Start Fast — Or Lose
November 7th, 2025
Reason to smile if Bucs lead at halftime.
There’s nothing like the following data demonstrating how critical it will be for the Bucs to score early Sunday. And keep the lead.
Per the research of Rich Hribar of Sharp Football Analysis. The Bucs are 5-0 in games when they have a halftime lead. The Bucs are 1-0 in games tied at halftime. And the Bucs are 0-2 in games in which they trail at halftime.
So this is pretty clear to Joe: Start fast or die.
And starting fast does not include pounding the ball on a team that is indestructible against the run. Joe knows the Bucs want to run the ball. Joe gets it. But New England has not allowed a running back to run for 50 yards against them. The only player who has run for over 50 yards on the Patriots’ defense is Josh Allen. You know, the quarterback?
Hell, the Bucs struggled worse than a Las Vegas businesswoman fumbling for a hymnal in church trying to run the ball against the slimy Saints two weeks ago. The slimy Saints!
And people think the Bucs will run the ball on New England?
@nflonfox Todd Bowles has his bye week priorities straight 😊 #NFL #football #Buccaneers ♬ original sound – NFLonFOX
November 7th, 2025 at 7:12 am
dont abandon the run Grizz and we’ll be fine!!!
GO BUCS!!!!
November 7th, 2025 at 7:15 am
Lost me with the hymnal thing.
But if I was Barton or Wirfs or any of the other OL, I’d be embarrassed to think we could not match up against those guys at home.
The key here is Maye. Befuddle him, and he will make mistakes.
November 7th, 2025 at 7:21 am
Do they cheat towards the run? If so, bombs away
November 7th, 2025 at 7:23 am
I’ve noticed when Bucs win coin toss they deferred to second half. Most times the other team goes up 7-0 in first drive and Bucs play from behind before defense settles in. Perhaps take the ball first given the opportunity to have another possession before halftime.
November 7th, 2025 at 8:10 am
Take the ball to start the game! Score first and set the tone so they are not playing catch up. Worst case they go 3 & out and punt. The Dee is starting to become a stregth.
November 7th, 2025 at 8:31 am
“Perhaps take the ball first given the opportunity to have another possession before halftime.”
That’s how the punt got blocked against Philly.
November 7th, 2025 at 10:11 am
Joe … ‘And people think the Bucs will run the ball on New England?’
Yes we can run the ball against New England Joe, but NOT if we ‘telegraph’ our run plays. The whole idea is always to either be as unpredictable as possible, OR to be so good & dominant that your opponent can’t stop you no matter what you do.
I thought most of Coen’s plays last season were quite unpredictable (in many if not most cases it was hard to tell if a run was coming). This year with Grizz? Not-so-much; it doesn’t seem to be nearly as difficult to predict a run.
Bucs are averaging 3.8 YPC this season, whereas we averaged 5.3 YPC last season. We ran the ball on 44.1% of our plays last year, but that’s down somewhat to 41.6% this year. Makes good sense though, since our run game isn’t nearly as effective this season as it was last year.
For their part, the Patriots’ defense is allowing opponents to achieve a 3.6 YPC average through the 1st half of the season. Interestingly Pats’ opponents on the season have averaged running the ball on 38.0% of their plays. In the Pats’ 2 losses, the Raiders & Steelers averaged running the ball 45% of the time, although neither running game was very effective.
I still think that Bucs need to run the ball ‘enough’ to keep the defense honest. If they’re playing the pass every down, Baker will be hard-pressed to sustain any longer drives. And we’ll need at least 3 possibly 4 or 5 of those on the day to win.
November 7th, 2025 at 10:15 am
Maye is gonna carve ‘em up… I bet Vrabel knows how to attack this Bucs Bowles’ Defense. That’s my gut feelin’ right now. Grizz will have to keep up! And, you’re right… EARLY. And, then often. How bout an opening-drive TD for once… And, no 3 and outs!!!! Middle-8. Middle-8. Important. TOUCHDOWNS. Gotta have Touchdowns.
November 7th, 2025 at 10:29 am
DR Says: “ Yes we can run the ball against New England Joe, but NOT if we ‘telegraph’ our run plays. The whole idea is always to either be as unpredictable as possible, OR to be so good & dominant that your opponent can’t stop you no matter what you do.
I thought most of Coen’s plays last season were quite unpredictable (in many if not most cases it was hard to tell if a run was coming). This year with Grizz? Not-so-much; it doesn’t seem to be nearly as difficult to predict a run.”
Yep! Every single time, Otten goes ‘in-motion’ and hovers over the O-Line… It’s a RUN. Never a Play-Action. NEVER a Pass. A ‘RUN’ every single time, for the past several games, until the 2nd-half against the Saints, when it was still probably, almost 90% (I kinda lost track by then) LoL. Now, THAT has to change. Cause, if ‘I” can see-it, then YOU KNOW our opponents do, too!!!! It is honestly, mind-blowing.
November 7th, 2025 at 11:07 am
they need to score some td’s in the first quarter.
Q1 scoring
vs falcons = 0
vs texans = 7
vs jets = 3
vs eagles = 3
vs seahawks = 3
vs niners = 7
vs lions = 0
vs saints = 0
it’s pretty sad. grizzard is pretty sad at this point.
November 7th, 2025 at 11:22 am
@DR – I agree we are telegraphing our plays so much this year. And if you can I can see it, you know damn well the professional players and coaches can see it too.
Oh look, there’s Cade Otton motioning out and back in again, guess exactly where they are running the ball?
Coen’s scheming / playcalling was light years better than Grizz so far.
November 7th, 2025 at 11:58 am
Kind of liking the analysis read. Thank you for the link. Paraphrasing one snippet of it, “Even though Mayfield hit a cold stretch and offense still is full of question marks, this game has high scoring potential.” Also said that Baker should throw the ball more. Can’t wait for the game. Go Bucs!
November 7th, 2025 at 12:22 pm
“they need to score some td’s in the first quarter.
Q1 scoring
vs falcons = 0
vs texans = 7
vs jets = 3
vs eagles = 3
vs seahawks = 3
vs niners = 7
vs lions = 0
vs saints = 0
it’s pretty sad. grizzard is pretty sad at this point.”
This is why you win the toss and take the ball at the start of the 2nd half
November 7th, 2025 at 1:03 pm
Am I gonna be forced to point out yet again that they come out soft and slow because of bowles’ leadership? Been this way since he was gifted HC. Someone tell me if Detroit comes out slow. Remember when he said our super bowl team that scored 30 a game wore out our defense too much? Nevermind we played pretty good D in the super bowl, last game of a long season… I would LOVE smash mouth football to come back to the Bucs. How about some “we’re not gonna take what they give us, we’re gonna take what we want?”
November 7th, 2025 at 4:20 pm
Wow those are overwhelming numbers to base your theory on. I can see why your so sure of them.