“The Bucs Offense Is A Tough Watch For Me”
December 9th, 2022
This is not George W. Bush, it’s NFL Films Xs and Os guru Greg Cosell.
The esteemed NFL Films Xs and Os junkie says he has trouble watching Tampa Bay when they have the football.
Ouch!
Look at all those weapons. Tom Brady, Julio Jones, Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, capable running backs and more. Byron Leftwich is a Super Bowl playcaller! And still Greg Cosell, the NFL Films guru, sees a miserable Bucs offense when he studies the film.
Joe listened to Cosell and KNBR radio in San Francisco this week. He’s not a hot-take guy and doesn’t root for teams.
“I just sit and watch tape. That’s what I do,” Cosell began. “Some teams and I watch and I go, ‘Ah, I really like watching this team.’ And then other teams, and I’m being honest, right now the Bucs offense is a tough watch for me. They’re not very good; even Brady’s not playing at a high level. … For the most part, they’re a difficult offense to watch. They can’t run the ball and their pass game is very inconsistent. It’s everybody, but Brady is missing throws that you normally don’t see him miss.”
Cosell went on to say that, of course, Brady is so talented and has such talented receivers that anything can happen in any game with the Bucs offense. But Cosell was clear that strictly the film performance makes it hard to believe the Bucs will be able to sustain much offense against the 49ers on Sunday.
Joe’s not being a negative Nancy here. Every breathing Bucs fan knows the offense is miserable, but it’s interesting to hear objective Cosell say how hard it is to even study.
Still enough time (no longer “plenty) for the Bucs to right their offensive ship before the playoffs. A decent showing against the beastly 49ers defense would be a great start.
December 9th, 2022 at 12:05 am
I hope the Glazers also find it difficult to watch. If Leftwich isn’t fired there will be a fan boycott. There is no way they’ll be able to get that stadium filled if Lefty is retained.
December 9th, 2022 at 12:20 am
He is right… Instead of wondering if they are going to score on this drive, I am nervous it will be another 3 and out… I find myself on the edge of my nerves expecting them to fail to get a 1st down each play…
And WAY to much punting!
December 9th, 2022 at 12:45 am
I love Greg. I always respect the guys who watch the actual film and form their analysis from that point of view. I hate box scoring analysis and analysis that rely solely on analytics. I don’t hate analytics. I think it definitely has a place in football, but film analysis is more insightful. The Bucs OL was awful last game. The film shows it. The gave up 21 pressures. If not for Brady’s quick release, he would’ve been killed.
I have zero faith this offense will get it together. Leftwich’s press conference offered no vote of confidence. Leftwich hates the media, and scoffs at any criticism. He will run it up the gut every first down just to spite the media.
December 9th, 2022 at 12:47 am
If he really watched the tape, then name the play the Bucs run on 1st down 90% of the time?
Go ahead old man, I’m waiting…
Oh, you think the Bucs run it up the gut for 0.6 yards on every first down?
Good guess.
Now tell me what they run on second down?
Oh, you say a screen for 1 yards or a short pass for 1 yards?
Another good guess. But what about third down?
Oh, you say Bryon has all his guys run go routes vs teams who just play 7 or 8 back in a deep zone and the only guy open is the RB or TE for 3 yards?
Wow, this guy knows his stuff. He just summed up Leftwich’s offense to a tee.
December 9th, 2022 at 12:56 am
After BLs idiotic arrogance and the fact that this team is horrendous to watch, I almost hope for nothing but losses moving forward. Sad.
December 9th, 2022 at 2:31 am
Cosell is right both ways. They are not very good. They are also unpredictable, depending on who calls the plays, Brady (“because Brady”), and the mentals of the players on a given day.
December 9th, 2022 at 2:59 am
I am still happy they made a good move and got rid of Darden. If you forget his last non-punt return as he was backing up watching the ball roll toward the end zone just watch the last minute of Godwins “miced up” video. He might have been ok in another position but him in returns was like watching a donkey trying to eat a watermelon.
December 9th, 2022 at 3:42 am
Bucsfan13 … ‘The Bucs OL was awful last game. The film shows it. The gave up 21 pressures. If not for Brady’s quick release, he would’ve been killed.’
THAT right there is THE biggest problem IMO. OLine blocking hasn’t been consistent in any game. I’d say that it all starts in the trenches, but play design & the play call comes BEFORE that. It’s hard for me to tell from watching film what the blocking scheme was SUPPOSED to be versus what it actually turned out to be. And in far too many cases Bucsfan, it looks to me like the play was doomed from the start because you can see the defense ‘cheating’ in the direction of the play as soon as the ball is snapped.
I’m not nearly as good at analyzing these plays as some of you are (ya, you’re one of them), but in your opinion, how much of this is on the individual OLinemen (lack of talent, strength, etc) and how much is on the coordinator for what he’s asking them to do in the specific down/distance situation?
December 9th, 2022 at 4:10 am
Rod Munch … ‘If he really watched the tape, then name the play the Bucs run on 1st down 90% of the time? Go ahead old man, I’m waiting. Oh, you think the Bucs run it up the gut for 0.6 yards on every first down? Good guess’.
Byron doesn’t need your exaggeration to look bad Rod. He manages that all by himself with his play-calling.
Your statement that we run on 1st down 90% of the time simply tells me that you’ve already made up your mind about what’s wrong with this offense & that you don’t REALLY pay attention at all. JBF ran an article back on Oct 22nd titled ‘First Down Run Stats May Not Be What You Think’ that covered this in great detail. At the time, we ran on 1st down overall slightly less than 22% of the time. It’s now down to closer to 20%. In some halfs it’s hit as high as almost 50%, but those are still rare.
And oh BTW Rod, there were some excellent comments related to that article which showed some deep insight into what’s happening on the playing field from JBFers like Redeemer, Kentucky Buc, D-Rok, Jeebs the Honey Bear & a number of others. You might want to open your mind and re-read some of them.
December 9th, 2022 at 4:37 am
That is a dream job. Watching football film and getting a paycheck.
I do understand his lack of enthusiasm to watch the BUCS offense. I took find it hard to watch the games at times.
December 9th, 2022 at 7:25 am
The offense is bad because it’s so predictable. There’s no creativity like you see from other high powered offenses. It’s the same limited suite of plays over and over again. I guarantee you if Sean Payton, Sea McVay, Pete Carroll or any number of other coaches had the Bucs offensive talent pool with Brady under center, they’d easily be scoring 30+ points a game. The only reason we’re even playoff contention this season is because of Brady. Without Brady we’d be competing with the Texans for the #1 draft seed.
December 9th, 2022 at 8:00 am
I’m waiting on Oneiltobradyyall, Bicmackpudwak & ttbsucs comments on this post. He is not the only one that finds watching the Bucs disturbing. The 3rd D isn’t much fun either. Bowels ruined this team.
December 9th, 2022 at 8:49 am
The way to beat Brady or any quarterback is to pressure him as soon as he gets the ball. How a defense can throw a 300lb man out of the way and get to Brady or the running back in less than 2 seconds is alarming. Obviously the Bucs Needed to bring in some veteran help on the O line but instead decided to go with backups and rookies which turned out to be a very bad move. As much as I like Brady to have a surplus of top receivers they don’t do him much good if he doesn’t have time to throw it. Terrible play calling just makes it worse as everyone knows what is coming next. It’s just hard to watch.
December 9th, 2022 at 8:59 am
It’s not hard to sort out
When you have the worst line on football……
It’s hard to have any success running or passing the ball
December 9th, 2022 at 9:14 am
How can the Glazers ignore the burning in their eyes, soon to be their wallets?
How can they ignore the insanity that Toad’s Bowelswich babbles?
How can any players listening to them go to the practice field and take any offensive gameplan seriously?
It’s a miracle this train wreck has 6 wins.
Ask the babbling boobs what their plans are for the soon-to-be post football careers.
December 9th, 2022 at 9:24 am
Won’t be an accurate measuring stick, on the Road after a Monday (Dramatic) night game, teams are historically bad in such a scenario.
December 9th, 2022 at 9:26 am
Its beyond obvious that Brady has been off the whole season. Everybody sees it. IDK if the Brady fan boys in these comment sections are just trying to antagonize others or if they are part of some Brady cult?
December 9th, 2022 at 9:28 am
Mike it’s Sunday night unless you’re still in Germany
December 9th, 2022 at 9:32 am
Anyone saying that Brady is off must not actually watch the games, or recognize that the offensive line can’t run block nor have they earned Brady’s trust in pass protection. Donovan Smith back to his holding ways. Hainsey is getting no push, nor is Shaq Mason. Wirfs is dinged up, and yet Wells came out and played the best of the linemen Monday night. That in itself is really frightening.
The cerebrally handicapped that blame Brady should go hang out with Rob Parker. He’s looked foolish for 10 years.
December 9th, 2022 at 9:33 am
Good comments, Bucsfan.
Thanks for the shout-out, DR. Your energetic attention to detail and stats to back up a premise are appreciated.
December 9th, 2022 at 9:35 am
Goat,
My gut instinct tells me, sure, Brady has missed a few throws here and there, but mostly, he is “off” because of the O-line. The O-line is problem #1 with this team, IMO.
December 9th, 2022 at 9:58 am
It is even harder to watch when you have seen what this almost same offense is capable of.
Did Leftie get brain damage over the off season or something? Only getting 1/3 of the points out of this year’s offense is wrong.
December 9th, 2022 at 10:26 am
There are certainly outside factors affecting Brady’s performances and guys around him are sucking, but to stick your head in the sand and not acknowledging Brady is making some poor throws and is part of the problem is what is a cerebrally handicapped jock sniffing Brady fan would say Goatfondler.
December 9th, 2022 at 11:23 am
Some of y’all need yoga, meditation, or just lay off the caffeine before responding. For all the people so concerned about the coaching staff, there were times in 2020 and 2021 (dam near identical staff across the board) that our coaching staff appeared incompetent. Remember the “turning point” in 2020 where it seemed like Brady was the new OC? Probably after a blowout loss to the saints where we ran the ball 5 times… This is the NFL. Our team has talent but our holes get exposed sometimes. Have some faith that the bucs and their staff our professionals, maybe not the best at press conferences, but they’ll get it together. Does it mean we’ll win a ship? TBD. Odds are against us, especially with the injuries mounting up, but we’re 6-6 and we’ve played horrendous football. Our defense has been pretty stellar majority of games, so hammering away at Bowles all the time is ridiculous. The HC an easy scapegoat. Players gotta make plays. Be patient, enjoy the season, hope for a healthy finale, and we’re going to the playoffs. Let’s get streaky baby.
December 9th, 2022 at 3:57 pm
Ian Beckles said it best – the Bucs just make everything look hard this year.
December 11th, 2022 at 11:57 pm
Not just running the ball …on any down and distance. DCs study film and we show them what we are gonna do through personel and alignment according to down and distance. Ask Brooks and I bet he could tell you run or pas and based on this, even where they were going with the run play. Every GOOD OC keeps defenses guessing!