A rough night for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers got worse when star receiver Chris Godwin suffered an injury in the final minute of the loss to the Baltimore Ravens on Monday Night Football.
There was initial confusion on social media about the NFL’s new onside kick rules in the immediate aftermath of the injury. The confusion was over erroneous reports (including one shared in a since-deleted post on Awful Announcing’s X account) that teams are not allowed to attempt more than two onside kicks per game. As the Buccaneers had already tried two onside kicks (with one successful), there was significant criticism that Godwin was hurt when the game was literally unwinnable.
That part was not true. It was soon clarified that while a two-onside kick maximum was discussed, trailing teams have no limits on how many onside kicks they can attempt in a game.
Correction from the previous post. There has been a fair amount of confusion tonight.
But the Bucs would have been permitted to attempt another onside kick. https://t.co/vpGgmQkUyQ
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) October 22, 2024
That said, at the time of Godwin’s injury, the Buccaneers trailed 41-31 with less than a minute remaining in the game. And while Godwin was hurt on a 21-yard completion from Baker Mayfield, they were still short of midfield. To complete a 10-point comeback, Tampa would have had to score a touchdown (with a successful PAT) and kick a field goal in some order, with a second successful onside kick in between. This would have all needed to happen in limited game time and without a time-out. Possible? Yes. Plausible? That’s a different story.
A reporter detailed the events the Buccaneers would need to tie the game before asking, “Why is Chris Godwin in the game at that point?”
“He’s a player,” Bowles said. “We’re trying to win the ballgame. We’re still down 10. We’re trying to get extra points and kick another onside kick. It just happened.”
As another question was beginning, Bowles added one final note.
“With Mike going down, we didn’t have that many receivers left as it was. So, we played what we got,” Bowles said, referencing an earlier injury that left Tampa’s other star receiver, Mike Evans, sidelined.
“Isn’t that even more, perhaps, important to preserve Chris for the Falcons, if Mike’s possibly not gonna play?” Bowles was asked in response.
“You could say that ’cause he got hurt,” the coach said. “We don’t second-guess. We got our guys. We’re playing everybody we got. It’s unfortunate he got hurt. We feel bad about that. But he’s a football player and he wants to be in the game. Just like Baker and everybody else wanted to be in the game.”
“Don’t you have an obligation to protect players from themselves?” Bowles was asked.
“I do protect my players. All the time. That has nothing to do with why we left him in the ballgame. We still had a shot to score some points and win the ballgame. It happened. It happens in football.”
[Photo Credit: ESPN]
