“Just Imposing Our Will”
October 14th, 2026
Was the Buccaneers’ offensive line collectively soft in Weeks 1 through 4?
Joe sort of hopes that was the reason for their subpar play. The other explanation, lack of talent and ineffective coaching, seems less plausible and more painful too stomack.
During his sitdown with WFLA-TV this week, Bucs head coach Todd Bowles agreed with reporter Jeff Dubrof’s assertion that the Bucs’ offensive line had its best game of the season on Thursday in Dallas.
Per Bowles, the O-line improvement was rather basic.
“Just imposing our will,” Bowles said. “Just playing together and imposing our will. We still got a lot of mistakes to clean up. But those guys did a heck of a job coming off the ball.”
Why did it seem to take until Week 4 for the Bucs to impose this will of which Bowles speaks? It’s hard to understand. Joe thought the offensive line would be so jacked up to play together after so many injuries kept them playing together as a group last season — and after the Bucs’ historic meltdown to end 2025. Strange.
On 10 days rest and on their home turf, Joe is very eager to see what the line delivers against the Steelers.
October 14th, 2026 at 10:57 am
yes
October 14th, 2026 at 11:04 am
Thy imposed their will on a really dreadful Dallas defense. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves
14 penalties.
October 14th, 2026 at 11:05 am
Easy for me, Those five have not played as a unit for a year. Rust. Don’t tell me soft camp practices and 6 snaps in a preseaon game count as full go reps. Add to that they are in yet another new offense.
I hate to say it but Mauch is still not used to his repaired knee and I’m not sure the added weight has really helped him. Sounds like excuses I know. I love Mauch and he will get it figured out, as will the others. Get the ball out JD/Zac and I think your dudes will be fine.
Go Bucs!
October 14th, 2026 at 11:05 am
“ On 10 days rest and on their home turf, Joe is very eager to see what the line delivers against the Steelers.”
We all know how that generally goes.
October 14th, 2026 at 11:08 am
The problem is no one knows which Bucs team will show up on Sunday. This offensive line has been together and Thursday was time they played like a veteran team. Hopefully it will happen again. The only obstacle is Aaron Rogers, but it’s anyone’s quess which Rogers shows up. Will it be the veteran or the aging version of Rogers.
The Bucs defense need to pressure him relentlessly and put an end to his career in Tampa.
October 14th, 2026 at 11:15 am
It is not hard for me to understand. They needed the reps that preseason games provide.
October 14th, 2026 at 11:16 am
They needed the reps because they did’nt play together as a unit for all of last year.
October 14th, 2026 at 11:20 am
Bowles will keep them from getting too hyped. Lots of games left, got to save other things in the tank for later. Calm and methodical, nothing over their heads on defense, nothing too far downfield on offense. It will be a typical Todd Bowles coached game, the best kind.
October 14th, 2026 at 11:20 am
Hmm
We ran 17 gap runs that attacked the edge and generated 182 of our total 241 rush yards exclusively off perimeter gap concepts. Gap runs accounted for about 60% of our run game and it made it so we could use guys like Mauch/Otton as pullers to seal off the front side of runs while creating some good cutback opportunities.
Said awhile ago, Robinson would be better served switching gears between relying on gap and not just mindlessly sticking to zone(inside/wide) just because “McVay does it” and that’s how you get your guys in position to actually impose their wills. Against Pittsburgh that’s how we need to start the game off attacking them.
October 14th, 2026 at 11:23 am
Feels like fools gold to me who hasnt imposed their will on the Dallas defense at this point everyteam who has played them so far. I watched the film so many receivers open not sure what dak was looking at but he had open guys all game but we will see I guess not expecting much out of a bowels led team but more frustration prove me wrong kitkat consumer.
October 14th, 2026 at 11:28 am
I want to see if the team has the same intensity as they had in Dallas. One thing for sure Pitt’s D is better than Dallas. The O Line and D line will need to come out and play. One thing for sure Pitt’s game plan will be to shut down Bucky and make Daniels beat them.
October 14th, 2026 at 11:31 am
Just more blah, blah, blah.. from Bowles. The only reason I opened this is because I saw Wirfs picture and thought it was him making the statement.
October 14th, 2026 at 11:36 am
A+ comment WBL
October 14th, 2026 at 11:40 am
Bowles is missing the point talking about physicality over mental mistakes. This season the OL has struggled with DL stunts and games – showing a lack of communication. The penalties are the biggest problem with the entire offense. Stopping the presnap and pass pro penalties will be a huge help to the offense.
October 14th, 2026 at 11:58 am
“On 10 days rest and on their home turf, Joe is very eager to see what the line delivers against the Steelers. On 10 days rest and on their home turf, Joe is very eager to see what the line delivers against the Steelers.”
________________________
It’ll be fun to come back to this couplet on Monday and see where we all are then.
October 14th, 2026 at 12:13 pm
I don’t know what happened earlier, but if the OL plays well going forward, this could still be a good season. Against reason, I’m standing by my original prediction: 10-7!
October 14th, 2026 at 12:28 pm
Didn’t Coen start off trying to do his zone, and finally surrendered to gap which is where we thrived?
October 14th, 2026 at 12:41 pm
Bowles soft
October 14th, 2026 at 1:07 pm
“Didn’t Coen start off trying to do his zone, and finally surrendered to gap which is where we thrived?”
Yes, it was around week 5/6 that year we started leaning on gap concept a little harder. Coen almost perfect distributed the snap share between Rachaad & Bucky, but what’s funny is that their snap ratio was almost identical to our pass:run ratio in regards to play call.
October 14th, 2026 at 1:20 pm
I went backed and watched a couple of Steeler games including last weeks game against the Colts. When Roger’s has time to throw he is still deadly accurate. He can still get out of the pocket and buy time to make throws too. If the Bucs can’t get pressure on him it will be a long day.
October 14th, 2026 at 1:22 pm
^ IIRC, Coen actually made that run scheme change during training camp / preseason, not in the regular season.
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Perhaps worthless preseason games aren’t so worthless after all? Unless you’re a big fan of rust.
October 14th, 2026 at 1:50 pm
“^ IIRC, Coen actually made that run scheme change during training camp / preseason, not in the regular season.”
Coen was preaching diversity in play calling throughout camp only reason I remember is because he talked a little about running duo and it dredged up some PTSD. In terms of it’s usage in games once the season started, before week he leaned on zone concepts predominately.
We went from 68% of our run plays being zone(32% gap) based in the first 4 games, and by the end of the season we were down to 43% zone usage(57% gap). Finished the season running zone 52% of the time, but a 25% swing over all those reps is a massive swing change. Week 5 was just the first week our gap usage was higher than our zone run usage and the 180 continued from there. I’d have to dig it up but we we’re running counters & traps with the 2nd highest EPA in all the NFL that year.
October 14th, 2026 at 2:28 pm
Joe its a new scheme that’s why it took to week 4. Its not hard to understand. They said they were close and yall didn’t believe them. #gobucs
October 14th, 2026 at 2:31 pm
Robinson took a page out of Liam Coen’s book and instead of stubbornly trying to force the line to get better at outside zone, shifted a little, running more power and gap schemes – you know, the stuff the Bucs line has shown they are better at.
October 14th, 2026 at 4:12 pm
I agree with a few other fans here that the first 4 games almost served as our “preseason” games. I think it is too late in Todd Bowles’ tenure for him to get it. They should at least play our starters in the first quarter of our last preseason game in my opinion.
Go Bucs!!
October 14th, 2026 at 4:27 pm
If the Bucs Oline can impose their will against Pittsburgh and stick with the blocking schemes designed by Zac and Todd. The Bucs will win this game. As long as the defense continues to play well !! Trenches, that’s where games are always won !!
Go Bucs !!
October 14th, 2026 at 5:25 pm
If you think you are smart, study harder. If you think you have a superior O line, make it better. Constant improvement is what matters. Never pay attention to press clippings. When Mike Tyson was winning all those fights, he hit harder in the next fight.