There’s No Excuse For Such A Short Passing Game
December 27th, 2025
No more dink-and-dunk, please.
Man, the Bucs throw the ball like it weighs 30 pounds.
On a team with a future Hall of Famer receiver, a Pro Bowl receiver, a guy still in the running for Rookie of the Year and a productive receiver in his second year, all healthy, there is no reason to constantly throw screen passes to the left and four-yard dinks and dunks.
Talk about wasting superior talent. Hell, even Bucs coach Todd Bowles has twice stated the Bucs need to throw the ball downfield more.
Does Bowles’ headset work on Sundays? Or is it picking up Apple TV?
When Bucs offensive coordinator Josh Grizzard was hired last winter, he said he wanted to keep Liam Coen’s offense in tact, only throw the ball downfield more.
What the hell happened?
The Bucs completed just one pass in the loss to Carolina past 13 yards. One! With all of those (healthy) receivers, that’s simply obscene.
Even Rich Hribar of Sharp Football Analysis ran the numbers to document Grizzard apparently has forgotten he is allowed to throw the ball 10 yards past the line of scrimmage.
Tampa Bay has gained 10 or more yards on 21.3% of their passing plays (past 9 games), 30th in the league.
Now Joe can understand when both Mike Evans and Chris Godwin were lost to injury. Defenses simply took Emeka Egbuka out of games. Any defensive coordinator with a piece of a brain would do that.
So what was Grizzard’s answer with an adjustment? Throw constantly east and west parallel to the line of scrimmage for maybe a three-yard gain. Shameful.
If Grizzard learns (?) to throw downfield more, you know, like he did against the Dixie Chicks two weeks ago, the Bucs ought to beat the Dolphins.
If Grizzard trots out the same gameplan that he used at Carolina, that’s a recipe for failure.
And don’t give Joe this teams-are-getting-pressure-up-the-middle stuff. Is there an NFL bylaw that Joe is unaware of, whereby Baker Mayfield is prohibited from using a moving pocket and throwing outside the tackles box?
Mayfield is allowed to throw out of rollouts, right?
December 27th, 2025 at 12:16 am
Pass protection sucks. Only so much OC and Mayfield can do when the oline is getting their aases kicked all game long.
Blame Licht. He is overrated and the main reason this team is underachieving this season.
December 27th, 2025 at 12:22 am
They target Evans, Egbuka, Godwin, McMillan a total of 26 times against the Falcons
They made plays, and got a ton of defensive pass interference calls
And they still lost the game
They are making too many mental errors
Seems like they can’t get out of their own way
But the season isn’t lost, they can still win the division
And maybe win a few playoff games
December 27th, 2025 at 12:41 am
The team may as well wear the creamsicle uniforms every game from here on out because that’s what this team feels like. As a season ticket holder 87-91, it’s burned into my soul, I should know.
December 27th, 2025 at 12:59 am
Both guards are trash. You can’t run a boot every play, and you’ll still get killed. You want better results? Get good, healthy guards on the field.
December 27th, 2025 at 1:01 am
Cleanhouse, I was in the stands during those Perkins years and at least those Bucs could beat the other bottom feeders of their division, Green Bay and Detroit, at the Sombrero and occasionally got the sweep. This team just let the Aints and ATL get Ws at RJS. Perkins had a cheapskate owner. Bowles does not have that excuse. Fire him, fire him, fire him….
December 27th, 2025 at 1:57 am
Guard play, and a lack of roll outs and boot legs.
December 27th, 2025 at 2:23 am
“We just gotta get better”….. getting late for that Todd….YOU need to get better!