 at 10:44 am
One for nine.