With The Bucs’ Weapons, This Never Should Have Happened
June 20th, 2024
“Remember me? I’m still looking for work.”
The notorious Dov Kleiman, or one of his business partners, had an interesting stat the other day.
(Kleiman is a noted Twitter spreader of NFL news and info. And for reasons that seem to border on comical, the MSM loathes this guy.)
Kleiman (?) put out a stat that showed how often the past two seasons teams never had a lead in a game. The Bucs are tied for third-most on this list. The only two teams that had more games in 2022 and 2023 where they never held a lead are two very sorry offenses, the Jets and the Commandos.
Now let’s think about this for a second: Look at the firepower the Bucs have on offense.
They’ve got Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, Rachaad White (at least in the passing game) maybe to a lesser degree Cade Otton. One year with Tom Brady. Another year with a Pro Bowl MVP quarterback that should have been Comeback Player of the Year.
And the Bucs had 10 games the last two years where they never had a lead in a game? That’s really bad.
Joe blames this on a team that cannot run yet wants to run, come hell or high water.
When you want to run, that tells Joe you want to keep the game close. And the problem with that is, keeping a game close means you also keep the other team in the game.
There is no way the Bucs should be anywhere near the top of this stat. Shameful.
Games where a team never led at any point in the last 2 seasons pic.twitter.com/OO7SueNwTC
— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) June 17, 2024
June 20th, 2024 at 9:23 am
Even Brady said a good QB can’t overcome a bad offensive line – and Bucs’ draft and free agent signings are proof that they acknowledge the OLine was an issue
June 20th, 2024 at 10:02 am
It’s interesting , and telling, the entire NFC -South is there with 10 games in which they never led, with the exception of the Saints who had only eight , the entire Division ! What are the odds ? Maybe it’s a coincidence but I don’t believe it, just like in politics there’s no such thing as coincidences. We all are doing something wrong , but what?
June 20th, 2024 at 10:09 am
The NFL is a passing league. Teams that can actually run the ball, set up the run with the pass. Not many teams that consistently run on 1st & 2nd downs have success. MIX IT UP!!!
June 20th, 2024 at 10:21 am
Does Brains Leftout have a job yet?
June 20th, 2024 at 10:23 am
I’d like to see a stat of teams where the opposing team scored first.
Bucs have to be high on that list, too.
This team the last few years, even with Brady, always seemed to be playing from behind.
June 20th, 2024 at 10:23 am
Can they bring back Gary Anderson!! They want White to be Anderson like , he simply isn’t close !! He can catch and he’s surprisingly durable . Terrible Hole/ Lane recognition ,, not instinctual , doest play fast in traffic, has to see open field to set up his moves . = good rec back that can run some if needed . Nice player to have but not the player you need unless your o line is top 3 .
June 20th, 2024 at 10:30 am
Worst center in the history of the NFL.
A former RT from Notre Dame.
A man who never played center in his entire life.
The man with no quads or hamstrings.
Hainsey.
June 20th, 2024 at 10:33 am
All 5 teams that did the best Ranked 26-32 of percentage of passes to rushes except KC where Maholmes could have easily ran the ball at times but shuffled it here and there instead.
Most of the heavy pass teams were those that were always playing from behind.
Carolina ranked 8th of the pass heavy teams but will be closer to 50/50 than the 60% passes of 2023 whether they are winning or losing. Panthers averaged 132 yards per game against the Bucs last season with a horrible O Line. In the 2 losses the point differential was a total of 12 with one TD being called back on a penalty. With just a little better QB play the Panthers will win a lot more games with a Run first Offense. Don’t expect the Falcons to pass more that the 52% last year but will have more success with better QB play also.
Go ahead and have Mayfield chuck it 60% of the time and Bucs will finish anywhere between 2nd and 4th in the Division.
June 20th, 2024 at 10:33 am
Running the ball on first down off the right side to start EVERY first drive will cause that as well.
June 20th, 2024 at 11:00 am
Total agreement on this stat Joe. That is disgusting.
June 20th, 2024 at 11:03 am
Talk about being a Slow-Starters type of Team. Canales and Bowles made this team way too conservative early in games. We should be alot more aggressive this year. The OL will have 2 new starters on it-both should be better than last year’s guy. If we can run the ball and Pass Rush Pass Rush, we will be a 10-win Team at least. Let’s get Baked! Go Bucs!
June 20th, 2024 at 11:20 am
Alanbucsfan Says:
Even Brady said a good QB can’t overcome a bad offensive line – and Bucs’ draft and free agent signings are proof that they acknowledge the OLine was an issue
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A mostly immobile QB can’t overcome a bad offensive line but more mobile QB’s like Joe Burrow are better able to do so.
I believe Brady could play QB in the NFL at a high level until age 50 if he wanted to IF he had a GREAT offensive line. Those are pretty rare these days. He retired because he didn’t want to take the hits anymore, understandably so, but nothing was wrong with his arm during his most recent retirement.
June 20th, 2024 at 11:22 am
@Cobraboy – last year the Bucs scored points first in nine regular season games. The opposing team did it eight times.
June 20th, 2024 at 11:39 am
3xNFCS Champs +SB
Critique all you want but making the playoffs and winning it all are the only team stats that really matters.
June 20th, 2024 at 12:01 pm
Brady retires because his (ex)-wife was getting triangle choked by her Jiu-Jitsu coach, and probably in a house that Brady was paying for. Brady could have chosen the Michael DeSantis route, but instead he chose to finish his career on the meager Bucs. 8-9 season was pathetic.
June 20th, 2024 at 12:17 pm
This tends to happen when you come out of the gate like a snail in every game. Notoriously slow starting team without a homeowner threat on offense that can score fast.
I’d love to know what the average number of plays are for the drives that the Bucs score on. Don’t have nearly enough junk plays.
June 20th, 2024 at 12:29 pm
Additionally the Bucs offense scored first in 7 of their nine regular season wins with the exception of the Saints and Titans who each had a first quarter field goal.
June 20th, 2024 at 12:36 pm
Can’t have or hold a lead if your pass defense is consistently ranked bottom 5 in a passing league…
Oh and actually use your weapons
June 20th, 2024 at 1:04 pm
@First Name Greatest – The Bucs defense was 7th in scoring defense while their sputtering, slow start offense averaged their first points of a game 2 minutes into the second quarter. Bucs defense kept this team alive early and was exhausted late.
June 20th, 2024 at 1:06 pm
“Can’t have or hold a lead if your pass defense is consistently ranked bottom 5 in a passing league…”
18th scoring offense vs. 5th ranked scoring defense
19th ranked in TDs per game w/2.3 TDs avg vs. 7th best TD allowed per game w/2.1
22nd ranked(9.9) offense 1st half scoring vs. 3rd ranked defense(9.2) point allowed in the 1st half
Defense & Special teams have been covering for our mid-tier offense since the start of 2022 season.
That pass ranking you’re talking about accounts for pass attempts, completions, and yards gained. Absolutely nothing to do with keeping teams out of the endzone which we are a top 5 at.
Our offense was ranked 26th in redzone attempts & 27th in scoring TDs in the redzone
Our defense was ranked 19th in redzone attempts and 9th(!) in TDs allowed in the redzone.
June 20th, 2024 at 1:31 pm
Defense was plenty good enough. The offense was punchless.
June 20th, 2024 at 1:34 pm
We have the offensive weapons, we have the skill players and I believe we even have the quarterback… maybe this season we’ll have the offensive line. Back at the top with what Alanbucsfan typed, the entire offense can’t do anything without a solid offensive line. We had a great offensive line for our Super Bowl run and our 13 win season the next year. Jensen gets hurt, Kappa leaves and Marpet retires and we start from ground zero. Letting Kappa depart and replacing him with a different right guard is totally doable… you can’t keep them all. The Jensen knee thing is a hindsight 20/20 situation and nobody saw the Marpet retirement coming. He probably didn’t even see it coming, I think it was a sudden decision based on too many concussions and wanting to be able to remember things in his future. So the Buc’s main problems (outside of an edge rush, but let’s not go there) are the left guard and the center, the two positions where the Bucs fully got blindsided. Unfortunately it’s taken a couple years to recover from that since not everybody you pick ends up being a Wirfs or a Marpet. We lost (ejected) Smith along the way, had to draft Goedeke and the Hainsey experiment didn’t quite pan out.
June 20th, 2024 at 1:37 pm
… and, regarding the Hainsey experiment, I don’t think he was drafted thinking he would absolutely play center because he was drafted while we still thought Jensen might make it back. So the fact that Jensen lingered on giving false hope for two years was brutal. Not his fault and not the Bucs fault, just how things go tragically sometimes
June 20th, 2024 at 2:06 pm
Hence the necessity for the evolution of Todd.
#AsToddEvolves
June 20th, 2024 at 2:15 pm
The scapegoat for Brady because AB and Gronk left and Brady was washed up!!
June 20th, 2024 at 2:37 pm
“Oneilbuc Says:
June 20th, 2024 at 2:15 pm
The scapegoat for Brady because AB and Gronk left and Brady was washed up!!”
If he was a ‘scapegoat’, why is no one hiring him for, well, anything? The way the league is incentivizing minority hiring, if he was so good, some team would hire him, if for no other reason than to get the comp picks should he be hired as HC. Heck, he could have been, except that he went full dumbass and made the Jags second guess that call. Looks like they dodged a bullet.
Face facts – without Arians holding his hand, he was exposed.
June 20th, 2024 at 3:26 pm
Osqueeltard has actually gone into negative IQ territory. Didn’t know such stupidity was possible. Pretty soon her dumbazzery will need to be measured in imaginary numbers.
June 20th, 2024 at 3:54 pm
Joe … ‘Another year with a Pro Bowl MVP quarterback that should have been Comeback Player of the Year.’
I appreciate the chuckle Joe. We just finished up ‘underwear football’, have the ‘worthless preseason’ to look forward to, and the Pro Bowl has regressed to ‘flag football’ (Did they even wear helmets this year?). But hey, our boy was MVP so all’s good.
Losing the ‘Comeback Player of the Year’ to 39-year-old Joe Flacco was a heart-breaker I’m sure, but it’s kinda humorous too. After all, Flacco did go 4-1 for the Browns last year, completing 60% of his passes for 13 TDs against ONLY 8 INTs (that’d ONLY be 27 INTs over a full 17-game season like Baker played). In all fairness to Flacco though, he did run 9 times for 2 yards, so you gotta give him that.
June 20th, 2024 at 4:26 pm
Dave Pear Says:
June 20th, 2024 at 3:26 pm
Didn’t know such stupidity was possible. Pretty soon her dumbazzery will need to be measured in imaginary numbers.
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Illuminating. Now back to hunting precious gems on forbidden lands under the guidance of Chief Joseph.
June 20th, 2024 at 5:22 pm
Fan of the South… Your following statement is wrong:
All 5 teams that did the best Ranked 26-32 of percentage of passes to rushes except KC where Maholmes could have easily ran the ball at times but shuffled it here and there instead.
Buffalo was 15th in Rush to Pass attempts. Not in the top 7 of Rush to Pass or the bottom 7 of Pass to Rush as you noted.
In the last two years, Buffalo attempted 1153 passes and 942 rushes.
Lots of teams besides Baltimore, San Francisco, and Philadelphia finished better than them.
Atlanta, Carolina, and New Orleans in our division.
Also, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Detroit, NY Giants, Pitts, Tennessee, and Washington.
So, Buffalo, who only had 2 games in which they never led, also had 14 NFL teams with a better run to pass ratio then them.
June 20th, 2024 at 5:32 pm
Dude … ‘Defense & Special teams have been covering for our mid-tier offense since the start of 2022 season.’
I agree with you, but the question keeps coming down to ‘Why?’. Our 2 best years in about 2 decades were 2020 (11-5) & 2021 (13-4). Yes we had Brady both years, but we also had an outstanding OLine to protect him (D Smith, Marpet, Jensen, Cappa & Wirfs), 3 incredible WRs (Evans, Godwin, & Brown), an All-Pro TE (Gronk), a decent RB room (Fournette plus Rojo), a Top-10 ranked defense both years & an excellent punter & kicker. We had an experienced offensive HC who wore only 1 hat (HC), as well as a DC who was allowed to operate independently for the most part (for good reason).
IOW, almost no weaknesses. We lacked a little in terms of depth, but stayed relatively healthy as a team. And needless to say it paid off in 5 of 6 playoff wins.
And BTW, our pass defense ranked #21 BOTH years in terms of Passing Yardage Allowed. Interestingly we focused on stopping the run as Job-1 (Bowles’ trademark?), ranking #1 in 2020 and #3 in 2021 in Rushing Yardage Allowed. But as always there’s a reason for everything: opponents chose to pass against us rather than run against us (sneaky little devils), so yes, we gave up a lot of passing yards. Opponents passed against us 617 times in 2020 (giving us a #29 ranking for most passes against us), and 680 times in 2021 (worsening that to a #32 ranking). Taking that into consideration, our #21 ranking both years for Total Passing Yardage Allowed was actually quite good.
June 20th, 2024 at 8:52 pm
Just shows how bad theyve been in a terrible division.
June 20th, 2024 at 10:30 pm
Name calling is __________ ( fill in the blank). 🫨🤭
June 21st, 2024 at 11:40 pm
Say it right, the G.O.A.T. Tom Brady and Pro Bowl alternate Bakie Mayfield. Blame it on Todd “I Love timeouts more than points” Bowles, he’s the reason because he wants the Bucs to be must run first team. Baker as well as the Bucs probably would’ve done even better last year if he’d come down off of that laying dog mentalty.