Red Zone Quandry
November 28th, 2014
The red zone offense makes people want to hide their eyes
Bucs fans don’t need an explanation of why the offense is struggling. Blame the quarterback, blame the line, blame the running backs, the trail of bread crumbs ends at the same destination: awful red zone offense.
How bad is it? Well, Joe believes the offense is so bad, especially in the red zone, that the cannons at the Den of Depression are faulty due to rust.
There is no polite way to put it. The Bucs are futile. The Bucs are dead-last in the NFL in scoring percentage from the red zone at 71.4 percent.
The Bucs have had the ball in the red zone 28 times. Eight of those times, the Bucs marched back to the bench, heads hung low, with no points to show for their effort.
Not just that, but only four other NFL teams have visited the red zone fewer times.
Bucs running back Doug Martin thinks he knows what ills the offense.
“I wouldn’t say it is bad luck,” Martin said. “It all comes down to execution. Doing your job and focus on the details and if you do that, you will be successful in the red zone.”
If that is the case, then people need to start using their heads more.
Joe can’t say it any other way: if hiring a qualified offensive coordinator in a little over a month is not Priority No. 1 for Lovie Smith, then it should be.
November 28th, 2014 at 4:08 pm
@joe
you have a keen eye for the obvious. lol
November 28th, 2014 at 4:33 pm
*ails the offense
November 28th, 2014 at 4:44 pm
How bad is it? Richie Incognito would be a great addition to the team. Now that is bad.
November 28th, 2014 at 5:04 pm
They’re just not in sync. Either that or what we see is real and is all they got.
November 28th, 2014 at 6:09 pm
The reason we have been rarely in the red zone is that we neglected to take a franchise QB in the draft and instead Lovey erroneously thought Glennon was his QB of the future despite the fact I tried my best to warn him. Then he left Glennon starting for too many games. Contributing too was how long it takes to learn Tampa Two. So we were not getting pressure or turnovers and were giving up way too many running yards and could not stop other teams so our Offense did not get the ball very long compared to our opponents. We need a new OC, a new GM, a better scouting team, a pass rusher, a MLB, a run back specialist, a new OL Coach, a Franchise QB first round, and OL the next three picks. Beyond that take the best player late in the draft. Do all that and we can have a decent team. Sign David to a long contract.
November 28th, 2014 at 6:54 pm
Coach Smith should obviously be seeking out and following your knowledgeable advice Owlykat. How dare he not take one of the franchise QBs available in the last draft. OH wait a minute – there weren’t any… Guess we are stuck with that crappy receiver from A&M.
November 28th, 2014 at 7:01 pm
The cannons have rust. HA! HA! Rolling on the floor! I was thinking the exact same thing just 2 days ago. Ahh man, that’s funny.
November 28th, 2014 at 11:40 pm
You can stick with the rusty cannons theory. Personally, I think their powder went bad, or they ran out of balls!
November 28th, 2014 at 11:53 pm
Owlykat,
It’s a game won and lost in the trenches. Offensive and defensive linemen control the game.
Keep blaming Glennon, pretty effing funny. 🙂
#trenchmob
November 29th, 2014 at 12:30 am
The play calling in the redzone seems to be terrible. It seems like instead of throwing to our tall guys, we try to out wit the defense and run the ball more times than not.
With Glennon it made sense, he has bad accuracy and won’t throw to anyone if they have a guy within 10 yards of him. So he just about always throws it away. But McCown hasn’t been very good in the redzone either. The last game especially was bad. Unable to score points and finish drives really hurt us. Not all of it was McCowns fault. But he played his role in those failures.
November 29th, 2014 at 12:21 pm
I used to be on the Incognito bandwagon too but after the Broncos just passed on him, maybe they see a player with a dwindling skill set as well.
Play calling in the redzone is horrendous. Arroyo is bad enough between the 20s but when he gets in the redzone it is almost like the team is unprepared.