“Penetration Up The Middle”
August 20th, 2023
Bucs coach Todd Bowles.
For folks that hollered themselves hoarse and have plantar fasciitis from stomping their feet so much over right tackle Luke Goedeke, there is another area of concern for which you may want to store energy.
Center is going to be a problem this year if starting center Ryan Jensen can’t make it back.
It doesn’t appear Robert Hainsey gets much push. He didn’t play last night in the Bucs’ second worthless preseason game, and starter Nick Leverett looked like he was stuck in the mud.
As a result, along with Bucs running backs too often having no idea how to create yards after contact, there was no run game. This is a bad thing for a team whose coach wants to run so badly in a passing league.
Bucs coach Todd Bowles was asked why the Bucs ran to nowhere early last night.
“Initially I saw some penetration up the middle early,” Bowles said. “I will see where it was once we watch the tape. I didn’t like the penetration early.”
This may be good news for those like Joe who have had their fill of watching former offensive coordinator SpongeBob Leftwich run the ball up the middle on first downs. Maybe try something different, like running behind Tristan Wirfs?
The Bucs got much better running from undrafted rookies Sean Tucker and Ronnie Brown than Ke’Shawn Vaughn last night. Tucker has a nose for the open field and Brown seems to know how to make would-be tacklers miss.
Worthless preseason games can be an awful tease. But why not try Tucker and Brown more? At least they got production.
August 20th, 2023 at 9:34 am
I have to wonder why we keep Vaughn when Tucker is so much better
August 20th, 2023 at 9:35 am
Penetration up the middle. Awwwwww Yeah!
August 20th, 2023 at 9:38 am
Hahahahahaha – gotta look at the tape
Stevie Wonder called and asked why we didn’t pull Leverett after the first play!!!
August 20th, 2023 at 9:39 am
You can use the third preseason as an excuse to sit Vaughn and get a look at the two udfa’s. They just look better than Vaughn and if he can’t beat them out he should be cut not last off the bench
August 20th, 2023 at 9:43 am
I would keep White Tucker Edmonds as my top 3 and idea of losing brown on PS I would keep too.
Laird has looked good and would be good PS stash to be Edmonds direct backup.
I think Vaughn has 2 things going for him. 1 he is cheap. 2. He is one of our bigger backs and has 3 down skillset even if he has little to nojuice it seems.
August 20th, 2023 at 9:44 am
Turner is the #2 running back easily. Someone needs to be able to break tackles behind a bad o-line
August 20th, 2023 at 9:46 am
Tucker*
August 20th, 2023 at 9:49 am
The headline of this article forced me to check what website I was on, LOL!
August 20th, 2023 at 10:01 am
Ronnie Brown looks good same with tucker. Those guys seem to have more potential than Vaughn at this point.
August 20th, 2023 at 10:10 am
Does anyone else think the title to this article belongs under some neon lights alongside a certain stretch of Dale Mabry?
August 20th, 2023 at 10:16 am
Maybe they can pick a center up after cuts
August 20th, 2023 at 10:27 am
Putting the hopes and dreams of this season on the witch doctor working on Jensen’s knee was a bad play. Hainsey is way to weak to hold up inside.
August 20th, 2023 at 1:35 pm
Tucker bounced out of the log jam up the guts which was the call. when he made the nice run on 4th down. Kine like Alstott used to do.
August 20th, 2023 at 1:37 pm
This tape will self destruct in 1 minute.
August 20th, 2023 at 2:01 pm
Tucker just keeps getting better. Keep feeding him the rock.
August 20th, 2023 at 2:24 pm
Vaughn lacks breakaway speed. Every other back has it. That makes him expendable.
August 20th, 2023 at 2:31 pm
never gets old, after 40+ preseasons, fans will always want the guy who looks great in 2nd half of a preseason game vs grocery baggers, insurance agents, and other general employment.
August 20th, 2023 at 2:37 pm
Agreed, Sneak Vaughn has an interesting nickname but nothing more. We tried him already, keep doing same stupid sht with no change is just useless! Why keep running up the gut? why not come out throwing only then occasionally a bennedaround then a run around the edge or behind Wirfs
August 20th, 2023 at 3:16 pm
After watching Tyjae Spears I wish we snagged him in the 3rd. He’s better by miles than anybody we have at RB right now excepting possibly the kid from Miami and that’s just because we don’t know.
August 20th, 2023 at 3:44 pm
nick houllis Says:
August 20th, 2023 at 2:31 pm
never gets old, after 40+ preseasons, fans will always want the guy who looks great in 2nd half of a preseason game vs grocery baggers, insurance agents, and other general employment.
^^^^^^^
Yes, and sometimes these guys work out and can actually play with the big boys. It happens every year.
August 20th, 2023 at 3:58 pm
Vaughn is fine – I’m not sure what people are expecting him to do however when he’s being hit 3 yards behind the LOS as he gets the ball. If he was missing his holes, had terrible vision, couldn’t do anything one-on-one, that would be a different case, but when does he even have time to read his blocks? When is he ever one-on-one with a defender? I literally can’t remember any times.
RONNIE, meanwhile, looked great in limited snaps, but again vs future Wendy’s employees. In college he was dominate, I mean a destroyer, averaged like 8.5 yards per carry and caught a ton of balls. Also his physical traits are great, he’s not really undersized and he’s fast AND quick. I just want to see what he can do against better talent, if he still pops off the screen or not. Generally guys who are that dominant in low level college don’t have the speed and quickness for the NFL, but he does. That makes him really interesting since RB is one place where a small school guy can come in and produce out of nowhere. With that said I strongly suspect the Bucs are hiding Ronnie a bit, when he got on a role last night, they pulled him right away – then put him in at the very end of the game to run out the clock, ruining his average. I never had Ronnie making the team right away, but he’s certain a practice squad guy and I got the feeling the coaches want to make sure he doesn’t get on anyone else’s radar. I think he’s this years Thompkins, meaning he’ll eventually get on the team, and once he does, I think he’s going to stick around.
Tucker, meanwhile, is fine. He’s like the only guy on the team who actually got some good blocking on a couple of plays, and got the yardage you’d want out of it. He’s a bigger name, and because of that will make the team. And I think he’ll be a nice generic back – basically the current day Vaughn in a couple of years.
The team is almost certainly going to keep four RBs, White, Vaughn, Edmonds and Tucker, and Ronnie will get his chance once someone gets injured, which will likely be Edmonds based on his history.
August 20th, 2023 at 5:06 pm
I don’t care how, it just needs to happen. Licht and Spytek need to make a trade and get a capable center in there. Otherwise it won’t matter who is playing qb, rb or anything. If every other play the opposing d-line pushing our o-line backs into smallerthan Trask, Bake’s view. It’s going to be a long season. Man this season has the look of a tough first half of this season. These games are going to be rough man. Man we going on 2 consecutive seasons after this one the Bucs o-line is one of our weakest units on the team
August 20th, 2023 at 5:10 pm
How come no one is talking about the fantastic plays and tackles by Chesley? He showed up!!
August 20th, 2023 at 7:13 pm
I got my wish to see Leverett get lots of snaps at Center. Damn, he was awful. I will not be wishing for that again.
August 20th, 2023 at 7:50 pm
Rod Munch said: “Vaughn is fine – I’m not sure what people are expecting him to do however when he’s being hit 3 yards behind the LOS as he gets the ball. If he was missing his holes, had terrible vision, couldn’t do anything one-on-one, that would be a different case, but when does he even have time to read his blocks? When is he ever one-on-one with a defender? I literally can’t remember any times.”
Thank you! It’s hard to evaluate when at least 4 carries this preseason were blown up as he got the ball. I’ve said this for three years. I’d like to see him get SOME action with the starting OLine so he can be properly evaluated. I like the young guys but they were playing against 2’s 3’s and 4’s as well so difficult to evaluate.
August 20th, 2023 at 11:44 pm
if you take away the 3 so called big runs of the night…i think it was 26, 10 and 8 yard runs…
we were something like a whopping 29 carries for 28 yards…
i don’t care if it’s preseason or not, there is a distinctive issue within the run game that needs to be hyper focused on immediately
August 21st, 2023 at 2:58 am
Yup
Jason needs to be looking for a center me thinks. Hainsey needs to somehow develop an anchor.
Go Bucs!