Verdict: Fumbled Jet Sweep Was Not A Bad Playcall
January 15th, 2025
Screenshot of All-22 film a split-second after Baker Mayfield and Jalen McMillan mishandled the handoff. No defender was outside the numbers. Not shown is a Washington safety between the hashmarks standing at the Bucs-28.
Some Bucs fans are grumbling (well, maybe more than grumbling) saying no way Bucs offensive coordinator Liam Coen should ever have called a jet sweep with the ball on the Bucs-15 on Sunday night.
Joe cannot go there, especially after watching the All-22 film.
The Bucs led 17-13 early in the fourth quarter. The Bucs had just stopped the Commandos on the Bucs-3 forcing a change of possession after the Commandos failed on a fourth-down pass for a touchdown.
After a throw from Baker Mayfield to Mike Evans for a first down, Coen called a jet sweep to Jalen McMillan. The handoff was fumbled. Mayfield, in his postgame press conference, took a bullet and said it was his fault. McMillan said he and Mayfield weren’t on the same page. Cris Collinsworth fingered Mayfield for the error.
When the fumble occurred, there were no defenders outside the numbers from the All-22 angle. There was one Commandos defender, barely outside the numbers a split second after the fumble. That was Marshon Lattimore, who was engaged with receiver Rakim Jarrett. Neither player yet knew a fumble happened.
Commandos corner Noah Igbinoghene was inside the numbers and Sterling Shepard was headed straight for him. Igbinoghene darted back inside and away from Shepard when he realized the handoff was fumbled.
If Shepard and/or Jarrett couldn’t maintain their blocks, McMillan, had he gotten a clean handoff, would have had maybe a five-yard gain.
Had both Shepard and Jarrett maintained their blocks, McMillan would have had a monster gain, maybe busted loose to get the Bucs into field goal range or better.
(If the video below doesn’t work, click here.)
It could have been a huge play.
Preferably, a sweep is called for the ball carrier to have the ball with some green grass in front of him. That’s what this play would have been if not for the fumble.
So Joe can’t wag a finger at Coen. The Commandos clearly weren’t ready for the sweep call and it had big-play potential.
If there wasn’t a fumble.
If anything, Joe applauds Coen for the call.
People whine about Todd Bowles being too conservative all the time. So the offensive coordinator calling for a jet sweep (when it would have produced yards) shouldn’t be ridiculed.
Not in Joe’s eyes.
Could have been a big gain. But, the fumble. pic.twitter.com/I4jQ24YJxK
— JoeBucsFan (@JoeBucsFan) January 15, 2025
January 15th, 2025 at 4:21 am
Hindsight is 20/20. Bucs lost.
Next up: Free Agency
Resign – LVD, Bredeson
Possible – Godwin, Nelson
Gone – Trask, JTS, Britt
Need:
OLB, MLB, G (Bredeson), CB
Have:
$38M
January 15th, 2025 at 4:25 am
Anyone who has coached knows that you have to drum the routes and angles into the minds of the receivers. A half a yard here or half a yard there matters in this case because it’s happening so fast. In order to be precise in route running you have benchmarks. McMillans was to run just behind Mayfield’s back foot. He didn’t. He was at least 2 yards deep. Mayfield’s benchmark is when McMillan got to a certain mark like a tackle or TE. Nothing is left to chance. McMillan was just too deep. 2 yards is an eternity when things are moving that fast. You have to be at the EXACT same point EVERY SINGLE TIME, McMillan wasn’t. Mayfield took the blame like a man and the quarterback should. Teammates are learning Baker won’t throw you under the bus, he has your back. It will pay huge dividends in the coming years at building a cohesive team. Mayfield is slowly becoming the leader of the band. Good job Mayfield
January 15th, 2025 at 4:27 am
I have ALWAYS hated the term “bad play call” … its almost NEVER a bad play call, its bad play execution… Ok a hand off on 3rd and 27 could be a bad call. a 40 yard bomb on 3rd and inches, maybe a bad call.
But other than that, there are NO BAD PLAY CALLS, just plays that weren’t executed properly.
January 15th, 2025 at 5:15 am
JMac caused many Baker interceptions the whole season by not being in the right spot, cutting off his routes and not fighting for the ball and winning, he played like a rookie… he also made some insane plays,
…yeah he ran too fast and far past Baker on the fumble, he looked surprised when the ball hit his hip. it would not have happened if the ball was going to Bucky
January 15th, 2025 at 5:22 am
Lol…receiver caused an int? Yall will travel to the end of the earth to not blame Baker. Unless the pass bounces off the WRs hands then it’s the QBs fault cause he threw it. Smh…
Baker fumbling the ball lost the game. The Bucs had the lead and lost a chance to score while making sure WAS got the ball last. The defense held WAS to 13 pts in the 4th quarter and Baker is so elite he couldn’t out play a rook. And why didn’t Bowles go for the TD? You know the defense wouldn’t stop them.
Can’t believe there gonna be another season of this.
January 15th, 2025 at 5:49 am
I don’t have a problem with that play because it worked several times this year. It seemed like Coen knew when to run it, it was the execution that was poor.
On the other hand, it was infuriating to see an Edge Rusher in coverage in that game. How many times did that work this year? Several years ago, JPP picked off a few passes, but from what I saw it was highly ineffective this year.
January 15th, 2025 at 6:25 am
90% of us knows exactly what’s going to happen next season. The same things that happened this season. There’s going to be major injuries. There’s going to be awful secondary play and we’ll lose 3-5 games we have no business losing.
This team desperately needs an infusion of new blood.
January 15th, 2025 at 7:01 am
Timing has to be PERfect—JMac is running full speed when the ball is snapped
January 15th, 2025 at 7:08 am
Ok let’s get this right-the play call was fine , but the design of that play was horrendous. There are 2 ways to run a jet sweep. 1. Handoff 2. Half yard push pass . The 2nd way to design the play is infinitely better for several reasons: The QB can see exactly where the sweeper is because it is all in front of him. When you push pass and it is muffed there is no fumble, simply an incomplete pass. You can attach options to this version if there is something the QB does not like.
So get it right-It Was a Bad Play Design. Onus on Coen.
January 15th, 2025 at 7:14 am
100%
It’s not the coaches fault the players couldn’t execute the basics of handing off a jet sweep. It was just an emotional reaction by fans
January 15th, 2025 at 7:54 am
It’s a bad play call because it was high risk in an area where high risk is almost certainly going to result in the opposing team getting points.
January 15th, 2025 at 8:28 am
No problem, I even like the idea of something uncommon. I only wish it was out of shotgun formation with the ball pitched forward to JMac. That way a fumble would have been an incomplete pass.
January 15th, 2025 at 8:50 am
Fumbles Happen – i was more anoyed at being 3rd an inches in position to take the lead with a TD and run down the clock and losing 3 yards! Washington had long drives all game so a field goal for them was inevitable.
January 15th, 2025 at 9:06 am
How is a handoff a “high risk?” If you’re scared of a simple handoff that teams execute 20-25+ times a game, then what is Mayfield supposed to do, take a knee three times and punt?
A pass is far more “high risk” than a handoff.
January 15th, 2025 at 9:09 am
The problem is stated in the description of the play. Shepard was heading toward the DB to block while McMillen was supposed to be taking the handoff. Should have been the other way around, play would have succeeded!
January 15th, 2025 at 9:15 am
Agreed. Nothing wrong with the playcall. Just needs to be executed. It just distracts from the piss poor defense that has been a problem most of the year and reared it’s ugly head again.
January 15th, 2025 at 9:25 am
way to soon to watch the replay of that play 🙁
January 15th, 2025 at 9:29 am
It was an ok play call.
The 2 Washington LB’s would’ve raced towards the play and forced McMillan to hesitate and probably limit the gain to 5 yards or so.
Turnovers lose games! Bucs made a costly one.
Winfield Jr almost got one on a tackle/strip ball which would’ve been huge.
January 15th, 2025 at 9:33 am
Had the fumble not occurred, Gruden would have called the play brilliant.
January 15th, 2025 at 9:41 am
I was not upset with the call. In that moment of the game, running the ball was key to drive the flock down. Commanders were on their heels
. A touchdown would have put us up 2 scores, and if we could have accomplished that while giving the commanders 2 min left in the game, would have sealed the deal for us.
All in all, my finger points to the Bucs offense overall for this loss. We all know the D has been terrible this year. No one should have expected the commanders to score less than 20 points this game. The O we needed to show up and score 30, it was our only hope. It was our average per game. Didn’t happen time to regroup and aim to build a defense that allows fewer points per game to help offense.
January 15th, 2025 at 9:42 am
Ok people let’s get this straight one last time. What happened was NOT a fumble. It was a timing hand off to a ROOKIE playing in his first play off game and who likely because of nerves and because he had already dropped a great pass that hit him right in the hands, jumped the gun like a receiver who tries to run before before securing the ball. Jalen was past Baker for the hand off when he tried to hand it to him. You can’t hand the ball off to somebody who has already passed you. As to the play call itself. My opinion is you don’t go horizontal when you easily ran the ball up the middle to get to the red zone. The second half of the season was Buckey running the ball down the throats of the opposite team to get to the red zone and then we called some really questionable pass plays and risky hand offs that weren’t needed when we were running the ball really well. We tried to fix what wasn’t broke too many times and it cost us.
January 15th, 2025 at 10:46 am
Becky,
Of course, you are right. Thought you might like to hear it from somebody who played and coached football. Bucblind above is saying the same thing. Don’t assume that many of those who post here are capable of grasping the obvious.
January 15th, 2025 at 10:59 am
Much appreciated Gipper. Great to hear from somebody with actual football knowledge! You are right, there really are few who grasp reality.
January 15th, 2025 at 11:18 am
Not an effing good call at that point on the field. Not an effing good call if the players can not execute. Baker is the Fall Guy, Fire Him. That’s right trade him then you won’t have him to kick around any more. His trade value will never be higher.
Shepherd and Mayfield ran this a few times during the year, why have McMillen running it?
January 15th, 2025 at 11:57 am
It was a bad play call.
But the far worse playcall was trying to draw a Dan Quinn Coached defense offsides when you only needed to get an inch on 3rd down.
It backfired and only confused us.
That call was egregious. Just hand the damn ball off. Shows that Liam Coen has a long way to go.
January 15th, 2025 at 11:59 am
And some of you guys still don’t understand this play call.
This was not Jalen McMillan’s fault on this. This was 100% on Baker.
Baker is in charge of the motion on this play and has to get the timing right.
He snapped it too late. Those who have a basic understanding of football knows that Jalen McMillan is not at fault here.
January 15th, 2025 at 12:10 pm
I have no problem with that play call. We just effed it up.
What I do have a problem with was our playcalling on the next drive- trying to get all cute on 3rd and inches instead of just falling forward for a 1st down. Inexcusable.
You know what else is inexcusable? Not giving Evans a single target on our final drives after he was destroying Lattimore all game long.
January 15th, 2025 at 12:27 pm
Sorry tbbucs3 but Baker is a quarterback quarterbacks don’t snap the ball the center does. . So apparently you are the one who doesn’t have basic understanding of the play.
January 15th, 2025 at 12:41 pm
Becky Says:
January 15th, 2025 at 12:27 pm
Sorry tbbucs3 but Baker is a quarterback quarterbacks don’t snap the ball the center does. . So apparently you are the one who doesn’t have basic understanding of the play.
Correct Becky and if you want to get down too it, a lot of times the Guard is signaling when to snap the ball. You will see on a lot of teams his arm goes forward signaling the Center to snap the ball.