What Happened To The Offense?
December 3rd, 2013
For a while there, Joe was happy. Bucs fans were giddy. It was because the Bucs had an offense that was humming. It was neat to finally see.
First there was rookie quarterback Mike Glennon making a case to be the unchallenged incumbent starter for the 2014 season. Then there was the running game with replacements Mike James and Bobby Rainey.
But the last two weeks, the offense has been, well, virtually invisible, save for a couple of sweet throws from Glennon.
Have NFL defenses figured out Glennon and Rainey?
The answer may be a bit simpler than that, Bucs commander Greg Schiano believes.
“They’re both top 10 defenses – Carolina [is] the top defense – but it’s the NFL,” Schiano said of the past two opponents, Carolina and Detroit. “We’ve got to find a way to score points and move the ball against whatever defense we’re playing against. We need to find better ways to help these guys and then they need to execute better. It’s all of us and it starts with me. I need to provide the leadership to our staff and our players to get that done and for whatever reason we didn’t get it done the last two weeks offensively; we have to.”
The first order of business starts up front. And that is blocking. The Bucs struggled a bit up front against Detroit, but it wasn’t terrible. For the most part, the offensive line held its own.
That was not the case last week against Carolina. The Stinking Panthers manhandled the Bucs. It was like an NFL team going up against a MAC team. The Bucs’ front line was simply abused.
If you can’t block, you likely are not going to run the ball. If you cannot block, your quarterback is going to be running for his life.
Blocking cures a lot of an offense’s ills.
December 3rd, 2013 at 3:06 pm
It’s simple…look at the front 7 of Detroit and Carolina. They absolutely destroyed our Oline off the ball. Can’t make anything happen when you’re being hunted as a RB/QB, in your own backfield, the minute the ball is snapped.
December 3rd, 2013 at 3:13 pm
Well again he makes inaccurate statements. Detroit is not a top 10 defense, they are very good against the run horrible against the pass. They are rated 15th, a lot of that has to do with their last 2 games against Tampa & Matt Flynn at QB for GB. The Lions have been lit up a number of times this year, Carolina has an excellent defense no question.
Defensive coordinators just like last year saw our tendencies and have adapted to our play calls. We don’t have a whole lot of talent left on offense in our defense but enough to score some more points imo. The only games that I recall us thinking outside of the box was against the Falcons. I believe we did another fake punt with Goldson against Arizona, pretty vanilla other then that.
December 3rd, 2013 at 3:18 pm
No they did not figure anything out They played DEFENSE. You know like ours needs to do!! Control the line, plug the gaps they can’t run. Cover the receivers even double them no where to throw. Pressure the QB.
December 3rd, 2013 at 3:37 pm
Sad.
December 3rd, 2013 at 3:38 pm
The Bucs are just not interesting to follow in general – just boring and lame as a organization. No life no excitement or nothing to look forward to.
December 3rd, 2013 at 3:44 pm
The OL has simply fleeced the Bucs out of many.
December 3rd, 2013 at 3:47 pm
What were the final stats from last year in terms of offensive output? Are we any where close?
December 3rd, 2013 at 4:04 pm
We can’t double-team anyone like others do to us because we need all the help we can get with our pass rush…
December 3rd, 2013 at 4:16 pm
Like the above poster said other teams have film on us and have adapted. We’ve been rebuilding since when? Those wins we got were lucky imo. That hit on Megatron? Regime needs to be replaced. He should have been fired when he admitted he never adapted during half time. Inconceivable.
December 3rd, 2013 at 4:17 pm
Lol at Architek. Bucs not interesting to follow but he (she) has time to comment on JBF
December 3rd, 2013 at 4:41 pm
To say that our o-line hasn’t played well would be an understatement. That’s where it all starts. I know we’ve had injuries and diseases but come on! Donald Penn looked like a turnstile and he’s one of our better lineman. Davin hasn’t been anywhere near his old self all season. Still, we could’ve called some screen plays to slow the rush. Look what Carolina did with their screen game.
Again, we did nothing to adjust.
Go Bucs! Beat Buffalo!……oh, and if it’s not working ADJUST!!!
December 3rd, 2013 at 4:41 pm
Love the web-site, go on all the time but can we please stop the read more crap. its nice to just read a story and not have to take 5 min to read the rest of it.
December 3rd, 2013 at 5:07 pm
The same thing happened to the Bucs offense as happened to the Saints offense when they met Seattle….defense still wins Super Bowls in the NFL. That’s been my argument against drafting QB in the first round. If we get a good enough defense then Glennon with a good TE and Mike Will, V-Jax and a third WR will be fine. Right now they double V-Jax and Tim Wright on third down. What will they do when Mike Williams is back and Doug Martin is healthy.
December 3rd, 2013 at 5:09 pm
1st – Schiano is NOT an offensive coach so what is talking about he has to do more to help a struggling offense. He’s talking like he’s coaching a high school team! What, he’s going to allow Coach Sully to call some trick plays? JOE PLEASE ASK THE QUESTION WHOSE CALLING THE PLAYS AND IMPLEMENTING STRATEGY. Because it sounds like Schiano is and that’s a BIG PROBLEM.
December 3rd, 2013 at 5:56 pm
The Panthers are giving up 13.1 points per game. I know the Bucs have shown strong signs of life over the last month, but no one should be even slightly surprised that our rookie QB and his injury-riddled offense struggled on the road in Carolina.
December 3rd, 2013 at 6:25 pm
no speed + injuries + predictable play calling = 2013 bucs
December 3rd, 2013 at 6:37 pm
@Rob
Those are excuses for organizations with low expectations. That’s how teams stay stuck in mediocrity. The problems are conservative game plan, scheme and strategy, lack of innovation and zero adjustments.
December 3rd, 2013 at 7:00 pm
@Que
Those are the realities of the NFL. When you lose starters on your O-Line, throw your undrafted 3rd string RB out there and have one receiver that would start for other teams, and then head off on the road to play the #1 scoring defense that had won 7 in a row with a rookie QB, you’re not going to do very well.
December 3rd, 2013 at 7:12 pm
It’s easy to sit back and feel disappointed in Sunday’s performance. I thought it would be a lot more competitive than it was… let’s say at least I’d hoped it would be.. but then I watched the Saints last night flounder and flail in the wind under the might of the Seahawks and was reminded of our game there just a few short weeks back… it can happen, guys… anything can happen… and does… New Orleans will..
December 3rd, 2013 at 7:16 pm
@Que589….No one had low expectations. Still, were YOU surprised we lost to the Panthers? There is such a thing as reality and Carolina is better than us across the board.
December 3rd, 2013 at 7:20 pm
We have an offensive coordinator who does not have years of experience under his belt yet, and a defensive coordinator who got fired while doing the same role for another team because he sucked. I’m thinking that’s a big part of the problem. And whose defense are we really running? The guy who got canned as a DC because he sucked, or the guy who came up from college?
December 3rd, 2013 at 7:49 pm
You’re right “tha truth is” NO SPEED & HIGHLY PREDICTABLE. Rockstar NEVER GOES AFTER OR PLACE VALUE ON SPEED. Remember when he was so excited being called “The Big Back Collector”. The end result was slow backs, conservative offense and limited touchdowns.
December 3rd, 2013 at 8:00 pm
@Rob
I hear what you’re saying but we would have the SAME RESULT if there were no injuries. The strategy & scheme is terrible! That’s the real issue not injuries. Trust and believe even w/ Nicks, Williams & Martin the offense would still be mediocre at best. We saw that at the beginning of the season
December 3rd, 2013 at 8:25 pm
So, basically it’s the same excuses for the offense we’ve heard the past 5 years or more…
December 4th, 2013 at 12:55 am
Shocking when u consider how many great draft pics we have there- almost has many at receiver
December 4th, 2013 at 11:19 am
@Bobby
I was surprised at HOW we lost to the Panthers. The reality is the Panthers are not World Beaters or a dominant team. They’re good but not dominant. Please go back and watch the first half of the game. Our D was ballin and the offense was very effective passing. But the coaching staff were calling stupid blitzes & stunts that don’t work! It’s funny how Schiano talked about lane / rush integrity and he’s dialing up stunts & blitzes. Our run game was getting stuffed, so why were they run dominant on 1st & 2nd downs. Sometimes the pass has to open up the run game. There were no in-game adjustments. They go into a game w/ a conservative plan and it doesn’t work and then they hope to get to get turnovers to win a close game. It’s looking more and more like a high school / college team.