Bucs’ Running Game Is Surging
October 6th, 2024
How bout a few fun facts on this sobering Sunday with a hurricane churning toward Tampa Bay.
The rushing attack of Joe’s beloved Buccaneers is averaging 4.5 yards per carry! After this Sunday afternoon’s slate of NFL games, that total ranks 11th-best in the NFL, tied with Atlanta and Seattle.
More intriguing is the Bucs’ 4.5 yards per carry average represents their best run game since 2015, when running backs Doug Martin and Charles Sims stunned the NFL and the Bucs averaged 4.8 yards per carry.
Joe is impressed, especially after the Bucs ranked dead last in the NFL in yards per carry in 2022 and 2023.
The 2024 numbers are real, and the Bucs are posting them largely without their starting right tackle and inconsistent play along the offense line with a rookie center. That slightly reminds Joe of how the Bucs’ run game hummed in 2015 with two rookies, a center signed off the street before opening day, and a right tackle plucked off his couch t in mid-August.
Heck, even Rachaad White has rebounded to reach and average of 3.67 yards per carry this season, right at his sad career average.
There’s rightfully a lot of optimism at One Buc Palace about the Bucs’ rushing attack. It should improve if O-line continuity matters, along with experience for playcaller Liam Coen when it comes to figuring out what calls work best for rookie Bucky Irving.
Damn, if Irving didn’t fumble on Thursday night, a great punchout by Pro Bowl Falcons safety Jessie Bates, Joe is sure the Bucs’ revived run game would be the talk of the town right now.
Instead, the dominant chatter on the Winn-Dixie cashier lines is about how a Todd Bowles defense allowed 509 passing yards to a statue.
October 6th, 2024 at 8:36 pm
Our defense wouldn’t have allowed 400 yards passing if our offense had put the Falcons away. The Falcons were lost in space trying to cover our Receivers in the first half.
The 2nd half we went away from our aggressive passing attack
And we conservative, and it cost us the game
Piss poor coaching
October 6th, 2024 at 9:13 pm
Amazing what happens when your running game is more than just running up the middle on 1st down. They’re doing misdirections, end arounds with RBs (not WRs – thank God), sweeps, off-tackle, it’s like they watched the video of teams that are good at running and found out you can do more than run directly up the middle.
Thing is, if you mix things up, you CAN run up the middle. It’s true, just by NOT running up the middle, teams can’t sit on that, and then you CAN do it. I get it, the logic makes no sense, but it’s true.
Anywho, congrats to Coppertop for doing a great job this year so far. He’s actually considering the talent of his players when calling plays, and seemingly playing to their strengths. It’s an amazing concept.
October 6th, 2024 at 9:22 pm
Joe … ‘Instead, the dominant chatter on the Winn-Dixie cashier lines is about how a Todd Bowles defense allowed 509 passing yards to a statue.’
That ‘statue’ hit on 42-of-59 passes (over 70%) because (1) we didn’t pressure him nearly enough; and (2) he kept us ‘thinking deep’ (Cousins hit his first 4 deep passes, all in the 1st half, for 76 yards; those were instrumental in Falcons getting 2 TDs plus 1 missed FG attempt). Nothing keeps the Secondary back more effectively than burning them with deep passes.
October 6th, 2024 at 9:41 pm
Rod … Bucs have 544 yards rushing in 5 games on 120 attempts (4.5 YPC average). After 2 games we only had 53 attempts for 182 rushing yards (3.4 YPC). So in the last 3 games, we’ve run 67 times for 362 yards (5.4 YPC).
In those last 67 runs we’ve had some whoppers of 10 yards or more … 13, 17, 13, 15, 16, 11, 56, 18. That’s 159 yards on just 8 rushes (very close to 20 YPC average). Take away the big runs, and the average comes back to … 3.4 YPC … where it was after the first 2 games. Explosive runs like that are critical. Amazing what just one 56-yarder can do for the average (adds about .5 YPC at this point in the season). We need many more of those. And BTW I would contend that our passing game set up the runs, not vice-versa.
October 6th, 2024 at 9:43 pm
It IS encouraging!
O-line has shown progress. Run Calls have been more creative. I havent seen the stats or analyzed the play calls but I think we’ve been running less “wide zone” concepts….which our O-Line may not be best suited for at this point of their development.
2 notes =
RW is still our best running back given decent blocking.
Teams will be targeting Bucky for fumbles, he needs to be prepared to double down on protecting the ball.
October 6th, 2024 at 9:50 pm
Good to know our running game is improving! Seems like I remember some incredible break out runs against the Redskins, Lions, Eagles and Falcons! We need to be able to wear down the opposing defense and close out games with White and Irving!
Go Bucs !!
October 6th, 2024 at 9:51 pm
Defense Rules – That’s the point, by not being so ultra predictable with running up the middle, they’re getting ‘explosive’ plays. Then, to make Bowles happy, they can just run up the middle – and 3.4ypc isn’t the end of the world as that’s your least productive area to run.
Also, I don’t disagree at all that the passing game is the main driver of opening up the run. But when they do run, by just not pounding it up the middle, by mixing it up, they’re getting those big runs.
October 6th, 2024 at 10:04 pm
If you run to the outside too much, the defense will start flowing that way, allowing you to run counter up the gut for a big gain in the middle. I miss watching Mike Shanahan coach. Kyle Shanahan isn’t too bad either, and he has John Lynch as the GM—someone I wouldnt mind being the Bucs GM. Licht is great, but how sweet would it be to have an old Bucs legend in that role?
October 6th, 2024 at 10:07 pm
LakelandBuc … ‘The 2nd half we went away from our aggressive passing attack. And we (got) conservative, and it cost us the game’.
I agree Lakeland. We had found their weakness and exploited it beautifully to a 24-17 lead at the end of the 1st half. Mayfield was hot (12-for-15 in the 1st half for 3 passing TDs & 1 FG). He actually stayed hot in the 3rd qtr (4-of-4 for a FG), but then cooled off just a little in the 4th qtr (3-of-5 for a FG).
Bucs ran 10 times in the 1st half (including 1 kneeldown), and 16 times in the 2nd half. Needed to keep the ball in Baker’s hands a bit more IMO, although part of that might’ve been on Baker himself. He had ZERO scrambles in the 1st half, but 5 scrambles for 43 yards in the 2nd half (not considering those, our rushing attempts were fairly well balanced in the 2 halfs). Kinda sounds like Atlanta made some defensive adjustments at the half that proved to be effective (they held us to only 6 points).
October 6th, 2024 at 10:08 pm
And Rod, we’re running a LOT more outside the tackles this year too.
October 6th, 2024 at 10:09 pm
Bucky Bucky Bucky!
October 6th, 2024 at 10:14 pm
white picked up an important third down should have stuck with the more experienced back down the stretch. bucky had a sucky rookie mistake
October 6th, 2024 at 11:07 pm
bucky’s a misdirection machine, cutting on dimes…
and baker is juking his way to yardage too…
so credit them…rb1 is off to a rather slow start other than the one big run
October 7th, 2024 at 5:53 am
We have one of the best RB duos in the NFL. I have said this before and I will say this again we have the new Ingram/Kamara duo. I think both white and bucky complement each other very well. Everytime we do the packages where both of these guys are on the field we give the defense fits its the first time I can remember a bucs offense dictating to a defense on their terms what they will do. Liam can’t be allowed to leave the bucs after just 1 season need to do all we can to keep building this offense.
October 7th, 2024 at 7:29 am
When we CAN’T run: when they know we’re trying to run out the clock. Then we look just like last year
October 7th, 2024 at 8:21 am
Does anybody believe the running game is even close to where it could be the second half of he season?
Bucky and Barton rookies will have 8 games of EXPERIENCE. Sadly poor Bucky had to learn a hard rookie lesson against the Falcons. Barton is still uneven.
When these two ROOKIES continue to mature and grow the run game should only get better.
Agree with all who are giving credit to Coen for getting this much out of the running game so far, despite two rookies and the turnstile at RT!
The Bucs just need to get to the stretch after the bye at .500. That means they need to win 2 of the next 5. They can go 2-3, hit the bye at 5-5 and THEN it could get REALLY exciting. The schedule after the bye is a cake walk compared to the next 5 where the Bucs might struggle to even go 2-3.
BUT if they do, the Bucs have a bye to get healthy and all the experience for the enormous number of players in their first or second year. Carolina twice!
The Giants, Vegas…it’s not inconceivable the Bucs could win out and finish 12-5!
In reality I expect this to come down to that final home game against New Orleans for the Divison Crown and a playoff spot. Get in the playoffs and anything can happen!
October 7th, 2024 at 9:20 am
Have to 💯 completely SCRAP running up the middle period, ESPECIALLY on 1st Down, AND 2nd and long. Better yet, just ‘scrap-it’ all together. It does NOT work. EVER. And ALL you’re doing is just WASTING a play, & putting you behind the 8-ball… It stalls drives. The net gain is ZERO. I sat and watched DOZENS of teams/coaches from both college and the NFL over the weekend, & it’s NOT just the Bucs. It literally, works for NO ONE. And, it’s just not worth the very random 36-yard gain or the once every 6-7 game 63-yarder. NOT. WORTH. IT. You’re “fooling” NO ONE, but just YOURSELF… So, get it outta YOUR HEAD. Scrap-it entirely. DON’T waste a play inside THE 5 EVEN, unless you have an OLine worth a damm AND a RB who knows ‘how’ to run at the goal line… You’re better off going outside, spreading the field, & even going RPO. You’re NOT running it up the GUT in this day and time. It’s just not happening. You Can’t.
October 7th, 2024 at 9:28 am
You’re just WASTING a play, causing you to WASTE an entire drive more often than not. These DT’s and Offensive Fronts are just way too good nowadays… Just way too BIG, fast, strong, and athletic. SCRAP-IT. The DT-play and ‘talent-level’ has drastically improved over the past 5-10 years… Just look at the HS talent. A Decade ago, you rarely ever saw very many DT’s ranked in the Top 50-100 Players in the country… NOW, it’s very common to see at least a handful, or more. So, SCRAP-IT. The game changes. What do you have to lose!? Not very much.
October 7th, 2024 at 9:43 am
I watched teams all weekend long, against 9-10 men in the box STILL trying to run up the gut when inside the 5-yardline. It’s. Just. NOT. Going To Work. It’s a wasted play. You’re NOT gonna line-up and try goin man on man ‘old-school’ like that… It’s just not happenin. Now, when you’re goin Temp/Pace, then I’m ALL FOR the random draw (&/or) off a play-action/play-fake, spreading the field, on a tired defense that cannot substitute… When in RYTHYM, etc. Just absolutely NOT this mindset, that I Am INTENT On Lining-Up & Tryna Smash-mouth You, Man On Man. It’s not going to work.