“It’s Just A Little Bit Different”
August 11th, 2024
New offensive coordinator Liam Coen.
So the Bucs ran the ball damn well last night in their preseason opener. They threw it OK, too.
Tampa Bay had 390 yards of offense. Joe especially enjoyed that after suffering through the Panthers churning out just 151 yards of offense on Thursday.
Yeah, Joe wanted to see what 2023 Bucs offensive coordinator Dave Canales looked like with his new team against New England. “Heinous” is the word that comes to mind.
The Panthers found their way to the magical 3.6 yards per carry mark in that game. Hey, that was Rachaad White’s painful yards-per-carry average last year. Irony! (Carolina only threw for 89 yards.)
Last night for Tampa Bay, rookie Bucky Irving and second-year man Sean Tucker looked strong, combining to average 5.3 yards per carry in the first half against the Bengals defense.
Under new offensive coordinator Liam Coen, the Bucs finished the night at 4.3 yards per carry (32 of 136) with two touchdowns. Undrafted rookie D.J. Williams struggled and brought down the team average.
Regardless, Step 1 of the Bucs’ run game overhaul went very well. It sure felt different to Joe.
And that jibes with what Buccaneers Ring of Honor general manager Jason Licht said four days ago on the Ira Kaufman Podcast.
“I just feel, you know I guess you’re just going to have to trust me on this, I just have a pretty good feeling about it this year.” Licht said of the Bucs’ running game. “I think the mindset with the offensive linemen — not that the mindset wasn’t there before but it’s just a little bit different mindset a little fresher.
“Different tweaks. Liam’s got a very good understanding of the run game, knows what he wants and has a good background of who he’s been with And he knows how to tweak things and be creative. So not that Dave [Canales] didn’t but it’s just a little bit different.”
Joe got a smile out of hearing Licht be politically correct. He didn’t want to say Coen’s better than Canales at scheming/calling/implementing a run game.
Offensive coorindators don’t block or read blocks, but how much better Coen really is than Canales with the run game should be a huge X-factor for the Bucs offense this season.
August 11th, 2024 at 7:38 am
I took great pleasure in seeing our run game kick ass and greater pleasure hearing about Canales’ Panthers elite offense performance. 🤣🤣
August 11th, 2024 at 7:43 am
“Buck & Tuck” gave us almost 97 yard on 16 carries, I don’t want to get ahead of anything but that’s pretty damn good for a 2nd yr RB with limited in-game exp and a rookie with NO in-game exp at this level behind a mixed OL w/o the talents of Wirfs & Goedeke, which are 2 gigantic factors.
August 11th, 2024 at 8:08 am
We also brought in new Oline coaches. I like what I’ve seen from Carberry. Still you need the horses up front. A better Mauch, Barton, and Bredsen are looking good.
August 11th, 2024 at 8:09 am
Still not sold on Bucky Irving but now I do have more confidence in him and Tucker is the one I had a good feeling about, both of them together, I hope turn out to be something special for us. Keep Rashad White catching passes and running pitch’s in the open field and the Bucs will be a hell of a team this season
August 11th, 2024 at 8:11 am
Dude, I like your nickname for the RBs Buck n Tuck. 👍🏽
August 11th, 2024 at 8:35 am
Watching Coen on the sidelines during the game showed a guy with a mission to win. He seems a lot like Coach Bowles, quietly strategizing.
Tucker did good!
Dude – Great nickname for Bucky, “Buck n Tuck.” 🏈
August 11th, 2024 at 8:35 am
Canales held the offense back. He will be fired before the years out. Baker made Dave look good not the other way round. At seattle he was NOT the OC. Good news is Dave will laugh all the way to the Bank and fleece that horrid Panthers owner.
August 11th, 2024 at 8:42 am
A run first team CAN be fun to watch. I didn’t realize that after back to back years of watching the running backs run to the same place with the same pathetic result.
I’ll say it for Licht. From what I’ve seen so far, Coen looks to be be light years ahead of Canales as far as calling plays goes. Light years! Last night’s offense was fun to watch. All of it. Last year, a handful of plays per game were fun to watch. The rest? Yawn.
August 11th, 2024 at 9:06 am
Coen’s got some fire. I liked how he went all Chucky on the sideline after someone messed up and Bowles had to go over and laughingly calm him down.
August 11th, 2024 at 9:52 am
Canalwater is preparing for his post NFL motivational speaking career with Tony Robbins.
August 11th, 2024 at 10:11 am
Panthers’ new ownership has the IQ of a dead maggot. Hiring Canales as a HC after his I lackluster year as the Bucs’ OC? Real smart. Coen is impressive, and this is just preseason! What will he be like when the first team all-stars are executing his calls? Where did Licht/Bowles scare him up, joes?
August 11th, 2024 at 10:34 am
I agree this is a little different.
Well, this may be obvious to some, but I am gonna go ahead and say it.
LEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEROY……………….
“At least I got chicken”
August 11th, 2024 at 10:44 am
At this point I think we should thank the stinking cats for letting us upgrade our O.C. A gift from a division foe. A BUCS life might be changing. Go BUCS!
August 11th, 2024 at 10:45 am
Wow! Two articles and so far NO negative comments! Amazing! AND we finally got to see Trask play–and he was pretty darn good. This may be a very fun year!
August 11th, 2024 at 10:54 am
All the pieces seem to be coming together. One game down two to go!
LFG!!!
August 11th, 2024 at 10:58 am
Overall, a very enjoyable game.
Buck n tuck … I dunno …
August 11th, 2024 at 11:01 am
Crickett
Brush up on your pop culture.
The best laid plans are subject to the Leroys of this world.
Always remember that “Young Cuz……. of the Grasshopper”.
August 11th, 2024 at 11:03 am
Anybody remember the Howard Franklin backfield we had for one late night game back in the early eighties? Yeah, they stunk, but it was a cool name.
August 11th, 2024 at 11:18 am
From what I watched last night. I am hopeful this will transition to the first string team. Not taking anything away from the guys that play last night. We all know these guys will play in all kinds of situations during a football season. Most of the player I watch did a lot of good things. Remember this is our 1st preseason game. I am very optimistic for this season. In this league I feel like we finally have capable guys on this team 1 or 2 or 3 stringers… LFG
August 11th, 2024 at 11:25 am
Coen is the real deal. He’s not a rookie at this like Canales, even though McVay didn’t let him call plays, plenty of experience at UK. Might explain why he shuttled back and forth between UK and LA. Regardless i don’t see an 8 game learning curve this year from the OC
August 11th, 2024 at 11:50 am
bengals looked horrible up the middle of their D though, honestly. huge holes up the middle. what looked great, though, to me, was the decisiveness of the backs. building speed before taking the ball, one cut and straight upfield. if white can do this too, watch out. sacks were concerning though. trask had to dance a few times, take some hits. was happy to see him successfully avoid an early sack without grounding the ball.
August 11th, 2024 at 11:53 am
Just saying, “Canales” makes me laugh. He’s a punchline.
How does the worst team in the league get worse?
Make Canales HC
They seriously hired a 1-year OC with the 32nd ranked rush.
August 11th, 2024 at 12:16 pm
Bengals were 26th against the rush in 2023 and Patriots were 4th.
Even the Bucs leading rushers had well over 5 yards a carry in 2023 preseason games. How did that transfer over to the regular season again?
August 11th, 2024 at 1:45 pm
Buck and tuck sounds a little ghey. Just saying.
August 11th, 2024 at 1:45 pm
Buck and Tuck sounds kinda gay.
August 11th, 2024 at 2:13 pm
Next years head coach of the Carolina Panthers: Liam Cohen
August 11th, 2024 at 4:33 pm
It sure was refreshing watching the Bucs running backs actually hit the hole without dancing around. It’s just one game but it looked like we actually might be able to run the ball this year.
August 11th, 2024 at 5:42 pm
The Panthers’ may have mistakenly assumed that the 2022 version of Baker Mayfield was indicative of him as a whole and given Canales too much credit for the “resurrection”…..Mayfield in Carolina was as much a product of the ineptitude of Matt Rhule and Ben McAdoo as anything else……
August 11th, 2024 at 5:53 pm
Irishmist Says:
“Coen’s got some fire. I liked how he went all Chucky on the sideline after someone messed up and Bowles had to go over and laughingly calm him down.”
.
.
Made me smile. 🙂
August 11th, 2024 at 8:46 pm
Matt Rhule and McAfoo — it’s amazing that Baker didn’t just embrace a wicked heroin habit or some TJ ing. What a nightmare.
Lucky for us.
August 11th, 2024 at 10:33 pm
“Dave Pear Says:
August 11th, 2024 at 8:46 pm
Matt Rhule and McAfoo — it’s amazing that Baker didn’t just embrace a wicked heroin habit or some TJ ing. What a nightmare.”
Can’t lie……I LOL on that at a time when I needed a good LOL!!
August 11th, 2024 at 11:22 pm
Being an Okie and being a big fan of Baker I flew into Charlotte for opening game of 2022 season. How could I not? The opponent the Cleveland Browns who Baker had just escaped. Baker drove Carolina down the field to take the lead with about 40 seconds left on the clock. Of course Cleveland kicked a 57 yard field goal with zero seconds left on the clock. My take on the game? First Matt Ruhle coached in the Big 12. I never could figure out how he could have coached a decent high school team. Made me think they had bad management. Starting in that Panthers backfield with Baker was Christian McCaffery! Carolina lost both these guys! They have terrible management. Ownership. Whatever. We’re gonna beat them twice this year only it’ll be alot worse than last year. The Party is fixing to get started!
August 12th, 2024 at 7:20 am
Good point on the Carolina ORLBucFan. I am glad that Canales got his payday but I can also see him being given a very short rope where he could get launched if the Panthers finish with a 3-14 or 4-13 season as the owner is rich and seems like he is prone to the knee jerk reaction when it comes to launching coaches.
August 12th, 2024 at 8:42 pm
Gotta Dog – hey man I was just piling on to your very solid point. Those two clowns could have made Kurt Warner and Marshall Faulk look like Rudy Carpenter and Kraig Lumpkin.