Bucs Offense Just Wasn’t Explosive
April 15th, 2023
Energizing the offense.
The very definition of no risk it-no biscuit under Super Bowl-winning coach Bucco Bruce Arians was explosive plays.
With Byron Leftwich running the offense? Well, last year the Bucs were about explosive as a wet firecracker.
Folks define an explosive play differently. Former Bucs coach Dirk Koetter often defined an explosive play as a run of 12 yards or more or a pass of 16 yards or more.
Yesterday, handicapper turned stathead Warren Sharp released the number of touchdowns each team scored from 10 yards out or more. Would you believe (said in a Maxwell Smart voice) that last year under failed offensive coordinator SpongeBob, only one team had less touchdowns of 10 yards or more than the Bucs? The Steelers (who the Bucs embarrassingly lost to).
Will it get better this year? Joe isn’t sure. The Bucs likely will run the ball more. However, let’s be real: Kyler Traskfield is no Tom Brady.
offensive TDs on plays of 10+ yds:
30 – SEA
29
28
27 – BUF
26 – PHI
25
24 – DAL, LV
23 – CIN, SF
22 – GB
21 – MIA
20 – CHI
19 – KC, LAC
18 – NO, CLE, JAX, MIN
17 – CAR, WAS
16
15 – HOU
14 – BAL, DET, NE
13 – NYG, DEN, TEN
12 – NYJ
11 – LAR
10 – ATL, IND
9 – ARI
8 – TB
7 – PIT— Warren Sharp (@SharpFootball) April 14, 2023
April 15th, 2023 at 6:34 am
Let’s hope the 1st overall bust doesn’t get his receivers hurt!
April 15th, 2023 at 6:38 am
No, they are not. I hope they do much better than Tom did last year, though, and obviously.
April 15th, 2023 at 6:54 am
Bowles was the head coach why didn’t he do anything about it during the season. I suspect Canales will be his scapegoat this year. Watch your back Canales!
April 15th, 2023 at 7:13 am
“Maxwell Smart voice” Nice! Most of the younguns on this site don’t know who Maxwell Smart was. But this old timer does. Well played sir!
April 15th, 2023 at 7:14 am
Let’s be real. Last year Tom Brady was no Tom Brady.
April 15th, 2023 at 7:20 am
Captain Flat Brim is a misunderstood genius.
Just ask him.
April 15th, 2023 at 7:27 am
Hard to produce lots of explosive plays when the offensive line is a basket case as it was last season.
For JBF and all the other haters here, Byron Leftwich was the offensive coordinator when Arians was head coach including the Super Bowl winning team and the team the following season that won the most regular season games in Bucs history and finished #2 in the league in points scored and total offense. Bruce Arians did not call the plays – Leftwich did.
Leftwich is just the scapegoat for the destruction of the offensive line last year over which he had zero control of retirements and injuries.
April 15th, 2023 at 7:35 am
Dave Canales and whomever our starting QB is in 2023 have some really low bars in terms of offensive production to clear in comparison to our 2022 offense.
April 15th, 2023 at 7:36 am
Interesting that Seattle had the most explosive plays last year, scoring 30 TDs (out of their total 30 TDs passing & 12 TDs rushing) on ‘explosive plays’ of 10 yards or more. And they did it primarily with journeyman QB Geno Smith, rookie RB Kenneth Walker, WRs Lockett & Metcalf, and TE Noah Fant. Wouldn’t exactly call their OLine #1 in the NFL.
Hopefully David Canales learned a thing or two by being a part of the coaching team that helped make that happen.
April 15th, 2023 at 7:51 am
Looking forward to an offense that is going back to looking at matchups and the vertical game. Hope Mayfield gets his act together.
April 15th, 2023 at 7:55 am
Duane is delusional.
Without BA holding his hand BL failed miserably.
April 15th, 2023 at 8:03 am
Brady contributed to the lack of explosiveness last year……I suspect a good version of Mayfield is as good as a struggling Brady.
Select a RB & TE high in the draft and watch our offense explode.
April 15th, 2023 at 8:04 am
Bucs have talent to be explosive on offense. Need better line play and play calling.
April 15th, 2023 at 8:04 am
The were worse offenses than our Bucs last year but good lawd! It was quite the clusterflunk and so hard to watch. Without blood pressure medication, you’d be putting your life on the line..
I find it advantageous for the team that Ol Lefty got sacked and Brady retired. My viewpoint is they were trying to scheme up an offense that took into account the horrid play of the oline and Bradys rapid decline and they came up short. Ive wondered if Brady taking off for 11 days in training camp was leisure based or did he go to work with some skills people to try and push back against father time. Speculation of course.
I’m ready for the new offense scheme and the possibilities therein.
April 15th, 2023 at 8:22 am
You have to look at the Head Coaches Philosophy. Arians was a risk taker and liked to air it out. Bowles is conservative with the ball and prefers a run first approach. Did Leftwich struggle to game plan for a more conservative style or was he just not that good without Arians helping him out. Very interesting to see how Canales will be with Bowles.
April 15th, 2023 at 8:51 am
Can’t have a worse season than last year but if you’re gonna sick do it better than any team in the league. Suck like Lovie smith is your head coach and get the first overall pick
April 15th, 2023 at 9:01 am
Face it. Lefty really sucked & I don’t believe Bowles is much better. Remember both were BA boys.
April 15th, 2023 at 9:15 am
Takeaway those 3 long passes to Evans in the Carolina game, and we only had 5 explosive plays the other 16 games. Pathetic!
April 15th, 2023 at 9:16 am
Duane Says:
April 15th, 2023 at 7:27 am
“Leftwich is just the scapegoat for the destruction of the offensive line last year over which he had zero control of retirements and injuries.”
Maybe Duane. I accept that you have a hypothesis.
Mine is different. I suspect that Arians, let Leftwich call a bunch of plays, just like Sean Payton let Carmichael call a bunch of plays as the offensive coordinator for the New Orleans Saints all those years.
However, both Arians and to a higher extent, Payton, called key plays at key times because they were just more adept at being able to exploit a defensive tendency or flaw.
Then what happened last year is that both Carmichael and Leftwich were exposed without their much better head coaches there to really know when to draw up those key plays.
April 15th, 2023 at 9:33 am
Good news is Canales is coming from the team who had the most.
I’m optimistic that our offense will look much better with a new scheme, actual play calling and more mobility at QB.
April 15th, 2023 at 9:34 am
A o/c who has never called a play in the N.F.L, good luck with that.
April 15th, 2023 at 9:52 am
Canales might find our receivers a bit slow ?
DK Metcalf has 4.3 speed, as big as he is.
April 15th, 2023 at 9:55 am
Joe, before discussing this topic, we were supposed to enter the cone of silence!
April 15th, 2023 at 10:00 am
Repeating, last season was a disaster!
April 15th, 2023 at 10:25 am
Assistants working for successful head coaches aren’t automatic slam dunks for success as head coaches. Look at Belichoad’s coaching tree. It’s pretty much dead. So Bloweszo and Leftwurst functioned under BA, and promptly abused the horse when BA stepped aside. And that move also tied Licht’s hands for two seasons.
Love BA and it’s admirable he stacked the deck so his guys could get their chance. But it screwed Licht and the team and stalled the reload.
Meanwhile, Diva White can go get lost in the bayou.
April 15th, 2023 at 10:45 am
Bowels gave the offense explosive diarrhea. There was that.
April 15th, 2023 at 11:01 am
Would have been one more if Evans does not drop that pass at Carolina.
Love the guy, but it’s a fact. That also would have broken the funk the Offense had been in and probably would have led to a blowout.
Water under the bridge. The guy is a GREAT player and a better man.
April 15th, 2023 at 11:35 am
Brady had an off year by Brady standards to be sure, but with an offensive line that couldn’t pass-protect, no imagination in the running game, etc., he still was better than the majority of QBs out there last season.
With very few exceptions, if you were to stick another QB in that pocket and give him no run support and he had to get rid of the ball on average under 3 seconds, imagine how many more sacks, ints, incompletes there would have been. You can add some “mobile, creating/play extending” QBs to that list because he had better stats than some of them, too.
He was in a no-win situation. But his completion %, sacks, picks and total passing yards were still better than most QBs who had more time in the pocket. As a 45 y.o. QB with nothing to prove to anyone, he still came to play and didn’t miss a snap knowing he was in for a beating behind that line. As a fan, I appreciated that.
That said, if the Bucs fix the line and the new OC is more than just hot air (he has a pulse so he is already probably an upgrade over Lefty) whether it’s Baker or Trask, I think the Bucs will have a better season.
I can see a 10 win season and a South title.
Now I’m off the the “cone of silence” until after the draft. 😉
April 15th, 2023 at 12:07 pm
Goatfarmer says
Bowels gave the offense explosive diarrhea. There was that.
Nice Play!
April 15th, 2023 at 12:11 pm
Explosion left with Antonio Bryant and Gronk. Not Arians
April 15th, 2023 at 12:20 pm
Bring back Cyril Grayson as an explosive WR deep threat!
April 15th, 2023 at 12:48 pm
Last year looked like so many Super Bowls where one team’s D absolutely OWNED the other’s O-line… That first Denver Super Bowl with Peyton, for instance
April 15th, 2023 at 2:44 pm
Mike Evans dropped one, does that help. Brady got rid of the ball so fast, it was different and difficult
April 15th, 2023 at 5:19 pm
Yeah. I agree with that headline. The offense wasn’t explosive. It was predictable and hard to watch.
April 15th, 2023 at 6:33 pm
It is restating the obvious to say that the the offense was not explosive. We know all the reasons why. Ultimately, the buck stops at Mr. Bowles, and whatever he did or did not do all season to rectify obvious problems across the team. As long as he is the head coach, it will be the same again. You don’t “just” do this or that to field a magically great team.
April 15th, 2023 at 8:25 pm
Go Bijan! Go Baker! Go Bucs! We gonna have lots of pow plays this year. It’s gonna be fun to watch.
April 15th, 2023 at 9:45 pm
The ignorant keep posting their moronic opinions regarding 2022 offensive woes. Let me enlighten you, the Bucs were dead LAST in rushing td’s, the magic # is 5, the next closest was the Texans with 7. You CAN’T run the ball you CAN’T WIN!!! Why is this so hard to sink in Blodad, I mean Hodad.
April 15th, 2023 at 10:21 pm
Love the optimism with Canales. Super bowl expectations are high with the Bucs faithful that have a very short memory. Despite a team that finished 8-9, destroyed in the playoffs, and hired a off coordinator with 1 year experience.
The NFL is a primarily a head coach qb league, that is the spearhead of winning championships. Yet to the locals Bowles and Mayfield/Trask is the best of all 32?? Let that sink in.
April 16th, 2023 at 5:59 am
problem is even though this is really year one for HC Todd Bowles getting to pick his staff, bucs fans have already made their decision about Bowles, and this is a major problem because we already know the Glazers current ownership does not have what it takes to steady the ship if they know they are right, when the fan base is whipping up a storm. Case in point, and this may not be popular, but Greg Sciano.. what would he have done with one more year. Look at what he had to work with in 2013 Mike Glennon, RB Mike James, WR Vincent Jackson (A+) Tyquan Underwood!! (Jurivicious was always hurt) TE Delon Wright … there was no one on offense, except the makings of a good offensive line. Glazers fire Schiano, and LOVIE smith wrecks the whole O line and whole team. Don’t listen to the fans, fans will come back when your winning. 2010 Raheem Morris was coach of the year candidate. 2011 he was too young to coach. difference? winning vs losing. (he also had no veteran leadership on that YOUNGRY team)
April 16th, 2023 at 6:04 am
FW fan—– Winning vs losing is what makes coaches good or bad. Bill Belichic’s defensive game plan for Giants vs Bills in Super Bowl was to let buffalo run on them. Let buffalo run, they stick to the run more often since its working, and that will kill clock and keep potent bills offense with Jim Kelly from running up the scoreboard. Belechics game plan is in the hall of fame. Because the kicker Scott Norwood missed the kick. Had Norwood made the kick, it would be looked at as the dumbest game plan in history of football!! instead, he’s Belichick. LET THAT SINK IN.
April 16th, 2023 at 6:06 am
Brady refused to throw passes beyond line of scrimmage during first three quarters of almost all games. Dude wasn’t himself and was at least as big a reason for our terrible O as Leftwich.
April 16th, 2023 at 9:43 am
How many SBs would the Patriots have without Brady and Belichick? How many would the 49ers have without Walsh and Montana? Steelers have without Bradshaw and Noll? Chiefs without Reid and Mahomes? Bucs without Arians and Brady? You need both. Take one element out you have nothing. Compare 2020-2021 to 2022.
April 16th, 2023 at 9:49 am
You have it backwards. The record does not come first. You put in the work first, the record is the result of the work put in. You prepare to win. The gameplan that you mention “led” to that win. It is how you plan and adjust that determines whether you win or loss. Without knowing you actually made my point. A good head coach schemes and takes advantages of mismatches. A good QB executes the gameplan. Like I said primarily a coach qb league.
April 16th, 2023 at 10:01 am
You got the name right BRANDON, typical Brandon answer, twist the facts. The short pass was used to compensate for the invisible run game. Brady has been a dink & dunk guy his entire career. Let’s Go Brandon, another moronic post.
April 16th, 2023 at 10:05 am
BTW Parcells was the head coach of that team, not Belichick. Parcels and Simms did not do too badly either.
April 16th, 2023 at 2:46 pm
OC Canales was on the top team’s staff last season, Hmmm yeah he will not try any of that, why would he? OC Canales is he in on the #colapsefor?? crap? I doubt it. I have the feeling he brings it and has our Offense unpredictable and very difficult to stop.
April 16th, 2023 at 3:07 pm
Rusty, he hasn’t called ONE play in the NFL, you may want to cool your jets.