From the jump, it was pretty clear it wouldn’t be the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ night in Buffalo on Thursday. Between punters swinging their helmets and Josh Allen actively taunting Buccaneers defenders, it looked like the Buffalo Bills were going to outclass Tampa Bay for all 60 minutes.
But that doesn’t mean the Buccaneers helped their cause. If anything, while trying to make a comeback down by 14 late in the fourth quarter, Tampa Bay couldn’t stop nonchalantly stepping on rakes.
Down 24-10, the Buccaneers’ offense took over at just above the 10-minute mark in the final stanza. They proceeded to take their sweet time dinking and dunking their way down the field. The approach while down two touchdowns was so confounding that announcers Al Michaels and Kirk Herbstreit started questioning just what the Buccaneers were thinking to move so slowly with the game on the line.
"Meanwhile, the clock has been a killer here. It's almost a six-minute drive and they've only gone half the field." pic.twitter.com/GwNGEI3vvP
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) October 27, 2023
Then, with only a few minutes left, Tampa Bay still sat just outside of the red zone on a key fourth down. It is here where Michaels — a long-time NFL announcing veteran, mind you — called Tampa Bay’s possession one of the “weirdest” drives he’s ever seen.
That’s saying something:
"One of the weirdest drives we've ever seen here. 16 plays, 68 yards, 7 minutes and 14 seconds."
The drive did result in a touchdown but it took the Buccaneers a long time to get it. pic.twitter.com/hRjUuqScIx
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) October 27, 2023
Fortunately for the Buccaneers, they would score on this sequence on a ridiculous deep lob to Mike Evans. Unfortunately, there was just 2:44 left on the clock by the time they finally got back on the scoreboard. That left little breathing room for the defense to get the Bills off the field and get the ball back. No wonder they’d eventually lose and have to settle on a Hail Mary (one that, yes, Chris Godwin still probably should’ve caught).
Michaels and Herbstreit had every right to be confused because this Tampa Bay fourth-quarter approach made zero sense.
