Chris Godwin Picked A Good Year To Have A Career Year
October 6th, 2024
Strong 2024.
One reason Joe is still throwing rocks at traffic over that galling choke job on Thursday night is how irresponsible the Bucs offense was late when they could have polished off the win, but instead decided to ride or die with the league’s No. 24 run game.
Inexcusable!
Rather than hand the ball off needing just a first down on the final drive, the Bucs could have been throwing to their Hall of Fame receiver Mike Evans who was having is best game of 2024 (and he was wide-ass open behind the Atlanta defense on that ill-advised screen pass).
Or, the Bucs could have gone with one of the hottest receivers in the NFL, Pro Bowler Chris Godwin. The long-time Bucs veteran will be a free agent in a few months. And boy, did he pick the right time to have a career year.
Godwin has just under 400 yards receiving with 12 regular season games left. So it seems like he might again hit 1,000 yards receiving (he’s had 1,000 or more in five of the last six seasons).
How hot has Godwin been? Well, it began last year and has continued into the 2024 season. Per Bucs media relations, Godwin has had 5+ receptions and 50+ receiving yards in each of his past six regular season games, including all five games this season. That is the longest active streak in the NFL.
So yeah, need a win? Why go to Godwin or Evans who have been a quality dependable duo for years — when you can go to a run game that has been the NFL’s bottom feeder the past two seasons?
That choke job Thursday reminded Joe of the Capitol Collapse, which happened to doom lousy Lovie Smith. Funny, the same quarterback was responsible for that, too.
You like that?
October 6th, 2024 at 12:26 am
We know they didn’t throw b/c they didn’t want to give ATL a free stoppage of the clock if they had an incompletion… But of course the penalty stopped the clock anyways.
With that said, I would have liked to seen a throw on one of the downs. Like a screen to Godwin, or quick slant to Evans. Rachaad White is a great passing threat too, but I did not like the screen pass to him on 2nd and 23. It was way too predictable at that down / distance / point in the game. And yes, Evans was wide open downfield but Baker never looked up cuz they clearly were only planning to run the screen pass.
October 6th, 2024 at 1:13 am
Todd will figure out a way to justify that any Godwin success tires out his pitiful defense even more, thus making the inevitable loss slower to get through.
October 6th, 2024 at 2:07 am
Career year 5 games in- doesn’t make sense Joe, sorry
October 6th, 2024 at 5:48 am
Right on point about Chris. Loving Godwin and a huge thank you to his wife Mariah for calling it like it was last season too. We must keep Godwin.
October 6th, 2024 at 6:26 am
Very thankful for Chris Godwin. He always finds a way to get the job done. As a part time armchair quarterback I can see the problems we had against the Falcons. It wasn’t a lack of execution as much as a terrible coaching problem. The last two minutes of the game, I could have out coached our coaches and I’ve never coached a football game in my life!
October 6th, 2024 at 7:33 am
There should be a column on this site called ‘Todd Bowles: Wins we will never remember and losses we will never forget’ ’22 vs Cleveland, ’23 vs Houston and now you lay this one on us. I really hope we remember to cover the middle when we play em again in 3 weeks. It was just brutal sitting there watching us get torched on the same play over and over again. Kirk Cousins has never been more than an average QB yet he seems to meme us every few years.
October 6th, 2024 at 7:49 am
Ok – I’m gonna try to convince myself that the glass is half full for the rest of the Bucs season:
The Bucs will come out pissed and healthy after 10 days off along with being wiser. They will demolish the Saints like they did the Eagles after that Denver loss.
They will bet Atlanta at home in a few weeks – lesson learned.
The Bucs will continue to look back at the Denver and Atlanta game the remainder of the year and keep those lessons in mind during crunch time.
Lastly, Bucky will be even better after that soul crushing fumble and White along with Sean Tucker will be nice third down backs.
There. I finally feel better.
October 6th, 2024 at 8:03 am
Yeah, well it’s football. Always be prepared to be disappointed. It’s inevitable. Look at Alabama losing to Vanderbilt.
October 6th, 2024 at 8:37 am
Every time we play a team with a hot receiver they go to that guy over and over and over. This is the second time this year we let CG14 fade right out of the game.
October 6th, 2024 at 10:15 am
I was really disappointed with Liam Coen on this one. He cannot have been gassed so no excuses. (And no, I do not think Bowles ordered him to go conservative for the last two minutes of the game.) Surely he will see the wisdom of targeting Godwin in those circumstances upon review of the last five games. Let us see what he has learned so far as our OC. Let us see better game calling.
October 6th, 2024 at 2:48 pm
Godwin will absolutely cash-in on free agency after the season. The market has blown up like Irv’s commode following a Hooter’s outing. Some team may pay him 30+ million per season.
October 6th, 2024 at 10:14 pm
It was nice to see Tucker contribute with that nice return. A bit of an upgrade from Tompkins. I see why he made the 53 man roster. I sure hope we get Luke back soon. Scott Reynolds pointed out that Bucky missed his gaps on both of the last two runs…that’s why Barton held. He was supposed to run to Barton left, but inexplicably cut right. My guess is he will be spoken to. Either he doesn’t know the playbook like he should, or is not trusting the hole to be there. Perhaps that’s why he’s not getting the lions share of the snaps.
October 7th, 2024 at 9:56 am
Sometimes, it’s hard cheering for the Bucs.
The Pats with Brady threw away a game so rarely, it felt like a once in a decade occurrence. The Bucs do it once or twice a year.
I want to like Mayfield, but Thursdays game is a reminder that he is not a top 10 but just an above average starter. A good game manager and gets paid like one (he’s salary is around 15th in the league).
With a back and forth game and the defense playing atrocious. Brady would never have played so conservatively. He went for the win and leaned on his best players, whether that be Gronk, Edelman, or Godwin and Evans with Bucs. Mayfield practically ghosted both Evans and Godwin the whole 2nd half. You win with your best players.