A New Level For Dave Canales
December 17th, 2023
Breakthrough day.
It was time.
Time for first-year playcaller Dave Canales to prove he is the real deal by putting together a 60-minute game from his Bucs offense.
Joe is so damn glad it happened today.
Canales is a fascinating blend of humble, confident, creative, stubborn, open-minded, affable, classy and talented all rolled into one. Until this month, however, that wasn’t working.
Joe doesn’t care if a coordinator is a nice, talkative guy. Joe cares about results.
And those results have come the past two weeks, huge games on the road. Take a bow, Mr. Canales.
Joe has balked at focusing on a balanced offense. Play to your strenghts. If that delivers balance, then great. But don’t focus on balance. For the past six quarters, the Bucs have blossomed into a balanced offense without going all 1990s boring ball from an era that wasn’t the most passer-friendly.
As the CBS announcers noted today during the Bucs glorious 34-20 win in Green Bay, in which Chris Godwin blew up catching passes over the middle, teams can now throw into the middle of the field without fear of receivers getting decapitated. So do it! The Bucs did that today.
Yeah, Joe realizes it was an elite Tampa Bay showing statistically and it won’t be the norm, but Joe has a vibe that the Bucs and Canales won’t be turning back often to what held them back earlier this season.
Canales said “it” was coming. It finally arrived today, and Joe is giving a standing ovation to Canales.
December 17th, 2023 at 5:09 pm
Of all the games for my DVR to stop working. I’m going to need lots of articles Joes and Ira!
December 17th, 2023 at 5:09 pm
Canales always smacking his lips. Bet he has a tackle box full of lip balm. Good game today coach.
December 17th, 2023 at 5:10 pm
Thank you Mariah Godwin. Someone had to remind these coaches that Chris is still on this team.
December 17th, 2023 at 5:11 pm
Rachaad also blooming. Lots of players really growing.
December 17th, 2023 at 5:12 pm
Seems to me some people change their opinion like underwear!
Just comical!
December 17th, 2023 at 5:13 pm
They finally played to their strength which is throwing to studs in 13 14 1 and 88 1 showed up in running game again for 4 straight games. 6 can be a point guard just get the ball into the hands of your playmakers.
December 17th, 2023 at 5:13 pm
Give the man his flowers, seems like the offense is turning a corner.
December 17th, 2023 at 5:13 pm
Great game today from the offense! that was awesome to see in the second half was kick arse! You go Canales!
December 17th, 2023 at 5:14 pm
Finally it was nice to watch the Bucs work today. After the Rashaad TD, I felt like we couldn’t be stopped offensively. Killed em with the seem routes over the middle. I will complain about the pass defense later this week. Today and tomorrow I am enjoying playing meanful games and actually winning them.
December 17th, 2023 at 5:15 pm
Absolutely. That game was enough for me to pause and think maybe he is the OC of the future. It is his first year calling plays after all.
I’d like to see another couple games like that in the last three.
Fantastic game. Imagine what they can do with another center/guard who can block?
The more I watch, the more I think the right side of the line will be fine, they’re young. Wirfs is obviously our world. The problem is LG/ center and a dominant center changes everything on the interior.
I am under the impression that Jensen will not be back, and it doesn’t seem like Hainsey is the answer
December 17th, 2023 at 5:16 pm
Canales was hot today. Running game’s been putting in work for a few weeks. Baker finally showed consistancy for an entire game. Bowles showed some ballz a couple times.
Keep it going.
December 17th, 2023 at 5:18 pm
Starting to really like White at RB as well. He’s got deceptive moves and speed. The biggest issue is he’s very patient and when you have guards & a center that allow the middle to be blown up before the handoff, that’s detrimental but especially with a patient runner.
Shore up the O line (Center mainly) and his patience will be an advantage
December 17th, 2023 at 5:18 pm
W Baby!
Balanced performance.
LFG!
December 17th, 2023 at 5:23 pm
If you reflect over Bowels body of work, he is about run heavy offense and losing.
This game reflect more of Seahawks type pass heavy, score fast and often bully ball…
This game win resembled way more of Canales prowess IN SPITE of Bowels incompetence!
December 17th, 2023 at 5:29 pm
Are we hitting our stride?
Or are we just a bit better than another 6 and 7 team?
On another note; if you’re gonna hurdle another guy at helmet level, wear a cup dumb azz.
December 17th, 2023 at 5:29 pm
Dave really started to look the part. He had the right moves all day long. I hope this becomes a trend.
December 17th, 2023 at 5:35 pm
Gotta give Canales his props. I’m starting to like White at RB as well, and may have to stop calling him “cha cha,” as he’s not dancing nearly as much and is hitting the holes.
December 17th, 2023 at 5:39 pm
Great job today. No clue why you call a long pass from the 4 yard line, but that didn’t end up hurting us.
Yeah, LG/C got pushed around a bit today – improvement there is needed.
But the defense is still really suspect. Baker was threading needles – didn’t see too many ‘wide open’ receivers. But I saw lots of wide open GB receivers.
December 17th, 2023 at 5:39 pm
David Moore looked like Perriman when he had the walkoff vs Buffalo. Hopefully he can fill the #3 WR spot.
December 17th, 2023 at 5:39 pm
I think he gets a head coaching gig somewhere soon. Hopefully not but he has been getting better and our offense is coming together and Baker has looked solid
December 17th, 2023 at 5:41 pm
ALVIN
Yeah, that’s my problem with WHITE. He’s a patient runner but when the hole is blown up at the snap, that means you just come to a standstill, and it’s not like his acceleration from a stop is all world.
What used to be gains of 1,0, or -1 are turning into gains of 3 because he’s not stopping when it is blown up.
A little better blocking on the interior and I believe he can be really good because in space he is awesome.
Deceptive moves and deceptively fast
December 17th, 2023 at 5:49 pm
Offense won this game against a decent team, and on the road. Bucs lucked out with the weather. I fell asleep at the half cos I’ve been getting set for Xmas. Missed the best part, but oh well.
December 17th, 2023 at 5:49 pm
Canales is doing more with less on offense than any in recent memory. The offense needs an injection of more talent and they will be beastly in time.
December 17th, 2023 at 5:50 pm
AMEN!!! FINALLY MORE PASSING N MORE DARE!!!!!!
December 17th, 2023 at 5:53 pm
Feeling the cold hand of doom on your shoulder can be a fine motivator. Bowles and Canales seem to be learning. D White was not in the game for whatever reason. He even put Watts in the game for 10 seconds. Then Watts jumped off sides and got benched. JTS can F up over and over but Watts makes one mistake and gets jettisoned into the bleachers. Baby steps I guess.
Regardless, this is a trajectory I can get behind.
December 17th, 2023 at 6:36 pm
He mostly called a great game today – in particular that call for the TD with all the misdirection. Obviously it helps that Mayfield had a career day – but even without that, it was a very good gameplan.
Keep this up for the rest of the year and win out, and if he can do this in the playoffs, then he’ll be the talk of the NFL.
December 17th, 2023 at 7:22 pm
Glad we won. Great offensive game. Good plan and execution. Once is an accident. Twice is a coincidence. Three times or more is a pattern. If we can hit the pattern level (beat jags and saints) by week 17 then we should beat panthers and be in playoffs. Likely hosting Dallas and we beat them. However, still only at accident level. Let’s hit that pattern!
December 17th, 2023 at 7:41 pm
The offense looked great but on the other side of the ball the secondary was awful from start to finish. Feeding Godwin over the middle ( like he was used before) gives other teams something else to worry about. Moore made a great play. A win in Lambeau is always great. Keep it up at home. Go Bucs
December 17th, 2023 at 8:10 pm
One of the few games Canales called worth mentioning as great. He actually schemed some guys open today unlike most of his games. Maybe that’s part of reason Baker has struggled. As much as he has been stubbornly stuck on the run game for a “balanced offense”, doesn’t call enough passes to White and it took a wife to get him to involve a huge weapon involved in the game plan I will reserve saying he has stepped into higher level as an OC until we see what he does for the rest of the season. He’s had 13 games to make it work like this
December 17th, 2023 at 8:47 pm
David,
We know all about you. You have led the league in non-stop negativity about all things Bucs. No need to be meek, contrite or now jumping on Baker bandwagon. You have established an absolute lack of football credibility.
December 17th, 2023 at 9:30 pm
Our offense was scoring at will. Godwin was open all day. Baker was throwing ropes. That was the first exciting offense of the season. If we can keep playing at that level we can compete with anyone.
December 17th, 2023 at 9:45 pm
I’ll give Dave props, keep rolling baby. Go Bucs!
December 17th, 2023 at 10:42 pm
Canales must have a great poker face. Listening to his weekly press conference I was sure it was going to be like normal. You know, run, run, attempt to pass and punt. Not today, the Bucs came out guns blazing. It was downright refreshing to see this offense opened up. It looked like the Packers were ripe to be exploited by the pass as it appeared they were in a lot of single high, giving us man looks. They didn’t adapt in the second half and the Bucs turned it on. Great win. Go Bucs!
December 18th, 2023 at 6:47 am
Props to Canales & to Mayfield. Canales sure looked like he Set Godwin up to play his usual position and Godwin shined like he always has. Have to give Props to Mayfield too. He was certainly more accurate and seemed at ease with the offense plan today. GB’s Quarterback was terrible, missing wide open receivers all day. Still wish we could see Trask in a game before they throw him out with the dish water. And still feel Bowles is not a Head Coach.
December 18th, 2023 at 4:03 pm
Man…that passing defense sucks! Maybe, it’s different look, if watching there, at Lambeau, but from watching the game at home, all one would see were the receivers catching the balls on the screen & no defensive players in the picture!!! They essentially don’t play defense between the 20s, except for pass rushes. If the quarterbacks survive the pass rushes, it’s easy pickings for any or all quarterbacks….it’s ridiculous!