Josh Grizzard Said He Was Not Trying To Protect Bucs’ Defense
December 25th, 2025
No conspiracy, Josh Grizzard said.
The Bucs have a rotten defense. It hasn’t been great for years but this year it is an untrustworthy sieve.
When you have a defensive-minded coach who is also the defensive coordinator, that’s not good for job security. Nor should it be.
So one way to make sure your sieve of a defense can’t hurt you is to keep them off the field. A good way to accomplish such a goal is to play ground-and-pound.
The Bucs played ground-and-pound against the Stinking Panthers last week, despite maybe having the best receiver group in the NFL, healthy. And the gameplan didn’t work. Scoreboard. The Bucs lost, scoring just 20 points.
Yesterday when speaking with the local pen and mic club, Bucs offensive coordinator Josh Grizzard flatly denied he was trying to protect the Bucs from their disgusting defense by running so much.
“It’s definitely not to protect the defense,” Grizzard said. “It’s more of, if we know if we’re controlling the ball then of course [their offense is] not out there. If you’re able to put together drives, of course it does eat up time where we know we have the ball but, never [because of the rotten defense].”
Look, Joe is not a hypocrite. Joe, prior to the game, cited how Bucky Irving tore up Carolina last year so why not feed him the ball? Joe just didn’t expect the Bucs to run the ball to that extreme.
Joe’s biggest hangup with the offense last week was the Bucs completed one pass over 13 yards. One! With that receiver group, that is absolutely irresponsible.
And Joe has a hard time embracing that a Yale man like Grizzard isn’t sharp enough to realize this as the game unfolded. This wasn’t an accident.
December 25th, 2025 at 12:14 am
We suck. Merry X-Mas!
December 25th, 2025 at 12:26 am
This man is a clown.
December 25th, 2025 at 12:30 am
Running the ball like that is supposed to set up the play action deep ball right? Nope. They can’t protect long enough. If they would have aired it out there would have been interceptions and sacks galore. The interior of this Oline is an absolute sieve rn. No choice but to dink and dunk and screen pass your way to some points.
December 25th, 2025 at 12:35 am
WHY WAS THERE NO PENALTY FOR THEM TACKING OUR PUNTER
December 25th, 2025 at 1:07 am
Concerned Ronde thinks Todd Bowles is safe, damn even if Bucs win next two games I still want Bowles gone. It is not working now and not all year or even since he has been inserted into the head coach position. We deserve better than a rookie offensive play caller. This has not worked out at all. Merry Christmas Joe.
December 25th, 2025 at 1:14 am
So keep the O on the field as long as possible and win time of possession to cover up this horrid D…. GOTCHA! Meanwhile, thats the only thing you won….
jeeze, just STFU all of you staff, please…..when you think it cant get any worse, TADA!
December 25th, 2025 at 1:23 am
How do our OC and STC have jobs?
Anyone else on the staff could do better. I’d be mildly confident in Bowles if he had the stones to hold anyone accountable.
December 25th, 2025 at 1:32 am
The game plan wasn’t that bad, they threw 26 passes, ran the ball like 33 times. It was a balance attack, they ran for 169 yards, and won the Time of Possession.
The game was as close, and as tight as l ever seen
The big difference was Baker INT
That was the back breaker
Josh Grizzard game plan put the Bucs in a position to win
December 25th, 2025 at 2:02 am
^^ Dude that is such BS….WE HAD THE FREAKING WR’S, ALL FOUR OF THEM!!!!!
good grief, yeah, its all Bakers fault, not the Coaches making the decisions and calling the plays…..come on man.
December 25th, 2025 at 2:12 am
Josh Grizzard put the Bucs in a position to win the last 3 games. The games was lost in the 4th quarter. Because of the Bucs inability to score in the clutch. It’s no different from the early part of the season, when they was winning the close games. There were no complaints then, and there shouldn’t be any complaints now. Everyone keeps harping about the 4 great wide receivers. Where were the receivers doing the 26 pass attempts that went for 145 measly yards? There’s nothing “Great” about that, they had their opportunities.
December 25th, 2025 at 2:14 am
“”””And 40 of those measly yards went to a WR on one play
So they had 105 receiving yards on 25 receptions
That’s embarrassing, disgusting
December 25th, 2025 at 2:19 am
“”””I meant they had 18 receptions for 145, one went for 40 yards””
So they had 17 receptions for 105 yards
That’s not good, especially for a so- called top QB and WRs
December 25th, 2025 at 3:00 am
Grizzard is a rookie playcaller in the NFL with an overrated GM and a defensive HC that can’t figure out how to call defense with the shht talent he has to coach.
Gets a pass from this fan. He did better to start the season and hasn’t figured out how to adjust. I don’t think Grizzard is the problem here when the defense can’t stop the other team from running wide ass open all game long, game in and game out. Start with the management ieGM and work your way down. OC isn’t the issue.