Todd Bowles: Defense Shouldn’t Need To Blitz On Third-And-Real-Long
December 12th, 2025
Bucs coach Todd Bowles reacts to a play Thursday night.
The Bucs looked like they had wrapped up a win. The Bucs led 28-26 with just over a minute to play.
Atlanta had third-and-28 from their own-29. After a Kirk Cousins completion, Atlanta had fourth-and-14. That, too, became a completed pass for a first down.
On neither play did Bucs coach Todd Bowles blitz. He explained he shouldn’t have had to if his players didn’t have their heads up their backsides.
“Third-and-28, you got to be able to play it,” Bowles said. “It is third-and-28. It doesn’t matter whether you rush four men, five men, six men, you know where the ball is going, you got to get off the field.
“It was inexcusable the way we played the fourth-and-14.”
Bowles was asked again why he didn’t blitz to force Cousins into a hurried throw, or maybe get a sack.
“Fourth-and-14, they get one out quick, throw a screen, there’s nobody there, it’s a touchdown,” Bowles said. “That’s not even an issue right there.”
Joe agrees on third-and-28. Whoever butchered that play ought to be on a different team next fall. Outside of Vita Vea, Jamel Dean and Jacob Parrish, please tell Joe one player who the Bucs need on the field to win.
Something’s going on with Antoine Winfield. Since he had two touchdowns robbed from him in New Orleans, it’s almost like he’s shut it down.
The issue with that is, you start tossing players overboard, there won’t be anyone left with a new coach next year. Because the way the Bucs are cratering, Joe has no idea how safe Bowles’ gig is.
December 12th, 2025 at 7:04 am
What’s the teams identity – where are we built to dominate. We don’t have the players and that falls on everyone involved. Licht and coaches
December 12th, 2025 at 7:10 am
Text from my daughter last night after the game: “If he’s not gone after this fire Licht too. Pathetic performance by everyone”.
She forgot to add everyone not named Mike Evans. But I too have joined the crowd that wants to send Bowles overboard. It’s time. Maybe we wait until the end of the season but it has to be done. Literally only a Super Bowl run should interrupt that scenario.
December 12th, 2025 at 7:13 am
Embarrasing defense
December 12th, 2025 at 7:14 am
Licht needs to get off his high horse and trade for a legit pass rusher. It’s damn sad he gets a pass and touts, “muh draft picks”. Inexcusable. Sad for the team, and fans.
Glad you called out Winfield, Joe, where the hell is that guy? He looks sorry out there.
December 12th, 2025 at 7:17 am
I wonder if Winfield is one of the players whom Bowles mentioned as being one of “the small, select few is what’s getting us beat”. Dude does seem to have kind of gone on autopilot since getting robbed in New Orleans. Joe, unless the Glazers have mellowed since they launched Dungy, Gruden, Lovie, Toes to the Line Greg and Dirk Koetter: Todd has to know that loss probably cooked his goose. The trajectory of this team is heading south, fast….. It is easier to can a coach than release most of the defense and special teams players.
December 12th, 2025 at 7:19 am
When you don’t get pressure all game with a 4 man pass rush…you blitz to provide that pressure.
Awful coaching, awful quarterback play, awful team!
December 12th, 2025 at 7:20 am
Still mad this morning. What a joke of a team. I want names of players who are laying down. Winfield is invisible. Light can’t draft an edge rusher, so he better trade for one. It’s pathetic watching Baker take needless sacks, miss open dudes, throw dumb picks, and a hospital ball to Mike. He’s got to be hurt, but no excuses. He hits Egbuka late in stride and we win. He missed. He didn’t do anytime g the last couple drives. Definitely not paying him this offseason, he can wait and see how he does next years. 🤮
December 12th, 2025 at 7:21 am
Remember the zero blitz Todd threw at the Rams in the title game? We lose when we blitz, we lose when we don’t. Right now we’re just losers. No way Todd comes back after this. We’ve lost two weeks in a row at home against the two worst teams in the division. Another primetime loss. 1, out of 9. we have a losing home record. Den of depression anyone? I expect the final nail when we travel to Carolina.
December 12th, 2025 at 7:22 am
On that 4th and 14 play, anyone else think that Kindle Vildor seemed more distracted by Bijan Robinson in the flat than worrying about the dang WR running past him to the sticks? He never turns around, backpedals the whole time and gets thrown over. Inexcusable.
December 12th, 2025 at 7:23 am
Obvious there is a need to blitz Todd! Another example of wrong/bad calls at the wrong time by the head guy! Fans deserve better! I would say fire him now, but I don’t think there’s any coach on the roster that is up to a head coaching job…but TB isn’t that guy either!
December 12th, 2025 at 7:24 am
For God’s sake how many freaking excuses is this numbskull gonna throw out?
December 12th, 2025 at 7:27 am
“Kirk 3rd and 28”
December 12th, 2025 at 7:28 am
And the Falcons didn’t even have their best receiver. SMH
December 12th, 2025 at 7:31 am
Hey Joe
Vita vea was not on the field for the 3rd and 28 and 4th and 14
It’s actually worse. The Bucs allowed 4 scores in final 10 minutes with 3 full drives. It was only a 2 possession game but they got 2 TDS, 2-point conversion and the FG
Dave more ripped the Bucs for blitzing on 1st and 2nd down that caused them to be in 3rd and 28 and then switching to zone which Moore says the Bucs KNOW they can’t play
If there is real accountability then cut Vildor who gave up the 2 plays because who cares!! Remember Morrison was a healthy catch
December 12th, 2025 at 7:35 am
Joe, it’s disappointing that you’re still not calling out Bowles – he’s blaming his players, not taking any responsibility.
December 12th, 2025 at 7:42 am
Season’s over! Thanks, Clueless Todd! You did it! The defensive genius strikes again!
December 12th, 2025 at 7:44 am
Hey Guys, look at the positives!
At least we won’t lose our Offensive Coordinator this off season!!
Really hope the Bucs don’t backdoor their way into the playoffs.
I don’t wanna watch any extra games from this team.
Come’on Offseason!
December 12th, 2025 at 7:54 am
Just like Winfield, Bowels got his bag. No urgency, drive or motivation to do anything but go through the motions.
December 12th, 2025 at 7:54 am
Capt. Tim,
If Todd gets fired, so will Grizz!
December 12th, 2025 at 7:57 am
The loss is not all on Bowles. He’s not out there playing defense. Most of you are forgetting that Todd Bowles’s defense held the Chiefs to 9 points and no touchdowns so it’s not as if he forgot how to coach a defense.
There are several players who are putting bad tape out there. They’ll be out of a job pretty soon as well.
This disastrous season is also on Jason Licht, but I’m not saying he should be let go.
December 12th, 2025 at 7:57 am
Got out-coached again. Defensive guru? Being the HC as well as the DC is too much for him. Cant demote himself so its time to do whatever you do when you lose your job. Sorry.
December 12th, 2025 at 8:05 am
Atlanta hadn’t scored a TD in 14 drives prior this game. Riddle me this Batman, why didn’t they run Irving more instead of leave it all in faker Bakers hands? The guy sees ghosts.
December 12th, 2025 at 8:06 am
FYI, the Patriots don’t need injury prone Godwin!
December 12th, 2025 at 8:09 am
Doesn’t matter what he did years ago at this point it matters what he is doing now. This defense looks nothing like it did during that Superbowl run it looks like a team that doesn’t believe what this coach is selling and with toad blaming players now it isnt a good thing he is doing that now he is truly floundering.
December 12th, 2025 at 8:12 am
Notice Baker after his offense was forced into that last punt?
He sat on the sideline with his head down, knowing it was over. He knew this defense had no answer for the great Kurt Cousins!
He spurred to life again when it was 2nd and 28, but again quickly returned to defeatism mode after the easy first down.
We need a young, highly intelligent head coach who is versatile—not set in outdated, intransigent thought patterns.
And if Licht can’t find one, get rid of him too.
Remember when Licht signed Reddick and it was considered a steal? It was, only in reverse. Reddick pickpocketed the Bucs as he did the year before with the Jets.
December 12th, 2025 at 8:16 am
Rome. Yea when he was the DC and Arians tells him stay aggressive!!
Arians has balls radio is super soft and scared.
December 12th, 2025 at 8:19 am
Bowles needs to be fired. Take Jason Licht with you.
December 12th, 2025 at 8:20 am
We’ll still lose the OC. He’s gonna go along with the clueless buffoon of a head coach.
December 12th, 2025 at 8:28 am
Few time the rush got to Kirk, they just touched him like its not tackle football…. call it coaching, but those men are trash… Parish??? Can he do anything?
December 12th, 2025 at 8:31 am
@Leighroy
Vildor, who I actually like, had a terrible game. Also, Nick Jackson at LB was late to everything which is to be expected from a rookie that has not played.
FInally, how are our players falling all over the place due to the field, yet the Falcons look surefooted on both sides of the ball?
December 12th, 2025 at 8:33 am
Embrace the suck
December 12th, 2025 at 8:34 am
he talks like isnt his defense and like he is not making the calls and like he is not the one that send the DE to cover WR, freaking joke. So happy today,
December 12th, 2025 at 8:36 am
BOWLES NEEDS TO GO AND TAKE GZZ WITH YOU . THAT LAST PLAY CALL POSSESSION, SUCKED BIG TIME ! AS WELL AS CLOCK MANAGEMENT.
December 12th, 2025 at 8:36 am
Most of you are forgetting that Todd Bowles’s defense held the Chiefs to 9 points and no touchdowns
You are forgetting Kansas City was missing its starting offensive line.
December 12th, 2025 at 8:41 am
That was horrible. ME13 was pissed. That man is a beast playing with lambs. Run the dang ball. BM threw the losing pick when it should have been ground and pound. Id be a better OC. WTF???????
December 12th, 2025 at 8:49 am
dont toss them overboard….
trade em lol…i dont care if its a 6th round pick…trade winfield and zyon
a message needs to be sent to the locker room….for the next coach bc bowles is gon
GO BUCS!!!!
December 12th, 2025 at 8:52 am
They also shouldn’t play 25 yards deep on a third and 28. The only person hurting them besides the running back all day was Kyle Pitts and he was 10 yards down field and nobody was within 10 yards. Absolutely horrific soft zone gave them a manageable fourth and nine, ball game.
I am now 100% behind the “fire Todd Bowles” crowd.
Losses to the Saints and the Falcons because the defense cannot make a stop to help win a game. Doesn’t matter who the quarterback is they pass all over his scheme. It’s not always the players. Yes, mistakes are made but the scheme sucks. It’s gotten worse over the years.
New HC/ DC
December 12th, 2025 at 9:10 am
The defense is a Joke.
Bowles need to relinquish his Defensive Coordinator responsibilities and the Bucs need to hire a real defensive coordinator or Fire Bowles completely.
How can you be a defensive guru when your defense is consistently one of the worst and gives up big plays like this team consistently does.
Baker needs to do better too. Get rid of the ball faster, stop getting sacked and passes batted down.
December 12th, 2025 at 9:13 am
Well then draft better
December 12th, 2025 at 9:38 am
What “should” be is irrelevant to what is.
December 12th, 2025 at 9:44 am
OR… players are so confused by the over-complicated defense that they don’t know where to be.
It’s not like these guys haven’t played football. They know what to do in a 3rd and 28 but they are afraid to follow their gut and make a play.
Bowles is throwing his players under the bus for HIS bad coaching/system.
December 12th, 2025 at 10:00 am
There you have it Joes. Nailed the ‘Five friggin’ Things’ again. And Bowles afterward standing at the podium as if he’s an innocent bystander. Boy, I’d love to know what Mike Evans was barking at Bowles on that last fatal Falcons drive. Evans is an absolute Dawg! He sees right through this crap.
December 12th, 2025 at 10:19 am
If you have some key players shutting down on the defense than you have a serious problem.
What is it with Tood Bowles that’s causing this. Their won’t be open discussions about this but it up to the Bucs management and owners to address it. It’s been going on too long and it’s stopping the Bucs chances of success.
If not addressed than it’s going to be Smith 2 all over again. FIX IT.
December 12th, 2025 at 10:19 am
Last 2 years- other teams stole our OCs.
Not this year! No team is gonna steal The Griz away from us!
See- A positive.
We’ll probably fire him- but nobody is gonna steal him.
December 12th, 2025 at 10:28 am
Carolina is more than capable of losing the next four.
December 12th, 2025 at 10:38 am
I’m Pissed Joe. Sitting here drinking my Monday AM Java. Really chompin at the bit man. About 1000 of us should show up at Buc one place demanding Bowles be fired immediately. Hell, I’ll drive him to Tampa International. 28 pts is enough to win in this league. Bowles Defense is horendous. I can hear Cousins laughing in the locker room, You like that huh Bucs? I know something is wrong with me because I’m starting to want the Panthers to beat us. FIRE BOWLES PLEASE!!
December 12th, 2025 at 10:43 am
Apparently Todd, you DO have to blitz on 3rd and 28, because it’s not really 3rd and 28 it’s 3rd and 14 since they will split the yards needed into two chunks and go for it on 4th, which is exactly what they did.
The very few plays that worked on defense was out of a blitz so why oh gawd WHY would you stop doing what works and go back to what doesn’t when the game is on the line?????
December 12th, 2025 at 11:01 am
A normal 34 defense shouldn’t but Bowles toilet defense requires it because unlike most defensive “gurus” he seemingly doesn’t covet good d linemen instead creating “exotic” blitzes that only fool his own players. He has linemen and linebackers in constant mismatches against rbs, tightends and even receivers while guys who should stay in coverage he has constantly rushing the qb. No wonder they can’t do their job they trained for coming up because they’re not allowed to do it. Bowles deserves the title Coach My Scheme No Matter What. It’s amazing there are a few cornballs up here who ride his zipper still
December 12th, 2025 at 11:42 am
He showed his azz now with that ignorant statement. He doesn’t know his team at all. No matter what personnel is one the field, he’s calling the play the same. He’s a lazy coach that just expects every player to play exactly the same no matter what the personnel grouping or talent level.
December 12th, 2025 at 11:53 am
If we had a real defensive HC like Vrabel, Winfield wouldn’t be sucking cause he would be getting chewed out and his butt kicked by a guy with some fire.
Yeah I’m sure the players screwed it up, but you also screwed it up Todd cause Cousins can read you like a book. There were many ways to defend those distances and you chose the one you always do … like Joe said… the definition of insanity.
There should have been 8 guys between the 10 and 18 yard line if you weren’t gonna blitz instead we had 5 or 6 guys inside 10 yards haha.
December 12th, 2025 at 12:20 pm
The zone should work — based on what evidence? Your trash zone hasn’t worked — ever. Just saying it should work so you’re going to keep calling it over and over and over regardless of results, that more than anything should get you fired.
Now I’m going to go wait by my door since Sydney Sweeney should be showing up ready for some action. I have no evidence that will happen – no proof it will happen – but it SHOULD happen so I’ll just go wait.
December 12th, 2025 at 12:24 pm
It’s clear that nothing Todd does before, during and after a game is likely to win the game. He has always been over his head as a defensive coordinator and head coach. He’s a terrible evaluator of talent. He’s a terrible game manager. He should do us all a favor and resign today and let someone else lose the next three games.
December 12th, 2025 at 12:41 pm
2 out of 3 wind Bowles is safe.
December 12th, 2025 at 1:48 pm
great …fire todd bowles then what? it’s not todd’s job to cover or rush… his scheme is bad but a lot of this blame is on the players
December 12th, 2025 at 1:56 pm
Here we go, the Bowles haters are out in mass. Who are we gonna get? Who’s the coach of the future? As a Bucs fan for life, I’ve seen this play out before. So we’re having an off season, yeah let’s go ahead and just reset everything. That always works, right? Newsflash, it doesn’t work. Steady the ship, accept we’re not the best and healthiest team this year, congratulate Carolina if they win the division. It’s not Thuglanta or the Sharts at least. We’ll survive, we’ll get healthy, we’ll come back stronger. Or we’ll reset everything and start to rebuild (ugg). I still believe we have great coaches and GM. They’re not on the field, they’re not the ones who are dropping passes or not covering the way they are coached. That’s just me though, I’m just trying to detail the hate train.
December 12th, 2025 at 3:32 pm
How do you go from 6-2 to losing 5 of the last 6 games, directly falls on coaching and piss poor execution from some player’s. I knew after the Saint’s lose that this season was down the toilet. Thursday night against the Falcons was the worst lose I’ve in the NFL in a very long time, heads need to roll in this off-season. SMH, it’s sad being a Buc’s fan right now
December 12th, 2025 at 3:36 pm
And lost in this is the fact they we conceded the 35 yard line on every kickoff because we can’t cover kickoffs properly.
December 12th, 2025 at 3:45 pm
How do you lose to the two worst teams in the NFL back to back at home, there’s no coming back from that. As a longtime Bucs fan, I’ve seen plenty of horrible seasons out of this team but at least those teams gave it everything they had, this team outside of Mike Evans is the most disgusting I’ve ever seen and how does BM go from being MVP favorite to this crap, something bad had to happen inside that locker room for this to take place
December 12th, 2025 at 4:05 pm
We get it, the players play the game. A decent coach prepares the players and motivates his team to play well. If Im not mistaken doesn’t Todd Toilet bowles call the defensive plays? Isn’t he supposed to put his guys in the best scenario to make those plays? When we lose he needs to start taking some of the blame and stop throwing his players under the bus in the media. Then behind the curtains hold them responsible and rip them a new one. Nobody is motivated playing for Bowles anymore. Stop with this mediocrity every year and hire new management please!
December 12th, 2025 at 6:40 pm
Rod Munch says this: Now I’m going to go wait by my door since Sydney Sweeney should be showing up ready for some action. I have no evidence that will happen – no proof it will happen – but it SHOULD happen so I’ll just go wait. *********** LOL!!!!!!!!!!! so funny! good laugh!
December 12th, 2025 at 9:10 pm
He can say you shouldn’t have to blitz all he wants, but Kirk was carving up his soft zone all game long. When he blitzed multiple times on that drive, he forced Kirk into bad/short throws. If he blitzes the dude on 3rd and 28, they might have been in either 4th and 28 or 4th and much longer than 14. You don’t go with what you should be able to do…you go with what’s working, which was blitzing. That’s why he’s a dumb a$$ and needs to go.
December 12th, 2025 at 10:05 pm
Vea needs help and you let the biggest player leave. They double team vea run the left side all night. No pass rusher on cousin all day.So third and 28 no blitz, at least one.
December 13th, 2025 at 7:25 am
If Bowles were to be relieved of his DC role what exactly would be his role going forward..What value would he be bringing to the team.. Coach Nice Guy? It seems over last few seasons he has had a reduction in responsibilities.
I’m all for reducing his role and responsibilities. But the answer does not lie in half measures. He should be relived of all responsibilities. Of course I have been saying this for years now and some of you are starting to finally get the message. That is good. It’s taken a near full collapse for that to happen but better late than never. Not exactly an epiphany, yet here we are.
The Glazers are on the clock.
December 15th, 2025 at 11:55 pm
Refresh articles