Bucs Weren’t Bad When They Crossed Midfield
June 17th, 2024
Bucs offense still had explosive traits.
Joe senses a pattern from some fans this month. They are dumping all over former Bucs offensive coordinator Dave Canales.
Did Joe think Canales’ offense was too conservative? Ran the ball too much? Sure. But when Canales decided to open it up (win at Green Bay springs to mind), the offense was smooth if not dangerous.
Well, for all of the recent grumbling about Canales running too much and being too conservative, it seems he or his players still had a nose for the end zone.
Just not on the Bucs’ opening drive of the game.
Handicapper turned stathead Warren Sharp showed that once the Bucs got into an opponent’s real estate, they were right in the middle of the pack when it came to punching the ball in the end zone.
The Bucs ranked No. 14 with drives that ended in touchdowns once a drive crossed the 50-yard line.
Now given Canales’ desire to run the ball up the middle, the fact the Bucs ended with six so often tells Joe two things: The Bucs had big-play capability and explosiveness in their DNA.
TD rate on drives that cross midfield:
51% – SF
48% – DET
45% – DAL
43% – MIA
43% – PHI
41% – BUF
40% – BAL
39% – HOU
38% – LAR
38% – DEN
37% – KC
36% – MIN
36% – WAS
35% – TB
35% – ARI
35% – LV
35% – CIN
34% – GB
33% – IND
33% – NO
33% – TEN
32% – SEA
32% – LAC
31% – CLE
30% -…— Warren Sharp (@SharpFootball) June 16, 2024
June 17th, 2024 at 11:54 am
“you weren’t that bad”…….
quite the complement lol
June 17th, 2024 at 12:11 pm
LOL, they were “middle of the pack” isn’t the complement you think.
Canales was an awful OC. We scored in spite of him, not because of.
June 17th, 2024 at 12:14 pm
“Bucs Weren’t Bad When They Crossed Midfield”
Yea – well – they weren’t “good” either. That # needs to be 40% or better.
All the teams above 40% were playoff teams
Only 3 teams below 35% were playoff teams (and none of them won a post season game).
Scoring TDs was a problem for the 2023 Buccaneers – who ranked #20 overall in # of TDs scored – with only 37 total TDs….
49ers and Dolphins has 61 TDs. Lions had 58. Cowboys 57. Ravens 55. Bills 54… You get the idea……
June 17th, 2024 at 12:31 pm
Bucs averaged only 21.2 points per game in 2023.
Need to get that # up to 25+ ppg.
25+ ppg on offense + our top 10 defense would make the Buccaneers legit Super Bowl contenders this year.
June 17th, 2024 at 12:32 pm
Middle of the pack isn’t really middle. 5% from the bottom and 16% from the top.
Best things to happen the Bucs this off season …
1. Bucs retained stars (AWJ, Evans, LVD)
2. Carolina hired Canales
3. Atlanta drafts Pennix
4. NO didn’t fix cap issues
June 17th, 2024 at 12:44 pm
Anytime we look at stats such as these its apparent that with even a average run game the bucs would be border line elite
June 17th, 2024 at 12:54 pm
In Cohen I trust. Especially after Canales’s tenure.
June 17th, 2024 at 1:41 pm
KC had 37% and the Bucs 35%. Light has added the talent, now it’s up to the coaches to improve the players to get us to the Championship game and maybe the Superbowl.
June 17th, 2024 at 1:50 pm
SlyPirate list cont.:
5. Drafted well in positions of need (IMO)
6. To bolster the defense, brought in Whitehead… ditched Logan & White.
7. Coen was hired… and upgraded (hopefully) a few asst coaching positions.
June 17th, 2024 at 2:25 pm
I would agree with Joes assessment and can’t be included in the group putting down Canales. Could he have been better, absolutely, there were some bad in game stretches of run calls and being way too conservative.
There were so many factors new to Canales though, first time OC, new head coach to answer to, new QB.
The fact that he showed flashes of good calling, generally kept Baker in decent situations with a poor IOL and schemed decent routes to open up our WRs … he was a big upgrade from 2022 and was hopefully a bridge to an even better 2024 with Coen. His positive attitude and openness was also a net + for the team.
June 17th, 2024 at 2:33 pm
If you go around to the back door, this starts to look like good playoff news.
The defense that got the team mighty close to the NFC Championship Game, is pretty much intact; ~ maybe a bit better, ~ maybe not quite as good. S, CB, Edge, DL. Some of the pluses and minuses are hard to quantify, but the sum should be at least about as great, and maybe a fair bit better.
Better yet, the additions on the OL look like a solid net positive as does WR and hopefully RB. That should boost the Bucs offense above the woeful statistical mediocrity (and worse) that separated parts of the Bucs offense from other playoff teams.
You never know what injuries may do to a team, and you never know how rookies will work out. But, this stat suggests that the playoff Bucs have a solid spot to step up from.
June 17th, 2024 at 3:01 pm
I hope they locked Coen up for at least 2 years. Even if he isn’t that good, we don’t need to scrape barrel bottoms next year for yet another OC, and more assistants. The Carolina Panties are on my toilet paper list.
June 17th, 2024 at 5:11 pm
In other words, The Italian Dessert was lousy to mediocre.
June 17th, 2024 at 5:13 pm
Canales was really good – people dumping on him are your typical low IQ moronic idiot fans that have no idea what they’re watching.
What I’m much much much more worried about is that Bowles is getting more involved in the offense, which means we’re just going to run it up the middle over and over again regardless of the results. The Bucs, last year, did not run it up the middle nearly as much as they did under low IQ Leftwich, and actually mixed things up, even if Canales was handicapped by having Bowles as the HC yelling at him to run it more and more – and this year, Bowles fully has his run first stooge in place, so I think we’re going to see a very dumbed down, boring, uninteresting and unproductive offense, mainly due to Bowles.
But, as always, I could be wrong – and perhaps all the offseason talk about being a run first boring offense is fake news.
But we all know it’s not, and how this ends.
June 17th, 2024 at 5:45 pm
Once again Dave Pear skips the main course for delusional nonsense.
June 17th, 2024 at 5:52 pm
Three stats that tell a fascinating story are:
1 – 3rd Down Conversion Percentage – 41.5% (#10 ranking)
2 – 4th Down Conversion Percentage – 66.7% (#2 ranking)
3 – Red Zone TD Scoring Percentage – 44.9% (#30 ranking)
Yes we did a decent job of holding onto the ball & keeping it moving … UNTIL we got into the Red Zone. We totally sucked at scoring TDs once we got there. Sure would’ve been nice to have picked up a beastly RB like Mike Alstott to punch it in from short yardage situations.
June 17th, 2024 at 5:53 pm
Rod Muncher where do you get this information….my guess is you think them up while your head is up your ass
June 17th, 2024 at 6:00 pm
BTW, during our 2020 SB year we did a LOT better scoring from in the Red Zone, but really no better on the conversions …
1 – 3rd Down Conversion Percentage – 43.5% (#11 ranking)
2 – 4th Down Conversion Percentage – 57.1% (#15 ranking)
3 – Red Zone TD Scoring Percentage – 68.9% (#7 ranking)
Gut feel is that Coen will do a LOT better than Canales did when it comes to scoring TDs when in the Red Zone. Rams for instance scored TDs on 63.6% of their trips into the Red Zone last year. I’d be happy with that.
June 17th, 2024 at 6:00 pm
Hmm. The vaunted Carr and Jordan Love were behind Baker
June 17th, 2024 at 6:08 pm
Rod … ‘What I’m much much much more worried about is that Bowles is getting more involved in the offense, which means we’re just going to run it up the middle over and over again regardless of the results.’
You’re becoming paranoid Rod. To my knowledge, no one has ever documented a single instance here when Todd Bowles dictated his OC’s play-calling. Leftwich had zero feel for running the ball, and Canales tried much too hard to replicate what he’d seen out in Seattle. Coen doesn’t seem to have those issues.
June 18th, 2024 at 12:06 am
I’m giving Todd the benefit of his indications that he wants to change so as to win more games. Rod Munch comments reflect what I felt from watching the last two years of poor offensive football after lots of success- but I’m ready to believe he and his offense will turn the corner.
At least until after the opener against the Commandees.
June 18th, 2024 at 9:57 am
Maybe just me but I noticed that late last year Bowles and company seemed a bit more aggressive on the other side of the 50. Again maybe just my own perception. Seemed we settled for FGs less often.
Go Bucs!