Interesting Narrative
October 22nd, 2020
Bucs OC Byron Leftwich
The Bucs this week, specifically Bucs coach Bucco Bruce Arians and offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich, are getting asked a lot about backup offensive lineman Joe Haeg.
No, they are not being asked about the wet dream so many Bucs fans have about Haeg replacing Donovan Smith at left tackle (you really don’t want that if you want the Bucs to win and park-violating, home-invading, NFLPA-ignoring, down-forgetting Tom Brady to stay upright; you really don’t).
The questions concern Haeg as a blocking tight end.
Until backup tight end Antony Auclair returns — Arians said Wednesday he’s close — the Bucs really don’t have a blocking tight end outside of foot-rubbing Rob Gronkowski. Cam Brate is not much of a blocker and Tanner Hudson can block slightly better than a pylon.
Haeg played 14 offensive snaps (22 percent of the snaps on offense) as a blocking tight end and a late fill-in for Smith against the Packers. Did a decent job, too.
Leftwich, when asked about Haeg, spoke very highly of him and credited Haeg with helping spring Ronald Jones who had his third consecutive 100-yard gain.
Joe smells something fishy about this.
No, Joe’s not going to call the Bucs con artists for talking up Haeg. He did a fine job Sunday. But let’s hold up a second.
RoJo was running damn well against the Bears (better defense than the Packers) with Brate, Gronk and Hudson “blocking” for him. What hurt the running game for RoJo in Chicago, and in Joe’s eyes helped lose the game for the Bucs, was that Arians (Leftwich?) pulled the ball out of RoJo’s hands.
This had nothing to do with Brate, Haeg or Hudson.
Yes, Haeg did a nice job last week. No question. But let’s not kid ourselves into thinking Haeg is the reason why RoJo had a nice day or that the Bucs or RoJo need an extra blocking tight end to have any success on the ground.
October 22nd, 2020 at 1:33 pm
You’re kidding, right? It was the Hudson blown block on a RoJo run that arguably blew the Chicago game.
October 22nd, 2020 at 1:35 pm
Maybe cuz Gronk is bothered with that shoulder and like you said the other TE’s are not good blockers.
October 22nd, 2020 at 1:35 pm
Let’s not kid ourselves either thinking Rojo is Barry Sanders either
October 22nd, 2020 at 1:35 pm
Nowhere in this story did Joe suggest Hudson can block or that RoJo wasn’t running well. Quite the opposite actually.
October 22nd, 2020 at 1:36 pm
Less wear and tear on Gronk if he is a backside blocker rather than a lead blocker
October 22nd, 2020 at 1:41 pm
If Leftwich could, he’d have 4 TEs out there blocking and run it up the middle for a 3 and out in every game.
He’s not a good playcaller and has been bailed out time and time and time again by the players on the offense succeeding despite his efforts to be 1999 Mike Shula II.
October 22nd, 2020 at 1:46 pm
Not to do with this thread but yannick ngokaoue (sp) just traded from viking to ravens for a third and fifth….he has 5 sacks this year, I would have loved for licht to make that deal but not sure if he fits in cap. The idea of him and Shaq outside and JPP inside on passing downs is what dreams are made of.
October 22nd, 2020 at 1:53 pm
All he said was he helped. What’s he supposed to say.
October 22nd, 2020 at 1:57 pm
“Joe smells something fishy about this.” Aahh yes, fishing again. And with top-water bait no less.
Come on Joe, just take it for what it’s worth. Bucs lost the Bears game because of lousy coaching IMO. If Haeg had been in there as a TE, they still would’ve taken the ball out of RoJo’s hands late in the game. However, I think that losing that game, especially in the way we did, has caused BA & BL to rethink their offensive approach to certain types of games. And that’s a good thing I think because our passing game still isn’t firing on all 11-cylinders. So if RoJo & the OLine & the run game are working good, let that dog hunt.
October 22nd, 2020 at 2:02 pm
j dubb … That is interesting. So the Ravens #1 defense (using the forbidden POINTS ALLOWED criteria) just got stronger. Match that with their already strong #7 offense (yup, POINTS SCORED criteria) & they could very well end up representing the AFC in the Super Bowl. Some pretty strong teams over in that conference this year. NFC will have its hands full.
October 22nd, 2020 at 2:04 pm
No intrigue here……OJ went down…..Auclair is out…>Brate & Hudson can’t block and Hague can…..put him in to either supplant or bolster Gronk…..
October 22nd, 2020 at 2:06 pm
Can Haeg even catch th0?? Lol o_0
October 22nd, 2020 at 2:06 pm
Warren Sapp is a 1st ballot HOFer and would play TE. You want another TE, tell Suh to go out there and hit some people, I’m sure he’d love to do it.
October 22nd, 2020 at 2:26 pm
It could also have something to do (Bears Game) that Brady had no offensive weapons to throw to, thus allowing the Bears to stuff the box. Then in Pack game you have CG14 back and rookie TJ out there and scotty miller to stretch and leaving gronk one on one with a crappy LB…taking people out of the box making better running attack
October 22nd, 2020 at 2:33 pm
Rod Munch maybe ya outta rewind and see Leftwitch scheeming recievers wide ass open for TDs. OJ running free for a score and Scotty running free spring to mind.
We have even saw Gronk running wide ass open along with Tanner Hudson and McCoy……Neither of those three plays were made but the recievers were scheemed wide ass open nonetheless.
Its just a bad bad comment you made. We are top tier team in redzone TD…..And I dont even know the stats, its just obvious watching the game. Its not as easy as meets the eye to score once in the 5edzone on shortened field……Need proof. See Dirks offense. Great at moving the ball……pulling hair out once in the redzone.
To be fair having Tom does make it easier so Ill give you a shred of credit for that. But we was good in the redzone last year also(after the first few games, which is understanble as a learning curve)
October 22nd, 2020 at 2:40 pm
So i did get curious and just looked it up. Tampa Bay #4 in redzone offense. Last year #3……and that was after a bad start to the season in redzone efficiency.
October 22nd, 2020 at 2:43 pm
Lamarcus Says:
October 22nd, 2020 at 1:35 pm
Let’s not kid ourselves either thinking Rojo is Barry Sanders either”———-
c—————————-
Right, because only fans that don’t understand the game would rather have a player that consistently led the league in percent of carries for loss or no gain over every season of his career only to rip off a long run late to make it appear that he had a great game over a guy that consistently gets yardage even when nothing is there and keeps the chains moving. ANY RUNNING BACK that can consistently gain yards when the yards aren’t there is better than an all or nothing RB that set his team up for more 3rd and longs than any other team during his time there. Barry Sanders is probably the most overrated player in the history of the NFL. A healthy Barry Sanders was able to get the Lions consecutive 5-11 seasons his last two seasons in the league but then he retires and washed up James Stewart got them to the playoffs with a 9-7 record and the only major change to the team was at the RB position.
How truly effective was Sanders as a player when he would have 19 carries for 38 yards and then rip off a 72 yard TD run late to produce a statline of 20 carries for 100 yards in a 27-10 loss? The dude was the football equivalent of a homerun hitter that leads the league in strikeouts. On a good team with a smart head coach he would have spent his career as a 3rd down RB and nothing else.
October 22nd, 2020 at 2:44 pm
Duthsty will you stop thinking logically. Lol.
It’s great to see some common sense on this board.
Go Bucs!
October 22nd, 2020 at 2:53 pm
Rod … “If Leftwich could, he’d have 4 TEs out there blocking and run it up the middle for a 3 and out in every game.”
Not sure where that’s coming from Rod, but I see BL (and BA) as being quite the opposite. Last year Bucs ran on only 37.7% of their total plays. That’s hardly the mark of a run-run-run-punt team. Quite the opposite.
This season, until last Sunday’s game, Bucs had only run on 37.0% of our plays, pretty consistent actually with last year. BA’s Bombs Away philosophy isn’t based on RBs carrying a stick of dynamite down the field; his preference is ‘Run, throw, throw, punt’ for the 3-and-outs.
I think that Sunday showed both BA & BL that our OLine can in fact run-block when they do it persistently, and that RoJo (and yes, Vaughn) can stack up some yards behind that OLine. I don’t know if 60% rushing is a BA record, but it certainly is out-of-character for him.
October 22nd, 2020 at 2:53 pm
Where is the GOAT Moniker JOE??
You said 50% of the time. Your numbers might be off a little. Love the Disrespect shown to TB.
Where’s the Peter King one? Hysterical.
October 22nd, 2020 at 3:04 pm
Bucs need to draft a left tackle in the 2021 draft hopefully in the first four rounds. You don’t pay an average tackle 14 mil plus unless they make the pro bowl. They could have signed a free agent left tackle for half of what they paid Smith.
October 22nd, 2020 at 3:09 pm
Leftwich make Munch angry 😡
GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!
October 22nd, 2020 at 3:36 pm
Not everything is a conspiracy. You’re starting to sound like Colin Cowturd.
October 22nd, 2020 at 3:38 pm
Defense rules idk why points allowed and points scored would be forbidden. It can be a good barometer of where you defense stands. Pats routinely gave up yards but not points and they usually performed fine.
October 22nd, 2020 at 3:42 pm
once again, Rod proves he’s clueless….
what a stupid comment….
GO BUCS!!!!!
October 22nd, 2020 at 4:18 pm
Will hahahha…..I mean…thx
October 22nd, 2020 at 4:34 pm
All I know is Sanders was a nightmare for Tampa Bay! When they show some of his greatest runs, guess who the opposing team was.
October 22nd, 2020 at 5:07 pm
Someone’s talking out the side of their head on Barry Sanders. Brandon, are you serious?!
Barry Sanders was the only consistent offensive weapon on that team his ENTIRE tenure. A tenure that included rushing for a 1,000 yards in 10 CONSECUTIVE seasons even with being the sole focus of defenses throughout the league.
I’m going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you weren’t around, or too young when Barry played. The sheer ridiculousness of your statement can only be attributed as such.
Emmitt Smith even opined that Barry would have crushed the rushing record if he had EVER had an offensive line, or better skill players around him.
There’s no way you typed that with a straight face!
I dare you to watch footage of Barry and not be in complete awe.
Oh, and it didn’t take 3 seasons to show he was a true player, BTW!
October 22nd, 2020 at 7:26 pm
I was at a Bucs-Lions game at Tampa Stadium back during the Dark Age of the 1980s. Sanders played and it was something like 31-7 at the half, Lions. Just drank beer and got a suntan through the rest of the game. That was SOP Buc wise back then. Sanders put on a RB clinic.
October 22nd, 2020 at 8:31 pm
Barry Sanders had 1,630 attempts in 10years.
145 times. He was tackled for a loss. Yards lost totaling -614yds.
10 seasons x 16 games = 160 games played . . That’s less than 1x per game avg.
His total of 614 total negative yards , seem pretty insignificant compared to the 15,269 yards in positive yards he gained over that period.
Additionally, RB’S avg a few yards per carry why because the majority of their carries gain 4yds or less per attempt . But as attempts increase, the chance to break one for a big gain increases also. Point is pounding the rock for small gains then reeling off one huge play is SOP in the NFL.
The problem is that there’s not many backs who have the ability to take it to the house at anytime. Barry was one of the few RBs , who at anytime could break off a huge run and score from anywhere on the field . Somehow , someway you have twisted this into being a negative which is counter to your self proclaimed superior knowledge of football.
October 22nd, 2020 at 10:00 pm
Defense Rules – Did you just see the story with Leftwich saying “pound the rock” is what the team is all about?
If Leftwich had his way, he’d run it 80% of the time. He’s ultra conservative, thankfully Arians is involved enough to kick him in the rear to tell him to open it up some.
But running up the gut on every 1st down so team is always in 2nd and 9 in the first half isn’t really all that helpful. Just mix it up some and don’t be so incredibly predictable, that’s my issue with Leftwich and that was my issue with Mike Shula in 1999.
October 22nd, 2020 at 10:02 pm
JimmyJack – The players are getting open because they’re generally exceptional players, in any case Leftwich is incredibly predictable, if he just mixed things up, did the same plays in a different order, the offense would be one of the best. It’s not much to ask, to not be so insanely predictable. The defense is good enough, so far, to win these games, but it’s not always going to be that way. Short of this defense becoming the 2002 Bucs, Leftwich has to do better if this is supposed to be a legit SB contender.
October 23rd, 2020 at 1:55 am
@Joe
“foot-rubbing Rob Gronkowski”
.
.
You forgot “car-littering.” I don’t want Paul to feel shorted.
October 23rd, 2020 at 5:50 am
Rod … Totally agree with you that BL is very predictable in his play-calling (based on the Packers game alone, that’s an understatement; however, RoJo & our OLine made it work against the Pack’s defense). My bigger issue with him is that his play designs are very ‘pedestrian’; I’m seeing none of the creativity that I see with teams like the Chiefs & the Saints (among others).
Great OCs are akin to artists IMO; you can usually see masterful creativity in their plays. Yes their play-calling is usually very good, and their team’s execution of those plays is usually consistently sound, but it’s the play design that really starts the ball rolling IMO. I don’t see that with BL, but admittedly that might be BA’s guidance that’s hogtying him. IDK.
Just for kicks looked at the first 8 games BL coached in Arizona (last half year of 2018), not under BA. Cards weren’t exactly a strong team that year (went 3-13 overall & 1-7 in those last 8 games under BL), but as I look at those 8 games the Cards offense stunk it up. He actually had a good run-pass balance (41.3% runs), but the passing game was terrible (that’s being kind). Their run game was far superior to their passing game that year, yet BL persisted in favoring the pass (about 65% passing) in most of his games (all losses). The one game they won in those 8 games was against … the Packers. Beat them by rushing 29 times versus passing 26 times. Sounds eerily familiar?