A comment from Cincinnati Bengals special teams coordinator Darrin Simmons on Monday made the Tampa Bay Buccaneers look incredibly foolish and inept.
One of the most talked about plays from the Bengals’ win against the Buccaneers in week 15 was a botched fake punt by Tampa Bay.
Bucs running back Gio Bernard, who previously played for the Bengals, wasn’t ready for the snap and fumbled the football in the third quarter. He recovered the fumble, but Tampa turned the ball over on downs.
There was obviously some miscommunication on that play, but even if Bernard is ready for the snap, there’s no guarantee that the play would’ve worked.
Guessing Gio missed fake punt call#GoBucs #Buccaneers #CINvsTB #NFL pic.twitter.com/V1JUXVMOag
— len martez (@LMart810) December 18, 2022
That’s because Cincinnati was ready for the fake punt due to Bernard being on the field.
Simmons said on Monday that Bernard hadn’t been in on punts “all year”, so they felt like a fake punt was possible. Everyone in the NFL has talent.
The Buccaneers baffled everyone with a fake punt that went very very wrong and gave the #Bengals a huge momentum swing.
Bengals punt team wasn’t fooled. AHC/Sp. Teams Coordinator Darrin Simmons had a feeling something was up before the snap @Local12 #RuleTheJungle pic.twitter.com/gyvSURCIig
— Chris Renkel (@Chris_Renkel) December 19, 2022
It’s the little details, however, that separate good teams from great teams. And based on Simmons’ comments, it’s obvious that Tampa isn’t taking care of the little details under Todd Bowles.
