What Tom Brady Misses (Or Does He?)
October 20th, 2022
In breaking down the NFL after Week 6, a former NFL suit understands if Bucs fans want to freak out.
Michael Lombardi, a former coffee fetcher for Bill Walsh, Al Davis and Bill Belicheat, has not been impressed at all with the Bucs’ offense and believes it may have hit bottom with Sunday’s vomiting all over the field of Agriculture Stadium in Pittsburgh.
And Lombardi doesn’t know if the Bucs can get up.
“Houston, we have a problem,” said Lombardi, who in previous editions of his podcast “GM Shuffle” has been a big booster of Bucs coach Todd Bowles. “They were horrendous. They were 1 for 4 in the red zone. They can’t run the ball, right? They can’t run the ball.
“They had too many penalties, unfortunate penalties. They let a kickoff return back to the eight. That hurts them. You can say whatever you want, but this Tampa offense [is off].”
Lombardi was handed bait by his co-host Femi Abebefe mentioning Brady’s wedding-attending ways, separating himself from the team on Saturday. Lombardi wouldn’t go there.
“Brady’s still throwing it well, moving the ball, makes plays,” Lombardi said.
Lombardi, Joe believes, correctly said Brady misses foot-rubbing Rob Gronkowski. But Joe almost ran off the road when he heard Lombardi say Brady cannot dominate because he doesn’t have his kind of players to throw to.
Lombardi said Brady needs a James White in the backfield to catch short passes. Um, has Lombardi not heard of Playoff Lenny?
Then Lombardi said Brady needs a Julian Edelman clone to succeed at the high highest level and seemed to ho-hum dismiss Mike Evans as “He’s a good player.”
Now stop it! Joe is personally sick of the New England crowd trying to make this James White — he’s out of football — into Roger Craig II or Marshall Faulk, Jr. So he caught passes in the flat from Brady, big deal!
You know one big reason Brady threw so often to White? Because Brady didn’t have the downfield receivers he has with the Bucs! If Brady had the same receivers, he never would have left New England! So stop it with this Edelman and White doggerel!
Are we talking about the same quarterback who in his mid-40s threw for 10,000 yards (9,949 to be exact) the past two years and won 29 games including a Super Bowl? How in the world did he do that without Edelman and White?
Just because Bucs receivers never had to go through boot camp with Belicheat and they didn’t kneel at his altar and give away half their salaries to be bit players in the Belicheat assembly line that doesn’t mean they aren’t great.
Stop with this crap that unless someone has been blessed by the hand of Belicheat they are somehow lesser players. That’s insulting.
Lombardi summed up the Bucs with this and he may be right.
“They don’t look good to me,” Lombardi said. “They haven’t looked good all year, to be honest with you.”
On offense, no, they have not.
Watchya gonna do, Byron?
October 20th, 2022 at 11:06 am
The bottom line is that Brady doesn’t want to be here and he is behaving like a spoiled brat that doesn’t, or didn’t get his way
October 20th, 2022 at 11:08 am
Byron leftwich has been predictable since the day he got here. Don’t expect him to change his game play style regardless of how simple he is, coaches like that think it’s the players making mistakes not the play called
October 20th, 2022 at 11:15 am
Byron “It’s the game of football, so what we do is put football players in a position to win football games”
Translated….”Frankly, I just don’t know what the f(u) ck I’m doing”
October 20th, 2022 at 11:16 am
Buccaboo Says:
October 20th, 2022 at 11:06 am
The bottom line is that Brady doesn’t want to be here and he is behaving like a spoiled brat that doesn’t, or didn’t get his way
You make this statement,, based upon, what?
October 20th, 2022 at 11:22 am
You can’t tell me that James White is/was uniquely better than Lenny or Rashaad White. Our o-line is our weak spot. That’s it. Maybe Leftwich can scheme around it, but they just need to get better. Then everything will fall into place
October 20th, 2022 at 11:39 am
Leftwich’s offense shows absolutely no creativity. It’s a rehash of an offense that Ben Roethlisberger won a Super Bowl with. Believe it or not, defensive coordinators have had since 2008 to figure out that offense. Offenses have changed a lot since then. I think everyone knows that on 3rd and short (less than 5) Leftwich wants to take a shot 20 yards downfield. Hello 4th down 80% of the time. Leftwich is too mechanical. Self-scouting should show this. I’m from AZ, I remember when Leftwich was here. Even then everyone was saying the offense was too predictable and lacked any sort of creativity. I know Rosen isn’t anything special, but even he was frustrated with a boring offense.
October 20th, 2022 at 11:48 am
I actually believe one of the reasons Brady came to Tampa was due to the receivers, and good o-line we had in 2020. I think he saw the blueprint for 20 years in NE, and that was fine, it worked and was successful, but I think he wanted a challenge to see what he could do in a more downfield-passing attack with much better receivers in Evans and Godwin, then Gronk, then AB.
I think Brady said, “Hold my tequila avocado, Bill, and watch me do what I do with a different system.”
As far as James White, I think you are spot-on, Joe. Brady, save for Moss and a few other WR’s in NE, has much better talent at WR currently on the Bucs. The passes to White were always Brady’s cheat-code because they were hard to defend consistently. I think Lenny is not as quick as White, but Lenny is very, very good catching wheels, darts, or swings out of the backfield. It’s Brady’s security blanket.
I’m very pleased so far with Lenny. As for the rest of the passing game, it needs work, starting at the top with the OC, then the QB, then the O-Line, then the WR’s. It just needs work, and I believe it can be better than it has been.
I’m optimistic they can be better. We can do it! GO BUCS!!!
October 20th, 2022 at 11:48 am
You’re right. The Bucs are not a good football team right now. On paper they have plenty of talent. Rightfully, everyone is piling on BL. But you have to ask, how much of an influence is Bowles having on Leftwich? If it’s a lot, he needs to back off and let BL return to the things that brought the team success in past years. If it’s not much, he needs to get on BL’s ass! One way or another, responsibility for the team’s doldrums falls on Bowles. He needs to get this thing moving in the right direction and quickly.
October 20th, 2022 at 11:56 am
If the Falcons OLine and DLine continue to play like they did vs 49ers and Bucs OLine and DLine continue to play like they did vs Steelers, the Falcons will win the NFC South.
October 20th, 2022 at 12:09 pm
Watchya gonna do Byron? I think you know the answer. Run up the middle on 1st downs while having two of the worst interior linemen in the league and no good blocking tight ends or even a fullback or even a bare minimum of creativity with pulls, double teams or zone stretch runs. And also cripple Brady’s no-huddle offense and Evans targets.
October 20th, 2022 at 12:15 pm
For those of us who remember Lovie’s inaugural year (2014) when we had Mike Evans, Vincent Jackson, Doug Martin & several other pretty good weapons, you probably also remember that we went 2-14 that year & only scored 277 points (17 PPG). Our QBs didn’t exactly set the world on fire, but then again neither did our OLine. But that’s OK, we compensated for that with a terrible defense.
Good to see several JBFers being at least a little more optimistic than anyone was then. That 2014 ship sank; there was no way to right it. Not so with our 2022 ship. We’ve got several significant problems, but we’ve also got a lot more talent than that 2014 team had. And yes, a better coaching staff. Like D-Rok, I’m optimistic that we can do better, and will do better. Personally expecting about a 10-7 season just on a guess, but that SHOULD be good enough to win the NFC South & make the playoffs. Once in, anything can happen. Evidence 2020.
October 20th, 2022 at 12:23 pm
Of course he needs Gronk but he needs an O line more than anything…and some creative play calling that BL cant seem to come up with.
We should (and I say that lightly) win against the Panthers, but the next 2, i dont know. I dont think they have it in them…the coaching, the play calling, and some of the players.
If we lose this Panthers game, im betting everyone will check out and this season is over….and it all can be blamed on Bowles and low IQ BL!
October 20th, 2022 at 12:35 pm
I’m no football player but I could hardly even listen to offensive line coach Gilbert in his interview with Casey. He says “y’know” almost every 3 words. He spoke in run-on sentences and I counted 7 “y’knows” in one of them alone. He drove me crazy. It would be REALLY easy to tune this guy out. I don’t know if he knows anything.
October 20th, 2022 at 12:55 pm
I keep waiting for the announcement of a trade for an offensive lineman or Defensive lineman who can make a difference but Im starting to get the feeling Licht is going to sit on his hands and stick to his bs offseason additions who are all washed up and hurt. Obviously glaring issues in an all in season and he’s not going to do anything to address them. Madness.
October 20th, 2022 at 1:04 pm
What happened to the pretty good blocking we had ves Dallas? Is Dallas’ dtackles just not good? All the other Dlinemen just blow past Goedeke.
A wooden Indian might at least fall into someone’s way when the wind blows hard enough.
October 20th, 2022 at 1:06 pm
Whoolio … I love it!
October 20th, 2022 at 1:15 pm
10-7 sounds feasible at this point, DR, IF they start playing somewhat better. If not, Whoa Nelly, it’s gonna be miserable.
On a different topic, tuned into SXM this fine morning and was listening to McCaffrey Sr. He was talking about the 22 point rule. His premise was, if an offense consistently scores 22 points a game, that team will win about 80% of their games. Apparently, this is some sort of unwritten rule or guideline, but I’ve never heard of it. Anybody else know about the 22 point rule?
October 20th, 2022 at 1:18 pm
Well, I am sure people will be able to make a lot of money off betting on the Bucs games.
Follow the money.
We will start winning when we become the underdog again. Bank on it ALL THE WAY TO THE SUPER BOWL.
KC vs BUCS rematch anyone? Underdog vs Top Dog? The OFFICIAL Passing of the torch game?
Bills vs Bucs would be more along the lines of Passing the Torch. No way the NFL lets Brady go out with a whimper.
This is setting up to be all about how Brady won despite BAD COACHING.
Hip Hip……………. Hip Hip…………
October 20th, 2022 at 1:43 pm
James White averaged 9 yards per catch with Brady. In 2+ years with Brady, LF averages 6.8 YPC.
October 20th, 2022 at 2:04 pm
The Bucs were OUTCOACHED! OUTCOACHED! OUT FREAKEN COACHED!!!
Enough said!
October 20th, 2022 at 2:06 pm
PS:
Joe,
You missed a prime opportunity to insert some humor.
Title could’ve read,
“What Tom Brady Misses (Or Do He?)”
(Sorry, couldn’t resist).
October 20th, 2022 at 2:31 pm
Truthfully I don’t even like coming to this site I am so depressed.
October 20th, 2022 at 2:33 pm
Fire Byron
October 20th, 2022 at 2:51 pm
Brady misses the coaching in NE more than anything. D-Rok I don’t think the bucs recievers are that much better than the Patriots. Evans is clearly the best from either group, but 2 through 5 is much closer.
October 20th, 2022 at 3:04 pm
Nothing will change until the Glazers force Licht to change it.
October 20th, 2022 at 3:16 pm
D-Rok … Nope, never heard of the 22-point rule. Another way to say it though would be that losing teams would only score 21 points or less in 80% of the games (ie, teams scoring 22 PPG consistently would beat them 80% of the time as McCaffrey Sr stated). No idea if that’s true or not, but 80% sounds WAY too high to me.
Back in 2000, a guy named Jon Bois did a study that he called ‘DORKTOWN: NFL TEAMS THAT SCORE 16 POINTS WIN MORE OFTEN THAN TEAMS THAT SCORE 21. WHY?’. (Nope, don’t ask me how the ‘Dorktown’ got in there). Some fascinating analytics came out of that when he looked at ‘Winning percentage by points scored by NFL teams between 1970-2020’ (he actually looked at 11,653 regular season games … wow). Turned out that a team scoring between 20-21 points will win a tad over 50% of the time. From his chart it looks like a team scoring 22 PPG consistently would win about 57-58% of the time, and that you’d have to be up around 29 PPG to win 80% of the time.
But hey, that’s just 1 study by a guy I’ve never heard of, so who knows. Of course that’s looking at the NFL as a whole too. If all you looked at was teams with historically great defenses, I would imagine that the 29 PPG would be much lower to achieve that 80% win rate. Maybe McCaffrey Sr was just talking about the Panthers who’ve had historically good defenses?
October 20th, 2022 at 4:20 pm
Excellent response, DR, and as always, I appreciate your use of stats to back up your ideas/premises. The Dorktown article (chuckling) gives me a reference to begin some study on my own. I’m fairly certain Ed Sr was talking about the league as a whole – in fact, he distinctly referred to it multiple times as the “22-point rule.” I was ignorant of it and thought I’d reach out here because I know there is a LOT of football knowledge, and history, within some posters on this site, yourself included.
Thanks, buddy!
October 20th, 2022 at 11:01 pm
I’m sorry but most of you guys are out of your mind. The OLine is not giving Brady enough time to get the ball to Evans. These guys cant block simple screen passes. The play calling is drab, predictable, and the online technique is horrible. Godwin still is not Godwin! Gage is struggling to get separation. The Tight End did not use his Body to gain leverage against the Defender on a pass that should have been a TD!
Finally THIS TEAM WAS COMPLETELY OUT COACHED!!!!!!!