Will The Bucs See The Light?
October 3rd, 2022
The first three games the Bucs tried to play ground-and-pound as if Mike Alstott and Warrick Dunn were back in the backfield.
As a result, even with Tom Brady at quarterback, the Bucs were dreadful averaging only a touchdown a game.
Yesterday, in part born out of necessity, with their top four receivers finally all back on the field together, the Bucs had to open it up or get blown out. What happened? The Bucs damn near made a game of it.
The offense looked like the offense of the past few years. Tampa Bay went up and down the field. Grant Gordon, typing for NFL.com, believes if the Bucs have any foresight at all, this should be the season blueprint: Throw the damn ball!
… … it’s obvious Brady and the offense are worlds different with those wideouts in the mix. They scored more points and had more yards passing (385) than any previous game this season. When the skies clear in the coming weeks and if this WR crew can stay somewhat healthy, Week 4 might stand as a foreshadowing of what’s to come — in a positive light.
Naturally staying healthy is the key. Chris Godwin appears to be in the midst of a season where he’ll battle injuries throughout. Russell Gage has been hurt damn near since the day he arrived. Remember how he missed OTAs with some mysterious injury?
And then there is Julio Jones, who is a walking injury list at this point in his career.
Get Evans, Godwin and Julio on the field, maybe Gage too, and air it out. Please.
October 3rd, 2022 at 4:47 am
Get rid of Jones! Should never have brought him on. Useless waste of money
October 3rd, 2022 at 5:05 am
No. Do not just “throw the damn ball”. This offense has to be balanced, with a strong (and I mean strong) smashmouth running attack that saves Brady from damage, sets tone, eats clock, and from having to do exactly what he was forced to do again, put the damned game on his back after being down and almost out. No, no more desperate comebacks and pass-pass-pass, please. Win the right way, with physicality, balance and everyone their jobs.
Bowles, Leftwich and Licht have a lot of work to do.
October 3rd, 2022 at 6:32 am
I think it’s kind of telling how much better the offense looks when we fall behind and have to ditch the gameplan.
October 3rd, 2022 at 6:43 am
We must get youth in the mix. Miller is crap.
Move Thompkins up! Darden!
Young guys have to figure it out.
Coach ‘‘em up!
WR age and injury will plague us!
October 3rd, 2022 at 6:45 am
Max protect sets. This Oline is suspect!
Can’t run block.
Can’t pass block.
October 3rd, 2022 at 7:51 am
We need to stop the run, JTS I haven’t seen make any plays it’s frustrating and freaking JPP signed with ravens and produced a sack and looked good against the Bills yesterday.
October 3rd, 2022 at 8:23 am
Johnson + Grayson > Miller + Darden+Jones
October 3rd, 2022 at 8:23 am
#6 will play a grand total of 6 games if lucky out of gas
October 3rd, 2022 at 8:27 am
The problem was the defense though. They couldn’t force a punt for basically the entire game and only one turnover. No matter what you do on offense, pretty hard to win under those conditions.
October 3rd, 2022 at 8:30 am
Light at the end of the tunnel, or walking to the bright light you see just before you die? This team looks like the latter. Jones, Hicks, Gage are FA busts. There were concerns, they’ve been realized. Godwin looks like he’s hurt after every play. This team’s on the retirement tour.
October 3rd, 2022 at 8:58 am
And uh, stop running the dam ball on first down to try to try to establish. I know this is a copy cat league but you don’t want opposing defenses to tee off all the time because they have memorized our play book !!
October 3rd, 2022 at 10:02 am
Cole Beasley will be a monster if he can actually stay on his feet. Each time the ball is thrown to him, he catches it while slipping on a banana peel 🤣🤦🏾
October 3rd, 2022 at 10:10 am
Maybe make a trade for a receiver that stays healthy… hello, Brandin Cooks? And oh yeah, he’s played with Brady before.
October 3rd, 2022 at 12:38 pm
Godwin seems like he’s gonna be injured all season.
Same with Julio (though I expected that. Anyone who thought he’d really stay healthy all season is a fool).
Gage still being banged up is a surprise, and it’s starting to feel like he’ll be injured on abs off all season as well.
And if Evans has to keep going over the middle to fill the void from Gronk, he’s gonna get banged up sooner or later.
This is not a recipe for success.
The bright spot? We saw Otton and Keift make some plays finally. Hopefully they can get more involved and allow us to be flexible.
October 4th, 2022 at 4:16 am
Two problems at least with Gordons take.
the only truly healthy starter reciever is Evens. The rest are walking wounded. And the second one is the left guard and center suck at pass blocking. Tom Brady has been very lucky he has not been truly blasted yet… it helps him that he knows he has to get rid of the ball quickly. He has done amazingly well at this. Bonus problem is No Tight end …Blocking or catching… although Keift made a highlight real catch.