Dave Canales Confesses To Bad Playcall And Explains Mistake
September 28th, 2023
Man, Bucs playcaller Dave Canales is a giant breath of fresh air.
Today, Canales not only put a critical bad playcall on himself. He explained the poor decision Monday night in detail.
Before the snap on X, and afterwards, Joe threw darts at Canales for his stunning call of a run up the gut as the Bucs had a first down on their half-yard line following Dee Delaney’s athletic interception Monday night against the Eagles.
The Bucs still had a shot in the game at the time, assuming they put together a drive there late in the third quarter. Instead, the Eagles got what looked like an easy safety as the ball was handed off to Rachaad White. The Bucs had nobody lined up wide and backup receiver Rakim Jarrett was in the backfield blocking. Yes, Jarrett; that’s no typo (video below).
Joe noted this week that the Bucs had two negative runs and a no-gain after 12 prior rushes. Simply put, there were better options against a beasly Eagles defense.
Canales agrees and said he’s like that call back.
“The half-yard-line run …,” Canales began. “Like part of our M.O. is we’re going to be able to run the ball at all times; this is the best defensive front in football and just running like a tight run right there in that situation probably wasn’t the best thing. I don’t want to go into too much of what else we could do in that situation. But I definitely have to take that one, you know, first and foremost for that.”
Well explained, Coach, and the candor is much appreciated by Bucs fans from Largo to Lakeland.
WE HERE #PHIvsTB | #FlyEaglesFly pic.twitter.com/o2vdkMn9no
— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) September 26, 2023
September 28th, 2023 at 2:05 pm
They did this all game! Smh
September 28th, 2023 at 2:05 pm
Looks like Jarrett actually made a crease for White.
September 28th, 2023 at 2:06 pm
He’s still learning, I’m not worried about Canales.
September 28th, 2023 at 2:15 pm
Well at least he took ownership of that one. Aside from one drive I think there was a ton of bad play calling. If it wasn’t bad play calling it was bad scheming by the offensive coaching staff. white was ineffective early and it was clear the eagles were dominating the run game. Canales did not adjust he kept running a a running back that wasn’t running with anything near determedness. He was skittish at best. Maybe he stuck with the run because Baker was totally ineffective but for one drive. So far except for one second half of football Baker looks underwhelming. I hope this offense gets it’s act together soon.
September 28th, 2023 at 2:18 pm
It’s not just Canales, if I had a dime for all the teams that run in these scenarios, I’d have about $5. Point is, it happens all the time, there’s some strategy that us armchairs don’t get, but rarely do I see it produce, only the teams that are good at running the football get the 5 yards off the line. That’s why this play was so ridiculous given we can’t run for sh!t… or at the very least against this team up to that point of the game, so the best-case scenario was we got back to the line of scrimmage? Maybe a yard and we lose a down? We have fantastic receivers, I’d rather see us throw 3 straight slant passing plays to create space and let Camara do what he can out of our in-zone.
September 28th, 2023 at 2:20 pm
Dear Dave Canales – if you are going to be no better than the last OC you will be forced to wear the flat billed hat at all press conferences from now on…
Please remove your head from your fourth point of contact ASAP.
We can’t afford another bad play call from you.
September 28th, 2023 at 2:23 pm
He had to own it. It was buffoonery of the highest order on national television. I’m going to follow the Bucs’ philosophy and keep jumping off the Skyway until I actually fly. I’m committed to it.
September 28th, 2023 at 2:29 pm
Gotta say I actually agree with j believe it or not if white would of ran to where jarret was he actually made a decent lil hole for him. Would it of went for a ton of yardage?? Not likely but it would’ve been a 2 -3 yard gain for breathing room
September 28th, 2023 at 2:30 pm
TF was he thinking but I wasn’t surprised by that outcome as soon as I saw we’re on the 1 yard line, the o line was getting destroyed all game
September 28th, 2023 at 2:32 pm
10 defensive players in the box and you mean to tell me you can’t put Palmer outside 1 on 1 and let his 4.33 40 time go head to head with a corner? you cant have evans 1 on 1 and let him fight it out on a jump ball with a corner?
anything but a run would have been better. and this isnt a “hindsight is 20/20”
September 28th, 2023 at 2:34 pm
OC conservative play calling has a lot to do with his qb, Baker. He knows Baker can’t be trusted hitting the open receivers without throwing interceptions as last game. Baker even admitted he missed wide open Thompkins on the fourth play of the game. His passes to Mike E. were not accurate even though Mike could have caught them.
September 28th, 2023 at 3:00 pm
OJT is real hard in the nfl. I won’t judge him harshly after 3 games. Leftwich had 2 years to look competent
September 28th, 2023 at 3:00 pm
The play was blown up because Goedeke was arm wrenched to his knees immediately which allowed immediate Eagle penetration into the backfield- just unfortunate Goedeke got beat at the worst possible field position because otherwise his play was decent.
September 28th, 2023 at 3:07 pm
What happened to the “we’re going to make defenders cover every blade of grass in this offense?”
September 28th, 2023 at 3:11 pm
@Joe —
Question on the interception immediately before this play. It looked to me like Dee caught the ball iwith his right foot n the field of play. He then stepped in the end zone with his left foot and contacted the pylon. All this took place under his own momentum — he did not make a move to go upfield. Why was this not a touchback?
September 28th, 2023 at 3:25 pm
Yeah I’m starting to think that run was designed to go where Jarett, Kieft, and Stinnie opened up a pretty nice hole like the others said. Call was bad considering run game performance ad who we were up against, but also White needs to have some vision. He breaks through the line there, and he’s got one safety to beat in the open field before a whole lotta green. Coulda broke Rojo’s record there.
September 28th, 2023 at 3:26 pm
Go over to Yahoo and look at the article about Bucs rankings.
Offense:
Points per game 19th
Passing offense 20th
Rushing offense 27th
Total offense 25th
3rd down conversions 8th
Red zone scoring 30th
Sack% 6th
Turnovers T-1st
Defense:
Points allowed 9th
Passing defense 24th
Rushing defense 12th
Total defense 22nd
3rd down conversions 30th
Red zone defense 3rd
Sack% 13th
Takeaways T-4th
That’s after playing (2) 0-3 teams and a 3-0 team
Kyle Trask will be playing sooner than people think.
September 28th, 2023 at 3:32 pm
That was a terrible call. Can’t believe Dave did that. Otherwise he has been great. The rest of the playcalling was fine, just some poor execution. 1st drive we should have had a 1st at their 40 if Baker didn’t sail that one and Evans should have prolly caught it anyway. Only thing I thought we would see more is jet sweep, WR screen, misdirection stuff. I’m not surprised they stuck to the run a bit. Pretty tough to go only pass against that D front. He will learn from this one and be better, I have no doubt.
September 28th, 2023 at 3:34 pm
Well at least he didn’t say “we do what we do”.
September 28th, 2023 at 3:37 pm
I was looking at our ranking thru 3 weeks so far and the 3rd down conversion rate for our D is horrible we rank 30th in the league so far smhhh and we allow alot of pass yards too
September 28th, 2023 at 3:42 pm
Not exactly sure. Maybe you have to have both feet in the end zone for a touchback? Maybe refs didn’t think the ball hit the pylon? Really don’t know.
September 28th, 2023 at 3:47 pm
Yeah looking at the All 22, that looked like an option run where RW could have gone right or left. He slowed up for a second to pause and it got him caught. He needs to read and choose a hole on the run there with vision, worst time to be patient. He honestly might have been either side had he just taken the handoff and kept running. Not full tippy toes, but similar gripe.
September 28th, 2023 at 3:51 pm
*Fine either side
September 28th, 2023 at 3:53 pm
Regarding the possible touchback, I believe it is where the ball is located at the point of going out of bounds. Ball was in front of the goal line.
September 28th, 2023 at 4:00 pm
Pretty sure Canales was afraid of the safety if Mayfield got sacked.
September 28th, 2023 at 4:03 pm
Here’s what we do… vs the NFL’s best run defense, we’re going to use this game to prove to a national TV audience (well half a national TV audience) that we can run the ball! The 1972 coaches handbook that Bowles worships says you win by running the ball, and gosh darnit, we’re gonna run the ball, no matter the results.
We proved that we’ll run it no matter what, and that’s a moral victory, which is more important than actual victories!
September 28th, 2023 at 4:22 pm
When is Palmer going to get a downfield shot?
September 28th, 2023 at 4:32 pm
We here they said. Please Bucs don’t stoop to that ignorance ever. People think they’re progressive and all we’re doing is regressing. We here ya hear
September 28th, 2023 at 4:35 pm
Thank you for posting the offensive numbers for the year. This offense statistically isn’t better than the one fielded last year. It’s just the freshness of the offense, but the results are the same. We beat a bad Vikings team. Mind you, Herbert had a recording setting day against the same Vikings on the road. He doesn’t have better skill players than us. Baker and the offense was average against the same team. The Bears win was a straight up gimmie. Once again, we didn’t perform any better offensively and defensively than the other teams Bears faced. We faced a better Bears team in 2021 and won 38-3 by the way. The first test we had on Monday, we were thoroughly outplayed.
Some crowned Baker the next Monatana and Canales the next Bill Walsh. Just because Canales is more articulate, doesn’t make him a good play caller. Let the guy at least have a season under his belt before we make any firm judgement one way or another. Turns out a team needs a competent OL to run an offense, huh. We had a worse OL last year, but you people keep giving Baker more grace and excusing his play.
September 28th, 2023 at 4:38 pm
Sometime coaches get too caught up in outsmarting their opponents instead of taking just a common sense approach. Look its the Eagles number one run defense in the league I’ll outsmart them I’ll put a decoy in the backfield and run it right at them. Or common sense rollout run pass option with the first down machine Chris Godwin. Which one might actually work? Here’s a hint not the freaking run.
September 28th, 2023 at 4:43 pm
Leftwitch would have given a snide smart-alecky remark. Canales was in a poor spot either way.
September 28th, 2023 at 4:44 pm
No one has crowned Baker or Canales with anything. We were looking for post Brady hope since we’re eating 72 million in dead cap space. The two of them if nothing else have given us some hope. I appreciate the effort guys keep up the good fight!
September 28th, 2023 at 4:44 pm
I’ve never been around such an unforgiving bunch of folks in my life…my god it’s a game…Canales owned it yet you meatheads still demand a pound of flesh. Go find a veteran with a missing limb or head trauma or ptsd and ask them the difference between a game or the game of life. I’m an original Bucs fan and have seen the worst they’ve had and the best they’ve had and when a person man’s up and takes the blame that’s good enough for me
September 28th, 2023 at 4:45 pm
I got a an idea. Why not bring in Trask to run the Philly push off the goal line? It’s a copy cat league right? Vita Vea was a tailback in high school, how about putting him behind center, and sneaking it? Man, would love to see that!
September 28th, 2023 at 4:52 pm
Difference between Canales and the flat-brim-buffoon is that Canales can admit a mistake and isn’t defensive about it.
September 28th, 2023 at 4:54 pm
He would look even worse if he didn’t accept the blame for that call. He is supposed to be a professional at his job. I realize that this is his first time doing this but he still needs to be much better than this. Only an idiot makes that play call. Tell me Dave… are you an idiot?
September 28th, 2023 at 5:29 pm
White needs to hit the hole. He could’ve at worst got back to the line of scrimmage.
September 28th, 2023 at 5:59 pm
No need for a confession, the evidence was clearly laid out for the entire country to see! So , here we are on the one half yard line, the entire defense , eleven men , crammed inside the box , within three yards of the line of scrimmage with 99 and one half yards of open field to our front , both sidelines completely open and undefended, two of THE best receivers in the game , in this game , a speedy back who can catch and a supposedly fairly mobile qb who is here because of his supposed superior mobility , hmmm? gee? What can I do? I Know ! I’ll do a straight ahead handoff into the heart of one of the best run defenses in the game! They’ll never see that coming!
September 28th, 2023 at 6:04 pm
Sneak or pass. Not up the gutts. They were loaded up waiting for the normal up the gutts play.
September 28th, 2023 at 6:06 pm
Honestly, it felt like the game had been decided by then anyway — it is nice to have hope but the touchdown in the 4th was a garbage time TD
The play call seemed really bad at the time — it is nice to see an OC owning his error
A loss like this after last season’s waste of TB12 is really demoralizing as a fan and is a really bad sign for the HC
Hopefully, we can see a better product this weekend
Otherwise, this season will be shaping up as another barf fest
September 28th, 2023 at 6:12 pm
I know it was garbage time but letting Baker go up tempo and pass more is the only thing that worked against the top Eagles defense. I would do it in non desperation situations. Just do it 3 times per game to keep the defense honest plus when you have to in a 2 minute drill or you are way behind.
September 28th, 2023 at 6:25 pm
J, Knuck, and a couple others are absolutely right!
There was a gaping big hole that anybody could have run through…
Immediately after the Eagles D-line converged on White in the endzone, there was nobody left to block!
SMDH
(Put de lime in de coconut-drink it all up!)
September 28th, 2023 at 7:05 pm
Many of the “fans” on this site are pathetic losers! We’re 2-1 not 0-3, so suck it up folks. There’s still plenty of time to get both sides of the ball going.
September 28th, 2023 at 7:17 pm
Thank God, he didn’t bluster or act iffended like a 1800s british monarch. Hoe dare thee ask such a inquiry sir. Liking dude more and more.too bad he’s using our team ro learn how to be a real.O.C. I don’t mean that to be rude. It’s just true
September 28th, 2023 at 7:47 pm
Looks like he was supposed to follow Jarrett. Stinnie blocked his guy to the left. White was running to that hole Jarrett and Stinnie made and jumped to the left right into the wall. Wrong button. He pushed juke on his controller instead of sprint.
September 28th, 2023 at 8:24 pm
I think a factor is that the coaches are protecting Mayfield’s stat line. They didn’t want a Pick 6 from the end zone like the one Bustin Fields threw against us the week before.
On the other hand, we were in a similar situation against the Jets in preseason and Trask threw a bomb out of the end zone to midfield. Yeah, yeah, it was preseason. Point is, if Trask could pull it off why couldn’t Mayfield? Isn’t he sooooooo much better?
September 28th, 2023 at 8:41 pm
@cousin eddy – idiotic comment. Most teams would run or sneak in that situation. White made the wrong read.
September 28th, 2023 at 10:19 pm
Wanting to run at all times, and actually being able to run at all times are totally different things. You can’t force what isn’t there. You don’t have the horses in the middle of this offensive line to play that kind of game, and you don’t have the legs carrying the ball to do that either.
Soooo, use the screen game and roll out passing game and do what your personnel will allow you to do. This team is a minimum of two drafts and two years of development away from being able to run the ball consistently, and that’s if they hit on everything.
September 28th, 2023 at 10:25 pm
As I see it, Wirfs is winning the vast majority of his battles, as expected. Goedeke seems to be holding his own, no-one expected him to be as good as Wirfs. Mauch is a work in progress, Hainsey is a back-up, and Feiler is a band-aid.
As a whole, our O-line was hopelessly out matched.
And I’m really getting tired of those who are blaming our lack of a running game Monday on White. I don’t care how beastly you are, you ain’t gonna run through a brick wall. And at the end of the ‘safety’ play, I’m willing to bet that Feiler and Hainsey were underneath White in the pile.
Think about that.
September 29th, 2023 at 6:50 am
Look at the video, Wirf and Feiler created a hole on the left side, but instead White tried to crawl up Hainey’s butt. Bad call by the OC, but the execution by White was worse.
September 29th, 2023 at 1:14 pm
RumDud
Put the rum down and look at the video again
The Eagles D-line was in our backfield already by the time White was handed the ball. He had nowhere to go. Even if there was a hole (there wasn’t) he had no time to ‘juke’ towards it. His only option was to hold onto the ball and not fumble, giving up 7 instead of two.
September 30th, 2023 at 2:50 am
No “we do what we do”?
Go Bucs!