Football

Bowles has finest hour of his career

Photo: Kim Klement/USA Today Sports

When was the last time anyone saw Patrick Mahomes flustered at quarterback?

When was the last time anyone saw him skittish and running for his life?

When was the last time anyone saw him play a bad game in the NFL?

It’s hard to remember when coming up with that question last night. Mahomes struggled surprisingly, which played a role in the Tampa Bay Buccanneers’ 31-9 romp over the defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LV.

The Chiefs quarterback failed to throw a touchdown in this game, and it never happened before that his offense put up single digits in a loss. This turned out to be the story of the game. It’s so rare that he would struggle even in his bad game.

Easy thing to do would be to rip him. That’s a lazy analysis. There’s more to that. Yes, the offensive line played terribly that played a role in his struggles. But it takes a certain game plan to make Mahomes play like an average quarterback.

Someone came up with a great defensive game plan last night, and I can only think about one name: Our old friend Todd Bowles.

When we last saw Bowles, we saw him with his head down at Foxborough knowing that he would be fired after the Jets’ 38-3 loss to Tom Brady and the New England Patriots in his last game as the Jets head coach.

Fast forward to Sunday night, he celebrated his finest hour with Brady as a Super Bowl champion. Who knew there would be happiness after life as a Jets head coach?

Buccaneers head coach Bruce Arians offered his friend a lifeline by hiring him as the defensive coordinator as soon as he got hired to be the Bucs head coach. From there, Bowles did not look back. He coordinated a great defense this postseason by shutting down Drew Brees, Aaron Rodgers and Mahomes.

He utilized his cornerbacks, safeties and defensive line well to keep Mahomes honest. He had his unit play man-to-man defense straight up against the Chiefs wide receivers. He did not get cute just by focusing on blitzing him. He trusted his players to come up with the big plays. He used his inside linebacker David White dropping into zone coverage near the goal line. They played a lot of two-deep safety looks.

Most of all, he trusted his players to play to their strengths. It takes so much work to come up with such a plan against Mahomes. There’s no doubt Bowles had sleepless hours on Super Bowl week to prepare for a game like this.

It conjured up memories of then-Giants defensive coordinator Bill Belichick coming up with a great defensive game plan to shut down Joe Montana in the NFC Title Game and Jim Kelly in the Super Bowl during the 1990 Giants season.

There’s no question this was Bowles’ highlight of his coaching career. It’s too bad it took until the final seconds of the game for CBS announcers Jim Nantz and Tony Romo to recognize the job the former Jets head coach did. There were not many camera shots on him for most of the game as it focused more on Arians and Brady.

Brady won the Super Bowl LVI MVP, but he does not get that award without Bowles’ work in the Super Bowl. So in that regard, the Bucs defensive coordinator should have won the award, but coaches never win awards like that since it does not sell like a player does.

If nothing else, Bowles showed the world that he did not fail the Jets organization. It was the other way around. Then-Jets general manager Mike Maccagnan failed to give him the players that would put him in a position to succeed. The Jets whiffed on draft picks and free agency under Maccagnan, and it resulted in Bowles having a 24-40 record.

Yes, Bowles had four years, so the Jets had to fire him, but this was not his fault as the media, fans and myself made it out to be.

Now, Bowles put himself in a position to be a head coach candidate after next season.

He should wait it out until Arians retires. His postseason work put him in a position where he can be his mentor’s successor.

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