Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Todd Bowles faced questions after his team’s 41-31 loss to the Baltimore Ravens on Monday night after wide receiver Chris Godwin suffered a serious injury in the final minute of the game.
Godwin suffered a dislocated ankle on the play, which occurred during the final minute of the game with his team down by 10. The Bucs wide receiver will miss the rest of the season, though the team expects him to be ready for the start of the 2025 season.
Bowles was asked after the game why the star receiver was still on the field though it was a 2-score game and there was very little time left. Bowles defended his decision.
“He’s a player. We’re trying to win the ballgame. We were still down 10. We’re trying to get extra points and kick another onside kick. It just happened. With Mike (Evans) going down, we didn’t have that many receivers left as it was, so we play with what we got,” Bowles said.
Evans, who is the team’s other top receiver, was trying to play through a hamstring injury. But Evans exited due to his hamstring after making a catch in the second quarter, which left Tampa Bay short at the receiver position.
“You can say that because he got hurt. We don’t second-guess,” Bowles added. “We got our guys and we’re playing everybody we got. It’s unfortunate he got hurt and we feel bad about that, but he’s a football player and he wanted to be in the game just like Baker (Mayfield) and everybody else wanted to be in the game.”
Even after Godwin got hurt with the game seemingly out of reach, Bucs players were still going hard to end the game. Mayfield even ran into contact on the final play of the game despite being down by 10. The players play hard, even if it means risking injury.
