Running Game Nears Ugly History
December 28th, 2014
Mediocre Charles Sims is one reason the Bucs are on the verge of a franchise low
This Bucs offense, Joe is having problems accurately describing it.
Now many of Joe’s readers always point to the lack of blocking by the screendoor-on-a-submarine offensive line. Joe always thought that was a lazy way of excusing bad production from running backs.
Every year NFL teams with terrible offensive lines, without talented guys like Doug Martin or Bobby Rainey on their roster run for more yards than the Bucs (for a brief moment, let’s leave out mediocre Charles Sims), .
Want to know how bad the run game is? Look at the nugget Greg Auman of the Tampa Bay Times dug up.
The Bucs go into the season finale with 1,192 rushing yards. Five running backs around the league have rushed for more, including the Titans’ Arian Foster, who missed three games with an injury. The mark the Bucs are trying to humbly trump is the 1,290 yards of 1993, when they also had just six rushing touchdowns. The next year they drafted Errict Rhett.
With another week like last week, the Bucs would challenge the league’s lowest team rushing total for a season in the past six years. Every team has rushed for at least 1,200 yards since the Cardinals had 1,178 in 2008.
Basically, if the sad sack Saints defense holds the Bucs to 98 yards or less on the ground, the Bucs will have set a new franchise low.
What drives Joe nuts is that more than once, Bucs coach Lovie Smith has bemoaned after a loss that acting offensive coordinator Marcus Arroyo has given up on the run too soon.
Good grief Lovie, aren’t you are the head coach? You can’t tell Arroyo to keep running the ball? Seriously? Who is running the show here?
Then there is this fetish with Sims, who has shown little running the ball. And Rainey’s fumbling issues don’t hold water. He hasn’t put the ball on the ground since September.
For reasons unclear to Joe, it sure smells like Sims, who missed half the season on injured reserve, was force-fed into the lineup. Clearly, as a rusher, he isn’t in the league of Martin and Rainey. Yet there he is in the lineup week after week.
That is part of the reason why the Bucs are on the doorstep of a franchise low.
December 28th, 2014 at 9:09 am
Ya joe I agree who is running the show, a lot things like this has me saying WTH.. We might as well have a box of rocks as HC..
December 28th, 2014 at 9:18 am
Gee, could the Bucs have selected a guard with the 3rd round pick instead of Sims? Sorry for asking a stupid question.
December 28th, 2014 at 9:21 am
Soggy,
I agree. I DON’T TRUST lovie with another draft and free agent session. He has already caused 2 or 3 years damage with wasted money guaranteed on loser contracts. Doesn’t matter how much money you spend if you do it carelessly. Lovie has got to go!
December 28th, 2014 at 9:22 am
Don’t let the Oline off the hook…..and Arroyo’s playcalling is too predictable…..all of the 1st & 10 runs straight up the middle for 1 yard….
I don’t have any problem giving Sims lots of touches late in the season….I think we were 2-8 when he started playing.
December 28th, 2014 at 9:37 am
Hopefully Lovie will be fired today or tomorrow, depending on how bad the loss is.
But the bright side of this fiasco of a season is that the running backs has less wear and tear on them because they either didn’t run or couldn’t run. As we have proven to the world, only run up the middle behind our line and you get nowhere fast. We also will get the number one pick, new coaches where needed and an offensive game plan.
The downside of this season is that we had to watch it.
December 28th, 2014 at 9:37 am
Wait.
You guys insist all the time Lovie is ruining the offense. Which is it? Lovie is a conservative coach, he’d prefer running the ball over throwing the ball 90% of the time.
This is a great example of how you people are never happy with a head coach. When Gruden was coach, there was pure knocking of him. When Raheem came along, he was too nice (that one was true). With Schiano, you guys shouted from the roof tops that he needed to go. And now that we have Lovie, you guys swear Schiano should have stayed.
ALL of the problems on offense came from two locations…the offensive line and the quarterback. Fix those, and we’ll have one of the best offenses (top 7 at least).
Fix the oline, and the running AND passing game will start geling. It isn’t coaching in this case, it is talent.
December 28th, 2014 at 9:38 am
You would think with foster playing with the titans they would be winning a few more games..
December 28th, 2014 at 9:38 am
@OB
The only person I would prefer over Lovie is Jim from San Fran, and he isn’t worth trading for and losing our picks.
December 28th, 2014 at 9:51 am
Pink Slip Monday happens tomorrow. Perhaps the Bucs can find some better coaches for the offense. The end of this dreadful season could not get here soon enough.
December 28th, 2014 at 9:54 am
And yet, there are still those of you out there who believe Lovie is the right guy for our team. Again, WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN WATCHING? This is typical Lovie Smith. He signs McCown – instantly names him starter. Huh? You have to announce that now coach? You can’t atake least give Glennon an opportunity to win the job? Nope. Doesn’t matter. McCown is Lovie’s guy, so that’s it. End of discussion.
Same thing with Sims. We’re in the middle of Suckfest ’14, with a terrible run game behind a terrible offensive line when you decide it’s a good idea to talk up a kid who hasn’t played all year and tell people he’s Matt Forte. (again, Lovie is a dumb@as who is simply incapable of learning from his past mistakes – like how he talked a big game in the offseason about the team being a playoff contender – then, turns out we suck, which only then did he start talking about “lack of talent.”) One, why on Earth would you hype up this young kid who hasn’t played all year in an already lost and pointless season filled with more than enough disappointment, and two, why would you force him into the lineup while subsequently forcing Rainey out?
That’s Lovie Smith folks. Love him all you want. Drink his Cool-Aid or adorn your bedroom walls with his posters, but you are actively choosing to refuse to believe proven, obvious, and undeniable truths.
December 28th, 2014 at 9:57 am
@ Bonzai
Patience….Brother….Patience….we need to stick with Lovie a while….changing coaches now would be a disaster….Defense is starting to turn….pick up a few pieces for the Offense….an good OC and we are on the way.
December 28th, 2014 at 9:58 am
Marc Trestman for Bucs OC!!
December 28th, 2014 at 10:01 am
Idgaf …this year I am checked out weeks ago so bad
December 28th, 2014 at 10:04 am
I DON’T THINK THE PEOPLE WOULD REALLY WANT SCHIANO AT ALL, BUT THEY WOULD TAKE HIM OVER LOVIE, REALLY , JUST LOOK WHAT’S GOING ON WITH THE TEAM, THERE IS A LOT OF TROUBLED SPOT ON THE TEAM AND WHO CREATED THIS MESS ,(LOVIE) HE’S A NICE GUY BUT NOT A HEAD COACH, MAYBE A DC BUT NOT A HC.. IF THE GLAZERS LET HIM COACH ANOTHR YEAR THIS TEAM COULD BE SET BACK FIVE YEARS OR MORE.I THINK IN HIS FIRST YEAR SHOWED WHAT THE SECOND YEAR WILL LOOK LIKE ***(A WASHED UP TEAM WITH OUT NO FANS)***
December 28th, 2014 at 10:22 am
Sims suffered one of the worst injuries a player with his skill set can have, a bum ankle. Sims game is predicated on speed and elusive moves. Hard to have either on a bad wheel. We’ll know more next year when he’s had an off season to recover and hopefully an OC is added who knows how to use him.
Meanwhile the back I’m wondering about is Mike James. Whatever happened to him. He was the only running back we had with size (J. Lane is a blocking not running back) to go into beast mode. I noticed they used him a bit in the middle of the season on third and short. I’m not sure why he didn’t get a better look this year? Perhaps he fumbled the ball in practice?
December 28th, 2014 at 10:26 am
It’s like Lovie did not review any of last years film and see what MIKE JAMES & Bobby Rainey did. He has a lovefest with Sims for some reason and it is sad. #bringbackchucky
December 28th, 2014 at 10:32 am
I fault Lovie, not because he whiffed on the talent in most cases, but he keep playing the same bad players and they never got better. When he lost his OC for what ever reason, he did nothing except say we should run more and keep playing McCown plus keeping most of the inept line instead of looking for good linemen from the practice squads across the league.
You call it conservative, I call it inept.
December 28th, 2014 at 10:44 am
148 yards of receiving and 11 catches over the last 4 games sounds fine to me.
December 28th, 2014 at 10:51 am
Another reason I dont trust Lovie (or Light) with this upcoming draft.
December 28th, 2014 at 11:29 am
Hahaha you calling Sims mediocre is about right for a mediocre writer…. Sims missed how many weeks? and he even came back earlier that what Dr.’s said he should have been, and behind this line that even a Pro Bowl RB isn’t gaining much yards and you have the nerve to call him mediocre? Go home Joe your drunk !
December 28th, 2014 at 11:31 am
Sims is a running back, or the position that has as much value as the punter (maybe…great punter is probably more vauluable). We had 3 NFL guys who had proven themselves at the position. Drafting Sims in the 3rd round, who can’t pass block or actually run between the tackles, is one of the worst Bucs picks in recent memory. Horrible pick
December 28th, 2014 at 1:30 pm
Lovie has sucking up the place down pat. I have to admire his calmness on the sideline, so stoic and reassuring. It’s a wonder the seagulls don’t crap on him for the job he has done.
December 28th, 2014 at 1:34 pm
Sims looks like he has some moves but it was a wasted pick in the 3rd.
Lovie is a joke. He goes 2-14 in his tenth season as a head coach in the NFL?
Pure suck. He should be fired for putting that piece of hot garbage on the field.
Memo to any Lovie fan: Dude has only made the playoffs in 3 of his seasons. That’s it. Three. OVERRATED and now he’s OUTDATED.
Fire his suckage.