Former NFL DB defends Buccaneers' Todd Bowles after Chris Godwin injury

Some members of the NFL community spent the opening half of this week criticizing Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Todd Bowles after star wide receiver Chris Godwin suffered a gruesome dislocated left ankle while playing late in what became the club's 41-31 loss to the Baltimore Ravens on Monday night. 

Former NFL defensive back and current analyst Ryan Clark is among those who have defended Bowles for continuing to chase a potential win. The Buccaneers trailed by 10 points with roughly one minute remaining in regulation of the Baltimore contest. 

"This is not high school," Clark said during an appearance on ESPN's "SportsCenter" program, as shared by Sam Neumann of Awful Announcing. "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." 

As the NFL's website noted, the Buccaneers became the second team of the ongoing season to recover its own onside kick before Godwin went down with the brutal injury. Following the defeat that dropped Tampa Bay to 4-3 on the campaign, quarterback Baker Mayfield backed Bowles' call to continue playing for a win and suggested he and others on the sideline believed they had at least a chance of completing what would have been a miracle comeback. 

"We have a group of fighters," Mayfield said during his postgame comments. "We all wanted a chance to try and win that thing any way, some way, somehow."

Clark somewhat echoed Mayfield's take.

"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," Clark added during the segment. 

Tampa Bay players may have felt differently about the situation had Godwin gone down on the game's final play, with the Buccaneers trailing by multiple scores. Bowles' refusal to raise the white flag when sending the contest to overtime was still possible, but it could be a season-defining moment for the club if it helps bring the locker room together.

As of Wednesday morning, DraftKings Sportsbook listed the Buccaneers as 2.5-point underdogs for this coming Sunday's home game against the 4-3 Atlanta Falcons.