Bucs fans slam Todd Bowles over HC's challenge call vs Falcons: "Tom Brady had to waste a year with him"

Todd Bowles' challenge against a call in the game against the Atlanta Falcons had fans lamenting the fact that Tom Brady had to play the final year of his career with him as the head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

What elicited the reaction was a baffling call by the Buccaneers manager in the second quarter of the game in Atlanta. Kirk Cousins was called for intentional grounding when he threw the ball away as he was about to be sacked. As per the rules of the penalty, the 1st-and-10 became a 2nd-and-20 as the Falcons lost 10 yards and also a down.

But for some reason Todd Bowles challenged the call, saying that instead of a forward pass it should be considered a fumble. One could understand that if the Bucs had recovered the ball following the play. But since Atlanta had managed to come back with the ball in the previous play, a successful challenge would have given Cousins the ball back with a 2nd-and-less-than-20.

Thus, a successful challenge would have meant that the Falcons got a better position on the field. A failed challenge, which was the eventual outcome, meant the Bucs losing a challenge and a timeout in a close divisional game. It was a lose-lose proposition by the head coach.

And the head coach was clowned on X/Twitter, for his apparent mistake. Tom Brady was invoked as Tampa Bay fans wondered how the GOAT must have felt playing with him in his final year.

Here are some reactions from fans on X:

Others joined in too calling it one of the dumbest challenges that they have ever seen.

"That might be the dumbest challenge of the year by an NFL coach. Todd Bowles gains nothing by winning that challenge and he’s going to lose a challenge anyway," one fan said.

"Congrats Todd Bowles on having the dumbest challenge of the season," another said.

"This Todd Bowles challenge is a contender for worst in NFL history," one fan added.

Bucs QB Baker Mayfield's performance vs Falcons shows Todd Bowles' post-Tom Brady success

In his last season in 2022, Tom Brady took the Buccaneers to the playoffs with a losing 8-9 record, having won an abysmal NFC South where no team finished with a winning record. They promptly went out in the Wild Card round at home to the Cowboys bringing down the curtains on the legendary quarterback's career, as Todd Bowles ended his debut season as Tampa Bay head coach thinking about the future without the GOAT leading the offense.

The Bucs settled on Baker Mayfield and he led them to a 9-8 record in 2023 and the Divisional Round of the playoffs, showing progress from the previous year. That could have been dismissed as a fluke but Bowles has overseen an environment where the former Browns quarterback has succeeded, despite losing his offensive coordinator to the Carolina Panthers' head coaching job.

Even in this game against the Falcons, Baker Mayfield had three touchdown passes in the first half, showing how he is ensuring that the Buccaneers do not end up facing the problems that plagued the Patriots when Tom Brady departed New England. Bill Belichick lost his job because he could not find a solution in that position; hence, credit must go to Todd Bowles for managing the situation as well as he has done.