Bucky Irving Forces A Lot Of Missed Tackles

October 30th, 2024

No need for forcing a missed tackle here by Bucky Irving.

Apparently, there is an art to forcing missed tackles. One Bucs running back still strives for this trait. Another is gifted with this trait.

One of Joe’s biggest gripes about running back Rachaad White is that Joe is pretty convinced he couldn’t make a mailbox miss him when he takes a handoff.

As Joe has often typed and verbalized when people stomped their feet and hollered about how the Bucs’ offensive line wasn’t opening big enough holes for White (assuming he would see them), Joe stated over and over, “Roger Goodell still allows running backs to dodge defenders and make dudes miss.”

White was and is bad at this.

Not Bucs rookie Bucky Irving. When the Bucs drafted him in the fourth round, Bucs types trumpeted how he made would-be tacklers miss. Often, the first tackler. This was clear on game tape from Oregon.

And boy, that has sure carried over into the NFL. Per NextGen Stats, no running back is forcing more missed tackles, percentage-wise, than Irving. It seems on nearly 46 percent of his runs, Irving forces a missed tackle.

So Irving is able to dodge defenders and get more positive yardage on half his carries.

Joe looked up the PFF tribe’s running back stats. They had Irving with the 11th-most forced missed tackles, 25. White ranks No. 38 with 11.

With the Bucs offensive line looking good (Sunday the Bucs were opening up holes so wide that even White couldn’t miss them), Joe is looking forward to Irving juking dudes out of their shoes and busting ankles on the second- and third-levels more often.

19 Responses to “Bucky Irving Forces A Lot Of Missed Tackles”

  1. BillyBucco Says:

    Doesn’t matter because he rarely has over 10 carries.
    Tucker breaks out and gets 3.
    I will say it again, Bowles needs to quit being a father figure who cares about feelings and be THE COACH of a Billion dollar football team.
    It can’t possibly be talent evaluation at this point because EVERYONE sees it.

  2. OR Buc Says:

    I agree Billy

  3. OrlandoBucsFan Says:

    I agree as well

  4. Dave Pear Says:

    Coincidence. The head coich / defenseless uncoordinator knows a lot about missing tackles. Must have imparted his geemenus to Bucky.

  5. DoooshLaRue Says:

    Bucky is the SH!T!
    MFer is pure electricity.

    Give him the ball!!!!!!!!

  6. FortMyersDave Says:

    Bucky and Tucker will only get a majority of the snaps if White is hurt as was the situation in New Orleans when the Bucs boat raced the hapless Aints. Other than an injury, Bowles will not make a roster move, except for punter of course and benching an UDFA CB from App State who was in way over his head last Sunday. JJ Russell only got on the field when Lavonte had to go to the sideline…. What is the definition of insanity again??????

    Loyalty to a player can be admired in certain situations but on offense we have players who have high potential having their snaps limited because Bowels thinks White has the highest ceiling (which is mind boggling in itself) and on defense he stubbornly will not make any roster changes and continue to babble a bunch of gibberish as he justifies his stubbornness and inability to be accountable and admit that he has to fix a dumpster fire of a D which is as bad as the D we had seen with Mike Smith and Lovie.

  7. adam from ny Says:

    yung bucky is the funnest of the fun guys on the team to watch…

    he’s a juke and a shimmy away from the endzone on almost every touch…

    go bucky go…
    run bucky run…
    score bucky score…

  8. MadMax Says:

    I knew what I saw watching him in college….and he’s already got part of our name on him….cant make that stuff up.

  9. Zoocomics Says:

    I conceded… I’ve pushed back on this site because that I don’t think White was all the problems at RB, and we needed to bolster the Oline, and we did bolster it and some of the young guys are a year more experience, but it’s hard to deny that Bucky is special, kid as a cut and burst that is nasty at times.

    I like all 3 to be involved, they each bring a little something different and as a coordinator to have any of them in the game you’re really not showing your hand on what the next play will be… look at the first couple of drives against the Ravens, who are a legit Super Bowl contender…their defense is solid against the run, and they were gassed trying to stop us. Game might have gone a little different if Evans makes that TD catch before going out with a hammy. I think that’s the same series Baker throws the int in the in zone. Anytime we’re playing with the lead, it potentially changes the tone of the game and potentially takes the game plan away from the opponent, they didn’t have to change anything after that int.

  10. Deadwood South Dakota Says:

    Daddy bowles will never admit he is wrong.. thats y he is a 500 coach and will be fired at the end of the year.. then jason we can have a boat parade

  11. Let Them Eat Bake Says:

    I like Rachaad White a lot. But the results are the results. I think his best use case is as a second RB in two-back sets on third-down situations. Irving is almost as good a receiving back as White is. You put both of them on the field on 3rd and 4, 3rd and 5, defenses will really not know who Baker’s first read is on a pass play, or which one is designed to carry the ball if it’s a desiged run.
    We should use a lot of two-back sets in other down/distance situations, too, but then it should be Irving and Tucker on the field.
    Let the players play.

  12. Tim Says:

    And put Coen in as HC, after the obligatory interviews are out of the way.

  13. A Bucs Fan Says:

    Bucky should be starting as long as his toe is healthy. Tucker needs more carries too.

  14. Lt. Dan Says:

    “White is No. 38 with 11”

    How this dude gets significantly more snaps than Sean Tucker is a mystery.

  15. D Cone Says:

    Facing a Defense that gives up 3.5 per rush and 4 TD’s on the ground in 7 games is going to be a good test for Bucky and the Bucs.

    Also at 82 yards per game the Chiefs will turn the Bucs Offense one dimensional and Irving will be sidelined again because of the need for pass protection.

    One thing in the Bucs favor is the Chiefs are even worse than the Bucs in sacks per game but are coming off a game where they got the QB 5 times.

    With Spagnuolo who can dial up pressure with the best of them and Chris Jones always a threat it’s going to be a chore reaching the 17 points a game threshold that the Chiefs have.

    Could the Bucs come up with a Defense that could hold the Chiefs to 9 points without JPP and Shaq on the Edges and a healthy Chiefs O Line?

    Unfortunately this game is not going to be hidden by other 1PM early games and will be standing alone and could spare the Bucs some embarrassment.

    Upside is history says that the Chiefs are bound to lose 1 eventually and the Ravens and Bengals both kept the game at 1 score on the road.

  16. ReeeBarrr Says:

    Irving is so fun to watch

  17. Trey Alderson-Cloutier Says:

    Him and Tucker are the most exciting part of our team right now.

    But guess what? They’ll only get combined 10-15 touches a game because Rachaad White who was the worst RB in the league the past two years will soak up the other 10-15.

    It’s criminal what’s happening here.

  18. BuckyBuc Says:

    reminds me of a young barry sanders

  19. Ed Says:

    Fans deserve to see the excitement and juice that Irving and Tucker bring. White is solid but just isn’t as elusive as Bucky or as fast and powerful as Tucker.

    I don’t want to see White taken out of the offense I just want to see the best players getting the ball. He is the 3rd best RB on the team.