Lack Of Targets To Mike Evans And Chris Godwin Spelled Out
November 20th, 2023
One target combined in first half.
It is absolutely criminal how few targets Chris Godwin gets. It’s to the point that Joe would rather see the Bucs trade Godwin in the offseason if they aren’t going to use him.
The thought of Godwin wearing another jersey makes Joe ill.
Godwin averages 7 1/2 targets per game. The number should be at 10.
And it wasn’t like Mike Evans was getting a bunch of targets yesterday early in the game. In the first half of the Bucs’ loss to the 49ers, Evans and Godwin, one of the best wide receiver duos in the game, had one target combined.
One!
A Congressional investigation should be launched!
Well, there was a reason for the lack of targets, per Todd Bowles quarterback Baker Mayfield. It was a combination of the Bucs didn’t have the ball much in the first half and the defensive coverages.
“It just happens when you have two studs like we do that [defenses] are going to try to take them away,” Mayfield said.
Bowles mentioned the lack of offensive snaps in the first half.
“We couldn’t stay on the field, No. 1,” Bowles said of the lack of targets for Evans and Godwin. “They stayed on the field a little bit longer in the second quarter than they normally did.
“We have to give them opportunities but at the same time, we weren’t gelling and getting everything together to get them opportunities. We did a better job of that in the second half.”
And that was because the Bucs had more offensive snaps in the second half.
Joe buys the notion that defenses are determined to take out Evans and Godwin, but let’s be real. Like NFL defenses didn’t do that in previous seasons? And yet they still got more targets.
Hey, why throw Evans and/or Godwin the ball when you can run Rachaad White up the middle for three yards or have Deven Thompkins run a jet sweep for two yards? That’s what this boils down to.
You can scheme Evans and Godwin open if the Bucs had the strong inclination to do so. Where there is a will, there is a way.
November 20th, 2023 at 5:45 am
Joe … ‘You can scheme Evans and Godwin open if the Bucs had the strong inclination to do so. Where there is a will, there is a way.’
Preach on Joe. Coaching was meh yesterday, especially in the 1st half when SF had it for 34 plays (17:16 TOP) to our 24 plays (12:44 TOP). That despite the fact that the Bucs ran 11 times to 10 passes (plus Baker took 2 sacks & fumbled once on a scramble). Still, despite Evans only having 1 target & Godwin none by halftime, the Bucs were only behind 13-7 at the half. And Baker did fine passing in that 1st half … 8-for-10 for 80 yards, hitting on 8 in a row after 2 incomplete deep attempts (to Evans & Jarrett).
And BTW, Mayfield was on fire with the short stuff … but only 1-for-8 on the deep passes. That’s a lot of waste that killed a lot of drives. Most of those deep passes weren’t catchable in any way, shape or form.
November 20th, 2023 at 5:50 am
Coaching has sucked since bowels took over. Countdown to his termination is in full swing.
November 20th, 2023 at 6:15 am
Stupid reasoning. Dang, that guy is thick.
November 20th, 2023 at 6:17 am
More bad explanations for bad management of players by a bad coach.
Remember Arians did this by resigning too late for the Glazers to hire a real coach.
Remove Arians from ROH.
FIRE BOWLES.
November 20th, 2023 at 6:21 am
Beyond the bad clock management, play calling, and the personnel management , the play designs are so frustrating. I watch other games both college and NFL where offensive coordinator’s play designs are getting their top targets open and sit here wondering why we can’t do the same thing.
November 20th, 2023 at 6:54 am
The next coach and OC will use him
November 20th, 2023 at 6:57 am
Oh so defenses don’t double Cheetah and Waddle and try to take them away? They must scheme them open or something…
November 20th, 2023 at 7:07 am
Give Todd a break. He is paving the way for his FIRING!!!!!!!!!!!!
November 20th, 2023 at 7:07 am
Stopped watching the games. Bowles isn’t as bad as live and dirk were but it’s still really bad. Can’t stomach it. I’ll keep checking in here to see when he gets fired
November 20th, 2023 at 7:13 am
i was thinking while watching the game…
why do they no longer throw those short out passes to godwin like they did when brady was here…
godwin alway gained like 10 yards on those as he battled forward like a running back…
those were some of his signature short pass plays…
are they worried about his knee, so they nixed the plays from the book…???
wiping the playbook clean of all the short godwin routes is one of the most illogical things this year…
baker is caught up in a lot of dink and dunk offense this year, yet one of the best for this is godwin, but they’ve literally cancelled the guy in the offense…
to me this is just wild
November 20th, 2023 at 7:15 am
The 49ers didn’t have a problem schemeing their star receivers open. What a croc of crap. Joe, it would be better to just rid ourselves of Bowles, then to trade Godwin.
November 20th, 2023 at 7:16 am
FIRE this ENTIRE coaching staff after the season. I want them to stay until then for the draft pics.
November 20th, 2023 at 7:21 am
Teams can focus on Evans and Godwins because they are not concernrd about the run game.
November 20th, 2023 at 7:26 am
things missing on offense…
-a pound the rock back
– a 3rd receiver
– a tight end to compliment otton
– interior linemen you label roadgraders
in the end, that’s a lot of needs
have those, and you might not have scored 14 yesterday…you might have scored 28
November 20th, 2023 at 7:36 am
So why couldn’t we take away Aiyuk and Deebo Samuel, if it’s that simple?
November 20th, 2023 at 7:45 am
In my opinion, Bucs are tanking. Have been since the bye.
November 20th, 2023 at 7:48 am
Agree, Chetah Hill is the number one receiver in the NFL, you don’t think other teams are moving coverages to him, but they put him in motion, move him around, actually a coach who can draw up plays.
Bowles/Canales have not got a clue how to run an offence that can score more than 14-18 points. Even in garbage time when the Niners were playing off the receivers, they couldn’t come up with plays to score in the end zone.
Pathetic offense, worse defense yesterday. Another “clunker” as Bowles says. Put the Bucs in any prime time game and Bowles produces a “clunker”.
November 20th, 2023 at 7:51 am
Have to wonder what this offense would’ve looked like had Monkin been hired? Bowles never hired a good O.C. when with the Jets, and so far Canales hasn’t been the next hot O.C. who’s bound to be a H.C.. Bowles has no coaching tree, and never will. Heck, he can’t even find a defensive coach on his staff he’s willing to give the title D.C., and let him call it. That’s because Bowles believes he’s the smartest guy in the room, and no one on his staff could possibly do it better then him. His asst coaches must hate him for holding them back. Hope the Glazers see through to what a failure Todd has always been as a HC, and fire him at seasons end. Him coming back would be a hard sell for fans.
November 20th, 2023 at 7:58 am
“Mayfield was only 1-for-8 on the deep passes.”
Sounds like a franchise quarterback to me! Cut Trask now without ever seeing what he can do with the starting offense in a game! Cut Wolford too! Baker be ‘da man!
November 20th, 2023 at 8:01 am
Coaching suckd.. been saying that all.season.. thr players have quit on him.. dean is a joke.. wierd how he gets hurt when he gets torched.. worst decision besides bringing bowles back.. we should have count down clock to end of season when bowles will be fired….wonder why Joe is calling him out and say do you realize you are gonna get fired ?
November 20th, 2023 at 8:06 am
@Bobby why would they tank? The division is awful.
November 20th, 2023 at 8:21 am
Until they get rid of Bowzo I do not care what happens with the Bucs. I just enjoy watching his unfolding fiasco knowing it is coming. The suspense is what blunder will he make next and how to rank his losses. This loss was pretty good one Not great but just good. He did not keep it close.
November 20th, 2023 at 8:22 am
The Texans loss was a much better loss than the Ninnies.
November 20th, 2023 at 8:33 am
49ers (and every other team) have no problems scheming their playmakers open.
November 20th, 2023 at 8:41 am
Might as well let Evans go. He deserves better.
November 20th, 2023 at 8:45 am
Last year, “Joe” placed all the blame on one person. Yet, doesn’t mention Canales’ name anywhere in this paragraph
Agendas agendas agendas
November 20th, 2023 at 8:48 am
Evans and Godwin aren’t the fastest or quickest guys. I thought they were trying to loosen things up for them by going to Jarrett, Thompkins and especially Palmer in first half. It worked, maybe.
Jet sweeps are for very explosive offenses or very desperate coaches.
November 20th, 2023 at 9:01 am
This imcompetent coach is going to ride his very average QB right into the unemployent line and as far as Im concerned nobody deserves it more.
November 20th, 2023 at 9:01 am
Ok let’s be real , Evans had the worst effort and route running in his career !! That was pathetic and Godwin was dam near with him . I am not a huge Baker believer but he played by far the best game I have ever seen by him . The heart of this team game to game just doesn’t show up across the board ( Bowles) . Baker wouldn’t blame you if you said F you put Trask in I’m not throwing to these undisciplined out of shape (on Bowles) cup cake ass modern era athlete . Joe , Evans was terrible and what is this crap after any 15 yard play coming off the field and now I see Godwin doing it . …… And D White, Holly sht is he terrible 75 percent of the time ………… Baker , Winfield , David , Vea , Whirfs ……. Somewhat the whole d line minus JTS ( Wow is he just terrible) ……. Thanks for the effort the rest of your team has No Heart !! JTS and White have now infected Evans and Godwin and for the love of football please put Otten in the weight room with the real man nfl supplements. …… Baker you played Well 👍👍👍
November 20th, 2023 at 9:07 am
Our head coach is terrible! I believe your man crush Baker gets some of the blame he is the one pulling the trigger. Isn’t that the issue he had with OBJ? He wasn’t getting him the ball.
November 20th, 2023 at 9:41 am
Whether they’re tanking, or the coaches lost the locker room, or Bowels does not have the ability to raise up the coaches under him, or all the above, I hope that the ownership knows that the way to move forward is not stay with Bowels. To be meh in a crappy division and possibly win it, does not put fans in the seats. Putting someone new as OC under a stubborn defensive head coach is a good way to ruin the OC. Don’t see this scenario working out. Flush Bowels!
November 20th, 2023 at 9:51 am
They didn’t have the ball much because they didn’t use said weapons. So I am guessing teams stop taking the weapons away in the second half…NOT
November 20th, 2023 at 10:02 am
This is Bowles fault remember who the offensive coordinator was last year. Byron Leftwich, remember the offensive not producing was his fault. Well now you all know Byron was not the problem. The head coach is hand cuffing th O.C. same issues as last year. No running game means no play action passing = receivers not being open. Mike Evans will be in the H.O.F. for sure I just don’t understand why he gives up on so many route. His down field running is less than average for someone of his talent. He has been doing this the last 3 years. Joe go look at the film. Please let this guy go somewhere if he doesn’t want to play here. Calls for Baker to be benched is lacking football knowledge. Calls for firing the H.C. now that’s great Football knowledge. Love the Bucs forever.
November 20th, 2023 at 10:19 am
Years ago, the New England Patriots had a quarterback sitting on the bench every game that nobody was excited about and nobody thought he would ever be a starter anywhere. Then Drew Bledsoe got injured and the Patriots HAD TO put in their perennial bench warmer and backup quarterback named Tom Brady. If Bledsoe never got injured, Brady never would’ve come off the bench to lead them to 6 Super Bowls. We have Mediocre Mayfield signed for one season. Why don’t they see what Kyle Trask, who also outplayed Mayfield in the preseason, GET ON THE FIELD AND SEE WHAT HE CAN DO BEFORE WASTING ANOTHER DRAFT PICK ON ANOTHER “MAYBE”???????
November 20th, 2023 at 11:14 am
So by that logic, why didn’t the Bucs scheme to take Aiyuk away from the 49ers? He’s been by far their best reciever this season.
Matter of fact, who did the Bucs scheme to take away yesterday? Purdy threw for 333 and averaged almost 16 yards per completion and he only had to complete passes to four different players to reach that number.
Their QB had a perfect passer rating against our defensive guru head coach. They could do whatever they wanted offensively in the passing game versus our high dollar CB combo and defensive minded head coach. What is there to hang our hat on as a franchise with this coaching regime?
It’s not the players, it really isn’t. Every defensive player that this team has allowed to walk in free agency over the last two or three years has done well in their next stop, yet the players that this team has chosen to resign have stalled in development under this coach and his staff. Bowles is an amazingly slow scheme adjuster. Either the game moves too fast for him, or he’s too stubborn to make changes. Either way, it’s a loosing strategy.
November 20th, 2023 at 11:36 am
Evans has given up-do not know why and on a contract year.
November 20th, 2023 at 11:38 am
How do you beat an opponent by letting them dictate your plays?
I suspect what this really means is we don’t trust the QB to throw to anybody but wide open receivers so we throw to the guys they leave open who drop more than they catch.
Not a winning formula.
November 20th, 2023 at 11:44 am
Baker is partially the problem here. He seems to have tunnel vision and misses a lot of open receivers during plays.
The coaches still deserve to bulk of the derision because they are not making the right adjustments to get people open.
November 20th, 2023 at 11:59 am
DR nailed it. Those deep passes from Mayfield yesterday were terrible. Not even close to his target most of the time.
November 20th, 2023 at 12:01 pm
Seattle Buc Says:
November 20th, 2023 at 7:58 am
Cut Trask now without ever seeing what he can do
——–
They would have but thats impossible since they already saw – for three years now.
November 20th, 2023 at 12:32 pm
Bowles mule headed ways will show him right out the door as it should good riddance
November 20th, 2023 at 12:33 pm
^^^ Tony Marks conveniently leaves out ALL of what I wrote because he cannot refute it.
Seattle Buc: “Cut Trask now without ever seeing what he can do with the starting offense in a game!”
Tony Marks: “Cut Trask now without ever seeing what he can do”
Not only is Tony Marks Baker’s agent, he must be a liar, er, lawyer, too!
November 20th, 2023 at 12:56 pm
Seattle Buc Says:
November 20th, 2023 at 12:33 pm
^^^ Tony Marks conveniently leaves out ALL of what I wrote because he cannot refute it.
You are in a day dream kid . I have refuted everything you have ever argued MULTIPL E times. Trask has played with starters for a game. Preseason games ARE games and he did play with the starters of that game . He lost the QB competition based on that.
keep crying your river. it hasn’t changed your guy eating pine with his rear and it wont start now. I understand the cult of Kyle is upset that two TD dropped passes falled their argument for replacing Baker – but Baker foiled you once again!!!
Maybe next game Kyl ewill be able to come in and take a knee and you at home can take a knee with him or whatever rituals your cult practices.
November 20th, 2023 at 1:00 pm
Check out how open the WRs and TE we’re for San Fran. You can’t compare how open they were in comparison to the 50/50 balls Baker had to toss up. I admit, Baker is not hitting the long ball as he did in the past for Cleveland. But he used to be very accurate on those. Don’t believe me? Check Baker out on YouTube. He grew A LOT of bombs for TDs. Also, if his TD passes weren’t dropped so often, Baker could have 19/20 TDs on the year so far (including two in the last two games). And don’t worry, when Baker finishes in the Top 10 in QB ratings and if he isn’t resigned, you guys can enjoy your new low round rookie QB and the fact that Trask will be traded and on the bench, again.
November 20th, 2023 at 1:51 pm
The scheme needs to be adjusted. Need more slants and crossing routes over the middle. Baker is better at throwing to an open space. He seems to have accuracy issues with the longer throws- which stinks because its been a while since we have seen Evans get loose past the defender. This offense wants to use the entire field, but it definitely is not working when SF turns right around and schemes Kittle wide open in the flat. Its growing pains, but people are running out of time.
November 20th, 2023 at 1:57 pm
Stan Says … ‘This is Bowles fault remember who the offensive coordinator was last year. Byron Leftwich, remember the offensive not producing was his fault. Well now you all know Byron was not the problem. The head coach is hand cuffing the O.C. same issues as last year.’
Actually Leftwich was the problem, and so is Canales at this point. 2022 & 2023 were 2 very different offensive philosophies. Bucs ran on only 33.3% of our 1159 plays last year, lowest in the NFL. Meaning that we attempted to pass on 66.7% of our plays, highest in the league (733 pass attempts set a new NFL record). The result? An 8-9 record, with our offense scoring only 313 points (18.4 PPG), and earning a #25 ranking … with Tom Brady at the helm.
This season, thus far at least, we’re running more … on 40.1% of our plays. Meaning that we’re attempting to pass on basically 60% of our plays. The result? A 4-6 record thus far, with our offense scoring 192 point (19.2 PPG), and earning us a #23 ranking … with Baker Mayfield at the helm.
The result’s basically the same, despite 2 different OCs with 2 different philosophies, and 2 different starting QBs. Reality IMO is that this is an offense that’s built around too much mediocre talent, with PERFORMANCE being the measure of mediocrity. We are who our record says we are.
Todd Bowles isn’t interfering with our offense; he’s got his hands full trying to keep this mediocre-performing defense afloat. Canales is trying to mirror Seattle’s offensive philosophy, and it’s not working out very well. With their much more experienced coaching staff, Seattle’s only scoring 21.6 PPG for a #16 ranking (middle-of-the-pack) right now. Wait until they play San Fran in 2 of their next 3 games.
Canales needs to get a LOT more creative if we’re to have a winning season. What I can’t figure out for the life of me is why there’s been zero mention of either Bruce Arians or Tom Moore being used as his mentors since he’s been here. Two pretty good football minds. Something’s wrong in Bucsville.
November 20th, 2023 at 3:44 pm
I’ve never seen so many clueless people. Evans and Godwin are getting open regularly. Baker isn’t making the throws, or, half the time he does, it’s a poor pass that they can’t rope in. The deep post to Evans was the best example. Wide open running in front of the goal line, and Baker throws 5 feet over his head and a couple yards behind him. Just so much awesomeness right there. This isn’t a problem with our receivers, nor the passing routes being schemed up. Just go look at endzone and all-22 views and you’ll see how often we have receivers open. It’s criminal we’re not moving the ball more consistently. But look who’s chucking it. Mr. Sand Lot.
November 20th, 2023 at 9:05 pm
“We couldn’t stay on the field, No. 1,” Bowles said of the lack of targets for Evans and Godwin.
——–
Maybe you could stay on the field if you DID throw the ball to them.
Just what a clueless loser. I really dislike him more and more by the week.
November 21st, 2023 at 2:38 am
Our star Wrs are on coast.
You cant throw to them, if they arent open.
And neither of them was trying to get open.
They are playing not to get hurt.
November 21st, 2023 at 11:21 am
Falconrap,
you aren’t wrong, Baker’s deep ball accuracy has been off this season which is weird because that’s what he was best at in Cleveland.
That being said, for every deep Baker miss, I can show you a receiver or TE dropping an easy pass or Evans running a lazy route after his cut, 5-10yards in a run. Baker isn’t playing lights out but he has created enough plays and extended enough drives to give the team a chance at winning but everytime we have a shot, someone, somewhere will have a cricital drop, fumble, penalty. This screams lack of discipline and willpower whcih is entirely on thr coaching staff. You remove just 50% of the stupid mistakes or lazy play thise season and we are likely 6-4.
Baker has shown he is at least a mid-tier starter in the league and still carries a good upside
November 21st, 2023 at 11:44 am
It’s because Baker Mayfield can’t throw a deep ball and the fact is like I say they’re playing offense like our quarterback can throw two yards at a time he’s got what 180 of his yards was off of throws behind the line of scrimmage and all these people are praising him like he’s the greatest quarterback in the world I just don’t see what these people see in him
November 23rd, 2023 at 2:01 pm
Yea, I miss the Bruce Arians “no risk x no biscuit” offense. That’s all I have to add.