Running Blues
January 13th, 2025
Bottled up.
For Joe, it was this simple:
The loss to the Commandos in the wild card round to bring the 2024 season to an abrupt end Sunday night came down to running the ball. Or not running the ball.
This was supposed to be the mismatch in the Bucs’ favor. The Bucs had the No. 4 run offense in the league. Washington’s run defense was lousy.
The Commandos looked anything but lousy defending the run tonight.
Cade Otton told Joe after the game the fact the Bucs being grossly outgunned in time of possession hurt. They didn’t have the ball enough to get rolling on the ground.
The Commandos controlled the ball for 35 minutes and 26 seconds. The Bucs? Try 24:34.
Bucky Irving, the rookie rushing sensation who blew up the league, had a pedestrian evening. He only ran the ball for 77 yards, averaging 4.5 yards a carry. The only other time Bucky had a worse yards-per-carry since the bye was 4.3 yards per carry in the loss to the Cowboys.
The rest of the Bucs’ running backs? How about a grand total of one friggin’ yard. Uno. Ein.
That was the difference. The Commandos found a run defense. The Bucs couldn’t get their run game in gear.
January 13th, 2025 at 12:07 am
“The Commandos controlled the ball for 35 minutes and 26 seconds”
Because the Bucs defense couldn’t stop them not 1 drive!
Reflection of their horrible DC!
January 13th, 2025 at 12:08 am
Liam Coen lost his creativity in the run game the last few weeks when he started trying to force Bucky Irving as an everydown back.
He got away from what worked so well earlier in the year which was sharing the carries between White and Irving….Bucky is great, but again, he’s not Derrick Henry.
Coen was bad down the stretch as a playcaller. Simple as that.
January 13th, 2025 at 12:09 am
The run game lost its spark ever since Coen put White in the dog house after the Cowboys game
January 13th, 2025 at 12:11 am
Damn Joe! Sure as hell sounds like the bucs were outcoached!! When are we gonna get to that segment?
January 13th, 2025 at 12:12 am
And Coen did not adjust to that fact in the first half. 2 back sets play action to bucky and leak white out for screens. Nope bucky or Evans only. Coen drank your koolaid. Best players’ hands and the commanders took a sheet out of the ol Bowles playback, all eyes on the run
January 13th, 2025 at 12:13 am
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that Bowles needs to be fired. He has made every QB look like the second coming of Eli Manning.
January 13th, 2025 at 12:14 am
“The rest of the Bucs’ running backs? How about a grand total of one friggin’ yard. Uno. Ein.”
Well there was also only 1 rush attempt taken that wasn’t from Bucky…
But I hope you’re all happy, you got what you wanted: White benched and taken out of the game.
Our offense was most effective when both Bucky and White were both being used. The pony sets were unstoppable. But last 3 weeks it’s been the Bucky show and guess what? We’ve gone 1-2 with our offense struggling in both losses.
January 13th, 2025 at 12:15 am
Great doors tune…sadly, apt title to article.
January 13th, 2025 at 12:15 am
The time of possesion difference was not only because of a good performance but Washington run defense but big part played our inability to make stops.
We never saw Washingtton punter.
All of their drives make it at least in our 30yd line. ALL OF THEM.
Lets be honest for a second. After we failed to get the 1st down and we kicked the field goal to tie the game who among us Bucs fans believed that with 4 and a half minutes we will make a stop and we will go at least to OT.
Honestly who believed that.
I thought the game was over. I didnt believed we will make a stop.
Even in the 3rd and 6 i was just hoping for something to happen more than i believed something will happen.
January 13th, 2025 at 12:17 am
The Joes and most fans wanted White on the bench all season long.
You got what you wanted and we lost 2 out of 3 games with White sitting. Congrats idiots.
January 13th, 2025 at 12:18 am
White had over a thousand yds during the year and what do we do….shelf him the past two games. That’s on Coen. I’m pissed….this team needs to stop losing games by self inflicted wounds. We did this to ourselves also these refs need to be fn investigated. It’s ridiculous at this point what the other teams are getting away with and we get no calls. At this point I have no confidence in any of this team after this. Completely lost me
January 13th, 2025 at 12:19 am
Agree with you guys. Coen called a bad game the last 2 games kf the season. Why not use both backs. White just not used at all made no sense. I’m all for Bucky but what are you doing? Rarely used motion and run plays where majority of the time obvious which allowed Wash to tee off and load the box.
Bowles is just Bowles. I’m sorry. Love the guy but a terrible coach. Good coaches play to what they have and he just simply doesn’t do that. He was outcoached. The d played better but to force not 1 punt is sad. Lack of turnovers all season killed this team. I know he’s back but next year when we fall to 2nd or 3rd or get bounced again in 1st round if we even make it which is by no means a guarentee he Has to go. No chance this team ever wins anything with him at the helm. I would like to see some serious changes to the d this offseason that includes a pass rusher and tighter coverage bit with Bowles we all know that isn’t happening.
January 13th, 2025 at 12:20 am
The Defense was the weak spot this year. A lot of guys played poorly. Tryon. Number 90. Britt. Number 32. Dean. Braswell never really made an impact. Winfield was hurt.
That is where the offseason starts. Revamping the Defense. Vea, Kancey, David and Winfield are safe. Everyone else is here only until someone better is signed or drafted.
Clear some cap space.
January 13th, 2025 at 12:21 am
Criminal coaching!
January 13th, 2025 at 12:21 am
Defense couldn’t get off the damn field.
Nothing new, we’ve seen that frequently over the past 4 years.
January 13th, 2025 at 12:23 am
“Not ready for Prime Time Liam” needs to involve White (and our other RB) in the game plan as a receiver and runner more.
Too much Bucky becomes too predictable.
The good news, after laying an egg tonight, I don’t think Liam is going anywhere else.
January 13th, 2025 at 12:23 am
Thoroughly out coached on offense, defense and special teams.
January 13th, 2025 at 12:24 am
Lots of OC’s do well in their 1st time around the league. Then the league adapts to them quite a bit. I think Coen got caught up to some these last few weeks.
I see a difference in Bucky and White on pass protect. Bucky is getting exposed in pass protect. Although, it is nice to see the great Bucky runs, we are a better team when we split the reps a little more.
Bowles coaching wasn’t bad but it wasn’t great either. If you hate Bowles, I won’t argue with you tonight. We could have won the game, but just missed making enough plays. Bowles was also a little slow on calling that 1st timeout, I think let 11 seconds off the clock.
Just looked like everyone but Evans was a little off compared to their better versions.
Includes Bowles, Coen, Baker, Bucky, McMillan, and Barton. Maybe this was Barton’s worst game of the season.
January 13th, 2025 at 12:38 am
This D must be allergic to forcing turnovers. Get rid of Dean & Tryon. Shaq played in two games & he outplayed Tryon in two games. The concession stand had more sacks than Tryon. With all the potatoes they have to use for making those french fries they even had more than Tryon.
January 13th, 2025 at 12:45 am
Fire Coen. The offense just killed our season.
January 13th, 2025 at 1:08 am
I look forward to seeing how the Lions handle Jayden Daniels–Todd Bowles can take a lesson. Definitely look forward to that game. I thought they kept Daniels fairly well contained but he pitched it over and over to McLaurin and Brown for first downs with no one even contesting that. Hard to watch.
January 13th, 2025 at 7:19 am
The Commanders were suppose to have a weak run defense but slowed down the Bucs running game. So the Bucs strategy not just failed but tfailed to adjust.
The Bucs are not Super Bowl ready. Get better line backers and the Bucs are real contenders and not pretenders.
January 13th, 2025 at 8:00 am
I wish ppl would stop harping on “no punts.” There were turnovers on downs and a goaline stand. If the opponent continues to go for it on forth and they are stopped that is punt adjacent. You always get fixated on 1 stupid stat. For instance, you gripe about Dean when AWJ was no help to 3rd string CBs and he misses more games. Did AWJ defend any passes last night (see commandos last td)? You probably feel Shaq outplayed Hall and JTS too. And as mush as I hate to admit it, Rod is right, Baker choked and coughed up the ball to lose the last 2 playoff games
January 13th, 2025 at 12:13 pm
“Because the Bucs defense couldn’t stop them not 1 drive!”
There were 2 stops on 4th down and the Offense failed to score points after each.
“But last 3 weeks it’s been the Bucky show and guess what? We’ve gone 1-2 with our offense struggling in both losses.”
This is incorrect. After the Cowboys game (Where White had 7 catches and 3 rushes), the Bucs destroyed the Panthers (White had limited touches), and were sluggish against the Saints (White had limited touches). I agree with the over all message though, the offense works best when White is used a bit more. When he is used, the threat of him on the field has to be respected more. White up the gut on that 2nd and 1 would have been a better play call than the Mayfield draw. Tucker as well would have been a better choice.
That being said the time of possession killed them from expanding the offense.
For the people saying Logan Hall played poorly, he had 7 tackles on a defense that gave up 2.5 yards per carry on 33 rushes.
January 13th, 2025 at 1:33 pm
The two stops on fourth down were on the 10 or five yard line. To expect the Bucs to score off those is a little much.
The Bucs need to pass to set up the run, not vice versa. That said, 4.5 yards per carry is very good. Not a bad game by Bucky at all. Bad play calling, though.
January 13th, 2025 at 4:29 pm
@StickinUp4Centers – sorry you are correct, it was 4 weeks ago vs the Cowboys when White’s touches went down dramatically. And you’re right we did feast against the Panthers (I had mixed up dates of the Cowboys and Panthers games).
But the point still stands – our offensive overall has been less productive since his touches diminished. I have no problem with Bucky starting or getting more snaps, but we’ve almost always been best when utilizing both. Each should have a minimum of 6 – 10 touches per game. And White is still superior in pass pro compared to Bucky. They are both magic in the passing / dump off game, each with their own style of racking up YAC.