Dominating Offensive Line
November 18th, 2023
Bucs LT Tristan Wirfs.
Joe hears all the hollering and braying and stomping of feet (as usual) about how the Bucs have a worse offensive line than Northside Christian.
This, despite having Tristian Wirfs and a guy who is playing much better than anyone expected, Luke Goedeke.
It is fully impossible to have a rotten offensive line when you have a monster at tackle like Wirfs, sorry.
Well, Rich Hribar of Sharp Football Analysis dug up a stat that proves the Bucs offensive line is far, far better than the people who bellyache just to bellyache think it is.
Here is the evidence:
Tampa Bay is allowing just 2.7 sacks plus turnovers per game, the fewest in the league.
So Joe has a simple message for those who habitually bark about the offensive line: ENOUGH! Your bellyaching does not hold water and is tiresome.
Find something relevant and realistic to whine about, like Joe Tryon-Shoyinka’s lack of impact plays or the offense not getting Mike Evans and Chris Godwin the ball enough.
November 18th, 2023 at 12:05 am
Wirfs weighs as much as two Vlads
November 18th, 2023 at 12:18 am
If I could base my reality off of one stat, id go for the ‘he withdraws money out of his bank acct 2.7 times less than anyone, therefore, he must be winning the money battle. Haha
Nothing further from the truth
November 18th, 2023 at 12:19 am
Can’t we find somebody who can block on this team the offensive line is going to be the pits oK Joe just busting your balls I love our guys
November 18th, 2023 at 12:23 am
We are so gifted at both of our tackles that the the guards and center seem less than average to us. Which apparently is incorrect. It just seems like they lack the Luster of greatness.
It sure “looks like” they have a huge amount to improve. Must be Baker’s houdini act covering up the hard truths
November 18th, 2023 at 12:30 am
So, our offensive line is playing good. Our qb play needs to be elevated!!!
November 18th, 2023 at 12:56 am
Joe, you are smoking crack!!!!!! A team that can’t run the ball for over two years is a worthless Oline no matter what garbage stats you come up with!!!!! But hey, keep the shine on for this 500 team. This team aint jack and never will be with this Oline.
November 18th, 2023 at 12:57 am
That sack stat does not tell the truth. If this was Brady behind this line, they’d be averaging 4 sacks a game. How many has Baker broken?
November 18th, 2023 at 12:58 am
We all watch the games Joe.
We see Baker Mayfield spinning and dancing his way out of 2-3 sacks every single week, no thanks to the offensive line. A less mobile QB would have been in a body bag already. Sadly, having 2 stud bookends with 3 softies in the middle does not a good offensive line make. (And calling Goedeke a stud is being very generous)
They are what they are- slightly above average at pass blocking, and below average at run blocking. Hence the crappy run game.
November 18th, 2023 at 12:58 am
Baker helps make sack #’s look far better, but it doesn’t change the fact most of them can’t move the opposing player off their spot
November 18th, 2023 at 1:50 am
They seem to block well enough, they just don’t push anyone backwards…
That’s why it probably make sense for them to run up the gut less and outside the tackles more, and use more screen passes and passing in general. It seemed like the playcalling was more diverse last week, so hopefully that keeps up.
November 18th, 2023 at 1:55 am
Get a good center and keep the other guys together for a couple of seasons to gel and the line will be one of the better ones in the league in 2025.
November 18th, 2023 at 2:01 am
This falls under “lies, damned lies, and statistics”.
It has more to do with Baker than it does the OL. The iOL is just bad. Mainly because Hainsey is just trash. Mauch can’t handle a bull rush yet.
November 18th, 2023 at 3:06 am
Pass blocking yes, run blocking….. not so much
November 18th, 2023 at 5:23 am
Sharp Football Analysis … ‘Tampa Bay is allowing just 2.7 sacks PLUS TURNOVERS per game, the fewest in the league.’
You focused on SACKS Joe, but that statistic of 2.7 also included TURNOVERS. Why I have no idea, because turnovers have relatively little to do with the offensive line. IOW the 2.7 is a relatively irrelevant stat when it comes to comparing OLine capabilities.
And oh BTW, ‘San Francisco is allowing 2.8 sacks plus turnovers per game, second in the league.’ Apparently they’v e got a fairly stout OLine, but one that can run-block as well as pass-block.
The rest of that Sharp Analysis contained several other tidbits that were interesting, among them:
o ‘The Buccaneers have three rushing plays that have gained 15 or more yards, the fewest in the NFL. The 49ers have 18, second in the NFL.’
o ‘78.0% of the San Francisco set of downs have led to another set of downs or a touchdown, the highest rate in the league. The Buccaneers are at 68.1%, 21st in the league.’
o ‘Brock Purdy has now completed over 70.0% of his passes in three straight games and has thrown for over 11.0 yards per pass attempt in each of the past two. He leads the NFL with 9.3 Y/A on the season.’
o ‘When the Buccaneers have not pressured the quarterback over that span (since our BYE week), they are allowing a league-high 77.5% completion rate and 9.2 yards per pass attempt (31st) with eight touchdowns and zero interceptions. Purdy leads the NFL in completion rate (79.1%) and yards per pass attempt (10.5 Y/A) without pressure this season.’
Doesn’t take much analysis to figure out that we’ve got huge problems UNLESS we can find a way to manufacture CONSISTENT pressure on Purdy. If we can do that, we’ve got a chance. If we don’t, we’ll get eaten alive.
November 18th, 2023 at 5:45 am
Sorry Joe, The Oline does not pass the smell test….The worst running game in the league again this year, does not cut it.
The difference is Bakers mobility.
Tom was a statue last year.
Baker has more mobility than any QB since JefF Garcia.
Brady-Jameis, Glennon- Freeman-Leftwich then Garcia in 2007-8
Bakers legs are the difference in last year and now.
You cannot hide the stench of the worst running game in the League
GO BUCS!!!
November 18th, 2023 at 5:47 am
Baker is why the line seems to be bad. He’s dancing around with happy feet and not getting the ball to Evans and Godwin when the ball should be delivered. I really can’t believe canales is using Evans and Godwin as decoys. So it’s Baker.
November 18th, 2023 at 7:09 am
BTW Joe, no matter what stats I look at, Baker comes off as being a mid-tier QB; not great, not terrible. There’s a website called FantasyPros dot com that provides Advanced QB Stats that are kinda cool (most recent has 2023 stats for games 1-10), with some stats I haven’t found elsewhere.
By almost every measure, Baker Mayfield is performing very similarly to Jalen Hurts this season. Both have thrown 305 passes; Baker has completed 197 (65%) while Jalen has completed 210 (69%). Baker has 2143 passing yards, while Jalen has 2347 yards (essentially 200 more yards in the same number of attempts). Baker has thrown 73 passes of 10 yards or more, while Jalen has 84 (he’s pushing it down the field a little more).
Pocket time is basically the same for both (2.4 secs for Baker; 2.5 secs for Jalen). Jalen’s been blitzed a lot more (107 vs 84), but Baker has thrown more ‘poor passes’ (46 vs 35). Baker’s only been sacked 16 times, while Jalen has been sacked 22 times.
What I can’t figure out though is why they rank Hurts as the #2 QB, but rank Mayfield as the #16 QB. Wonder if it has anything to do with the Eagles being 8-1 and the Bucs being 4-5?
November 18th, 2023 at 7:17 am
The thing with Baker is you need really good players around him. He’s not the type of QB you ride to victory, but seldom are. Does having a decent QB in Mayfield keep you from trying to find something better in the draft?
November 18th, 2023 at 7:30 am
As for Baker being a mid-tier QB, the results and stats bear that out. Remember, two defensive failures cost two games he had the lead on late, Houston and Atlanta. He’d be 6-3.
Also, how much better would he be if he had any semblance of a running game and about 90% of the pass attempts involve him scrambling to avoid getting hit. So those things make him worse.
Problem is Defense has failed at epic moments. Running game is pathetic. Coaching and schemes have been horrible. We know this because last week when they played Devin White and Dean to their strengths, the outcome was much better.
November 18th, 2023 at 7:33 am
maybe jeff garcia can throw the “frisco hex” on that building before the bucs arrive…
jeff had some good years in san fran and knows the stadium well…
that’s right, maybe jeff garcia will disperse the curse on the red and gold…
and the lowly yuccaneers will soldier out of that stadium in victory formation…
#StrangerThingsHaveHappened
November 18th, 2023 at 7:35 am
remember guys…………..
his name is robert paulson…
remember guys…………
his name is crock turdy
November 18th, 2023 at 7:54 am
Welp, that didn’t take long. jbf commentariat is back to normal. Normal being the Bucs will get creamed tomorrow. Oh well, Go Bucs!!
November 18th, 2023 at 7:55 am
Would either Joe claim that we had a good or even “good enough” o-line last season? Probably not. But if you want to just look at stats, consider last year:
2022: Brady had 733 pass attempts, an NFL record. “The statue” was sacked a league-low 22 times. Put that together and wow. Great pass protection? Great o-line play? How was our running game last year? Pretty poor, like this year. Lenny’s fault? Suddenly he lost his ability to run the football? Many accused him of that and clamored for White to get more touches. How did that work out? R. White is now Joe’s whipping boy and the cause of our woes in our ground game. SMH
I’m glad Mayfield can ue his legs to avoid sacks and even pick up a few yards while he’s running for his life. Our pass pro isn’t terrible and it looks even better when you compare it to how they run block which are two different skill sets.
I don’t put all.of our futility in the run game on the big fellas. They share that with the coaches who lack imagination. Aside from the ’22 Bucs, name another team that consistently runs up the gut and fails time and time again and just keep on doing it anyway. It’s the old “definition of insanity”.
You take a team with a great run-blocking o-line and you can put a helmet on a dill pickle, hand it the ball and it would get more yards per carry than our guys.
R. White may not be great but he’s better than a pickle so the issue must be elsewhere.
November 18th, 2023 at 8:19 am
ModHairKen … ‘Problem is Defense has failed at epic moments’.
One could counter that by saying the defense also had some epic successes. New Orleans game for instance (our 26-9 win). Defense forced THREE takeaways that gave the offense very short fields to work with (Saints 6 and 19 yard lines) that lead to a TD & a FG. There’s 10 pretty much free points right there. Defense also held the Saints to 3 FGs that game.
Point being that every defense in the league has some good games & some bad games. San Fran (#1 defense now in Points Allowed) was part of 3 losses in a row where their offense scored 17 points in each of those games, but the defense gave up 19, 22 & 31 points. And yet they’re STILL the #1 defense.
Playing poorly is one thing. Coaching poorly is a whole nuther thing in my book because the players on the field may be executing very well; they’re just being asked to execute a really dumb scheme. The Falcons & Texans games come to mind. One of the reasons I’m not an advocate for head coaches wearing 2 hats; only so many hours in a week.
November 18th, 2023 at 8:21 am
And the defence is in the top 6 vs the rush, so there must not be any issues to see there either, right? By these 2 stats alone the Bucks should be undefeated! 🙄
Cherry picking stats does not win an argument. 1 guy out of 5 playing elite plus 1 guy out of 5 overachieving by being mediocre does not make a good OL. Sorry, that is weak logic.
Show the offensive OL rushing stats, I dare you.
November 18th, 2023 at 8:30 am
Oline is not the problem
The better stats is 19.5% pressure rate given up per pass attempt which is ranked 10th best in the league. Best is the Ravens at 14.6% the worst is the Jets at 29.3%
November 18th, 2023 at 8:38 am
Like many other commenters, I’m also going to chime in about cherry picking stats.
Last year, Bucs also didn’t give up a lot of sacks. Did they have a good Oline then? No, Brady was just getting the ball out quickly because he didn’t want to get hit.
The pass protection isn’t horrible this year, but to pretend we’re getting Oline play on par with the 49ers is laughable to anyone who has watched an NFL game this year. Interior line is weak on pass pro and moreso in the running game. Part of that is play calling, part of that is drafting undersized guys hoping they’ll be atypical athletes that can move guys that are 6 inches taller and 50 pounds heavier than them.
November 18th, 2023 at 8:41 am
Mayfield has deftly avoided at least 10 sure sacks so far this year….
Without Baker’s Houdini acts popping up at least once or twice each game – the Bucs would be averaging 4+ sacks per game based on the amount of penetration the interior OLine is allowing.
The running game sucks largely for the same reason. Too much penetration too often by DLinemen.
Sorry Joe – you can throw out all the barely relevant stats you want to try and prove a point – but my eyes see the OLine not opening enough holes and allowing penetration into the backfield way too often for them to be considered “good”.
November 18th, 2023 at 8:43 am
Joe I agree and believe the O line has improved drastically this first half of the season. Run blocking too. That includes Hainsey and Mauch both. the two most maligned. But booth continue to have a few plays every week that look bad. Not pass plays usually. Hainsey wiffed on a DT lined up on his shoulder. Mauch just gets out of control at times. They are now getting good enough blocks that White should be getting better average yards. He is not. He just does not run hard after contact!
It still does not help with Otton missing blocks though. He threw a shoulder at a LB Sunday that reminded me of Pop Warner stuff.
Go Bucs!
November 18th, 2023 at 8:55 am
is anyone picking the bucs to straight up win tomorrow…?
anyone with big enough ballz to declare that our bucs will eat a W ?
November 18th, 2023 at 8:57 am
The OLine is built with reinforced steel at Tackle and particle board at C and G
That is all
November 18th, 2023 at 8:59 am
No way on gods green earth we win tomorrow
Just praying we hold them under 40 and score more than 10
Todd normally gets outcoached and outclassed in these games
November 18th, 2023 at 9:01 am
I think Mayfield, as much as I hate him starting, has incredible pocket awareness most of the time.
Almost miraculous awareness.
There, I said something good about him.
November 18th, 2023 at 9:38 am
Yep. Joe is right as usual. Best line in the league. Probably going to run for 300yds against SF because the line is so good!
November 18th, 2023 at 9:39 am
The O-line is slightly better than I expected it to be. Still, it is NOT a good O-line.
Sorry Joe, I empathically disagree with your premise in this article.
And, until they improve to average at run AND pass blocking, I shall not stop saying they are below average. Interpreting what is seen on the field is called a description, not bellyaching. Bellyaching/whining can be defined as having a negative opinion lacking a factual basis. The facts are this is the second year in a row to have a historically horrific run game, and guess who blocks for the run game? So yeah, this is not a good O-line so far.
Let’s see if they can improve going forward.
November 18th, 2023 at 10:28 am
Either Joe is just trolling us again or Joe still doesn’t understand that run blocking AND pass blocking is what determines how good or bad an offensive line is performing. So even if the Bucs offensive line pass blocking was perfect (which it’s not) that’s only 50% of their grade, so they would still get an failing F grade if their run blocking was non-existent or terrible (which it is). According to ESPN the Bucs have THE WORST run block winning percentage rate in the NFL (64%) and 16th best pass block winning percentage (56%). And our run blocking has only gotten slightly better enough for our running backs to not get hit before they can even cross the line of scrimmage (ask the great running back King Derrick Henry how important that is). That’s enough for us Bucs fans who understand how important run blocking is to keep “screaming and hollering at the moon like a deranged wolf” about our WORST IN THE LEAGUE run blocking.
November 18th, 2023 at 10:34 am
Goedeke has taken over Donovan Smith’s position as most penalized ( tied for 3rd most). If it comes to a hold or having the QB racked up it could be the lesser of two evils.
Even with his escape ability Mayfield was sacked 36 times in 12 games in 2022 and has been sacked 16 times this year and half way through. Brady was sacked 22 times in 2022.
Brady had 67% completion rate in 2022 and Mayfield is about 65% under pressure.
Brady would hang in the pocket until the last second and throw it in the dirt or out of bounds because he was not going to run. Period. He also had the stature to be able to throw it anywhere on the field (often deep) as the pocket collapsed. Unfortunately when times up and pressured Ma6fields’s options are limited he has to dump it or get out and run.
I was listening to Ira K on a joint podcast and he seems to think there will be more 50/50 balls to Evans this week. With a little time or timing Evans should get some targets. Hopefully someone understands that if he is doubled it’ more of a 33/66 ball and they don’t turn into picks.
November 18th, 2023 at 10:45 am
What’s killing this team is simply penalties. It’s wiping good plays off the board to be forever forgotten. We’ve seen good runs come off, red zone chances coming away with field goals. If they can sort that out, people would stop whining about the line, the offense as a whole.
November 18th, 2023 at 12:11 pm
Joe!!! Come on. LoL. Suddenly they’re awesome because of one stat? Give me a break?
If you give them 20 running plays, they’ll open up a hole 3 times. It’s because of the center and the guards. Now Stinnie is in there so may be some improvement. Cody is a rookie, give them time but they should draft a center and a guard next year.
As for that stat which is mostly about passing… How does it account for a quarterback who’s allusive? Because that’s they have.
If Trask is standing back there, there would probably be 15 to 20 more sacks.
White takes heat, but watch him in the open field in passing when he has some lanes to hit. He’s been fantastic. Running, he’s a patient runner and that’s kind of a killer when you get the ball and there’s absolutely no opening and defenders in the backfield. They really need to give Tucker a bunch of carries.
But let’s not act like the line is awesome. They have a great tackle, an above average tackle, and an entire interior that is a question moving forward
November 18th, 2023 at 1:23 pm
NOT TRU JOE. WHILE PASS PROTECTION HAS BIN EXCELLENT. RUN BLOCKING HAS BIN 💩. WE DONT HAVE THE WORST RUSHING OFFENSE IN THE NFL CAUSE 3 diff backs cant find the wholes. There are no holes. That’s the only reason for bellyaching is the run blocking.
November 18th, 2023 at 3:18 pm
The Bucs pass blocking has been quite good, for the most part, but it’s certainly helped out by how quickly Baker will bail on plays.
But this was built as a passing team, one that leads the NFL in passing — and that’s why Bowles is such an idiot, to take that strength, and instead demand that we just run it up the middle and win in the power run game.
Your more agile pass blockers are not road graters that you need for a run up the gut offense. How in the world Bowles is not aware of this is beyond me.
November 18th, 2023 at 3:54 pm
Should read Dominatin Left Tackle.
November 18th, 2023 at 9:53 pm
oldschool more like no school just detention with the rest of the worthless lackies don’t read garbage from these stupid posts people they r not bucs people
November 18th, 2023 at 9:57 pm
yes the penalties I don’t get we started the season with like no penalties now they can seem to get enough wtf