It’s not that Buccaneers-Ravens was an instant classic, but Lamar Jackson put together another classic performance as he made his case to be the first back-to-back MVP since Aaron Rodgers did so in 2020 and ’21. Unfortunately, that was overshadowed by some decision-making that will effectively end Chris Godwin’s season—and perhaps his tenure in Tampa Bay.
Trailing by 10 with less than a minute remaining in the game, Godwin dislocated his ankle on a 21-yard completion from Baker Mayfield. The game was by no means out of reach, but Todd Bowles’ squad needed a miracle to pull it off. Instead, Tampa Bay was left with its second injured receiver of the night, having already lost Mike Evans, who suffered a hamstring injury earlier.
This led to an avalanche of questions regarding Bowles’ choice to keep his de facto No. 1 wide receiver in a game that seemed over. It also led to an avalanche of responses from sports media, including Joe Buck and Ryan Clark, who weighed in during separate appearances on SportsCenter with Scott Van Pelt.
“It was a 10-point game,” says Buck. “I think you can get pulled into continuing to go down the field and try to get a touchdown. And they already got one onside kick and tried to get another one and get a long field goal — I get all that. But no timeouts remaining, and it just looked like this thing was winding down and it wouldn’t end. It’s just too bad.
“It’s just too bad for Tampa Bay. Their whole season could’ve changed here with what transpired with Evans going down early with a hamstring — that didn’t look good. And that injury with Godwin was not pretty enough that our production truck said we aren’t gonna show it again. I’m sure it’ll get out there, but it just did not look good on his lower left leg.”
As for Clark, the former NFL safety, he further emphasized the reality of the league and the commitment players make to each other.
“To me, you’re just telling the truth,” Clark tells Van Pelt. “That’s not how the NFL works. Like, the NFL, you only have 53 players on your roster. This is not high school; this is not college, where you get to pull the entire team where everybody has a freaking backup. You sign up to go win games. You’re paid for what you do each day, every single second, every single minute of every single game.
“And Todd Bowles never wants that team to think that he gave up on them and those players and the people in those helmets. The guys with those headsets never want Todd Bowles to think that they don’t believe they have a chance to win. This team was down 34-10. So, to have fought back the way they did to be down only 10 points, you do have a belief — and you want to finish.
“This ain’t baseball where we’re in the clubhouse all day, and we get to play games every day, and if you have a sour taste in your mouth on Tuesday, you can fix it on Wednesday. This isn’t basketball, where you have a road trip where you have back-to-backs. Like, you work all week for three hours. And all you’re asking me to do to make all this money you’re gonna pay me to play this kid’s game for a king’s ransom is to play for all 60 minutes or play until there’s zero on the clock; that’s what I’m going to do.
“And Chris Godwin, God bless him because I know how hard it is to deal with an injury — and to see their faces after seeing how gruesome it was, I get it — but that’s where he wanted to be. That’s the shield he wanted to go out on. And to continuously question Todd Bowles. One question, I get, right? But to continually question him as if he did something wrong and put Chris Godwin in harm’s way in a game that’s inherently putting you in harm’s way every single snap is absolutely ridiculous.”
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.