Maurice Jones-Drew: It’s “Buck(y) You” Time For The Bucs
October 19th, 2024
Running back Bucky Irving.
Now this is a bold take. And it’s not outrageous.
What does Bucs coach Todd Bowles pride himself on? Stopping the run. And for the first time all year, the Bucs along their interior defensive line with Vita Vea and Calijah Kancey back on the field together.
So can the Bucs contain Derrick Henry, the beastly Crows running back? Whenever Henry has been held to below 90 yards rushing this season, the Crows have lost.
Not only does Maurice Jones-Drew of NFL.com smell a strong defensive effort from the Bucs, he sees the breakout of a Bucs star.
Derrick Henry leads the NFL in rush yards (704) and might be the Offensive Player of the Year frontrunner. But on the road against the Bucs, Henry takes a backseat to Bucky Irving, who leads all rookies with 328 rush yards — and outrushes The King on Monday night.
The key here is 90 yards. If Henry can be held below 90, the Bucs have a puncher’s chance of a win. And what a huge win it would be.
Bucky Irving pic.twitter.com/Jdx4dAOHch
— Ian Hartitz (@Ihartitz) October 16, 2024
October 19th, 2024 at 8:52 am
On Monday we will see the second episode of the Buck and Tuck show. MJD was correct but he left out the part where Tuck also puts a dent in the Ravens defense!
October 19th, 2024 at 9:02 am
3-headed horse vs the leagues best run defense, this just a roll of the dice by MDJ. However, I do think we will need a healthy run game to limit the opportunities of potential horror that is Lamar scrambling with only Britt standing in the middle to stop him
October 19th, 2024 at 9:05 am
Love the highlights! The music got my blood pumping. I kept looking for Alstott!
Man, this is a fun offense to watch.
Let’s Tuck, Buck and Bake!!!!!
October 19th, 2024 at 9:11 am
Got a hunch the Bucs would be in for a big surprise come Monday night IF they buy into the notion that all they have to do is hold Derrick Henry to 90 yards rushing or less to win.
o Ravens’ rushing attack is ranked #1 with 1232 yards (205 YPG average). Henry’s contributed 704 yards rushing to that (117 YPG). So holding him to 90 yards rushing (27 yards less) is gonna make the difference in us winning or losing? Not hardly.
o Ravens also have the #8 passing attack in the NFL. They’re 119-of-177 for 1490 yards (248 YPG passing) with 10 TDs. Lamar has a 67.0% completion rate, which doesn’t exactly scream ‘he’s inaccurate as he11’ to me.
Ravens choose to use Derrick Henry a lot because he’s Mr Reliable, but they have other weapons that are quite good. Their other primary RB, Justice Hill, doesn’t tote the ball much (20 carries for a 4.8 YPC average), but he catches it very well (18 receptions in 21 targets … 85.7% … for 171 yds). Their primary WR, Zay Flowers, has 33 receptions in 48 targets … 68.8% … for 401 yds. Their 2 TEs contribute more than ours do (Isaiah Likely is 18-of-25 for 207 yds & 3 TDs, while Mark Andrews is 13-of-18 for 186 yds & 1 TD). IOWs Baltimore’s not a ‘one-trick pony’ by any means.
October 19th, 2024 at 9:18 am
@DR exactly right! The biggest challenge is Justice Hill and the TE’s vs the Bucs LB/safety room.
Last game the Ravens played most of their snaps out of 13 personnel (3 TE’s). I think it could be a big problem for the defense.
October 19th, 2024 at 9:51 am
Bucky is a beast!!!
October 19th, 2024 at 9:56 am
Tucker RB1
Bucky RB2
White RB3
And we’ll have the number 1-2 rushing offense in the NFL and #1 scoring offense guaranteed.
October 19th, 2024 at 10:26 am
Bowles is an embarrassment!!! The best back is a back up and he’s comfortable with it. There’s no reason white should get more carries.
October 19th, 2024 at 10:29 am
Its Buc U
October 19th, 2024 at 10:37 am
In that clip, the last run they show is like, WOW. Didn’t get that many yards, but a lot of defensive jock straps on the ground at the end of the play.
October 19th, 2024 at 11:01 am
There’s people out there that actually believe that three headed monster nonsense? Did they suddenly become some unstoppable force in the run game? The team averages about 20-22 touches a game, white getting the most and gets more than Bucky every week. 22 touches only 2 games did Bucky get At least 10.
The saints curb stomp that was 28 touches total because they were unstoppable. Is white going to get less than 9 touches because I don’t think 9 is enough for Tuck and Buck. That is no three headed monster that’s a stupid coach trying not to hurt a players ego. I mean didn’t he bench Camarda to make him play better.
October 19th, 2024 at 11:16 am
A Bucs Fan … ‘Last game the Ravens played most of their snaps out of 13 personnel (3 TE’s). I think it could be a big problem for the defense.’
Didn’t know that, but you’re spot on Bucs Fan … that could be a huge problem for the Bucs’ defense. In a simplistic way, it seems like Baltimore’s intent on putting more ‘beef on the field’ and then just beating you down. Their OLine’s decent size, but Henry is 6’2″ & 247 lbs, and their TEs are pretty good size too (especially Charlie Kolar who goes 6’6′ & 267 lbs & is used mostly as a blocker it looks like).
October 19th, 2024 at 11:32 am
Pewter Power … ‘Bowles is an embarrassment!!! The best back is a back up and he’s comfortable with it. There’s no reason white should get more carries.’
You’re starting to sound like Dave Pear. Ravens have the #1 run defense, and it’s a for-real #1. Their intent (like ours?) is to make the opposing offense 1-dimensional. Guess what, we can handle that … Bucs are pretty good in the passing game (especially in the short passing game). Trying to force the running game too early in the game would play right into their hands. And guess which RB has the best hands & does quite well in the open field? Ya, Rachaad with his 89.5% catch percentage. Tucker & Irving are both doing very well in the passing game also BTW, but that just lends credence to the ‘3-headed-monster theory’.
Coen has said, very recently, that he wants to go with the hot hand. Apparently Bowles does too. Well, the RB with the ‘hot hand’ may very well be dependent upon how they’re being used in the game at hand. And that ‘hot hand’ may be the RB who’s doing best as a receiver. I have zero problem with letting the passing game set up the running game as opposed to vice-versa.
October 19th, 2024 at 11:33 am
Bucky’s success can be directly attributed to the great Kyle Trask and the amazing and flawless audio of the play calls he made for Bucky back in the Spring. lol
Has anyone heard from Trask to the Stupid lately?
October 19th, 2024 at 11:41 am
That run was the best I have seen in quite a while. Really followed his blocks
October 19th, 2024 at 12:07 pm
That music was great. This time of year we may be losing our heat index advantage. I just hope we fight until the end no matter what.
October 19th, 2024 at 12:18 pm
A Bucs Fan and DR, certainly Bowles knows this? Where do you think our weakness will be Personnel or Game Planning?
October 19th, 2024 at 12:37 pm
Why must you people refer to Irving and Sean by that childish name? Sounds like a gay sex act. Please stop 🛑
October 19th, 2024 at 12:48 pm
Gone gator….. I think you just told on yourself…..
October 19th, 2024 at 12:49 pm
Defense Rules Says:
October 19th, 2024 at 11:32 am
And in pass protection, which White is fairly capable
October 19th, 2024 at 1:07 pm
Lol 😂.
Naw but I’m 65+ and I have been a few places 😉
And these cute nicknames for players are embarrassing in my opinion.
October 19th, 2024 at 1:29 pm
Defense Rules
Guess who completely missed the point! There are not enough carries to go around to find a hothand. You can’t play 3 backs and is a reason almost no one in the league is doing it especially teams with elite receivers. This is a passing offense. You are thinking about one week I’m thinking about the next month until this coach decides rb1 and rb2. 3 backs is a dumb idea when stats clearly show who is best
October 19th, 2024 at 1:39 pm
If the Bucs as a team have more rushing yards than Henry, I’ll be ecstatic.
If Bucky does all by himself, well then I think that would mean we definitely win. Bold prediction indeed.
October 19th, 2024 at 1:40 pm
Bucky is a special back a little bit of Doug Martin with a dash of Warrick Dunn and a pinch of Cadillac. What a steal in the draft. Our drafts since 2018 have been solid except for 2021.
October 19th, 2024 at 3:08 pm
Bucky Irving is emmit smith lite. The sooner this team figures that out, the better their record will be at end of year.
October 19th, 2024 at 3:10 pm
It’s his vision mañg. You can’t teach vision.
October 19th, 2024 at 3:19 pm
yeah if they line up 3 tight ends that’s gonna be wild…gonna have to rely heavily on our terrific safeties because britt is in deep doo out there with 3 te’s moving about…
monken is very good, and you can sit around thinking it’s all about henry and lamar, but monken is going to mix a lot of his other weapons in…this damn team is very very good…
when they slipped to 0-1 and 0-2 i was talking football with a friend and kept insisting “nah the ravens are no joke”…
i was kinda shocked after their 0-2 start, but as you can see they were clearly just working out the kinks and seem pretty dialed up right about now…
i’m not so confident about monday…i’m starting to think we might not match up too well against this team…i rarely say sh!t like that, but the ravens might be a little too much to handle right about now…they are definitely one of the best teams in the league…and harbaugh and monken really know what they’re doing…
if we somehow pull out a victory here, it will be freakin’ huuuge !
October 19th, 2024 at 3:30 pm
if the “buck & tuck show” reappears for a big monday night performance, and to say hello to the world on the big stage, we have a shot…
if we revert back to our struggling run game, with rachaad playing bumper cars with our linemen, as he tries to blindly find holes, we are in big trouble…
listen……all this “our offense is so good” stuff is over inflated right now…it’s not really true………yet…
last game we put up double numbers in almost everything, like 2 games worth of offense in one game – to inflate our averages…
one game doesn’t fix everything…our offense and run game looked better but can it be sustained…?
if the run game and oline has arrived we will know in a few weeks…
one week creates hoopla…and you can’t live on hoopla forever…
also if mike needs to wrap up like a mummy, then do it…lol…wrap up your whole body and get out there and play – at least be a decoy…
this is a big game
October 19th, 2024 at 4:13 pm
Pewter Power … Perhaps you missed my point too. Yes there are only so many carries to go around, BUT … if we try to beat them by relying too early on our running game, my bet is that we’ll lose. Their run defense is #1 for a reason, and they give up very few explosive run plays. Our best chance to beat them is with quick, short passes (Baker excels at that and we have the weapons to take advantage of what’s probably the sole Ravens’ weakness).
And IF that’s the game we’re playing, Rachaad fits right in. So does Sterling Shepard BTW. And so does Otton & McMillan & Bucky & Tucker. We’ve got the weapons to run them ragged, and then, sometime in the 2nd half, test the run waters more & more after we’ve tired them out.
October 19th, 2024 at 4:44 pm
DR, the only way the Bucs win is Coen and his very talented young Offense get on the same page. Harbaugh is already worried about it cos his defensive secondary sucks in pass coverage. He sees how talented Coen and the O is. I wish ME13 would sit, but that is his choice. Go Bucs!!
October 19th, 2024 at 6:47 pm
3 TEs, say it ain’t so, Britt can only handle two at a time. . .
October 21st, 2024 at 8:40 am
He could go all the way