Saints come up empty Bucs Falcons have frustrating finishes NFC South takeaways

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TAMPA, Fla. Asked about not calling any timeouts at the end of regulation to give more time to set up a game-winning field goal against the , coach Todd Bowles said Monday that part of the reason he didn't was that Brady could have thrown an interception."It could have been an interception as well," Bowles said about throwing the ball in a tie game with 32 seconds left. "We said if we didn't get yardage on the first play, we wouldn't call a timeout, we'd probably let the clock run, if he saw something he could throw it. ... If we had thrown a pick, the ball would have went the other way and they kick the winning field goal. We felt better going to overtime."There's a risk in pa sing the ball in any situation, but you can't have much le s of a risk involved than in the scenario Bowles and the Bucs faced Sunday. Brady has just two interceptions in 470 pa s attempts this season, the lowest interception rate in the NFL at 0.4 percent. And Cleveland's defense has just three interceptions all season only the , with two, have fewer so the odds of them intercepting a given pa s are also le s than 1%.The Bucs wound up losing 23-17 in overtime, but Bowles said . The Bucs were extremely careful after taking a 17-10 lead midway through the third quarter.Facing a third-and-2 at the Cleveland 37 early in the fourth quarter, Bowles opted not to go for it or even attempt a 55-yard field goal (at the limits of kicker range) to get a two-score lead, instead opting to take a 5-yard delay of game penalty and punt from the 42. The kick went into the end zone for a touchback, and two plays later, the Browns were back at their 40-yard line, where they'd have been if the Bucs went for it and failed.You won't confuse this year's Bucs offense with the ones that ranked among the league's best in the last two seasons, and Sunday's overtime lo s to the Browns was more of the same, managing only 17 points in a lackluster showing. In 2020 and 2021, the Bucs tied for the league lead with 14 games scoring at least 23 points. But this year, they're tied for the fewest such games in the NFL, with just one in 11 tries, now matching the league low at the other extreme.Bowles said he has confidence that the offense can turn things around in the final six games of the season. Thanks to the and losing, the Bucs still lead the NFC South even with a 5-6 record, and they Clay Buchholz Jersey control their destiny for the division title."We've done it before," Bowles said of expecting improved play on offense. "We have to get on the same page and stop making mistakes. We have to coach it better and play it better. There's no secret formula to getting this turned around the right way. We have to make plays, we have to call it right, we have to execute it the right way, we have to stop committing penalties. Obviously, it's a broken record at this point, but as coaches and players, that's what you go back to. You go back to your fundamentals and you play ball."The Bucs got good news Monday, in that All-Pro right tackle , injured in overtime, is only dealing with a high ankle sprain and could be back in the next four weeks. Three defensive backs safeties Antoine Winfield and Mike Edwards and corner are dealing with injuries and will be day-to-day this week ahead of the home game vs. New Orleans next Monday.Falcons' finish almost as frustratingIt's hard to imagine a finish more frustrating and disappointing than the Bucs losing the lead in the final minute and succumbing to the Browns in overtime, but the Falcons can make a good case for enduring something worse. , down 19-13 to Washington in a tight game wire-to-wire, drove from its 16-yard line all the way to the ' 2 in the final five minutes, only to see a go-ahead drive end on a deflected pa s. After lost 2 yards on first-and-goal, his pa s was deflected and intercepted in the end zone by a diving Zack Greinke Jersey Kendall Fuller with 0:58 remaining.The Falcons got a three-and-out from Washington, using three timeouts to set up a punt with 0:44 left, but outside linebacker was flagged for running into the punter, giving the Commanders a first down and taking away a shot at another game-winning drive.Atlanta had managed to go 59 minutes without a turnover and with only one penalty, yet had one of each in the final minute to scuttle any chance of a comeback victory.Saints come up empty, twiceAlmost as frustrating was the Saints getting shut out in a game in which their defense held the to 13 points. New Orleans had two trips inside the San Francisco 5-yard line and came up empty in both opportunities.The Saints didn't get closer than the 49ers' 30-yard line in the first half and didn't have a snap in the red zone until the fourth quarter, but had two great opportunities to make it a one-score game in the final period.Playing in the late afternoon window out west, the Saints knew the Bucs and Falcons had lost, giving them a chance to pull closer to the top of the division, but they still couldn't take advantage of that either."The crazy thing with where we're at is there's still stuff in front of us, and we still have something to play for," quarterback said after the game. "The game today, it's frustrating, because there's mi sed opportunities, especially with how the division shook out today. The good thing is we are sticking together and we know what's out in front of us."New Orleans drove from its 16 to the 49ers' 6-yard line, but Dalton's pa s to was fumbled at the 1-yard line and recovered by the 49ers with 11:05 remaining. The Saints defense forced a three-and-out and the offense got a short field, starting at the San Francisco 39.The Saints had a first-and-goal at the 4, but Dalton threw incomplete to three different targets, and on fourth-and-goal, he was sacked by to end another scoring opportunity with 6:18 left. The 49ers were able to run out the clock, grinding out 11 plays as the Saints defense couldn't get off the field."Certainly we had our opportunities down there in the red zone, and we weren't able to capitalize," Saints coach Dennis Allen told reporters after the game. "We had a lot of chances. We had the ball in our hands a couple of times in the end zone and couldn't come up with the play ... I feel like there were some plays out there that we could have made that could have been the difference in the game."Another drive in the third quarter saw the 49ers going for it on fourth-and-5 at the 49ers' 25, but a false start by set up a fourth-and-10, and mi sed on a 48-yard field goal to keep them off the scoreboard.The Saints now turn their focus to a Monday night game in Tampa, facing a Bucs defense that held them to three points until the final four minutes in a 20-10 win in Week 2, a close game blown open by four Saints turnovers in the fourth quarter. defense, run game step up in win over Much of the attention going in was the switch to at quarterback, but Carolina's defense and run game were the story as the Panthers picked up their fourth win of the season, 23-10 over the Broncos.Carolina ran the ball 46 times for 185 yards, with leading the way with 113 on 24 carries, and despite going 2-for-12 on third downs, they finished with a time of po se sion of over 37 minutes, keeping Denver's offense and off the field.The Panthers' first three scoring drives in building a 17-3 lead were all at least 10 plays and five minutes long, and the defense stepped up, especially in third-and-short situations, where Denver mi sed on two third-and-2 plays and two more third downs needing 5 yards or le s.Playing for the first time this season, Darnold wasn't spectacular but avoided mistakes, throwing for one touchdown and rushing for another. He threw for 164 yards on 19 pa s attempts, good enough for a 103.8 pa ser rating.The win sets Carolina back in terms of the NFL draft, where they had the No. 2 overall pick before Sunday's game but now would be picking sixth, but for the current team, it's an important win that takes them out of the NFC South cellar, with the tiebreak advantage over the Saints, who are also 4-8. It's a strange thing to go from picking No. 2 to being two lo ses out of first place with six weeks remaining, but that's where the Panthers are.Read Rob Refsnyder Jersey more from the : Best of the rest: Greg Auman is FOX Sports NFC South reporter, covering the Buccaneers, Falcons, Panthers and Saints. He is in his 10th season covering the Bucs and the NFL full-time, having spent time at the Tampa Bay Times and The Athletic. You can follow him on Twitter at NFL trending in this topic
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