Little Signs Of Jeff Tedford
November 17th, 2014
Remember all that “speed in space” talk, and “up-tempo” chatter, and the revelation that healing offensive coordinator Jeff Tedford was a two-tight-ends nut in the Bill Belicheat mold?
That sure sounds like an alien offense that has yet to land on planet Tampa Bay.
Bucs tight ends are averaging just under four catches per game. Day 1 free agent signing Brandon Myers, who had 126 catches in his previous two seasons, has just 17 receptions this year. Luke Stocker and Austin-Seferian Jenkins combine for the remaining 22. None are really stressing the defense. (Joe’s being kind.)
Up tempo? The Bucs are better described as “down tempo.”
Speed in space hasn’t been seen much. Rookie speedster receiver Robert Herron rarely plays these day, and the Bucs don’t really have much working the middle of the field. Louis Murphy has five catches in his last four games.
Joe’s taking note of this as the Bucs, in 42 short days, should be fully prepared to hire a new offensive coordinator. Acting playcaller Marcus Arroyo, a Tedford student, clearly is running his own version of the offense. Lovie Smith should be looking thoroughly for better.
What Lovie will, in fact, do is another question. If Josh McCown has a solid finish, then Joe would expect the status quo for next season.
Lovie is a huge fan of McCown, who has heaped all kinds of praise on the development of Arroyo. Last week, right after the loss to the Falcons, Joe asked McCown what was different about the offense in his first start back after seven weeks off. McCown’s first response was the growth of Arroyo.
November 17th, 2014 at 2:51 pm
We need Marc Trestman as the O-coordinator next year.
November 17th, 2014 at 2:53 pm
Dare I saw….keep Arroyo and hire a quarterback coach…..remember he is running his own verison of this offense, the offense could actually be better with continuity and another season with Arroyo running the show……risky I know but food for thought
November 17th, 2014 at 2:54 pm
Jim that would be magical!
November 17th, 2014 at 2:56 pm
ASJ has played about 90% of the Bucs offensive snaps. Tim Wright has played about 20% of New England’s snaps. They have virtually the same stats. Whatever this offense is, it certainly doesn’t involve using the tight end very much in the passing game. Either that or none of the tight ends are particularly effective at getting open.
November 17th, 2014 at 2:57 pm
I read in the paper this morning that Evans was calling for a post route to McCown as he was shifting across the line. Clearly if McCown was throwing it downfield to Evans based on someone’s opinion then they don’t have much respect for Arroyo. Im glad McCown did throw it, and trusting Evans instincts, but it says a lot about what has been lacking the first part of the season.
Im a big believer in the “Grip it and Rip it” offense myself.
November 17th, 2014 at 2:59 pm
Herron won’t see the field until he can catch.
Blaming Murphy for not getting catches is silly when you have Jackson and Evans both performing relatively well. McCown targets those guys a lot. Murphy is like the last resort cut-off guy, who has to adjust for the terribly thrown ball.
I’m much more annoyed about the Bucs running on nearly every first down. The defense is just rushing the line on every first down now.
Playcalling is still suspect, but I like the deep and outside passes. Overall, I can’t really complain about how we’re performing, given our o-line.
We’re still not very good, and we still get penalties like nobodies business(looking at you, Dotson). Fix up the penalties and you help the run game.
November 17th, 2014 at 3:03 pm
Why in the hell would you keep this off. Coordinator?? Its just players(mainly mike evans) making plays no great designs or schemes. No bunches or stacks(man beaters) no combination routes just simple as siimple can get
November 17th, 2014 at 3:08 pm
I thought the kid called a gutsy game. Kept the peddle to the floor unlike previously which cost us a couple of games.
When a receiver goes over 200 the OC has to be doing something right.
November 17th, 2014 at 3:19 pm
Did anybody else notice Murphy standing still, watching Evans run down the field on one of his TD catches? It was a shot from the end zone camera, looking back up-field. It looked like Murphy and the DB agreed to take the play off. They were both literally just standing there watching him track down the pass. After Evans makes the grab, they start blocking each other and running down-field after him.
November 17th, 2014 at 3:23 pm
Eric Says:
November 17th, 2014 at 3:08 pm
I thought the kid called a gutsy game. Kept the peddle to the floor unlike previously which cost us a couple of games.
When a receiver goes over 200 the OC has to be doing something right.
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When the opposing DC has linebackers on a 6’5 receiver, the OC has nothing to do with it. The Redskins poor defensive coaching gets a lot of credit for Evans big day. Most DCs aren’t going to be that stupid.
November 17th, 2014 at 3:42 pm
I will give Arroyo credit for this: He didn’t abandoned the pass with a lead. He correctly (and obviously) concluded 2nd half running would just keep giving the Redskins extra possessions and chances to score.
November 17th, 2014 at 3:49 pm
Makes one wonder if Tedford saw something about the way Lovie coaches while he was around practices recovering that was red flags…. Maybe he saw something that said train wreck and he took his 1st opportunity to seperate himself from this mess damaging his career.
November 17th, 2014 at 3:50 pm
What retread OC currently available do you guys want?
And go through the pain of “new system”?
Lets see how this kid does these last six games. He might be learning.
November 17th, 2014 at 3:51 pm
Look at this from Evans by ESPN:
Evans had seven catches for 209 yards and two touchdowns. Those numbers made history.
– At 21 years and 87 days, Evans became the youngest player in NFL history with a 200-yard receiving game.
– Evans is the first rookie in NFL history with seven receptions, 100 receiving yards and a touchdown catch in three straight games.
– Evans became the first rookie since Randy Moss in 1998 to have 100 receiving yards and a receiving touchdown in three straight games.
– Evans became only the fifth rookie in the Super Bowl era to have 200 receiving yards and two receiving touchdowns in the same game. It hadn’t been done since Anquan Boldin in 2003.
November 17th, 2014 at 3:52 pm
His 1st TD against the Skins he called the play by ESPN:
But Evans brings more skills than you realize. As it turns out, Evans can call plays. That’s what he did on the first of his two touchdown catches in Sunday’s 27-7 victory over Washington.
Technically, the play was called by quarterbacks coach Marcus Arroyo. But Evans put a new wrinkle on it as he went in motion and shouted to quarterback Josh McCown.
“We had a route called and it was something he was going to add on to it,” McCown said. “We had talked about it, possibly, on the sideline. It was truly a last-second adjustment there and he made a great play.”
November 17th, 2014 at 3:57 pm
Theodore said it…lovie didnt demand a switch into conservative mode. The defense did a better than usual job. Gerald mccoy was just an absoluye beast. Washingtons defense sucks too…but it would be nice to see the offense start to gel and defense improve. Hopefully this gives the team some confidence and momentum….we shall see
November 17th, 2014 at 4:00 pm
I was getting pissed at the Skins game when they started out with a run on 1st down. I was like “here we go again”, but everything worked out. We still can’t run the ball though.
November 17th, 2014 at 4:10 pm
Keep defending a quitter Tye, it shows your lack of character and stupidity.
I don’t mind Arroyo going with the hot hand in a win, but his lack of experience has given us more L’s than W’s.
With all the weapons he has at his disposal, I just don’t think he knows how to use them effectively.
Instead we try to pound the ball 90 percent of the time on first down.
Liked how McCown called to an audible to Evans on that blitz. In fact, I believe he did that more than once which is something Glennon wasn’t doing.
I don’t know if Glennon ever called out of a run play even when he was looking at 9 guys in the box.
November 17th, 2014 at 4:32 pm
The kid was thrust into a pretty bad situation, with Tedford’s illness and all.
But even at all that I can think of three games where we held the lead in the final quarter only to lose it through defensive ineptitude.
And Evans is currently ranked tenth in the league. Pretty good for a rookie with multiple QB’s.
That’s a decent achievement for our OC, IMO.
Not saying he should definitely come back, but lets see if the arrow continues to go up these last few games.
Hell the Rock Star was given five years to get something going.
November 17th, 2014 at 4:53 pm
obviously with his stats, this was one monster game for evans
teams can not be consistent and be one dimensional.
the offense still sucks
November 17th, 2014 at 5:02 pm
Eric Says:
November 17th, 2014 at 3:50 pm
What retread OC currently available do you guys want?
And go through the pain of “new system”?
Lets see how this kid does these last six games. He might be learning.
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I’d be willing to bet that Rob Chudzinski could do be a better job than Arroyo.
November 17th, 2014 at 5:43 pm
I’ll say it again… Arroyo called 17 or 18 runs out of 20 1st downs… This was straight up idiotic.
I give McCown a lot of credit for doing what he did facing 2nd & long all day. Arroyo could have helped McCown, Evans, & the Line out if he knew how to keep the D guessing… Jesus Christ Mohammed…
November 17th, 2014 at 5:45 pm
Maybe the bungles clean house. Hue Jackson might be avaiable. What if Snyder cans Gruden already because he can’t make sicken soup out of Snyder’s chicken sh1t boy toy. Trestman might be gone. I’d be cool with any of those guys
November 17th, 2014 at 6:08 pm
If we can trick linebackers into covering Mike Evans, then we don’t need a new offense. Or a running game for that matter.
November 17th, 2014 at 6:15 pm
What I fear the most though is them dam Dixie Chicks. I have nightmares that they toss out Mike Smith and snatch up Jim Harbaugh. Hopefully they f*ck it up, and miss out.
November 17th, 2014 at 6:31 pm
Well the skins had a guy rush for 96 yards and scored 7 points. I’ll take our 20 offensive points without much running game.
Our WR sets a rookie team record for yardage, and all anybody can do is bitch about the run game and play calling.
November 17th, 2014 at 6:39 pm
Guess whose DC is game planning for Evans next week? Time to spread the ball around a little? Surprise em.
November 17th, 2014 at 6:50 pm
Arroyo is acting coordinator, he is still the QBs coach. We can easily hire a new OC without stepping on Arroyo’s toes. If he happens to be the real deal, we could see in time, but for now, he needs much more seasoning at the NFL level. He’s okay at this point, the offense is probably a little more productive than last season’s O at the same point in the season and considering he was thrust unexpectedly into the position right before the season started, the offense expectedly would take time to come together (it does with any new offense, we experienced 2 new offenses before the season started…why does that seem like deja vous?)
November 17th, 2014 at 7:10 pm
not like the kid has Brady at the QB position.
Or a fabulous run blocking oline.
At least our QB isnt getting killed every time he drops back. Not this week anyway.
Knocking on wood……
November 17th, 2014 at 7:22 pm
no, no, no, no, no. arroyo is surviving and doing his best in a difficult situation. while admirable, that should not be the bar for being the bucs OC. the bucs should be trying to find a guy with a real plan on offense and with a history of maximizing the talent of special players like mike evans and outcoaching the folks on the other sideline.
November 17th, 2014 at 7:44 pm
We’re always switching oc’s around here.
How many have we gone through now?
Where has that got us?
November 17th, 2014 at 11:29 pm
Don’t confuse Evans greatness with Arroyo play calling. Evans is just a stud he could’ve had even bigger games mainly speaking on the browns game if he wasn’t constantly underthrown by Glennon. That had nothing to do with play calling just Evans being a monster
November 18th, 2014 at 1:38 am
Nothing against Arroyo but we dif need an experienced OC that’s been around and grown up threw the NFL. That can game plan and change up plays when needed to counter what a D is succeeding at against us. That has exp against playoff teams and other great minded OC of the NFL if we ever want to get to the playoff’s again and win. There’s lots of better more exp’d OC available after the season. I hope we keep Arroyo on the team in some role but when we get a new OC it’s possible the new OC wont have a position for him. Than again Lovie might have guaranteed him a position no matter what for taking over the OC job this year so he can continue to grow in the NFL and maybe be a OC again possibly.
November 18th, 2014 at 1:53 am
So any play that calls for Evans to get the ball our OC gets no credit for. Cause Evans is too good.
SMH