“Put It On Our Shoulders”
October 24th, 2025
Ready to road grade.
Give the running backs the damn ball!
Bucs All-Pro left tackle Tristan Wirfs didn’t exactly say that yesterday at One Buc Palace. But what he did say to the local pen and mic club is that he wants the Bucs to lean on the offensive line to take over the game on the ground.
Last week the Bucs threw 50 times. That sort of hung the offensive line out to try to hear Wirfs explain.
“You never want to get behind the sticks like that and then have it end up being a game where you are slinging it and they are pinning their ears back,” Wirfs said. “That is never fun.
“I know we were all feeling that the next day. … Yeah, that was not fun.”
So the remedy, Wirfs said, is simple: Trust the offensive line to win on the ground.
“We [have] to do our best to get the run game going so we are not in that situation [of passing 50 times],” Wirfs said. “[The line can] help everybody out.
“Put it on our shoulders.”
And Joe hopes that if the Bucs do go ground-and-pound, they run behind Wirfs. Go ahead and rewatch the win at Seattle. The Bucs had Rachaad White run behind Wirfs and man, the pride of Iowa was like a bowling ball, knocking pins down on every level of the defense.
On one White touchdown, he ran behind Wirfs as the All-Pro took out three defenders — at the line, at the second level and at the third level.
Talk about road grading!
Joe has no idea why the Bucs in recent years haven’t run up Wirfs’ arse more often. Use that beastly left tackle, man.
October 24th, 2025 at 7:07 am
When did Joe decide he wants the Bucs to go ground, and pound? Thought Joe always preached the Bucs should be a passing team? Joe wasn’t saying we should run the ball when Baker completes 85% of his passes with 3 TDs. One bad game throwing the ball now he wants to run more. Very fickle Joe.
October 24th, 2025 at 7:34 am
He has always been
October 24th, 2025 at 7:48 am
More than happy to see what Tucker can do. White has played well in Bucky absence but Tucker is a good back who needs more touches.
October 24th, 2025 at 8:05 am
Wirfs if yall want to run the ball then open some holes up. It was tough sledding for both backs last game. White fight hard for 3 and 4 yard gains. Tucker didn’t fare that well. Deff have to be more balanced but before the Bucs got behind we weren’t running the ball that well
October 24th, 2025 at 8:07 am
That line of scrimmage was getting dominated what are they going to run to negative yards? Alright looking for problems when it was clear Baker missed throws all night but to say they could have ran into a meat grinder for any kinda success is kinda silly.
October 24th, 2025 at 8:18 am
No doubt of what the Bucs will do this week, right? Run, run, run. Especially since the Aints are ranked 25th against the run (13th vs the pass).
I don’t know what the over/under yards are for RW, but without looking, Id take the over.
October 24th, 2025 at 8:22 am
#1bucsfan – A lot of that can be chalked up to us going back to the Byron Leftwich running attack. Always on 1st down, always up the middle, always ineffective.
October 24th, 2025 at 8:49 am
The issue is running on 1st down 80% of the time. Short gain – throw on 2nd & 8, throw on 3rd short completion of the line of gain & punt. Mix it up a bit. And I hate running on 2nd & short. That is the time to ‘take a shot’. If the pass is incompete, run on 3rd & short to keep the drive alive.
October 24th, 2025 at 9:02 am
Running is nice when you can but it’s hard to run when your best guy is out and you’re are behind. Not to mention the maniac spinning and bulldozing your OLine when you drop back to do anything. Hutchinson is truly a menace.
October 24th, 2025 at 9:19 am
sounds like there are multiple critics of the playcalling last week. junior hopefully took notice. not sure why nobody told him after the first quarter that he should try a little harder to establish the run. he is a trainee no? or is that a culture thing
October 24th, 2025 at 9:49 am
Joe … ‘So the remedy, Wirfs said, is simple: Trust the offensive line to win on the ground.’
If the remedy was simple, we’d be 7-0 right now. Our running game complements our passing game, and vice versa. Bucs aren’t built to win any game one-dimensionally.
We are built, however, to take advantage of an opponent’s weaknesses. And in New Orleans case, their pass defense is a lot better than their run defense. In their last game (Bears), they gave up 222 yards rushing. Of course the Bears ran it 40 times (to only 26 passes), but their average run turned out to be 5.5 YPC nonetheless. And oh ya, they held onto the ball for over 36 minutes TOP, enroute to a 26-14 victory.
Bucs can use a similar approach and be just as effective. I would get Tucker more carries though, in the hope that he can break one. Still prefer though that Rachaad be the lead dog.
October 24th, 2025 at 10:04 am
We have up on the run game last game because we were having ZERO success on the ground.
Why beat your head against a wall and waste downs getting 0 to 3 yards max like we were getting against the Lions?
Grizzard needs to scheme the run game better, so we have successful runs and therefore call more runs and actually move the ball via the running game instead having to punt every freakin set of downs.
Run plays last week were basically wasted plays.
October 24th, 2025 at 10:05 am
*gave up
October 24th, 2025 at 10:19 am
oe … ‘So the remedy, Wirfs said, is simple: Trust the offensive line to win on the ground.’
If the remedy was simple, we’d be 7-0 right now.
*********************************************************
kinda feel like it is true….
turnovers have doomed us in both losses…
take away those and we’re 7-0!!!!
GO BUCS!!!
October 24th, 2025 at 11:41 am
I don’t think Grizz schemes up running plays as well as he does passing plays…I like Baker throwing it when he has time to take a peak at an explosive down field…if its not there check it down to a RB or Otton or run…mix in some runs
Go Bucs!!
October 24th, 2025 at 12:07 pm
Run or pass, doesn’t much matter. The saints are terrible in defense of either attack.
Yes, it’s true that the pass defense is ranked higher than the run defense, based on yards.
But that’s mostly because there’s no particular reason to pass. Teams get out to a lead, and then destroy the clock. None of the Saints opponents need to pass to “catch up”. They are always ahead.
And pass defense has gotten worse in recent weeks. The very thin DB room is decimated by injuries, so the Saints are starting practice squad players and other backups.
October 24th, 2025 at 12:09 pm
aaron
i agree…
GO BUCS!!!!
October 24th, 2025 at 12:14 pm
yes let big tristan and them boys get low and move some bodies!
October 24th, 2025 at 12:31 pm
They can’t run the ball first of all, and was getting is ass hand to him with the patent swim move back Hutch. Wirf can’t handle it. They talk about days before the game. I wouldn’t run out and do cart wheels like we going to beat the saints.
October 24th, 2025 at 12:40 pm
Witness, Wirth!
Witness!
“… you are slinging it and they are pinning their ears back.”
The biggest thing wrong with the run game was that not enough runs were attempted.
Through the first five offensive drives and the first 25 minutes and 40 seconds of the first half, the Bucs:
Ran the ball only 5 time, 27.8% of plays, but averaged 3.6 yards per attempt with:
– No negative plays with lost yards
– No wasted plays with runs stuffed for no gain
– 100% positive plays with at least some gain (+5, +2, +2, +4, +5)
Passed the ball on 72.2% of plays averaging averaging 1.2 yard per pass play (3 yards per pass play if counting the 25 yard pass interference penalty) with:
– 3 negative plays for -9 yards (-1 sack, -2 pass, -6 sack).
– 6 wasted incompletion plays including the penalty play
– 38.5% (5/13) positive plays (6/14 for 42.9% if you count the penalty) (Completions +3, +8, +5, +4, +6), (Penalty +25).
Those are not great rushing numbers, but they are not bad rushing numbers for early in the game when the opposing defense is still fresh.
Clearly the rushing numbers were much better than the horrid passing numbers. The only thing that mitigates at all for the passing numbers is the pass interference penalty yards.
NFL teams average running the ball on over 40% of plays if only to keep the opposing defense from, as Wirth said, “pinning their ears back…” and making pass protection impossible.
On Monday night, Grizzard and the Bucs demonstrated exactly what happens when you abandon an adequate, if not great, run game.
You lose!
October 24th, 2025 at 1:08 pm
toopanca,
With all due respect, you don’t know what you’re talking about.
More runs in the last game would’ve most-likely meant more unsuccessful offensive plays, not magical successful runs when there was no evidence we could run the ball effectively against the Lions.
Running the ball more frequently for 0-3 yards/play doesn’t equal running game success or team success.
If you’re running the ball for less than 3 yards or zero/negative yards like we were, running the ball more frequently means more offensive futility.
Education session over for now.
October 24th, 2025 at 1:44 pm
@ #1bucsfan “Tucker didn’t fare that well” – Tucker was only given the ball once, and he ran for 4 yards?
@ TUCKER “That line of scrimmage was getting dominated what are they going to run to negative yards?”
&
@ Daniel Z “Always on 1st down, always up the middle, always ineffective.
&
@ Erik with Pilot and Driver “We (g)ave up on the run game last game because we were having ZERO success on the ground. Why beat your head against a wall and waste downs getting 0 to 3 yards max like we were getting against the Lions?”
************************************************************
Guys, please watch a replay of the game. Or, at least look at the ESPN or another site’s Play-By-Play summary:
White ran 7 times on 1st down for 25 yards averaging 3.57 yards per carry.
White ran once on 2nd down for 7 yards averaging 7 yards per carry.
White ran once on third down for 2 yards which gained a first down.
White ran once on fourth down for 4 yards which gained a first down.
Tucker ran only once in the entire game, on second down, for a gain of 4 yards.
In the entire game:
– No negative run plays with lost yards
– No wasted run plays with runs stuffed for no gain
– 100% positive run plays with at least some gain (+5, +2, +2, +4, +5, +3, +7, +1, +7, +2 (first down), +4 (first down)
I will give you that running 7 times on first down is to high a percentage relative to the other downs when you only run 11 times in the entire game.
But, the game loser was only running the ball 11 times, not the 7 times that is was run on first down.
In the first half:
– On first down, White had runs of +5,+2, +2, and +5.
– On second down, Tucker had a run of +4.
In the second half:
– On first down, White ran for +3, +7 and +1.
– On second down, White ran for +7.
– On third down, White ran +2 for a first down.
– On fourth down, +4 for a first down.
That’s it!
No run stuffs.
No tackles for loss.
No runs on third down.
No WR sweeps or razzle dazzle.
The only negative runs were when Baker was flushed outside of the pocket and tried to run and was tackled for a loss. They put those plays and lost yards in the rushing statistics making the rushing yards per attempt look worse; sacks inside he pocket and while trying to pass go into the passing statistics.
October 24th, 2025 at 2:02 pm
Those who think we were right to abandon the run, long before the score was out of reach, seriously have to be kidding or crazy.
Literally NOBODY WHO KNOWS ANYTHING about football would agree that 50 pass attempts is a recipe to win any game or that we should have bailed on running the ball so soon.
October 24th, 2025 at 2:59 pm
Tucker needs to be fed early and often. At this point its pretty ridiculous how long this guy has been on the roster and the limited opportunities hes gotten. Hes the better rusher
October 24th, 2025 at 4:24 pm
Coen used a lot of dual back sets, with White and Bucky, and was creative with how he ran, meaning a lot of misdirection, a lot of off tackle, it wasn’t just running up the middle on 1st down. And yes, Tucker isn’t even remotely in the same class as Bucky and White, but having both backs in there doesn’t tip your hand as much as to what you’re doing.
Wiz Kid needs to go back and review the tape from last year and see what was working. This is supposed to be the same offense, so they should still have most of the same plays in the playbook, so if that’s true, it’s just a matter of picking plays better. Give me a call Wiz Kid, I can give you some hints, for a fee.
October 25th, 2025 at 4:00 am
START FAST! Get the defense to play in the first quarter. Wirfs wont say it soo…
Go Bucs!