Passing Game Woes
November 25th, 2025
Jump-starting the passing game.
Entering the season, the Bucs’ passing game was thought to be one of the best in the NFL.
Now? As we approach Thanksgiving, the Bucs’ passing game is one of the worst it has been in years the past few games.
Since the Bucs beat the Seahawks on the road and were in a shootout with Seattle where Baker Mayfield threw for 370 yards, only once have the Bucs passed for more than 250 yards in a game. That was against the Patriots (258) in the first game after the bye.
(The Bucs had 248 yards passing against San Francisco.)
Joe chalked it up to injuries catching up to the Bucs. Chris Godwin went down in the Seattle win and it is no coincidence to Joe that the passing attack has sunk with Godwin off the field.
Yesterday, Bucs coach Todd Bowles was asked why the passing game has gone into the dumpster. It apparently is more complex than just injuries.
“I think it’s a little bit of everything,” Bowles said. “We definitely have to coach it better, and we’ve got to play it better.”
Ah, there’s Bowles’ favorite cliché: Gotta coach and play better. Ya’ think?
But Bowles went deeper than his favorite defensive reaction.
“It’s not just one thing, it’s everything involved in that,” Bowles said.
Well, it would certainly help if receivers can get more separation. And it would help if Josh Grizzard forgets his wide receiver screens to nowhere.
Joe would love to see Grizzard scheme up a play that gets Rachaad White open in space for a catch in the flat. Hell, Dave Canales could even do that.
White is dangerous in open space. Not so much when two defenders are crawling up his arse the second he touches the ball.
November 25th, 2025 at 5:06 am
Um, could it be that our starting wide receivers arr both rookies?
Yesh. That might wreck the trsin.
Idiots
November 25th, 2025 at 5:11 am
Todd Bowles … “I think it’s a little bit of everything. We definitely have to coach it better, and we’ve got to play it better.”
Unfortunately spoken like a HC who has no answers.
November 25th, 2025 at 6:13 am
Todd is also on the NFL Competition Committee. I can’t see him going anywhere until this season is over. If he goes, Jason, other coaches, staff, medical, and training should all be scrutinized too. I agree with part of what he said, “It’s not just one thing, it’s everything involved in that.”
The buck stops at the top too. The Glazers. They have the money to turn this around. They donate to other people for many things. The Bucs really need a rebuild. Guessing, that if we make it to the Super Bowl again and win, Todd and others would leave on that high note. If we make it to the play-offs, that’s another scenario. We don’t know what is in Licht and Bowles extended contracts, so there is that too. I really like Todd. He’s a good guy. He had the locker room. Unfortunately, the locker room seems off now. Part could be the injuries, missing Evans, etc. Bad refs. But it goes back to coaching decisions too.
November 25th, 2025 at 6:20 am
what happened to the lethal screen game we had two years ago? where’s the long ball to tez? baker has been throwing late and behind to receivers that are not open, against the good teams we’ve been playing we need our best receivers and we’re missing them, lots of problems everywhere, besides baker missing open receivers down field bc he’s too busy running for his life
November 25th, 2025 at 6:28 am
This guy F’ing sucks
November 25th, 2025 at 6:30 am
@Joe, you should ask Todd, “Coach, are you and your staff actually capable of ‘coaching it better’, because that’s your response every week”?
The fans know the answer, hopefully Licht and the glazers can see the answer.
November 25th, 2025 at 6:31 am
No, Todd, it’s not that “we need to coach better”. It’s that we need a better coach!
November 25th, 2025 at 6:33 am
When you lose your stars to injury coaching comes into play big time. Well if Todd has to rely on strategy and game to game scheming the team is screwed. He’s simply not capable of game planning week to week. We see the same garbage week after week and if we can see it you know the opponent see it’s clear as day.
He’s a terrible HC in the NFL. I’m so sick of being held back by a subpar coach
that if everything isn’t perfect then it’s game over. He doesn’t deserve to coach this team thru the end of the season much less bringing him back for 2026.
I’m over the “we have to coach it better and we have to play it better”.
That’s the words of a man who hasn’t a clue.
November 25th, 2025 at 6:34 am
Joe is funny. Todd says that the players have to play better and the coaches have to coach better. Joe sarcastically replies to that. Then Joe says the receivers have to get better separation. That’s called playing better. Then Joe says Grizzard has to be more creative. That’s called coaching better. You both said the same thing. The difference is what exactly?
November 25th, 2025 at 6:37 am
More J E R K comments from bowles. “uh, well, if we play we play. or we have to coach. or play or play coach. you pick. i wont know til after the game ends how it went. then, if we coached but didnt play, we didnt play. but if we coached and played and didnt AH SHUCKS I FORGOT WHICH STRING OF NONSENSE I WAS SPEWING YET AGAIN.” wanders away from the podium…..
November 25th, 2025 at 7:03 am
Well, it’s definitely more than one thing. The offensive line (including Wirfs) is struggling in pass protection. Right from the first snap of the Rams game, Mayfield was running for his life. Doesn’t help that we’re playing with the 3rd, 4th, and 5th WR’s. Then we have Otten who’s somehow forgotten how to catch the ball. Throw in the fact that the last three teams we’ve played are basically top 10 defenses, then you’ve got a very bad contributing factors.
November 25th, 2025 at 7:14 am
As well as Tez has played, he could have even more success on explosive plays
if he was a deep threat to take the top of the defense. Receivers like Mike and Chris would take pressure off him Agree with Joe on getting RW1 the ball. There have been opportunities for White to make plays with a good amount of green grass in front of him, but Baker doesn’t even look his way. The 3 and three play to Otten several weeks ago was a good example. Baker failed to see how open White
was and forced a pass to Otten who took a vicious hit from two defenders and dropped it.