Dirk Koetter Describes Doug Martin As 42% Efficient
November 4th, 2017
Performance discussed
Is Doug Martin running the way the Buccaneers want him to?
Formerly winning head coach Dirk Koetter addressed that last night.
While the establishment media in Tampa turns its nose and scoffs at Koetter appearing on radio each week, Joe does no such thing. Joe would never consider letting down Bucs fans and allowing ego stand in the way of delivering news to the people.
Koetter was asked on SiriusXM NFL Radio yesterday about Doug Martin having a couple of good runs last Sunday that led to a field goal. How close is the running game to getting going?” host Alex Marvez asked Koetter.
“I think we’re pretty close,” Koetter said. “With Doug carrying the ball, what we call an efficient run, where we gain at least four yards on first down, half on second-and-long, and converting on third downs, Doug was at about 42 percent on the times he carried the ball [against Carolina] He did have two explosive plays. You know, we’d like that number to be about 50 or 55 percent. So we’re not quite where we want to be. But I don’t think we’re quite far off. We’re going to give it another go here on Sunday.”
The Bucs’ coaching staff sets a lot of realistic goals for the team and players within games. For example, six penalties per game is the goal. Unfortunately, the Bucs hit that mark last Sunday but they were all on the offense, which really screwed up the rhythm. Adam Humphries told Joe his goal was 10 yards per punt return last year, Humphries missed by one-tenth of a yard (9.9) and was replaced this year by Bernard Reedy, who has maintained his job while doing worse than Humphries (8.6). Another Bucs goal is one sack for every 14 pass attempts by an opposing quarterback, and the team is currently at one sack per every 37 — thirty-seven — attempts.
Going back to Martin and the run game failures, there’s always the blame-game factor. Is it Martin? Is it the offensive line? Is it a combination of both that leans in one direction?
Joe tosses the majority share of blame at Martin, but regular readers already knew that.
It’s certainly not teams knowing the Bucs will run, since they lead the NFL in passing attempts per game with 40. And Martin has had plenty of carries to get going. He averages 16.2 carries per game, 12th most in the NFL.
November 4th, 2017 at 11:04 am
You can add other things to the lack of success in the running game!!!! The inefficient pass game that was supposed to get the extra man out of the box!!!!!!
None of the RB are elite, And if you see that often they have more “yards after contact” than “rushing yards gained” that points you in a direction for blame!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
GO Bucs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
November 4th, 2017 at 11:13 am
Martin is the best back on this team but if he had been cut I would have been ok with the but the problem is this coaching is lost (mostly in stats) setting in game goals is nice but doesn’t seem any of those goals include winning. 42% is all you need to make 7 mil for the bucs. We throw away just as much money as we save, waste more talent than we can acquire. This is why we are the browns of the South. Rarely have we made newbie coach/tandem work. One of them needs to be a veteran. Licht and koetter are in over their heads
November 4th, 2017 at 11:26 am
There aint no “extra man in the box” we average almost 300yds per game on the pass, and u call it inefficient realist?. Sure we dont score enough points but there are 6-7 guys in the box man. We dont see 8 man fronts. And more importantly we only see 5 man fronts just outside the redzone, where doug can never punch it in. I always say it, if its not on the 2 yard line Doug aint scoring SH!T.
November 4th, 2017 at 11:27 am
@ realist if you are saying that they are caught behind the line of scrimmage
and forced to fight just to get to the line then I agree. Also think our blocking
on the outside is puzzling,it was effective in 2015 with Pamphile at swing
tackle, not so much now.
November 4th, 2017 at 11:28 am
You blame Martin but suck off Winston how much does he pay you? Maybe if the other team D was worried about him completing a pass or hitting a wide-open guy we could run the damn ball
November 4th, 2017 at 11:32 am
We lack a commitment to staying with our running game.
The worst example was on Thursday Night because Martin was running for chunks of yards. It was horrible play calling to not take advantage of what the defense gives you and try to force a gameplan.
It is entirely inexcusable to shut down the Pats on their first 2 drives and get dominated in TOP when the running game is having success………I don’t care what their thoughts on Doug were coming into that contest or what they wanted to attack based on film study. To call a game that takes Doug out of that game is an absolute inability to adjust. If you can’t adjust in this league you are hoing to be playing behind the eightball.
The Bucs follow up that effort by showing no ability to adjust to the Cards(pass heavy) calling Adrian Petersons number the next week and fooling our defensive staff.
The mental aspect of sports should never be overlooked and our players are on the front line and they know what the he’ll is going on………….I don’t think it’s a reach to assume that in the Pats game our O-line knew they were winning the battle in the trenches and were hungry to have more runs called and keep gaining momentum. For this coach to take them out of the play calling was a freaking joke. I’m sure the Oline felt the same way I do……wondering what the f we are doing? That win could have went a long way with this team, top to bottom………yet here we are, a month later, with no wins since then……….players calling out our coaches……….and our QB saying they don’t know what their identity is.
IMO we had a chance to establish our identity and our place in this league in that game and we choked.
November 4th, 2017 at 11:37 am
1 sack every 14 pass attempts is only 2-3 sacks a game. Would love to know the league avearge on that cause that seems really low.
November 4th, 2017 at 11:37 am
@Bucs941fan
It is “inefficient” until we are playing catch up in the back half of games!!!!!!!
JW3
1st half – 71 cmp, 125 att, 56.80 cmp% 834 yards 3 TDs 6.7 Y/A
2nd half – 81 cmp, 121 att 66.94 cmp% 1025 yards 7 TDs 8.5 Y/A
The Numbers are telling!!!!!!!!
Go Bucs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
November 4th, 2017 at 11:43 am
We shat(courtesy of joe) to bed on this season starting with that Patriots game. I, and probably most fans, just didn’t see it at the time. We held out hope that this team would fix a few kinks, like a kicker, and start to show up.
I was petty upset after we let the Pats squirm out of our stadium win a win but had trust that Dirk would figure it out and get this teamdemotivated and playing at a high level. All we have gotten since is a soft team that is unprepared on a weakly basis that gets physically beaten. I see no reason to suggest this coach has a pulse on his players or an ability to get them to play with any sense of urgency.
Not say in we can’t turn it around but my hope is at a fraction of a percent considering how lifeless this team looks on Gamedays.
November 4th, 2017 at 11:44 am
BuccaneerTroll so the offense didn’t put our kicker in position to make kicks against the Pats. We need players that buy in to what’s being called. Our o-line got handled by panthers, the defense got torched by the cards and Buffalo. How is this Jameis fault he’s the only reason we’re even competitive.
November 4th, 2017 at 11:44 am
We lead the league in pass attempts because that is what other teams are giving us. 941 I’m really not sure what games you are watching because it’s not the Bucs game! Defenses are crowding the line of scrimmage. Sometimes they back out of it but for the most part they are stacking to stop the run and daring us to go long. They know we’ve had trouble connecting on deep routes and would rather put pressure on Winston while stuffing the running game at the same time.
November 4th, 2017 at 11:52 am
Alright I did the math and if we actually hit the 1 sack per 14 pass attempts we would have about 18.5 sacks which would be 13th in the league currently. Not terrible.
November 4th, 2017 at 11:53 am
Thank you Bucnjim!!!!!!!! Good to know that some can watch a game and see what is going on!!!!!!!!
In fact, this was discussed days ago!!!! OMG……Its the “Realist Repost”!!!!!!!!!!!!
“The Buc Realist Says:
November 1st, 2017 at 9:33 am
Nothing is helping the run game the last few games!!!! The pass game is not effective to remove the extra man out of the box and to back up the back 7!!!!!!! They are daring the Bucs to try and beat them with the deep ball!!!!!! and some plays the safties are within 10 yards of the line of scrimmage!!!!!! The O-line cannot carry the run game, as the RB was getting hit before the line of scrimmage!!!!!!! once again the RB had more yards “after contact” then yards gained!!!!!!!!! that means the 0-line was ” MANHANDLED”!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Our RB are not great, but maybe the only RB that could have put in a 100 yard game last sunday is the Hall of Famer Barry Sanders and he would have to do it all by himself!!!!!!!!!!”
Go Bucs!!!!!!!!!!!!
November 4th, 2017 at 12:04 pm
Grt2……Our kicker was far from being the only thing that lost us that game bro. Just like there are field possession battles, time of possession is also a battle.
Our coach was handed a 3 and out…..and a turnover to start that game. He also had a running game that was working at the onset………For his team to get completely dominated in TOP in the 1st quarter represents that he was completely out coached.
The fact is our running attack was highly succesful on that night and our HC ignored it. If he sticks with the run we may not even be talking about field goals.
Dirk was given every opportunity to seize momentum in that game and he absolutely botched it. You want to forgive that garbage gameplan that’s your prerogative. Me, I have just been waiting for this coach to prove his team is worth more that…….still waiting, nearly al hope gone.
November 4th, 2017 at 12:07 pm
Need to give barber more carries
November 4th, 2017 at 12:25 pm
So I was doing some research on offensive lines this season and I came across some numbers that are kind of interesting.
According to football outsiders metrics, the Buccaneers are 12th in the league in “Adjusted Line Yards” (they have a formula that calculates that particular stat), but they are 21st in “Open Field Yards” (Yards which this team’s running backs earn more than 10 yards past the line of scrimmage, divided by total running back carries.)
There is an interesting passage in the article as well.
“A team with a high ranking in Adjusted Line Yards but a low ranking in Open Field Yards is heavily dependent on its offensive line to make the running game work.”
Just going off of these metrics, it seems like the OL is playig pretty well. They also rank 6th in pass protection. Leade me to believe its the RBs not getting the job done.
http://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/ol
November 4th, 2017 at 12:25 pm
Jimmyjack
You keep talking about martin and the running game against the pats. Martin on buccaneer acces talked about how winded he was during the game because he was not in football shape. I know some of you think it is like madden in the real nfl, but it is not. Running martin 40 times would not have been good either because his body was not ready for that type of load. That leads to injury. Its not as simple as martin should have run more especially when he admitted he was winded a lot.
November 4th, 2017 at 12:28 pm
@Joe … “Joe tosses the majority share of blame at Martin.” Gee, never saw that one coming Joe. Just like no one can tell when the Bucs are gonna run. Well, except for all Bucs fans and oh ya, the other team’s defense. Looking just at the Panthers game, Doug ran the ball 18 times for 71 yds (3.9 average). He got the majority of his yardage (47) running to the left side (7 runs). Got another 20 yds running right (5 runs) and the remaining 4 yds running up the middle (6 runs). BTW, 10 runs were on 1st down, 7 runs on 2nd down & 1 run on 3rd down.
Hmmm, so what’s wrong with this picture? For starters, running Martin up the middle is a disaster … 4 of Martin’s 6 runs up the gut were on 1st down, and the other 2 were on 2nd down. Hmmm, MAYBE the middle of the Bucs OLine wasn’t blocking well that day? Nah, can’t be, must be Martin’s fault. The SAME Doug Martin who averaged almost 7 yds/carry running over the left side. Nah that can’t be true either … that’s Donovan Smith’s side and we all know he can’t block. (Hint Joe: It’s NOT all Martin’s fault, although I’m sure he’s still getting back in the saddle. But it MIGHT be the play-calling AND the blocking schemes. Maybe? Nah, just blame Doug and let Jameis continue to throw 65% of the time. And say hello to a 4-12 record for 2017).
November 4th, 2017 at 1:00 pm
Webster…..You seem to know more about the situation because I don’t remember that issue. But it doesn’t just have to be about Martin. He was given the bulk of the carries in that game and if he could not handle more they should have used one of their other backs……..This may not have been a clear cut decision that had to be made before the game but the offensive line was opening up holes and letting our runner hit the second level in that game on a consistent basis………For our coach to not adjust his game plan to try and take advantage of that, reguardless of who was handed the ball, is inexcusable.
November 4th, 2017 at 1:04 pm
Martin and the running game is not effective because
Koetter is telling everyone he is going to run with his predictable 2 tightend running formation sets on 1st and 2nd down
it invites another saftey in the box and there is like 20 guys around the LOS
All other OCs in the NFL call running plays in passing formation sets with holes for runners to scat thru…there are less bodies stacked on the LOS…thats why a 3 down back is a must in the new NFL normal
November 4th, 2017 at 1:11 pm
@Def
Im thinking 4-12 also
but the 2 wins are hard to figure who
jets are playing much better
at miami is tough and they are still playoff contention
at gb? no rodgers but win at gb?
all our div rivals are playoff contension so they wont give us free wins like last year
“Im picking the new color scheme of my new office at 1 buc place”
Jon Grudog
November 4th, 2017 at 1:18 pm
Kobe … I was just basically doubling our 2-6 record at the halfway mark. Oh wait, we haven’t played New Orleans yet. Hold off on reading this until tomorrow PM.
November 4th, 2017 at 2:37 pm
Doug is the last of our problems. Tough to get into rhythm when your constantly playing from behind.
November 4th, 2017 at 2:43 pm
everything is martins fault, duh!
He should be able to block all 6-8 people in the box when he rushes up the middle, and rip off an 8 yard run! Duh!
November 4th, 2017 at 4:30 pm
Martin should have been cut but instead licht is wasting 7 mil of the Glazer’s money. The family didn’t get to where they are now by throwing away money. Licht is toast if he was truly trying to work a miracle trade up for cook, if he had pulled it off then Martin would have been cut? I was begging us to draft Alex Collins a few years ago. At 29 years old it’s criminal to wait until this late in the game to be looking for a running back because they are everywhere except in Tampa