TAMPA, Fla. — Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Todd Bowles has taken a lot of criticism over the years as an NFL head coach, but give him credit for Sunday’s 20-17 season-opening win at Minnesota.
The team was disciplined, only committing three penalties. They won the turnover battle, and Bowles made some gutsy play calls to seal the win in the fourth quarter.
“It was a good win, gritty win; it was the first game of the year, a tough place to play,” Bowles said.
After the game, team cameras caught his postgame speech that ended with him yelling, “Yeah!”
“I’m not even-keeled in my mind, but if you guys say so,” he said. “You got to let out a yell sometimes.”
Sometimes, the game doesn’t start so smoothly. Quarterback Baker Mayfield’s first six drives resulted in 3 for 11 passing for only 12 yards. From there on, Mayfield completed 18 of 23 passes for 161 yards and two touchdowns.
“They had some new wrinkles that really gave us problems in the first half,” Bowles said. “I thought they did a good job. Flores is a good defensive coordinator. Second half, we made some adjustments. We came out and stuck with the run a little bit. Baker made some plays. We got in a groove, finding something we liked, we kind of got on a roll.”
The Bucs look to keep the momentum rolling in their home opener against the Chicago Bears this Sunday.
“It’s always great to get off to a good start, win the first game, especially on the road,” Bowles said. “Home crowd, we expect it to be loud. Everybody come out and support us.”
Tampa Bay will play four of its next five games at home, and they try this week for a third straight 2-0 start to the season.
