Bucs’ Passing Data Makes Running Late Seem More Baffling
October 12th, 2024
“Let me win it, Coach!”
Joe is a huge believer in getting the ball into the hands of your best players in crunch time.
Last week the Bucs demonstrated they don’t believe in that — and it blew up in their faces in a galling choke job in Atlanta.
This past week, while in the safe harbor known as New Orleans, the Bucs seemed to double down on allowing lesser, unproven players win games for them, per coaches’ comments in news conferences.
Well, Joe ran across data that highlights running the ball late was downright dumb. It’s called successful plays.
A “successful” play is defined as when an offense gets 40 percent of the yards needed to move the chains on first down, 60 percent on second down or 100 percent on third and fourth downs.
And it seems the Bucs’ passing game is rather good. Who knew?
So documents Rich Hribar of Sharp Football Analysis documents that Tampa Bay is third in the NFL with a 50.9% success rate on passing plays.
So why is that? Well, 2024 Pro Bowl MVP Baker Mayfield is having a strong season. Then you have a Hall of Fame receiver in Mike Evans. Along with Evans, the Bucs also have a Pro Bowl receiver in Chris Godwin, who is as clutch as they come.
Why wouldn’t you want the ball in those guys’ hands with the game on the line?
No, Joe can’t figure it out either.
October 12th, 2024 at 12:31 am
What is the dynamic at the press conferences like? Would Coen ever be asked this question at a press conference or offline?
October 12th, 2024 at 12:55 am
Todd.
October 12th, 2024 at 1:06 am
Yeah. I would be one of those reporters they disliked and probably wouldn’t call on if I raised my hand. But somehow I would ask a hard question as soon as I could butt in. The soft questions all of these reporters ask (What do you think of X player?) make me hardly want to listen to the conferences. I want someone to ask the question in this article, for one.
October 12th, 2024 at 1:38 am
It’s easy to criticize the results when the outcome has already been determined. If the Bucs try and pass the ball at the end to Mike or Chris and the results were sacks or incompletions, then the talking points this week would have been why didn’t they run the ball and use the clock. A questionable holding penalty and a costly fumble changes the dynamics of this game at the end. But lost in the argument of questionable play calls, is the simple fact that the defense was terrible. They gave up 500 yards passing, allowed the Falcons to drive for the game tying FG, followed by the game winning TD. When your offense scores 30, you should win.
October 12th, 2024 at 1:46 am
You can thank turd Bowles for that one. No offensive coordinator comes up with the idea of not throwing a single forward pass in crunch time to win a game especially when you have guys like Godwin and Evans.
October 12th, 2024 at 2:24 am
It’s called “Todd’s ball”!!!
October 12th, 2024 at 2:33 am
No Jackson, this thread is about when we throw, we roll n win!!! N we all kniw its Todd who is hogtying us n code turtle calling 2
Wish they would ask question, but
Even better, woth xtra guys on defense back this week n and offense! Yay! Maybe Baker can throw even more n longer awesome pass pkays n completions by our playmakers n yahoo! We win by throwing(and sme runs) without force runs that dont work in clutch times
GO BAKE GO BUCS WIN!!! THROW
October 12th, 2024 at 2:35 am
P.s., Jackson, u R right, our defense stunk like crazy last week but by throwing , we win anyway
October 12th, 2024 at 3:32 am
Y’all can’t think back for more than one week, right? When coen called a pass play to Evans to close out the lions game and it got deflected, everyone of you was complaining about “why in the world you would throw it in that situation, everybody knows you gotta run in this situation” and now that they did, y’all are complaining that you “gotta get the ball to your best weapons”. Decide wtf you want and stop complaining about everything.
Little bit different throwing short to Evans on 3rd-and-6 at your own 10 yard line after two Rachaad White runs put them in that situation. C’mon, now. What the Bucs didn’t learn that handing off on first down to White to close a game is a bad bet.–Joe
October 12th, 2024 at 4:50 am
An opponent is going to hit you where you are weakest. Everyone knows where that is with us. Even though we may have Winfield and Kancey back it’ll take a game or two for them to get their feels back. Rattler can fling it so I wouldn’t be surprised if the Saints hung some points on us this weekend. The trick is for us to score more points than them. Nothing wrong with 34 – 28. It’ll get better as the defense gets healthier and better but for now we better score more than 30 points per game and we should. We’ve got alot invested in this offense and it’s time to let the dogs out.
October 12th, 2024 at 5:19 am
I agree more and more. Were wasting Evans and Godwin. Did that with Canales too. Coincidence?
October 12th, 2024 at 6:40 am
Asking the right questions doesn’t get the answers. Coach speak is famous for evasion. Coen won’t throw Todd under the bus and Todd will have the usual excuses. The calls at the end weren’t necessarily the problem. It was the whole second half of “protecting” the lead like always. No killer instinct. Play it safe Todd. Outsmarted himself again. Snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. He learned nothing from Arians and will pay the price with his job. Very unfortunate for the team. The injuries are a contributing factor to the safe mentality. They just reinforce his already overwhelming conservative nature. Hopefully the team can overcome the shortcomings. Go Bucs. Beat the slime Saints.
October 12th, 2024 at 7:57 am
People listen up. Clueless Todd is a TRASH coach. It’s a simple as that. He doesn’t look at any data. It couldn’t be more obvious. FIRE TODD BOWLES!
October 12th, 2024 at 8:05 am
It’s really hard for me to blame our offense when we scored 30 points and the defense gave up more than 500 yards….
October 12th, 2024 at 8:47 am
Just another Bowles Blunder.
October 12th, 2024 at 9:43 am
Bowles offensive philosophy bothers me because he was on a team that had three 1000 yard recievers!
Let them EAT!
October 12th, 2024 at 12:40 pm
I’ve watched the last half several times since the gutpunch of watching it live.
Coen did what he was supposed to do. You guys whould all be losing your minds if he’d called passes, had incompletions, and stopped the clock. Everyone would be saying we should be able to run the damn ball to close out games like good teams do.
It didn’t work out but not because of some “code turtle” crap. That’s Joe pulling a ” code gossip” or “code maybe”.
October 12th, 2024 at 2:02 pm
Poor coaching.. Todd bowles always gets outcoached.
October 12th, 2024 at 5:47 pm
Had we passed the ball but had an incompletion then we’d kill Bowles for not running time off the clock!
I have to agree that watching the game it felt like a quick screen to Godwin on 1st or 2nd down would’ve been a much better call.
Baker was hot but we seemed to get away from the passing game for the entire 2nd half.
It’s become very clear he is VERY POOR at end of game and that’s where coaches really earn their keep! I have really put one foot off the Bowles support train!
Go Bucs! Fire the Cannons!