RoJo The Fullback?
October 5th, 2020
Pile driver
Yeah, Joe noticed a few Bucs fans seemed more giddy about poking fun at Joe than celebrating the Bucs winning yesterday.
Third-year back Ronald Jones, RoJo, had his second 100-yard game.
No, Joe isn’t ready to call RoJo the next Marcus Allen. Joe is still waiting for this guy to house one. He had one good long run yesterday. That’s not something that overly impresses Joe, sorry.
Except…
Joe is starting to think perhaps the Bucs found their fullback. By mistake. And his name is RoJo.
Bucco Bruce Arians does not like fullbacks. He used to get into it with Steelers fans when he was their offensive coordinator. Fans would yell at him to get a fullback and Arians, while laughing, would shout back, “Never!”
RoJo has had impressive runs up the middle where there wasn’t six inches to gain, but with a combination of his want-to and the offensive line grinding, RoJo got four, five, six yards, maybe more.
He did that at Denver, too.
Joe is very impressed with that. So too was Arians.
“He just kept pounding [and] kept pounding – finding holes, finding the soft spot and then breaking tackles,” Arians said. “I thought he broke a bunch of tackles and made some four-yard runs into some 10 and 11[-yard runs].”
Again, Joe wants to see RoJo do what he did yesterday quite a few more times.
The haystack-moving runs up the gut he had yesterday and at Denver? Joe is impressed.
October 5th, 2020 at 10:08 am
unfortunately, rojo cant catch covid if you blow it in his face….
BL IS WORKING MAGIC!!!!!!!
BL keeps this up, he’ll be a HC next year…im hoping with the BUCS!!!!!
GO BUCS!!!!!
October 5th, 2020 at 10:10 am
BA acts like a BAss at times. This is one of them. If Rojo’s strength is similar to Mike Alstott’s, what is Arien’s problem? Buc Luck is biting us again on offense. Ungodly is nursing a hammie. ME13 is still limping on his. Howard is out for the season. Our defense has a lot of young guys who are learning, but it takes time. If ROJO is the second coming of Alstott, so be it!
October 5th, 2020 at 10:10 am
Rojo played a huge part in our victory yesterday…..he gained considerable yardage and opened up the play action.
He’s not a FB……but I can imagine how good he’d be if we had one……
October 5th, 2020 at 10:10 am
Ro Jo is running hard and that is much more than he was asked to do in college. He is a different back. Also you could see the explosiveness of Keyshawn Vaughn. We are developing a nice backfield.
October 5th, 2020 at 10:11 am
I’ll take his workman-like production. He was getting a good 4-5 yards in the middle. Good, tough yards.
The real benefactor of that type of production is that it opens up the play action for Brady.
October 5th, 2020 at 10:12 am
813bucboi Says: unfortunately, rojo cant catch covid if you blow it in his face….
You, Sir – won the internet today!
October 5th, 2020 at 10:19 am
He looks stronger, tougher this year. Good future.
October 5th, 2020 at 10:25 am
To me, he seems to be more inspired at some times than others. And when he runs with that passion, he is a load to bring down. If he could turn it on more consistently, and we could have Fornette run equally “inspired”, we would have an excellent RB situation.
October 5th, 2020 at 10:26 am
Wirfs pushed that haystack. That kid is strong.
October 5th, 2020 at 10:27 am
I had to follow the game on nfl.com with like a text based play by play.
October 5th, 2020 at 10:29 am
He’d have better stats if he hit the hole ALL the time…. when he dances behind the line he loses every time
October 5th, 2020 at 10:31 am
Agee Mod, Wirfs is the difference.
October 5th, 2020 at 10:38 am
Rojo is sloppy runner and looks like he is easy running back to tackle
October 5th, 2020 at 10:41 am
I really liked Rojo yesterday and have been rooting for him to do week.
But I loved that TD by Vaughn. He was not going to be stopped. He barrelled into the Chargers played on the goal line and knocked him back hard.
October 5th, 2020 at 10:46 am
PHX…it think the physical talent is there. I believe it is more about consistent emotional control and focus. He sometimes gets ahead of himself, plays like an all pro at times, and a backup others.
October 5th, 2020 at 10:53 am
THIRD YEAR BACK HAD HIS 2ND 100 YD GAME…..kind of tells you everything. Maybe the light is coming on, the game is slowing down, he’s gaining more patience in his running….he’ll have to show several more games like yesterday to change my mind on him. His hands are absolutely terrible….he’s pretty useless in the passing game.
October 5th, 2020 at 10:56 am
@AlteredEgo: that “dancing” is looking for a hole and then accelerating through it, the some technique many great backs have done. I’m no fan of a guy that hits the line where there is no hiole.
I recall many here pleading for the Bucs to get Le’Veon Bell. He runs the same way: dances patiently until a hole opens, then quick through the crack. (FTR: I was not a Bell fan.)
Dude is only 23. Maybe it took a while to grow into the NFL.
Fact is this OL is better built for pass pro than the run game.
Better late than never.
October 5th, 2020 at 11:05 am
Mark2001 is spot on.
Rojo’s Heart/Drive/Desire/Passion are the attributes that are going to make him a great RB, when combined with his natural abilities..
And Rojo attacks his offseason training and his Life seemingly with the same Passion and Drive that he shows on his runs, which means he should continuously get better and better over the next 8-10 years too…
We are set at RB with Rojo, Fournette, K Vaughn, and Shady.
We’re Superbowl bound…
October 5th, 2020 at 11:17 am
He definitely showed grit and toughness in grinding out some tough yards. If only he could catch a pass… 🙂
October 5th, 2020 at 11:21 am
RoJo is progressing
Vaughn looked good
Cut McCoy
Fournette is a good back too
Simple youth trumps age
October 5th, 2020 at 12:04 pm
Dont know what universe you’re living in Joe, but fullbacks dont run for 111 yards in 2020.
October 5th, 2020 at 12:25 pm
Fullbacks are supposed to block.
Funny thing, if you look at RoJo’s USC tape and how he runs now, they don’t look like the same player. He was a slasher in college and didn’t look like he was the kind of player who would stick his head in and drive the pile. He’s really developed into an NFL running back, and a pretty good one at that.
October 5th, 2020 at 1:18 pm
ROJO and WIRFS doing work! Mr. Wirfs was the right pick in that draft….now get him ready for the left side…we’re going to need him there.
October 5th, 2020 at 1:33 pm
It might be a big deal he was dropping all those easy passes. This might make it hard for him to stay on the field if he cant figureout how to come up with those.
But as a runner he looked really good. He was getting to the second level all day. My only thing with RoJo was seeing him juke one more guy or break one more tackle and snap off a long one. Well he did that yesterday, nice to see it. If he keeps running well and getting to that second level I expect to see more big runs!
October 5th, 2020 at 1:41 pm
RoJo needs to stay between the tackles, no outside runs or pitch backs and he should be fine grinding it out for 4 or 5 yards a run.
October 5th, 2020 at 2:07 pm
Ronnie was doing this at the end of last year as well – it’s why I and others who were paying attention said the RB spot is OK, just get a 3rd down back since he can’t catch.
You can not blame Rojo or Fournette or Doug Martin if you’re running in an offense where the OC is a predictable dullard who just runs up the gut on every 1st down, but even in those cases sometimes you’ll have a good day.
October 5th, 2020 at 2:14 pm
On another note, I just don’t see McCoy being the mega-game changing receiving RB as we assumed he’d be.
In four games, despite being fed passes and runs, he has not shown much of anything, either speed, separation or wiggle. He looked slow (yes, wet field, I know) on that one reverse-field run after catch; it looked like the entire Spark D caught up with him. And he did drop a sure-fire TD pass.
I’d like to see more Vaughan instead of McCoy.
October 5th, 2020 at 2:32 pm
The R-Train?
October 5th, 2020 at 2:33 pm
Has Shady been playing? Howard hasn’t noticed
October 5th, 2020 at 2:56 pm
813 that was hilarious bro. Rojo has hands of stone.
October 5th, 2020 at 3:34 pm
And who did you most often see in the frame at the end of the ROJO runs? Number 78, Whirfs. I consistently saw the rookie tackle downfield, close to the action, looking for more people to hit. I’m impressive with this young man.
October 5th, 2020 at 4:18 pm
JimmyJack- Yeah, I was not a fan of those drops. There were a couple that should’ve netted some decent yardage.
Overall, a pretty nice game.
Howard- Shady was injured early (ankle?) in the first half and did not return.
October 5th, 2020 at 10:29 pm
RoJo certainly has shown his strength built in down field running, but continues with his brick wall hands. Getting ready for Vaughn to get some passes his way. 2021: LT Wirfs. RT round 2. Build a talented oline thats not the most expensive.
October 6th, 2020 at 3:25 am
We still need to replace Cappa.
Find an 0-4 team with a Pro Bowl quality RG.
Cappa can back up until the Super Bowl.
We still need a better RG.
I love Cappa. Hes improving. But we need a Pro Bowl RG to protect
The Irish King Brady.
Trade a 3rd round pick for a Pro Bowl guard.
October 6th, 2020 at 1:53 pm
Munch? Perfect summation! Play calling is beyond lackluster. We all need to step up and dare to be greater. But please, please, please don’t throw to Rojo!
October 7th, 2020 at 9:23 pm
It was because he was used the whole game and not the first half!! They have to wear the defense down dude!! Your boyfriend Fornette came in late in the game after Rojo had beat them up and ran through a hole even my grandma could have ran through and just had to beat one guy!! No broken tackles (in fact pewter report had a good article about him not breaking tackles… EVER) but Joe was soooooo impressed by that one run… But for some reason Rojo run was not impressive!!! I understand you make a living from writing and when they make some glamour pick you get to write 10 articles about it….. None of that makes you right tho!!!! Rojo is A MUCH better runner!!! And he’s proving it!! He didn’t need a 6 foot wide hole to make his runs!!! He beat their butts into the dirt then finished the game!! THAT’S a running back!!!