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 Bucs running back 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.

As Joe has often typed and verbalized when people stomped their feet and hollered about how the Bucs offensive line wasn’t opening up 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 still 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, has that 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 basically on half of his runs, Irving is able to dodge and defender and get more positive yardage on his carry.

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

Now, with the Bucs offensive line looking pretty good, and on 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.