Red Zone Stardom
November 23rd, 2024
Stunning Bucs success.
So the Bucs were a subject on Coach. No, not the hit 1990s comedy, “Coach” is Bill Belicheat’s Xs-and-Os heavy YouTube show.
Man, that show can be humbling to know-it-all fans. It’s quite an education.
Belicheat was joined this week by two of his protégés, defensive guru Matt Patricia and yes-man Michael Lombardi.
The discussion turned to red zone offense and the Bucs were among teams praised for scoring seven instead of three, a big focus of Belicheat.
Per the graphic below, the Bucs rank third in the NFL in points per possession. And hey, isn’t that arguably the best way to judge an offense?
The scoring turnaround for the Bucs is about the running game, Lombardi ranted. He said the Bucs have become dangerous and effective running the ball, especially in the red zone, after a miserable rushing attack for years. Lombardi cited Bucky Irving and got no pushback from Belicheat or Patricia.
Belicheat lectured about the value of highly-mobile quarterbacks in the red zone and how they can change a defense, but he didn’t mention Baker Mayfield.
Bucs fans, though, have seen enough of Mayfield’s mobility to know that’s been a factor in 2024.
November 23rd, 2024 at 10:22 am
One of the best offenses in the league and one of the worst defenses. That’s why we’re 4-6.
November 23rd, 2024 at 10:41 am
My only complaint with Coen’s offense is he doesn’t get Baker outside the pocket enough. I think Baker could be even better if we used more bootlegs. Hard for Baker to escape the pocket where as if he was rolling out he could also run for some.
November 23rd, 2024 at 10:51 am
This was great to hear!
Disappointingly, Belichick didn’t mention Baker. His scrambling has been awesome and should have been brought up too.
November 23rd, 2024 at 11:35 am
Dallas has to kicking themselves for giving a 4th rounder for Trey Lance and they could’ve kept it and drafted Bucky Irving
November 23rd, 2024 at 11:56 am
We should be kicking ourselves for drafting JMac @92 and passing on Payton Wilson LB Steelers @98. He had injury concerns coming out of NC St but so did JMac.
November 23rd, 2024 at 12:02 pm
BB has mentioned Mayfield before and was very complimentary. I believe we will have more wins and exciting games. We have not been “blown-out” by our losses to the best teams, so far.
November 23rd, 2024 at 1:48 pm
When Bill takes over here next season does he keep Coen?
November 23rd, 2024 at 1:55 pm
Man what a diff it made adding a couple new Oline coaches then a couple new starters on the oline adding Bucky and an experienced OC. The run game is night and day. This tells us it was a group effort why the run game was the worst the past few years. Fans and Joe said it’s whites fault and most fans blames hainsey but the game Barton missed was the best run game we had all season and that’s when Tucker ran loose too. White isn’t as terrible at running the ball as JOE says it is yes the numbers are terrible but also white was consistently hit in the back field years prior and I do agree with joe that his vision for seeing holes isn’t the best but look at all the pieces we added to make the run game better and we still have white. The biggest diff I think is the OC
November 23rd, 2024 at 2:44 pm
BA’s Red Pen – Respectfully, I doubt Bill is coming here. He would want to run everything and bring his own hand-picked staff. And to be honest, his ending seasons with the Patriots were nothing to brag about without Brady and Gronk.
November 23rd, 2024 at 2:59 pm
Some defense would be nice. Interesting if management pokes Belicheat but I think he would want too much authority.
November 23rd, 2024 at 3:07 pm
The offense has definitely been our best unit in most of our games. Having said that, they could be a lot better!
I’m sure Liam, Baker, and others would say the same thing.
We need a defensive turnaround no doubt but it’d be a mistake to think our offense is a consistently dominant unit at this point. They’ve had a chance to finish teams this year and didn’t.
Complimentary football 🤘🏼
November 23rd, 2024 at 3:37 pm
Hodad Says:
November 23rd, 2024 at 10:41 am
My only complaint with Coen’s offense is he doesn’t get Baker outside the pocket enough.
@ Hodad: My only complaint with Coen’s offense is that he doesn’t use Bucky and Tucker as a one two punch. Exhibit 1: Bucs at Saints earlier this year.
November 23rd, 2024 at 6:34 pm
Just a little joke…..but not really. lol
November 23rd, 2024 at 10:18 pm
Hey Jude – even if BB did get hired, there’s no guarantee Coen would agree to work with him.
November 23rd, 2024 at 10:39 pm
My problem with Coen is that since our receivers can’t get open then why hasn’t he used the 1 2 3 punch that is Tucker Irving and White at the same time??? They all have different traits that can be useful in the run and pass game that defenses might not be ready to defend. White is as good as he’ll ever be and we all know that Irving is on the way to greatness but Tucker has not been given a proper chance especially after the Saints game. I believe the more chances Tucker is given in a game he will become stronger and stronger and become that bell cow rb we need.