Mastermind Win For Todd Bowles?
December 3rd, 2025
Joe spent a chunk of Tuesday catching up on Monday sports radio shows — in Arizona.
And a very common theme is under the skin of Cardinals faithful after losing to the Bucs on Sunday.
It revolves around two postgame comments made by Tampa Bay head coach/defensive coordinator Todd Bowles immediately after the game. To say many folks in Arizona were hung up on Bowles’ words would be an understatement.
The Bucs defense locked down the Cardinals twice on fourth down in the game, the second time ended the contest, a four-and-out deep in Cardinals territory.
Regarding the first stuff of the Cardinals on fourth down, a big play by Anthony Nelson, Bowles casually told local Tampa-based reporters, “The formation told us the ball was going outside. They did a heck of a job with the film study; Nellie made a heck of a play.”
That outraged fans in the desert. Bowles knew what was coming based on the formation? The Cardinals were outcoached, fans barked.
And then there was the final Cardinals offensive play, a pass breakup by SirVocea Dennis over the middle on 4th-and-2. Of that play Bowles said, “We kind of knew what the route was.”
Whoa! That set off a storm in Phoenix, especially combined with Bowles’ take on the Nelson play.
It sure sounds like Arizona got outcoached in big moments.
Former Bucs and Cardinals center A.Q. Shipley works on Cardinals radio broadcasts, in addition to his work on The Pat McAfee Show on ESPN. He spoke Monday on sports radio 98.7 FM in Arizona about how Bowles is in a class with Seattle’s defensive-minded head coach Mike Macdonald when it comes to being “pretty brilliant” at picking up offenses’ tendencies.
Of course, the fourth-down success was needed to balance the Cardinals marching up and down the field on the Bucs to the tune of 386 yards of offense. But Arizona did the same thing to the Colts defense (400 yards) and hung 488 yards on a proud San Francisco defense two weeks ago, so it was hardly a shocking output.
December 3rd, 2025 at 12:04 pm
Let the yokels here tell it, players are unprepared, uninspired, poorly coached and so on. Yet, players are making plays, because they’re doing film study and being clued into to tells of an opponents tendency x out of y-formation. Guess we can categorize that as fan-fiction.
“Of course, the fourth-down success was needed to balance the Cardinals marching up and down the field on the Bucs to the tune of 386 yards of offense.”
Oof, yards gained doesn’t automatically equate to points scored, but go on and cook. “hung 488 yard” as if the yardage means they moved the ball enough to win or “hang 40 points”
December 3rd, 2025 at 12:07 pm
Guess we see that a little differently Joe. In my world, if you find an advantage over your adversary, the last thing you should do is let them know so they can fix it. Odds are very good that the next time we play the Cardinals, Todd’s words will be front-and-center in the minds of every Arizona coach so that never happens again.
It’s also kinda sad that our defensive scheme has been so weak that it took ‘tells’ by Arizona for us to really shut them down. Apparently the Patriots & Rams didn’t have those problems.
December 3rd, 2025 at 12:09 pm
It’s hard to get excited about this team knowing when we go against a top notch team/head coach Bowles will get out coached every single time.
December 3rd, 2025 at 12:10 pm
You think Todd shouldn’t say anything because we’re going to play Arizona again in like 3 years??
December 3rd, 2025 at 12:26 pm
“It sure sounds like Arizona got outcoached in big moments.”
Oh please
3 – 9 literally means the bar is not set high
December 3rd, 2025 at 12:32 pm
Warren Brooks Lynch… what are you talking about here?
As far as I can tell, that may be the first time this season his D knew what was coming and got a stop late in the game. If Bowles was able to diagnose the other teams offense in real game time more often, we wouldn’t be talking about how lousy the D is. Let’s thank the Cards ineptitude, an outside run and a 3 yard pass to the middle is playing right into Todd’s hands. They dialed up a 10-20 yard pass and we could be talking about a Sunday loss.
Bowles got 40 hung on his D the previous 2 weeks. (Rams were getting there easily if they didn’t let off in 2nd half)
December 3rd, 2025 at 12:36 pm
Let’s see what kind of games Shough and Cousins have vs this D before we put the word mastermind in any more sentences with Todd Bowles.
If it doesn’t go well, I weep for the Bucs prospects vs Carolina.
December 3rd, 2025 at 12:40 pm
WBL
dont bother brother!!!!!
folks hate the truth when it slaps them in the face….
no one has said a pep about the offense ONLY scoring 20pts vs a 3-9 ARZ team….BUCS shouldve score 30+…
but yeah, blame bowles lol
GO BUCS!!!!
December 3rd, 2025 at 12:40 pm
Cardinals are one of the worst teams in the league with one of the worst olines in the league and the bucs barely beat them last minute hmm we don’t need to focus on this or get any learned knowledge they are competing against bad teams if it looks like a duck and sounds like a duck.
December 3rd, 2025 at 12:53 pm
Mastermind/Todd Bowles – Oxymoron!
December 3rd, 2025 at 12:55 pm
Hey Saskbucs did you forget the end of the Seattle game? We also beat the 49ers and Houston. With all our weapons, this team is going to be incredibly dangerous to deal with. Imagine trying to stop Bucky-Tucker, Egbuka, Evans, Godwin, and Macmillan? Going to be incredibly difficult to avoid having someone wide open on EVERY PLAY!
December 3rd, 2025 at 1:07 pm
it took ‘tells’ by Arizona for us to really shut them down
where im from, thats called film study and preparation lol
but yeah, blame bowles lol…
GO BUCS!!!!
December 3rd, 2025 at 1:07 pm
Something to consider:
When scoring 20 points oor less, the Denver Broncos are 4-1.
The rest of the league – 24-126. We played a good game. Not our fault were were officiated out of 10 more points. If we had won 30-17, there would have been less whining.
December 3rd, 2025 at 1:12 pm
Perhaps Todd knows how he’s been ripped by the fan base the last month. Maybe he felt the need to toss a nugget , reflecting that he indeed has some knowledge and legitimacy as a defensive mind. Call it a subconscious defense mechanism . Every one needs a little validation when it comes to our careers.
December 3rd, 2025 at 1:14 pm
Man this guy gets complaints and “fans” still make excuses why he no good. You losers need to go root for one of the AFC Florida teams
December 3rd, 2025 at 1:15 pm
@Sasbucks
I didn’t write what I said in mandarin or deustche, read it again.
There’s a difference between preparation and proper execution
“If Bowles was able to diagnose the other teams offense in real game time more often, we wouldn’t be talking about how lousy the D is.”
All this prep happens in the week of preparation leading up to the game, by time the game rolls around the HCs ability to diagnosis things happening between the lines has no bearing on his players seeing it through between whistles. Basic football logic, the beauty of the game is going 11 parts to function as 1, but that seems to be lost on fans in time when teams are down.
Which prompts fans like you to start talking about coaching as if it’s as easy as sitting on a chez lounge with your bucs gear and your bucs PS5 remote controlling everything everyone does.
December 3rd, 2025 at 1:16 pm
Deeboooo Says:
December 3rd, 2025 at 1:14 pm
Man this guy gets complaints and “fans” still make excuses why he no good. You losers need to go root for one of the AFC Florida teams
SAY IT LOUDER FOR THE CLOWNS IN THE BACK!!!!!
GO BUCS!!!!
December 3rd, 2025 at 1:28 pm
I watched the game and I saw two bad teams playing bad football.
AZ was just worse than the Bucs.
December 3rd, 2025 at 1:30 pm
Nice work Tom Moore
December 3rd, 2025 at 1:33 pm
Bowles may be brilliant picking up tendencies once the game starts but his defensive gameplan always seems pretty clueless on the first couple drives, doesn’t it?
December 3rd, 2025 at 1:43 pm
Todd needs to do more at not so key moments too!
December 3rd, 2025 at 1:55 pm
What DeeBooo said!
December 3rd, 2025 at 2:13 pm
I heard that Todd Bowles needs to be fired so we can get the next Schiano , Raheem , Lovie, Koetter in here
December 3rd, 2025 at 2:21 pm
Thanks, Joe, for the report from behind enemy lines. I had never thought of Bowles as the taunting type before, but I guess when your team’s 3-9, having the opposition distinguish a run formation from a pass formation must seem like cheating. Did Brady bring that down from Boston?