Joe Buck didn’t wish to be proper. With 1:20 remaining of their recreation Monday in opposition to the Baltimore Ravens, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers had a third-and-17 at their very own 18, down 10 factors. That they had no timeouts.
In Buck’s thoughts, it was time to concede the sport.
“I do know it’s a 10-point recreation, and I do know you don’t hand over on video games, however in some unspecified time in the future, you wish to get out of right here and stay to battle one other day,” mentioned Buck, ESPN’s “Monday Evening Soccer” play-by-play voice, on the published.
Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield transformed the primary down completion to wideout Chris Godwin. It was instantly obvious, nonetheless, that one thing was fallacious.
Godwin crumbled to the bottom, injured.
“Oh no,” Buck mentioned on the air. “He can’t rise up. I’m instructed from our manufacturing truck, we aren’t going to indicate the replay.”
(Content material warning: The video under of the decision exhibits Godwin’s damage, too.)
Godwin’s ankle, it was later revealed, was dislocated. He’ll doubtless miss the rest of the season after surgical procedure on his ankle.
Tampa Bay coach Todd Bowles had his causes for attempting to play to the top and never hand over, even when a comeback was unrealistic. There may be an argument for taking part in the complete 60 minutes, and on this case, one massive play might’ve nonetheless given the Buccaneers an out of doors probability.
Nevertheless, Buck, 55, has been calling video games for many years, so he has seen loads, and he thought the Bucs can be higher off both operating the ball or taking a knee.
“I’d reasonably be fallacious,” Buck instructed The Athletic. “I might reasonably nothing had occurred. Not that anyone is completely different than anyone else, however Godwin is likely one of the actually nice guys within the league.”
Buck mentioned that Bowles is aware of greater than him about his crew and he understood the place he was coming from.
“None of those guys, none of those head coaches, wish to appear like they’re giving up on a recreation, however from the place I sat at that second, it was a very bodily recreation that complete night time, and it felt like we’ve already seen Mike Evans exit with a foul hamstring and that didn’t look good,” Buck mentioned.
“They’re sort of all the way down to Godwin and all people else. It simply ran by way of my thoughts, after a very bodily recreation, like: ‘What’s there actually to realize?’”
Following the loss, Bowles was requested why Godwin was nonetheless within the recreation with the result virtually actually out of attain.
“He’s a participant, we’re attempting to win the ballgame,” Bowles mentioned. “We’re nonetheless down 10, we’re attempting to get further factors and kick one other onside kick, and this occurred. We didn’t have that many receivers left because it was, so we play what we bought.”
After the sport, which the Ravens gained, 41-31, Buck mentioned he walked out of the sales space with a pit in his abdomen.
“You sort of really feel sick that occurred,” Buck mentioned.
GO DEEPER
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(Photograph of Joe Buck: Michael Zagaris / San Francisco 49ers / Getty Photos; video: courtesy of ESPN)
