Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Todd Bowles is facing scrutiny over his decision to leave Chris Godwin in the game before his horror late injury against the Baltimore Ravens on Monday night.
Godwin suffered an apparent dislocated ankle inside the final minute of the Buccaneers’ 41-31 defeat to the Ravens in Tampa Bay, with gruesome replays showing his leg twisted in the wrong direction after he was tackled to the turf.
As his distraught teammates surrounded him, the 26-year-old wide receiver was eventually carted off the field with an air cast on his leg.
Given the Bucs were trailing by 10 points with just over 50 seconds to go at the time, many are questioning why Bowles had left Godwin – a key member of his offense – in the game when their defeat was all but confirmed.
And the Tampa Bay coach was grilled by reporters over that contentious decision in his postgame press conference.
Buccaneers head coach Todd Bowles is facing scrutiny over Chris Godwin’s horror injury
Godwin suffered a dislocated ankle in the final minute of the Bucs’ 41-31 defeat to the Ravens
One journalist asked him: ‘Coach, you’re down 10, you don’t have any timeouts, it’s under a minute [on the clock], you would need a score, an onside kick and another score… why is Chris Godwin in the game at that point?’
‘He’s a player, we’re trying to win the ball game,’ a defiant Bowles responded. ‘We were still down 10, we were trying to get extra points and kick another onside kick. It just happens.’
When asked if he should have made the call to preserve Godwin, Bowles said: ‘You can say that cause he got hurt, [but] we don’t second guess. We’ve got our guys and we’re playing everybody we got.
‘It’s unfortunate that 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 and everbody else wanted to be in the game.’
Another reporter then said: ‘Do you have an obligation though to protect your players from themselves?’
‘I do protect my players all the time,’ the coach fired back. ‘It has nothing to do with why we left him in the ball game. We still had a shot to score some points and win the ball game. It happens in football.’
WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT BELOW
Gruesome replays showed Godwin’s leg twisted in the wrong direction after he was tackled
The wide receiver was left in clear agony as his distraught teammates surrounded him
Godwin was carted off the field after having an air cast fitted to his apparent dislocated ankle
Tampa Bay quarterback Baker Mayfield was seen slamming his helmet into the turf in frustration because of the devastating injury Godwin suffered so late in the game.
Footage of the Bucs receiver not being able to walk at all and being taken to the trainers room emerged after the loss.
Initial fears surround a dislocated ankle for Godwin, with the injury likely ending his season.
He is also set to be a free agent at the conclusion of this season.
Baltimore defeated Tampa Bay 41-31 with the Ravens nearly scoring all of their points unanswered through the dominance of Lamar Jackson and Derrick Henry.
The Buccaneers had already lost top wide receiver Mike Evans to a leg injury earlier in the game.
