Everyone Was Confused By Tampa Bay Trying to Draw Buffalo Offside With Their Field Goal Team
The Buffalo Bills and Tampa Bay Buccaneers kicked off the NFL's Week 8 on Amazon's Thursday Night Football. Facing a third-and-15 with less than a minute remaining in the first half, Baker Mayfield hit Cade Otton for 12 yards. The offense then hurried up to the line of scrimmage at Buffalo's 41 before running off to make way for the field goal unit. What happened next left everyone baffled.
Bucs take the delay of game instead of going for the 59 yarder pic.twitter.com/YPIpLQZ2nV
— Mr Matthew CFB (@MrMatthew_CFB) October 27, 2023
First, the Bucs did not snap the ball. Al Michaels and Kirk Herbstreit noted that the center was not even touching the football, which made it unlikely the Bills would be drawn offside. So why were they out there? Why not leave Baker Mayfield out there to at least give the appearance they might do something?
If you’re going to try to draw Buffalo offsides, why not just send the offense back out to do it?
— Ben Axelrod (@BenAxelrod) October 27, 2023
So your kicker just made a 57-yard field goal but now you won't trust him from 59?
— Michael David Smith (@MichaelDavSmith) October 27, 2023
Am struggling to find the logic in taking a delay on a (long) field goal attempt with 16 seconds left in the half.
— JoeBucsFan (@JoeBucsFan) October 27, 2023
Cmon Bowles. If you're trying to draw them offsides have Baker at the line of scrimmage screaming 6 inches from the d-linemen's helmets..not the silent holder 7 yards away not even looking for the snap.
— Cousin Sal (@TheCousinSal) October 27, 2023
Eventually, Dan Orlovsky wandered into the room and offered up a plausible explanation for what happened. Maybe they had a fake field goal that they decided not to run because they didn't like what the defense was showing them.
Wonder if TB had a fake FG alert on there. If they got a certain look from Buff, run it, if not—take the delay of game and punt it away…
— Dan Orlovsky (@danorlovsky7) October 27, 2023
That’s why the holder told kicker “no”
🤷🏼♂️
That's certainly a much more generous reading of the situation than Todd Bowles doesn't know what he's doing. Perhaps we'll get an answer after the game. Or perhaps we will never know. This could just be one of life's great unsolved mysteries.