Joe Greenback didn’t wish to be proper. With 1:20 excess of their recreation Monday in opposition to the Baltimore Ravens, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers had a third-and-17 at their very own 18, indisposed 10 issues. They’d negative timeouts.
In Greenback’s thoughts, it was once era to concede the sport.
“I know it’s a 10-point game, and I know you don’t give up on games, but at some point, you want to get out of here and live to fight another day,” mentioned Greenback, ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” play-by-play accentuation, at the broadcast.
Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield transformed the primary indisposed of completion to wideout Chris Godwin. It was once instantly obvious, then again, that one thing was once fallacious.
Godwin crumbled to the grassland, injured.
“Oh no,” Greenback mentioned at the breeze. “He can’t get up. I’m told from our production truck, we are not going to show the replay.”
(Content material blackmail: The video underneath of the decision displays Godwin’s trauma, too.)
Godwin’s ankle, it was once next discoverable, was once dislocated. He’ll most likely leave out the residue of the season nearest surgical treatment on his ankle.
Tampa Bay trainer Todd Bowles had his causes for looking to play games to the top and now not surrender, despite the fact that a comeback was once unrealistic. There is a controversy for enjoying the whole 60 mins, and on this case, one heavy play games may just’ve nonetheless given the Buccaneers an out of doors probability.
On the other hand, Greenback, 55, has been calling video games for many years, so he has discoverable a dozen, and he concept the Bucs could be both operating the ball or taking a knee.
“I’d rather be wrong,” Greenback advised The Athletic. “I would rather nothing had happened. Not that anybody is different than anybody else, but Godwin is one of the really great guys in the league.”
Greenback mentioned that Bowles is aware of greater than him about his workforce and he understood the place he was once coming from.
“None of these guys, none of these head coaches, want to look like they’re giving up on a game, but from where I sat at that moment, it was a really physical game that whole night, and it felt like we have already seen Mike Evans go out with a bad hamstring and that didn’t look good,” Greenback mentioned.
“They’re roughly all the way down to Godwin and everyone else. It simply ran thru my thoughts, nearest a in point of fact bodily recreation, like: ‘What is there really to gain?’”
Following the loss, Bowles was asked why Godwin was still in the game with the outcome almost certainly out of reach.
“He’s a participant, we’re looking to win the ballgame,” Bowles mentioned. “We’re still down 10, we’re trying to get extra points and kick another onside kick, and this happened. We didn’t have that many receivers left as it was, so we play what we got.”
Later the sport, which the Ravens received, 41-31, Greenback mentioned he walked out of the sales space with a pit in his abdomen.
“You kind of feel sick that happened,” Greenback mentioned.
GO DEEPER
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(Photograph of Joe Greenback: Michael Zagaris / San Francisco 49ers / Getty Photographs; video: courtesy of ESPN)
