Troy Aikman criticizes the Bucs for not going for two. Troy Aikman criticizes the Bucs for not going for two. (Awful Announcing on X.)
ESPNNFLBy Andrew Bucholtz on

This week’s Monday Night Football clash wound up being a lot closer than many had expected. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers (4-4 entering this) were nine-point underdogs heading into the contest. But the Bucs took the Kansas City Chiefs (7-0 coming in) to overtime before eventually falling 30-24 when the Chiefs scored on their OT-opening drive.

However, a Tampa Bay decision near the end of regulation (with 30 seconds left) to kick a tying extra point rather than go for two and a likely win drew much of the discussion around this one. That was true both at the time and after Kansas City’s OT win. And ESPN MNF analyst Troy Aikman had some criticism for that call when SportsCenter anchor Scott Van Pelt opened a post-game interview by asking about it:

“I would have [gone for two], yes. I thought the entire drive that if they scored they would go for two. I just, I approach it, I’m not saying Tampa Bay should look at it and say they’re not as good as Kansas City, but when you’re on the road against the defending world champs, and you’ve got them on the ropes, and you get a chance to win a game, you know, on one play, I think you’ve got to do that. And we’ve seen this too many times.”

Aikman then went on to provide further context, including criticism of a Buccaneers’ quick timeout after a pass got them to the one-yard line with 33 seconds left (which meant Kansas City still had some time to kick a potentially game-winning field goal after a score, versus if they’d drained the clock more before the timeout).

“And it doesn’t necessarily mean that they’d have gone on to win. Maybe they lose it if they don’t. They would lose it if they don’t get into the end zone on the two-point play. But I didn’t think that was handled very well with the timeout there at the end. It didn’t end up hurting them there. But to have it come to a coin toss in overtime to see ultimately who was going to win, unless he [Tampa Bay coach Todd Bowles] just had enormous confidence his defense was going to be able to make a stop, which they didn’t do…I fully expected them to go for two.”

On the timeout front, Peyton Manning also went after that on the ManningCast alternate broadcast.

On the going-for-two front, Bowles offered an explanation of his logic afterwards:

But Chiefs’ counterpart Andy Reid had quite the response:

And many others had shots for Bowles:

This move certainly took a lot of criticism. And it was notable to see Aikman weigh in with those critics immediately after the broadcast.

[Awful Announcing on X]

About Andrew Bucholtz

Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.

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