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.
December 25th, 2025 at 4:06 am
WE SUCK AGAIN!!!! Merry Christmas!!!!
December 25th, 2025 at 4:57 am
I don’t put all the blame on Grizz. While he IS the playcaller and obviously could be better at it, multiple coaches are involved in creating the game plan. Grizz would NOT come up with that game plan on his own!
If I was the HC of that team, I might have used the same game plan, doing all I could to keep that defense off the field. ;).
December 25th, 2025 at 6:14 am
There was not a lot of evidence that Bucky should have been the used as a bell cow back. he has been beat up this year and if they keep doing it it is likely he will have a short career. The explosive plays this year from the running game have mostly come from Tucker and White. Nobody fears a plodding running
game and whoever is involved in the substitution of backs is a major problem,IMO.
December 25th, 2025 at 7:16 am
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.
The whole team is a Dumpster Fire!!! Even if they make the playoffs, what are they going to d? I don’t think they can beat a single team now and the ‘Da Bears look like a Team of Destiny!!! Or at least density!!!!
Why the Bucs have not fired Todd Bowles is beyond me, he ls looking like the Rich Kotite coached team of 1994 … Eagles were walking tall, looking good and them boom
Rich Kotite’s fate as Eagles head coach was sealed after a seven-game losing streak to end the season knocked Philly from the top of the NFC at 7–2 all the way to fourth place in the Eastern Division
There is something wrong here in Tampa!!!
Merry Christmas Everyone!!!
December 25th, 2025 at 7:25 am
Lakeland Says:
December 25th, 2025 at 1:32 am
“The big difference was Baker INT
That was the back breaker
Josh Grizzard game plan put the Bucs in a position to win”
There was about one minute or less left in the game when Evan broke off his route and Baker threw to a spot.Even if the INT never happened does anyone think this offense was going to get into field goal range? The 15 yard penalty on the Bus after the Panther’s kickoff put the Bucs at the 10 yard line. Let’s start with that.
December 25th, 2025 at 7:54 am
Leftwich > Grizzard. Yikes.
Time for Baker to “soft” mutiny by calling more audibles.
Merry Christmas!
December 25th, 2025 at 7:55 am
The scheme against Carolina left a tiny margin of error to be able to win.
This was a disaster waiting to happen.
It was FEAR based, instead of using the weapons at hand.
Todd Bowles teams with the Bucs are 2 games over 500 and a losing record with the Jets because of the mentality Bowles has.
Trying to fit a square peg in a round hole, over and over again.
GO BUCS!!!!!
Time for fresh blood at 1 Buc Palace
December 25th, 2025 at 8:02 am
Grizzard shouldn’t even be a high school offensive coordinator.
We have the most boring offense in the nfl.
December 25th, 2025 at 8:27 am
26 first down plays. Take away RW’s 40 yarder, the other 25 first down plays gained a total of 56 yards. Not gonna win with endless 2nd and 9
December 25th, 2025 at 9:04 am
his predictable calls played right into the hands of panthers and resulted in an ineffectual offense. Coupled with conservative stalleed drives and forced defence back on field.
December 25th, 2025 at 9:12 am
Guards are killing this team.
December 25th, 2025 at 9:13 am
^^^^^coupled with Todd’s conservative decisions,stalled drives.^^^^^
December 25th, 2025 at 9:24 am
He’s trying to protect his scheme from his inefficient signal caller.
The two games leading up to the Panthers game we had a combined 31 incomplete passes. That’s empty calories, plays that got run that amounted to nothing. That’s a trend I know for a fact most fans aren’t even paying attention to and it’s been a streak of games with just wasted reps that end up in incompletions in the teens, which causes this offense to be stall out.
This past game, we had a grand total of 8 incompletions, and yes the game was ended on the Mayfield INT, but plz tell me how it wasn’t his fault so we can get the situational ball knowers seperated from those that don’t.
So what all 4 WRs are availabe, there no balance dishing the rock to those guys as evidence by Mike the last 2 games having the lions share of targets. We all know if it’s man, Mikes gonna get doubled/bracketed which means there’s a 1 on 1 elsewhere. I’m watching the game, wondering why we’re in a personnel package with Tez on the slot 🤣 me watching nervously think “I hope they don’t run a toss to his side and expect him to block.”
There’s a lot going on with our offense, being dedicated to the run this late says A LOT about what’s going on in offensive meeting.
December 25th, 2025 at 9:25 am
Bowles already let the cat out of the bag, he was the one that told Grizzard 30+ times, because of what happened LAST YEAR. Grizzard is lying for his boss.
I never thought I’d say it, but Bowles is now up there with the worst Bucs HC’s of all time…Leeman Bennett/Ray Perkins/Lovie Smith/Todd Bowles faces on Mount Sucksmore.
December 25th, 2025 at 9:40 am
It’s like they never watched the St. Louis Rams in the early 2000s or Sean Payton’s Saints. You can win a lot of games with little defense and a LOT of offense. Goal is 45 per game. Go!
December 25th, 2025 at 10:47 am
He was trying to protect the offense from the defense that’s what he was trying to do. They tried this against Buffalo and though the team ran well it still didn’t work. They’ve conceded the ST sucks so all teams start at their 35 now. If he wants to protect the offense he needs to do what he did against Seattle if he wants us to make the playoffs
December 25th, 2025 at 11:29 am
BS. Grizz was told by Bowles to go with the run at all costs approach. Along with the lack of motion and play action the offense was already limited and without creativity. Grizz was not the deciding factor. This has Bowles fingerprints all over it. Grizz is only here because Bowles didn’t want a coordinator with experience to challenge Bowles’ decisions. Bowles has to go.
December 25th, 2025 at 1:01 pm
“BS. Grizz was told by Bowles to go with the run at all costs approach”
It worked until 2nd & 9 in the 4th quarter, when we needed the pass game to get us where we needed to be-the ball ended up in the defenses hands.
Mad at a run heavy approach, but the unwillingness to realize the alternative to run heavy has wasted. 192 reps through 15 games which shakes out to an average of 12 plays of nothing per game. That’s 4-3&outs a game that lines up with our 4 punts per game average.
Mix in some of those A-Gap runs that look especially worse since Buckys’ gotten back and you’re looking at an offense that spins its tires more often than it’ll take you anywhere.
December 25th, 2025 at 6:44 pm
“Josh Grizzard said he was not trying to protect Bucs defense”. No, he wasn’t. It was Todd Bowles game planning that made protecting this sorry defense the priority. Great call!! Threw it 10 times in the first half. The most disgusting football I’ve seen in a long time.