TAMPA – The game was lost, the Bucs were just too stubborn to admit it.

And that's why the season could be lost.

Hoping for a miraculous comeback, the Bucs lost star receiver Chris Godwin to a final-minute ankle injury in a 41-31 loss to the Ravens on Monday night.

“That’s the terrible reality of this game,” tight end Cade Otton said later.

In nearly half a century of Buccaneers football, there may be no more haunting image than Godwin on his hands and knees, head bowed, in a nearly silent stadium as a utility vehicle was brought out to pick him up.

It was heartbreaking. It was unimaginable. It was unnecessary.

Tampa Bay trailed 41-18 with less than four minutes left in the game. The Ravens had already gone into cruise control, bringing in quarterback Lamar Jackson and playing prevent defense to run the clock down as quickly as possible.

The Bucs scored a touchdown, recovered an onside kick and scored another touchdown before using all three of their timeouts, while the Ravens nearly collapsed on offense.

When Tampa Bay got the ball back, they were 75 yards from the end zone with 94 seconds left and still needing two points with no timeouts.

“There’s no doubt in our minds,” head coach Todd Bowles said. “We have our boys, we play against whoever we have. Unfortunately he was injured. We're sorry, but he's a soccer player. He wants to be like Baker (Mayfield) and everyone else in the game.”

And yet nine months ago in an NFC divisional playoff game, the Bucs trailed Detroit 31-23 with 93 seconds left and refused to use their final timeout to potentially give the Lions a game-winning field goal in the final one minute to force.

“It’s kind of pointless,” Bowles said at the time.

If trying to win this game was pointless, then this one was completely pointless. Unlike the playoff game, the Bucs had reason to think about the future on Monday night. In six days, they would face the Falcons in a crucial game that could decide the NFC South.

And now they go into the game without Godwin and possibly Mike Evans, who left Monday night's game with a hamstring injury in the first half.

“It sucks,” linebacker Yaya Diaby said. “It sucks, but at the end of the day we have a division game coming up and that’s our focus.”

Maybe that's their focus today, but late Monday night, hardly anyone in the Bucs' locker room seemed interested in the upcoming games.

Godwin, 28, is one of the most popular players to wear the Tampa Bay jersey. He is selfless, humble and completely devoted to his craft. His reputation around the league is impeccable, so much so that Baltimore coach John Harbaugh stopped outside the Bucs' locker room late into the evening to hug and encourage Godwin.

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Three years ago, Godwin suffered a knee injury that could have ended his career, but he worked tirelessly to get back to good health.

He came into Monday night's game with some of the best numbers of his career while playing in the final year of his contract.

“It’s devastating,” cornerback Zyon McCollum said. “As an athlete who experiences injuries all the time and knows the risks, it was still difficult to watch. We've seen him work so hard to get back to where he is. Hopefully it’s not as bad as it looked.”

It's a violent game. Fans know it and players live with it. Unfortunately, career-ending injuries are part of sport.

And Bowles is right. The players want to be on the field and not give in to defeat so quickly.

One could also argue that if Godwin, Mayfield and Tristan Wirfs were pulled from the field in the final minutes, younger, less accomplished players would be at risk in their place. A coach cannot protect everyone.

However, it is a coach's job to weigh this risk against the potential benefit when it comes to a team's future development. And Bowles failed in that regard on Monday night.

The chances of winning this game were minuscule and the outcome of the game in Atlanta was far more important to Tampa Bay's season.

Maybe the Bucs will bounce back, but it's hard to imagine that happening with Godwin and possibly Evans unavailable.

“You don’t want any of your teammates to go down,” Diaby said. “But he's such a good person, such an impactful player and he's had a fantastic year. It was a really, really hard moment. Now all we can do is pray for him and his family.”

John Romano can be reached at [email protected]. Follow @romano_tbtimes.

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