Bucs Made Another Defense Look Exceptional
October 27th, 2025
Joe has serious concerns about the Bucs offense, especially the run game.
For two consecutive games, the Bucs made an opponent’s defense look far better than it really is.
Consider the following facts:
The Bucs had 212 yards of total offense yesterday in New Orleans. The last time the Saints defense had allowed less than 300 yards was 276 yards in Week 1 when hosting Arizona. In the six games prior to facing the Bucs, the Saints allowed an average of 345 yards per game.
Why couldn’t the Bucs move the ball?
Tampa Bay had two good drives out of 10 yesterday. Eight poor drives combined to total 38 yards.
Currently, the Bucs rank 28th in the NFL in yards per carry. Despite Tristan Wirfs returning healthy and the left side of the line normalizing, the Bucs’ run game has gone cold.
As is often said, a good running games can get a yard when it needs one — when everyone knows a run is coming. The Bucs failed at that five times yesterday at the 1 yard line.
A week earlier at the Lions, Detroit had its second-best defensive game of the season against Tampa Bay.
Entering October, the Bucs had a 12-game streak rushing for 100 yards or more. That was unmatched in the NFL. Now, over the past four games, the Bucs have averaged about 73 yards rushing per game. That coincides with losing Bucky Irving, who has missed the past four games.
Joe gets that the Bucs have injuries. But their offense’s struggles against the slimy Saints yesterday hit Joe’s level of disturbing.
Even mighty left tackle Tristan Wirfs looked mortal, getting beat by Chase Young and committing penalties.
As Todd Bowles said today, and Buccaneers Ring of Honor general manager Jason Licht did yesterday, the bye comes at a perfect and necessary time.
October 27th, 2025 at 4:31 pm
Over the past 2-3 games, the run game has looked as inept as Byron Leftwich’s vaunted “up the middle for 1.5 yards every first down” approach. Not sure if it’s just a personnel issue becaise of injuries or if we lost all of our plays from last year, but they need to get this fixed over the bye. You cannot be one dimensional and win against good teams.
October 27th, 2025 at 4:34 pm
I know we love white as a wr catching passes out of the backfield, but as a running back we need to upgrade in the offseason. Can’t pay everyone, and the teams rushing average when Bucky is not on the field proves my point.
October 27th, 2025 at 4:35 pm
The scheme looks so uncreative. Appears luke the same 4 or 5 plays over and over. Im probably wrong but that’s what it looks like.
October 27th, 2025 at 4:36 pm
The injured is ridiculously bad
No Bucky
October 27th, 2025 at 4:36 pm
Getting Bucky back + continuity on the line should help a lot. We know what they are all capable of.
October 27th, 2025 at 4:40 pm
White is decent but Bucky is exceptional as a runner. We seemed to be in 2nd and 8 all day. No respect for the wide receivers, so lots of dudes in the box.
October 27th, 2025 at 4:41 pm
The head coach is responsible and accountable for the offense, too.
What are you going to do, Coach?
October 27th, 2025 at 4:45 pm
My best guess is Wirfs is hurt
October 27th, 2025 at 4:47 pm
Take a chill pill Joe, we are hurt and will get better IF we get healthier on offense (especially at RT and RB)… I know it’s frustrating but it is no coincidence that those rushing numbers stack up with Bucky’s injury timeline. This bye week is coming at an absolute beautiful time, this team needs a breather and an ice bath… Let’s look at the positive and that is we are 6-2 heading into the bye with our only two loses coming from LEGIT Superbowl contenders. If I recall there was a season they said we couldn’t beat teams with a winning record (which we have) and we didn’t have a real chance if we made it into the playoffs. The rest of that story is Bucs Glorious History.
October 27th, 2025 at 4:54 pm
the offense scored ZERO in the first half. lets hear from the apology crew, someone must have a good excuse up their sleeve.
they didnt even move the sticks enough to get a field goal against the pathetic saints in a half of football. if it wasnt for nelly getting a td would the bucs have gone in to the half down 0-3?
if that isnt a 5 alarm fire for the coaching staff i dont know what is.
October 27th, 2025 at 4:54 pm
I worry wirfs will never be the same. Hopefully that’s not the case. Besides that we have a couple weeks to self scout and figure out some tweaks. Grizz needs to sit down with Tom Moore.
Off topic, but haven’t seen anyone mention the play where parish was blatantly held in the end zone on a blitz. Would have resulted in a safety I believe. I guess jus over shadowed by other bad calls, but felt it was worth mentioning
October 27th, 2025 at 4:56 pm
Need to get goedeke and haggard back before the last 4-5 games so they can start developing comfort with each other for the playoffs.
It would be nice to get any sort of update on that and Mcmillian.
I’m assuming that Bucky hits the ground running like he never left when he’s back.
October 27th, 2025 at 4:58 pm
Why didn’t we give the rock to Vita ? Let him pound it in there, I guarantee we would have gotten that yard and TD !!
Go Bucs !!
October 27th, 2025 at 5:03 pm
Grizz is struggling
O line is injured
WRs are injured
Bucky is injured
That all spells poor offensive play.
October 27th, 2025 at 5:04 pm
I saw Bucky in a sling on IG doesn’t look like he will be back and you notice he hasn’t been traveling with the team
October 27th, 2025 at 5:09 pm
AuquaJoke and others throwing in the towel (aka constant idiotic ‘fire the coaches rant’), but why can’t they see how injuries have taken a major toll on this offense? Key players have been lost, hurt, or playing hurt. I believe any OC would struggle dealing with this kind of injury bug scenario, much less a newbie.
You knee-jerkers need to take a chill pill.
October 27th, 2025 at 5:15 pm
Egbuka is definitely hurt. Nursing that hamstring look like he’s going about 75%. Play calls lacking any imagination or element of surprise.
October 27th, 2025 at 5:17 pm
Don’t we have Bruce Arians on the payroll? I thought I remembered seeing stories about trading his rights earlier in the offseason. If so, why hasn’t he been brought in to maybe give some insight?
October 27th, 2025 at 5:19 pm
It was the Saints first divisional game of the season. They are usually tighter contests, since they know each other so well. Maybe that’s why Joe, instead of fishing for reasons why the Bucs’ offense sucks.
October 27th, 2025 at 5:25 pm
I think Wirfs is injured still or again. Since he has been in the league I have never seen him struggle so much against one player. Chase Young isn’t exactly Lawrence Taylor but he beat Wirfs on more than one occasion with a simple speed rush. That is something Wirfs normally smothers. Out of all the struggles of the offense yesterday that is most disturbing. He protect Bakers blind side and it is extremely unsettling.
October 27th, 2025 at 5:27 pm
I miss Coen.
October 27th, 2025 at 5:28 pm
OC is green as pond scum
October 27th, 2025 at 5:28 pm
Eight drives totaled 38 yards? Really. Really? Really!! I’d suggest the problem starts with Baker and the OLine. Somebody needs to jump dead in the middle of their a$$es. They have 2 weeks to pull their heads out. Better have a better attitude. It’s gotta be inordinately difficult coaching athletes that make that many million dollars a year. But somehow Bowles seems to keep their attention. I’m betting the OLine and QB look better in 2 weeks. No excuse for poor play.
October 27th, 2025 at 5:34 pm
Smh this bs I need Bucky on the field. He’s vision and cutting ability is missed. No peripheral vision. There’s difference. Barkley, cooks, Taylor. White doesn’t have that. We don’t have quick twitch athletes on offense never have. Catch quick slant take it to the house. This why ya’ll are so excited about Tez Buccaneers fans are not used to that.
October 27th, 2025 at 5:38 pm
All here is must be hurt, then get off my field. I’m tired hearing hurt.
Act like you want to do something soft assess,see Ronnie Lott case closed
October 27th, 2025 at 5:42 pm
Baker is playing hurt. I saw him limping yesterday. He took a hit to the leg or knee last week on a late hit that was never called. He was mad at the ref’s about it. The week before he made a slide on the run for first down and came up gimpy. He has been under constant pressure the past 2 games.
October 27th, 2025 at 5:46 pm
Right now, this isn’t a Superbowl contender. The record says it is. The talent at receiver and running back doesn’t. Teams are rolling.c9verage to Egbuka. The line can’t hold up for Baker to get to get through his reads. And Rashad is great….but he isn’t Bucky. I cannot believe the damned defense is coming on now….thank god. Could we please get both D and O 9n the field with the same intensity in the same game?
Evans absence is crippling. And IF Godwin comes back teams won’t be too worried about him. Tez is great, but he’s a 3.or.4 catch guy. Ebuka doesn’t have the instincts yet to be the #1 and fight double coverage.
October 27th, 2025 at 5:56 pm
As of right now, Grizzard looks like trash that we should dump at the end of the season.
Maybe he’ll improve, though. We’ll see.
October 27th, 2025 at 6:02 pm
6-2 and we suck ,,, pretty impressive once we start clicking and get some bodies back
October 27th, 2025 at 6:03 pm
Maybe this will tamper the “Bucs RB room is the envy of the league” phrase the local media throws out every chance they get. White and Tucker have shown they are not starter-level, much less elite.
October 27th, 2025 at 6:10 pm
Bucky is averaging 3.3 ypc this season. The Oline is the issue.
October 27th, 2025 at 6:12 pm
White is averaging 3.7 ypc this season. Both are below last years avg.
October 27th, 2025 at 6:17 pm
they botched wirfs injury then rushed him back, the game goedeke was injured he had the injury during the week and they rushed him back, godwin came back and should have had a snap count. bucs are causing some of these major issues
October 27th, 2025 at 6:18 pm
Any trade rumors? Rams just picked up a CB for a bag of skittles.
Jason Licht. The RoH GM, sitting on his thumbs again?
October 27th, 2025 at 6:24 pm
‘Joe has serious concerns about the Bucs offense, especially the run game. Over the past four games, the Bucs have averaged about 73 yards rushing per game. That coincides with losing Bucky Irving, who has missed the past four games.’
I’m taking it that your key point is that losing Bucky is the biggest problem. It should follow I guess that when we get him back, things will look a lot brighter & our running game will get back on-track. I’m not sure that’s the epicenter of our problems.
I think Baker is the key. He ran 22 times for 158 yards, producing 11 first downs, in the first 6 games. These last 2 games he’s run ZERO times for ZERO yards. I submit there’s a reason: he’s hurt, and it’s impacting his play. These last 2 games our total yardage (251 & 212 yds) has been the 2 lowest of our season. Our first downs are also the lowest, as are our running yardage. And to go with that, we’ve had 3 giveaways in our last 2 games (only 2 giveaways total in the other 6 games this season, both of those in our 1st loss).
The BYE comes at the perfect time. Baker needs to heal up, and HOPEFULLY 2 weeks is enough time. But if it’s not, I’d be in total agreement with plugging in Teddy Bridgewater for a game or two. We MIGHT lose them, but it’d be worth it to get Baker back to 100%. We’re in a great position halfway through the season with a 6-2 record, but we’ve gotta get healthy.
October 27th, 2025 at 6:24 pm
Lol @aqua 🤣
Bro, you have been so wrong and so loud about it for so long.
I thought the coach was doing too much by being HC and DC (Which btw, if you haven’t noticed, is pretty widespread in the league) and now you think he needs to micromanage the offense?
I’m sure Todd IS coaching the coaches dummy. Hard to believe you’re still trying to talk smack about our HC but I guess it, sadly, gives purpose to your life 😞
Let’s hope the offense looks significantly better after the bye and as the season progresses. Thank God for the bye and for the W against the saints in spite of our lack of effective offense.
October 27th, 2025 at 6:37 pm
Baking with Grizz … ‘Bucky is averaging 3.3 ypc this season. The Oline is the issue.’
B-I-N-G-O! Every RB looks better running behind a good OLine. Ours has been in turmoil since Day 1 of this 2025 season.
Bucky ran behind probably the best OLine we’ve had in many years last season, and averaged 5.4 YPC. This season our OLine has been akin to musical chairs & Bucky is averaging 3.3 YPC. Is there a relationship there? Pretty good chance … yes.
Rachaad averaged 3.7 YPC in 2022 and 3.6 YPC in 2023. Our Oline in both years was OK, but not exceptional. Our OLine gelled beautifully in 2024, and Rachaad’s rushing average ballooned to 4.3 YPC. But our makeshift OLine this year is back to just OK, and Rachaad’s rushing average is back down to 3.7 YPC. Coincidence? Probably not.
Sean Tucker is another interesting example though. Running behind our studly OLine last year, he averaged 6.2 YPC, even better than Bucky. This season? He’s down at 3.3 YPC just like Bucky is. Coincidence? Sure, we’ll go with that.
Three RBs … all doing worse. What do they have in common? Ya, a new OC (and that might be a small part of it). But the bigger part is the OLine. If we can’t fix that, no need to worry about competing for a Super Bowl.
October 27th, 2025 at 6:38 pm
saints just extra motivated vs bucs. It means the whole world to them beating us.
October 27th, 2025 at 6:39 pm
it’s a combination of everything
October 27th, 2025 at 6:50 pm
White has proven he’s not the workhorse kind of RB. He gets injured from his hard hitting style of running. Too many snaps, and he’s got nothing in the tank for the end of the game. Solid power back when paired with a work horse like Bucky (yet to be proven imo).
RB has been a big issue the past two games. White played basically every snap vs the lion, Tucker got maybe 2 snaps.
They played Tucker a bit more vs the saints, but for some reason they don’t trust him enough to take the majority of the snaps.
To me, that’s the issue. Predictable when every run play involves white.
October 27th, 2025 at 6:56 pm
Any given sunday. Same reason why a top ranked pass defense in ATL made Tua look like prime Drew Brees.
October 27th, 2025 at 7:09 pm
I can tell you at least over 90% of the time, WHEN they are going to run the ball. Also, WHERE they are going to run-it to. 100% during yesterday’s first-half. Now, IF “I” can tell you ‘WHEN AND WHERE’ they’re going to run the ball… THEN, YOU KNOW “Opponents” CAN, TOO!!! The “Big-Tell” is Otten (or whomever the TE in the game is). When, he takes about 3-4 STEPS ‘in-motion’ and stands there (like, pitter-pattering) running in place… THAT’S WHERE they are running-it. EVERY. DAMN. TIME. I’ve noticed it over several games now, and had made it a ‘point of emphasis’ for yesterday! And, sure enough… It was 💯% in the first-half. They changed-it up ‘a little bit’ LoL and only did it about 90% of the time, during the second-half. Once, maybe twice, they used Tez instead of Otten or Durham. A couple of other times, they used nobody. Another thing I noticed, is that Otten was also ‘tipping his hand’ a few-times, being lazy. And, at the goal-line, EVERY SINGLE TIME, the formation was ‘TIGHT’ (zero eye-candy, nothing)… 💯 They’re ‘RUNNING-IT’ every-time. When the ‘one-time’ they did come-out more in a spread, I was like… “YES, FINALLY. Good God.” BUT, what’d they do… That was when they ran that HORRIBLE back endzone pass to Shep. IF, you’re gonna throw-it there, to THAT (sub 6’0”) WR… That pass HAS TO BE ‘low’ and to the front pile-on. HAS TO. Then they go “TIGHT” AGAIN, to of course, RUN-IT right up the gut… AGAIN. I ‘thought’ this Grizz-Kid was some sort of “Ivy Leaguer!?” But, HE’s continuously, intent on trying to jam a square peg through a ROUND HOLE!? Just. Spread. The. Damn. FIELD. Annnnd, MUST THEY ‘have to’ run the damn play-clock down 35-39 SECONDS every damn time!? It’s straight-up Insanity. Spread the field. Short routes. Short WR’s. Pre-snap motion. Eye-candy. Timing. Middle-of-the-field. YAC. Get-it outta Bake’s hands FAST. And, Let’s Go. RYTHYM. It should not be THIS difficult. He’s got receivers running up the sidelines, and both are just STANDING THERE, at their SPOTS. While, Baker’s in the pocket under such heavy pressure, that he couldn’t get-it all the way over there, even IF HE TRIED… I mean, WHAT are we doin!? It’s all just soooo slow and predictable. Makes ZERO Sense. This is Dave Canales all over again. Canales 2.0. It’s NOT where you want your offense to be. I’ve been VERY CONCERNED with RedZone Offense TD% since WEEK-2. But, after THAT DISPLAY they put on this past Sunday… We’ll, Damn. We were TOP-5 in the league last season. I’m assuming we’re prob Bottom-5 now!? There’s NO EXCUSE for that huge of a drop-off. This was only supposed to be a three-sentence comment, too LoL. Good Lord. It is Uggggglyyyyy. Just FIX-IT. Please. Get-It Together, Guys!!!!
October 27th, 2025 at 7:12 pm
Considering the injuries, no Bucky, Godwin, Evans, Goedecke or Mauch for most of the season they’re still slightly above average offensively and they have played against a lot of good defenses so far. Egbuka has replaced what Godwin contributed last year so that’s helped. Losing Cohen probably makes a little bit of difference. But when you consider where the Jaguars are offensively this year so far maybe his loss is not the reason. The Jags running game is much improved this year but their passing game still sucks. So getting Bucky, Goedeke and Godwin back healthy should make a big difference. If the defense continues to play well also, this should end up being a more successful season than the last 2.
October 27th, 2025 at 7:13 pm
The last 3
October 27th, 2025 at 7:19 pm
Joe you were the one calling Griz genious and how the offense is humming and how we are better than what we would have been with “the snake” Coen. Now you are saying you are concerned?????
October 27th, 2025 at 7:19 pm
They could not push their Tush.
October 27th, 2025 at 7:25 pm
The defense is just standing there, and waiting… While, WE just kill the play-clock all the way down to sub 5-seconds left. They’re waiting on OTTEN. They KNOW if they see HIM go ‘in motion’ and hover over whichever O-Lineman, he does… Then, THEY KNOW It’s A ‘RUN’ and that it’s going RIGHT THERE. IF, Otten Doesn’t Go In Motion… THEN, It’s A PASS. I still can’t understand WHY it takes us 34-39 SECONDS to get a damn play OFF, every damn time. HARD to get into any kind of RHYTHM like that, and when you are too PREDICTABLE as hell.
October 27th, 2025 at 7:35 pm
Cody Mauch
October 27th, 2025 at 7:43 pm
PLEASE. “A Little Difference!?” It’s because, Trevor Lawrence is an INCOMPETENT Quarterback, Oscar. One of THE WORST in the league. Coen has STILL made him ‘look’ at least, HALF-competent. We are looking A LOT more Canales 2.0. It’s just not the same thing. How many ‘offensive’ TD’s have we even SCORED in the last 2-full GAMES… Is it even, TWO!? It wasn’t much better in our first 3.5 games either, when you take away those 2-BIG TD’s from EE… Just a BUNCHA FG’s. It’s a KILLER. We went from Top-5 to Bottom-5 in REDZONE TD%. Can’t sustain drives or move the ball (especially during the first 2+quarters). Slow. Boring. No Eye-Candy. No Misdirection. No keeping defenses off-balanced and guessing. No rhythm. Too Predictable. We actually, had ‘opening-drive’ TD’s under Cohen. You CAN’T Compare The Two. THIS IS Canales all over again.
October 27th, 2025 at 7:43 pm
They keep saying it’s the same O, but it really isn’t. The terminology might be the substantially similar , but the formations, motions and routes look/feel totally different. I’d argue it more akin to Canales’ approach vs Cohen’s.
Liam was exceptional at scheming players open and taking advantages of matchups in the short to intermediate areas. Quick, efficient throws and screens with the receiver on the move. Let the playmaker make plays.
Grizz’s O is nowhere near that efficient and it’s too damn easy to figure out where the ball is going- every-single-time.
October 27th, 2025 at 7:45 pm
Folks blaming Bowles for the offense lol…
What else is new lol…
Bowles,Grizz and the oline coach will get it fixed…
That will come with personnel and their health….
6-2!!!
GO BUCS
October 27th, 2025 at 7:54 pm
MelvinJr, favor please? Maybe you could start your novels with a summary to save us a few hours of reading? Thanks!
October 27th, 2025 at 7:57 pm
one word, Bucky!.
October 27th, 2025 at 7:58 pm
Let’s be honest here…..what other team would field a good offense with:
3 of their 4 top WRs out
Starting RB out
2 starting Olinemen out
Rookie Coordinator
Nobody
October 27th, 2025 at 7:58 pm
Tough to run when no one respects your receivers and your QB is missing throws
October 27th, 2025 at 8:04 pm
I don’t read novels here It’s usually people that think they are experts. They want everyone else to think so too. Especially when they think they know more then NFL professional coaches do.
October 27th, 2025 at 8:12 pm
Sometimes I watch football games concurrently. Tonight I’m watching football and baseball concurrently. Dodgers. Or Chiefs? …Both!
October 27th, 2025 at 8:15 pm
Weren’t we 7-5!when we started rolling to the SB
October 27th, 2025 at 8:16 pm
I believe the lack of a running game is due to a combination of an injured offensive line and the scheme under Grizzard. Cohen is definitely missed as he had our running game cooking last year.
October 27th, 2025 at 8:36 pm
For two straight games, the offensive line has not looked good. They are not getting any push, opening holes and Baker has been very rushed.
I said it when Wirfs was first coming back and I’ll say it again. They should keep the lineup that was doing better – Barton at LT, Jordan at RG, Bredeson at Center – and put Wirfs at his original RT position. Put whomever at RG and you have a more solid line than what they are working with now (sorry Chralie, I know you are doing better than most people thought you would but you are no Tristan Wirfs).
October 27th, 2025 at 8:41 pm
No Bucky.. no Ko Kieft. The enforcer.
HC Grover, we need to develop the Samoan Slam..
October 27th, 2025 at 8:53 pm
“MelvinJr, favor please? Maybe you could start your novels with a summary to save us a few hours of reading?”
I don’t even bother when I see that may words crammed into the world’s longest run-on paragraph. Ignore the post and move to the next like I do.
If you don’t know enough to break up your points into bite sized segments, you probably don’t know enough to type anything worth reading IMHO.
October 27th, 2025 at 9:00 pm
Need Irving. Need a Another wr to stow up. Most importantly need the o coordinator to get head out of butt
October 27th, 2025 at 9:28 pm
Melvin, I know Lawrence at this point in his career and maybe never will be the QB Baker is. The basic point I was making is that Cohen is probably a little better than Grizzard as an OC. But the main reason the offense isn’t performing as well is due to the injuries on the line and at the skill positions. We had Evans for all but maybe 3 or 4 games last year and Godwin for at least 7 games last season and Bucky for the whole year. And the offense was pretty much healthy the whole season with the exception of having Goedeke miss 4 or 5 games. It’s reasonable to say that going from a top 5 offense to maybe a number 12 offense is understandable under the circumstances.
October 27th, 2025 at 9:28 pm
The offensive line.
October 27th, 2025 at 9:39 pm
Also Melvin, have you forgotten what our offense looked like last season against the Falcons, Chiefs and 49ers in consecutive games without Mike and Chris but with Bucky and a healthy o-line. Pretty impotent. So injuries make a big difference.
October 27th, 2025 at 10:04 pm
It’s definitely the O-line, imo: and it began in the Lions-game where Baker was not only pressured a lot, but the first time we’ve seen his passes being blocked/tipped at the line; that used to happen before the O-line was fixed with the Graham Barton-draft and Goedeki at right tackle.
With the last two games, it really does have “a look” of those days where there were no holes produced by the O-line: as in the goal-line-stands of those -8 plays over two drives- against the Lions; it wasn’t that there were missed-holes, it was that there weren’t any holes in the first place.
October 27th, 2025 at 10:08 pm
Our offensive linead a short week of rest after playing Monday night.
And, as Joe reported, Bowles, Grizzard, Mayfield and Wirth all spoke to what a grueling grind it was on the offensive line abandoning the run and playing 50 pass sets with the Lions defense teed up to come after Baker every play.
Sunday afternoon, the Saints defense tried to take advantage of the hurt the Bucs offensive line was still feeling from Monday night.
Fortunately, the Bucs eased the strain on the offensive line by persevering and continuing to attempt to rush the football including at the goal line. The result was that the Saints defense tired and the Bucs offense was able to produce yards and points in the second half as the Saints wore down.
Now, I have no idea why, after the second run stuff at the goal line, the Bucs did not put someone – Tucker, Otton, Vea, a reserve offensive lineman, Roberts maybe – at fullback to help power the ball into the end zone or as a decoy as they tried bouncing the ball outside. As to those two pass attempts at the goa line, the play calls with the personnel on the field were I’ll conceived and recklessly executed. Maybe something like that could work with a two back set to make a convincing show of a determined effort to power the ball across between the tackles. But, the Bucs did not sell any kind of distraction.
October 27th, 2025 at 10:09 pm
Very few teams are excellent all season. There are ebbs, especially in Tampa the past few years. They need to get hot again in a month.
October 27th, 2025 at 10:10 pm
@DefenceRules,
I believe you touched on a key issue. It’s clear that Baker is playing injured. And it’s not just keeping him from running the ball. He’s lost some of his mobility he needs to extend plays and isn’t dealing with the pressure as well as a result.
Given the injuries the team is dealing with this season, it’s amazing they’re 6 – 2 heading into the bye week. I give the coaches credit for all they’ve done to help make that happen. The team has looked like a MASH unit and now Baker, Wirfs, and Ebuka are nowhere near 100%.
October 27th, 2025 at 10:48 pm
TBBF: Da##ed straight! Rest up, Bucs. Man, can we PLEASE get a few more Offensive stars healthy?
October 27th, 2025 at 10:53 pm
It’s just the halfway point and the Bucs are already in a great position.
People have addressed the areas needing improvement, especially on offense, and I get that.
People have also talked about the need for the bye to finally get a chance to heal a bit, and that too is true.
But overlooked is the pressure cooker 8 games the Bucs have just finished! All those come from behind wins, games with little margin for error till yesterday, the Bucs look a little “fried” mentally to me. Wirfs doesn’t normally jump offsides. Baker is out of rhythm or hurt or both. I think all the adjusting, the close games, come from behind wins, have taken a mental and energy toll…understandably so!
Now two weeks to heal a bit physically and regroup mentally and spiritually.
The Bucs and we fans should take the next two weeks to enjoy what has been as good a half season of football as could have possibly been expected.
Perfectly positioned in the Division and Conference races. The best ball ahead of them if they can heal.
And most of all of me this team is EXCITING! They are not boring and they have guys that are easy to root for, no stinkin prima donnas. The only prima donnas I’m seeing connected with this season of Buc’s football are some of our posters.
October 27th, 2025 at 11:02 pm
What is the job of a head coach when one of his units is severely underperforming? Ya, injuries and excuses.
What will the leader of the operation do to improve the nothing burger?
Oh – not his job???!!!
Ok.
Then Jason will hire someone whose job it is down the road.
The imbecillen who believe that it’s a head coach’s job to sit back and eat burgers and fries while watching his team make the same mistakes over and over again have a point. It isn’t his job. Right. He’s just supposed to be encouraging.
ROTFLMAO.
October 27th, 2025 at 11:57 pm
Off coordinator in over his head. Defenses have caught up. Baker under pressure every throw, constantly forced out of the pocket
October 28th, 2025 at 12:15 am
Not only has the run blocking been bad but Baker doesn’t have much time to throw. Oline is struggling & it was shocking to see Wirfs play bad.
October 28th, 2025 at 12:43 am
That was what you get when you run, run, run for the sake of running to meet a quota.
Canales would do this as well after Bowles would yell at him for passing to much. Coen, meanwhile, was naturally pretty good at balancing things, and certainly wouldn’t just run for the sake of hitting an attempts number – he was creative, would do shocking things like run on first down, then next first down would throw from under center – unlike Leftwich and Canales who would go to shotgun, often an empty set, when they wanted to throw on first down completely removing the threat of the run and killing any benefit you get from play action.
What we saw on Sunday was Wiz Kid not looking at all like Coen. Lot Lizard was being ultra predictable, running to hit a number to prove ‘balance’ – not using motion or creativity at all. It’s really difficult to look at what he is running and still say this is even the same play book.
October 28th, 2025 at 7:17 am
Division games are always tough don’t matter we WON
October 28th, 2025 at 8:18 am
We’re 6 and 2 and half of you idjits want the coach fired
October 28th, 2025 at 11:02 am
White is not a good RB!! Great pass catcher. If you been watching this team this is who he is. 2.2 ypc. Need Bucky back asap
October 28th, 2025 at 12:03 pm
A quick “AI Search” shows:
Quote–
“Rachaad White’s 2025 yards per carry is 3.7. Some sources report a slightly different figure, such as 3.94 from SumerSports, 3.9 from PlayerProfiler, or 4.0 from StatMuse. These variations can be attributed to differences in how statistics are tracked and updated. The 3.7 average from both NFL.com and ESPN is the most frequently cited and represents the most recent available data.” -End Quote
Plus, Rachaad gets the lions’ share of “zone” run-plays, and Bucky gets the more “designed-blocking” type of run-plays.
Also, it’s Rachaad who usually runs-the-clock-out at the end of the game with plays that are deliberate in short-yardage, but in-bounds, and “safe plays” to “protect the ball.”
And, there were no holes in Sunday’s game at the goal line until the last of a
total of 8 attempts. Bucky can’t run through the backs of the O-line players any better than any other running back.
October 28th, 2025 at 12:51 pm
Your lack of objectivity is palpable. I don’t recall you crediting Bowles for any offensive successes last year or for the success of the run game to start this year. Yet, you want accountability only when it suits your agenda. Laughable