Kick The Ball!
November 13th, 2025
Former Bucs star Gerald McCoy.
Six-time Buccaneers Pro Bowl defensive tackle Gerald McCoy is annoyed with Todd Bowles.
There’s no personal beef from the Bucs’ most high-profile cheerleader, but McCoy is miffed by a Bowles decision late in Sunday’s game against the Patriots.
Even after a day to think about it, McCoy was lashing out during his with former Bucs cornerback Aqib Talib on The Arena — Gridiron YouTube Show.
The Bucs had a 4th-and-3 late in the game at the Patriots’ 27 yard line trailing 21-16 and 1:55 on the clock. The Bucs had three timeouts in their pocket and screwed up the play and lost three yards. First down, Patriots.
McCoy said that never should have happeed.
“Kick the ball!” McCoy bellowed, wanting the Bucs to cut the Patriots lead to 21-19. “Why are we going for it on fourth down?”
McCoy got pushback from Talib and argued the Bucs had three timeouts remaining and had played a decent defensive game to that point. Again, Joe will note, the Bucs had only allowed 21 points with less than two minutes to play.
Talib slapped down McCoy like only Talib would: “That seven-minute drive [by the Patriots] is on the back of [Todd Bowles’] mind, like, ‘Sh*t, they just done this … I might kick a field goal and not get the ball back and look like a damn pu**y in the media,”
Classic Talib.
McCoy added Mayfield wasn’t playing his best and the Bucs should have taken the points in front of them.
Joe would say to McCoy the Bucs didn’t kick a field goal there because they didn’t kick one 10 minutes earlier.
It’s somewhat intriguing that in a game in which the Bucs offense struggled, Tampa Bay scored 23 points while passing up two field goals and an extra point. The latter was for an ill-advised, two-point conversion pass to Baker Mayfield.