Can Bucs Offense Avoid An Embarrassment?
October 1st, 2022
Bucs OC Byron Leftwich.
The Bucs are on the verge of something that would not be carved in Tom Brady’s highlights when he’s inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Brady has never had four straight games where his offense scored less than 20 points in each game. The danger of that happening tomorrow night is real.
Adam Teiser of BSPN points out if Bucs offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich doesn’t figure out a way to get points on the board, Brady will be left with a large blemish on his otherwise storied career.
Stat to know: The Buccaneers are looking to avoid a fourth straight game held under 20 points. Only one Brady-led team has been held under 20 points in four straight games — the 2002 Patriots.
The way Joe looks at it, crying about injuries is a fair issue. But at the end of the day, isn’t it up to the offensive coordinator to find a way to score points?
Let Joe be blunt: Every year Leftwich has been the Bucs’ offensive coordinator, he’s had just about an all-star team to work with. Now, between a rash of injuries and a couple of retirements, he’s left with an average at best offense with a lot of inexperience.
Joe is certain general managers and owners with teams that have similar offensive talent, teams already eyeing a new coach for 2023, are watching the Bucs closely.
If Leftwich cannot find a way to score points with Playoff Lenny. Mike Evans and Brady on the field, what’s to expect Leftwich to score points with a losing team that has a lesser quarterback?
October 1st, 2022 at 10:24 am
He’s coaching his way out of a sweet HC gig for next season.
This means he’d prolly return to OBP in 2023.
Ponder that…
October 1st, 2022 at 10:24 am
If BL is the answer to fixing the O, it AIN’T gonna happen, he’s one of the biggest issues. No creativity, lacks adapting to defensive schemes and this is the season BL and Bowles get exposed. Good Luck Bucs.
October 1st, 2022 at 10:34 am
brady is going to flip out soon if he doesn’t have a tight end…
brady’s offense relies heavily on one or two productive tight ends…
tommy b’s options for ball distribution have gotten so limited at this point that he just might flip out…
if you see tommy b roaming one buc with a 2×4 in hand, all frothy at the mouth, and muttering hacksaw jim duggan jargon – lookout!
October 1st, 2022 at 10:38 am
So dramatic in tampa, this reminds me of all the crying about not having an edge rusher in the off-season we traded for JPP.
3 games in the sky is not falling honestly it’s stupid, everyone knew this was the most brutal stretch of the schedule. Did we honestly think we’d put up 30 points against the saints and packers?
October 1st, 2022 at 10:53 am
Boron’s Leftwurst is not only coaching hisbwaynoutbof a head coaching gig, he’s coaching himself off the Bucs. If this keeps up he’ll be fired.
October 1st, 2022 at 11:00 am
Quit running up the middle on virtually every first down. That would be a great first step Byron!
October 1st, 2022 at 11:04 am
Stay ahead of the sticks. 2nd and 8 is not gonna get it done Byron!
October 1st, 2022 at 11:12 am
First down HB dive practically every time, I’ve been calling it the “Leftwich Special” for 3 years now. He has been costing us points since the beginning, and now he is costing us games. Yes, I realize the BUCS were scoring 30 points a game….but if you watched every game you would see how frequently his play calling killed drives that could have led to more points. He rode the back of Brady and elite targets, and now without elite targets BL is fully exposed. He doesn’t know how to call an offense without several players able to get open. And now without Gronk as a safety valve, I’m worried he will not even be able to get back to 25 points with all the receivers back. Scary stuff. We need Brady to take over the offense up tempo like how he scored at the end of the Packers game. That is our only hope.
October 1st, 2022 at 11:14 am
I’ll say it again … Should have never let B.A. leave the sideline!!
October 1st, 2022 at 11:18 am
With all of the injuries so far this year, I dont care if we score 3 FGs
Just win the damn game
October 1st, 2022 at 11:30 am
Joe: “Brady has never had four straight games where his offense scored less than 20 points in each game.”
Stat to know: “Only one Brady-led team has been held under 20 points in four straight games — the 2002 Patriots.”
What am I missing?
October 1st, 2022 at 11:32 am
We are stuck with BL everyone in the league knows hes a below average coach and coordinator and its starting to show.
October 1st, 2022 at 11:36 am
Our WR corps was so stacked we cut Tyler Johnson & Cyril Grayson……..didn’t last but one game…..that’s very sad.
Nonetheless, Byron needs to open up the offense……when we do….we move the ball.
Time for some play action….a lot of it.
October 1st, 2022 at 11:41 am
If we win scoring less than 20, who cares!
The response from TB12 when commenting on this horrific stat – um
We went 3-1 so there’s that…
In the way to 13 wins are 4 losses and don’t think this is one of them
October 1st, 2022 at 11:43 am
These comments are like the “blame Canada” chorus line in the South Park movie. Dang, now I want some poutine.
October 1st, 2022 at 11:50 am
So if Brady throws for 350 with 4 touchdowns tomorrow night will y’all give BL credit or will Brady get all the credit are will y’all give them both credit!!
October 1st, 2022 at 11:53 am
The king of the village idiots is singularly focused on the Brady hatred. So amusing.
October 1st, 2022 at 11:55 am
Some OCs are true ‘artists’ who have the vision to take a defense apart by exploiting their weaknesses. Others are just ‘plodders’ who have a playbook full of plays that’ve worked over time & seem to pick them using a cookbook-approach until something happens to work.
Byron seems to fall into the latter group IMO. With superior talent (and especially a top-notch QB to adjust on the field), he does reasonably well (but so would probably most OCs). But when the injury bug strikes & his weapons become limited, he seems to struggle to put together enough plays to create good scoring drives.
I seriously doubt that he’ll be our OC next year, and especially if Kyle Trask becomes our starting QB (which I think he will BTW). I do however think that he’ll finish out this season as our OC, but that Tom Brady will gradually assume a bigger & bigger role in play-calling. Really hope that our defense holds up though, because these offensive personnel aren’t gonna be putting up 30 PPG consistently.
October 1st, 2022 at 12:00 pm
I agree with ClwJB. If we beat the Chiefs and score 20 or less, we are still 3-1. So that would be 3-1 against 4 good teams to start the year, 2 of those games on the road, and one home game that they had to fly back and forth to Miami in order to practice. Embarrassing?
Now if we lose and only score a few field goals, then yeah that would suck, but I don’t think we need to hit freak out mode even if that happens.
The old rule was you needed 4 games to really find out what kind of team you have. I say with this 17 game season, that is more like 5 games. If by the end of that 5th game our offense is still in the doldrums, then yeah, we might need to get used to this for most of the year.
October 1st, 2022 at 12:21 pm
Do not rush Godwin or Julio back , in fact another week would do both a lot of good moving forward through the remainder of the season. I remember Joe raving about White at RB in camp-is he still playing for the Bucs??
October 1st, 2022 at 12:34 pm
I guess we’re seeing all the plays Bruce Arians put a red pen through last season.
October 1st, 2022 at 12:34 pm
Because I root for the Bucs, I never bet their games. In my opinion if The Game were in MINNEAPOLIS, IT WOULD be almost like a home game for the Chiefs. The Viking Fans attending at discounted ticket prices because of the NFC #1 seeding possibility are going to root for the Chiefs. Also because of distance proximity Kansas City would have more fans there than the Bucs. I feel KC is going into a BUZZSAW at Raymond James stadium. The BUC players are going to win this game for the residents devastated by the Hurricane. This game isn’t going to be about who has more talent. The BUC players are going to outhit and out physical the Chiefs in a fistfight type game and win.
October 1st, 2022 at 12:45 pm
Seriously. I agree
October 1st, 2022 at 12:47 pm
The offense is moving the ball not like last year but they are. They just seem to have trouble finishing the drive. That Dallas game was what 4 field goals one TD? Seems like we are leaving points on the board.
October 1st, 2022 at 12:52 pm
DR. Byron does seem to come up with at least one horrible play call on every drive. I could live with that but just giving away first down over and over is just inexplicable.
October 1st, 2022 at 1:13 pm
OneLilBuc…or if you’re the great Oneil “Kissing” Cousins…I salute your ability to get drafted in the 3rd round and enjoy a NFL career. Either way…you don’t seem to like Brady but idolize Winny & Leftwich…who’s stock is dropping like the NASDAQ currently. How happy is Jax that they selected the proven Doug Pederson vs Lefty?! Might have made Urban look ok by comparison if Lefty was hired by them.
October 1st, 2022 at 1:37 pm
Chief’s D line may be the best in football. I predict 5 sacks and 2 picks. Bucs’s coaching staff is officially clueless again. Chiefs 31 Bucs 12.
October 1st, 2022 at 1:41 pm
Licht is fully responsible for the problem by not securing experienced offensive lineman
Brady does not have time to throw
October 1st, 2022 at 1:42 pm
Why is it BL on the Hot Seat …Tom is the one on the field! We can score 40 pts and win this game and all you will hear is how TB12 found a way!
October 1st, 2022 at 2:00 pm
Sunny – I doubt that Osqueelyall would have a clue what the NASDAQ is. But great post anyway.
October 1st, 2022 at 2:01 pm
Winny!
October 1st, 2022 at 2:29 pm
If the offense posts a baseball score tomorrow night, it would probably be time to start calling for Leftwich to be fired.
October 1st, 2022 at 2:35 pm
I hope the offense does well despite BL’s longevity of lackluster player development, gam planning, adjustments, and play calling. Got beat up in here stating such when the team was averaging 30/game. But BA and the good fellas are loyal to a fault, and I think the bucks success is the best way to get him out the door and us an extra 3rd rd pick. I feel confident that all of you would have had the same level of success as BL given the opportunities and talent that have surrounded this guy. He just seems incapable of adapting.
October 1st, 2022 at 2:46 pm
Jeff … ‘Chief’s D line may be the best in football. I predict 5 sacks and 2 picks.’
Interesting observation Jeff, and you got me curious. Chiefs have 10 sacks in 3 games, and Mahomes has only been sacked twice. And yet their defense has given up a total of 65 points to rank mid-pack (#16) against 3 opponents whose combined record is 3-5-1. Chiefs are 2-1 like us, but their 20-17 loss to the Colts showed their vulnerability (Colts had a 16-play drive to win the game with 24 seconds left that consumed 8:14 of the clock). Most of it was Ryan short passing.
Still, the Chiefs’ defense has only forced 2 takeaways in 3 games (compared to our 8). Looks to me like their defense is more vulnerable to the pass than to the run (they’re only giving up 3.6 YPC rushing, compared to us giving up 3.8 YPC). Also looks like their pass rush is somewhat more productive than ours through 3 games … Chiefs have 10 sacks, 17 knockdowns & 22 hurries for 49 total pressures, Bucs have 11 sacks, 13 knockdowns & 12 hurries for 37 total pressures. Both teams have 15 TFLs BTW.
Assuming that Mike Evans & Gage & Otton are good to go, and that Beasley can contribute some, Bucs should do better offensively than we have been doing. I expect a good game that’ll probably be close (with both teams scoring in the low-to-mid 20’s). Convinced that it’ll come down to which team does the best in the 4th quarter.
October 1st, 2022 at 3:15 pm
Let’s just hope they were able to prepare properly. Hopefully they had a few nighttime practices leading into Sunday
October 1st, 2022 at 3:47 pm
The Bowles Prevent Offense counts on the famous Buc Up The Gut play to keep it close in the 4th quarter and then hope the opponent makes more mistakes than the Bucs. Hard to watch. Hard to get sacked when you run up the gut but those 3rd and longs will kill ya.
October 1st, 2022 at 4:35 pm
The chiefs D is not as good as the packers and since we are getting Mike back, 20 points shouldn’t be a problem.
October 1st, 2022 at 4:42 pm
There’s a pick every year Jason just really ish the bed.
NEW RULE trade that 2nd round for a a young vet.
We should of grab a TE. Hurst, etc. with that draft pick.
Tom needs a TE and a legit pass catching RB.
October 1st, 2022 at 6:43 pm
Good thing is some of them are coming back this week but if the offense plays the way they did against GB they’re gonna lose again. Hopefully they’ll look better with some of them coming back this week because the offense has just disappeared. Sure missing some OL doesn’t really help but this offense should be putting up at least 30.
October 1st, 2022 at 6:45 pm
I really doubt the D holds KC to 14. KC will probably score at least 20. Unless they can pull what they did when they shut them down in the Super Bowl.
October 1st, 2022 at 6:58 pm
Tampa scored 20 points in week 2. Article is misleading
October 1st, 2022 at 6:59 pm
Bucs o-line ain’t what it used to be.
It ain’t Rocket Science.
October 1st, 2022 at 7:02 pm
Defense Rules Says:
October 1st, 2022 at 11:55 am
Some OCs are true ‘artists’ who have the vision…
B.A. was one of those guys. Bowles please fire Leftwich and make B.A. your offensive coordinator and play caller.
October 1st, 2022 at 7:05 pm
Past years performance, is no indication of future performance.
October 1st, 2022 at 7:05 pm
Gwood Says:
October 1st, 2022 at 6:58 pm
Tampa scored 20 points in week 2. Article is misleading.
The beginning of the article was more correct.
“Brady has never had four straight games where his offense scored less than 20 points in each game.”
October 1st, 2022 at 7:06 pm
Maybe, Byron Leftwich can call plays and block too?
October 1st, 2022 at 7:08 pm
Buncha broke down, high paid players.
Not a bad gig, if ya can get it.
October 1st, 2022 at 8:19 pm
Don’t care. Just win. The O will be fine as all the receivers and Smith come back in the next 1 to 3 weeks