Dying Running Game A Top Priority
November 19th, 2009
Once upon a time the Bucs had a balanced rushing attack and ran for 174 yards on just 31 carries and not one handoff went for a loss.
That was opening day against Dallas.
Since then the Bucs running game has been one of the true bottom-feeders of the NFL. Tampa Bay is now ranked 25th in rushing. And they’d probably be last if not for the run-for-your life yardarge gained by Josh Johnson and Josh Freeman.
Call Joe old-school. But Joe firmly believes a good running game is a young quarterback’s best friend.
Never mind that Raheem The Dream has repeated over and over how the Bucs want to be that downhill running, play-action team. So far, the only guys running downhill consistently are linebackers chasing opposing running backs.
Is the offensive line totally overrated? Nobody can blame the struggles on Jeff Faine’s absence anymore.
Remember the most dangerous running back threeseome in football? While every Bucs fan loves Cadillac Williams (3.9 yards per carry), he and Derrick Ward (3.7 ypg.) and Earnest Graham are not getting it done. The Bucs found a way to get Mike Allstott carries at fullback. Why not Graham?
Evaluating the running game — and hopefully establishing a legitimate one — is a top priority for Joe for the rest of the season outside of developing Freeman.
If the O-line stays healthy and the Bucs can’t run the ball, there’s something terribly wrong that a bunch of talk will never fix.
November 19th, 2009 at 12:58 pm
How can you truly establish a running game when your always behind ?
November 19th, 2009 at 1:04 pm
Joe here,
One could say that if you establish a running game you won’t be so far behind that you’ll need to only throw it. 😉
If you go game by game, the Bucs have largely either abandoned the run too early, IMO, or just had nothing consistent to offer.
November 19th, 2009 at 1:32 pm
Curious where we would be if we had kept the the zone-blocking scheme Jagz had implemented (and I believe was used the first game). Now that Olson has gone back to mostly power man-on-man, guess we’ll never know. Practically all of the successful rushing teams in the lead run the zone scheme. I would’ve liked to see the outcome of using it ourselves over the course of the year.
November 19th, 2009 at 2:21 pm
The running Game is not our problem ..
The problem is our running game approach
Tell me this >>>>
Has Derrick Ward suddenly lost the athletiscism to run for 5.1 yds per carry
Has Earnest Graham lost the ability to 5 and 10 yard you all day long ??
Or is this .. Cadillac for 2 series .. Derrick Ward for 1 series retarded
Why not deploy these guys based on the game situation
What if the Defense isnt paying attention and doesnt realize Graham becomes the back and the whole rythm of the attack changes causing defenders to over pursue.
With all 3 of our RB’s being good blockers and good receivers we could really create some mismatches for Defenses with 2 Back sets .. especially in SHort distance plays
But what do I know … Im just a fan
But then again what does Greg Olson know .. as his Running Game is at the bottom of the league.
Do me this favor .. Look at the stable of running backs for each team in the NFL and take a look at their O-Line .. Does our talent level equal the bottom of the NFL .. I find that hard to beleive.
November 20th, 2009 at 11:37 am
All those theories are great, but I think we just have a below average run blocking OL.