Now this is not the Todd Bowles that Joe had grown accustomed to.

Almost overnight, the Bucs head coach has gone from fishing through a tiny, rubber, palm-sized change pouch to pay for a Taco Bell beef taco to throwing $100 bills at the craps table in Aria with loose women circling in the background.

If Bowles has loud critics — and he does — one of their gripes is that he’s too conservative. Punts inside enemy territory. Content kicking long field goals rather than converting fourth-and-short.

Well, that image of Bowles got destroyed yesterday.

The most obvious was him giving the green light to offensive coordinator Liam Coen and quarterback Baker Mayfield to throw on the final play of a one-score game, risking a playoff berth, so Mike Evans could keep his 1,000-yard receiving streak alive (and pocket $3 million in Team Glazer bonus loot).

The not-as-obvious play was with the Bucs trailing 19-13 early in the fourth quarter, a fourth-and-eight from the slimy Saints-42.

Mayfield hit Jalen McMillan for a 33-yard gain.

(McMillan was penalized on the play but he made up for it two plays later when he had a fabulous catch of a bullet from Mayfield to give the Bucs what turned into the winning score.)

When did this high-stakes roller show up on the Bucs’ sideline? And yes, Bowles said going for it on fourth-and-eight was his call.

Bowles joked that Coen and Mayfield would want to try a fourth-and-30 if it was up to them. But yes, Bowles confessed, he was the aggressor on this decision.

“Oh, I made it,” Bowles said.

He explained his thinking.

“Well, we figured if we punt it, we weren’t gaining [anything] but about 20 yards,” Bowles said. “It was fourth-and-8 and we were trying to win the division, trying to win the game.

“You don’t want to look back and have regrets. We called timeouts, and we got a good play in. They did a heck of a job and Jalen [McMillan] made a heck of a catch. Baker [Mayfield] made a heck of a throw.”

So is this the new Bowles that fans can expect? Joe isn’t going there.

But if Bowles sticks to his explanation that he was trying to win the game, trying to jolt the offense into gear, then maybe Bucs fans will see a different Bowles beginning Sunday night against the Commandos.

Then, just like yesterday, it’s win-or-Cancun.