Todd Bowles Refuses to Answer If Bucs Let Nick Chubb Score in MNF Win vs. Texans

Houston Texans running back Nick Chubb appeared to score a pretty easy 25-yard touchdown during Monday’s matchup with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, with just over two minutes remaining in the game.

That allowed the Bucs to get the ball back and eventually score the game-winning touchdown themselves, rather than giving the Texans the chance to drain more clock before kicking a go-ahead field goal.

So a reporter asked Tampa Bay head coach Todd Bowles on Wednesday if the plan was to allow Chubb to score there.

“I don’t think it matters,” he answered. “We won the game, so we’ll go from there.”

Tampa had all three timeouts and the two-minute warning to stop the clock, so unless Houston had gotten a first down, the Bucs likely would have gotten the ball back with time remaining. They also got lucky that the Texans failed to convert the two-point conversion, allowing a touchdown to win the game rather than tie it. So if the Bucs did allow Chubb to score, it was arguably a premature risk to take, especially in a game where their offense had only scored 14 points at that stage.

But the fact that Chubb had rushed 11 times for just 18 yards before his long touchdown scamper did make it curious that he suddenly broke free, untouched. There’s also the fact that Bowles declined to outright dismiss the notion of allowing Chubb to score. In the end though, it didn’t really matter—the Bucs won.