Bucky Irving, Screen Passes And The Vulnerable Cardinals’ Defense
November 28th, 2025
Jolt the Bucs offense needs?
Joe always likes to tell folks that other teams’ coaches get paid, too.
Like many Bucs fans, Joe is tired of seeing constant screens to the flat that go nowhere. And after listening to Mina Kimes’ podcast this week, Joe has a hunch the Bucs may throw more of them this weekend.
Why? A couple of reasons.
On Kimes’ podcast was NFL analyst Ben Solak. He claimed the biggest difference with the Bucs’ offense from last year to this year, aside from injuries, is that these screen passes that worked so well are not working at all this year.
“The efficacy of the screens,” Solak said, “it’s been the ability to throw the football, toss it behind the line of scrimmage in a designed fashion, and then be able to generate an explosive [play] out of that. It’s just not something you got from Rachaad White [this year]. You’ve got one or two reps from Sean Tucker. But it was formative to this offense under Liam Coen.
“It was like not just something they did well, it was part of their identity, was to be able to get you into screen looks and then throw them, because they like their offensive line was on the move so much.”
Well, the first thing Joe thought of hearing Solak’s explanation is defenses adjust, too. Defensive coordinators surely noticed how successful the Bucs were running screens last year.
What do defensive coordinators do all offseason? Try to find ways to stop opponents from succeeding at certain plays, hatching plans and schemes. So that may be one element Solak overlooked.
And, of course, the NFL is a copycat league. Once one defense has success stopping a team, you can be damned sure the next two or three opponents will try the exact same thing.
So why might the Bucs run more screens this weekend despite what Solak said about a lack of success with screens? Two reasons.
First, Solak noted the guy who did so well last year on these screens, Bucky Irving, may be back Sunday.
Then, Kimes stated, using intel from TruMedia, an industry-popular NFL stats outfit, Arizona is No. 31 in the league this year defending screen passes.
Hello, Bucky. Hello, screens.
November 28th, 2025 at 9:10 am
Just win baby! Tired of all the talk and excuses. This team needs a mojo boost big time. It’s now or never. Sunday is a must win, otherwise they plummet in to the abyss.
November 28th, 2025 at 9:16 am
Fire Todd
November 28th, 2025 at 9:18 am
Off topic but would like to hear about the creative plan that move Luke to the left of Wirfs on a run play early last game. Hadn’t seen that before. And next draft, please focus early on where it matters most – the trenches. We are losing games due to weakness in the trenches, something many preached a need for prior to last draft (DR).
November 28th, 2025 at 9:32 am
Question…
I am surprised there is no mention of having to use back up guards as a reason our screen game is so poor. Aren’t the OGs typically the lead blockers on screen plays (in addition to WRs)?
November 28th, 2025 at 9:34 am
Vulnerable Cardinals defense? I guess they’re probably saying the same in AZ about Bucs defense. Kansas City lost yesterday, so all is well. Hoping for a good showing on Sunday! We need it! Go Bucs!
November 28th, 2025 at 9:45 am
The ever changing OL lineup isn’t helping the screen game, either.
November 28th, 2025 at 9:51 am
Bucs just need to coach better and play better one game at a time.
November 28th, 2025 at 9:56 am
Good points Joe. Loss of Cody Mauch and J. McMillan has been huge.
November 28th, 2025 at 9:57 am
Well, maybe if we weren’t so predictable, throwing a screen pass every other play, Grizzard. A good offense will set up their plays with other plays, and not just keep running the same play over and over again. As hard as it is to believe, that makes your offense predictable, Grizzard.
But for some reason, I think the season will begin to turn around this week. I know we play dogcrap teams in the remaining 6 games, but if we get Reddick, Kancey, Evans, and McMillan back by then, who knows? It could get interesting.
November 28th, 2025 at 10:11 am
Senor Harry, you beat me to it. If they get healthy on the OL (minus Cody, of course) and the Bucs go on a run, there will be an endless stream of reasons. But to me the endless musical chairs at OL while breaking in a new OC is the biggest reason things have looked like they have this year.
Is Grizz great, is he horrible, I have no idea. All I can say with any confidence is he is a new OC that has been trying to learn on the job dealing with things Liam Coen never had to last year.
November 28th, 2025 at 10:29 am
Well, Solak did mention injuries. He also mentioned the blocking for the screens is not there. You can hear the entire segment which is linked above.
November 28th, 2025 at 10:43 am
The trade deadline came and went. Licht did nothing. We had a chance to obtain game changing Defensive Ends, People said the price was to high. You gotta wanna be great Buc Fans. The price of an NFL championship is never to high. Look how one Defensive aquisition turned Green Bays season around. Our Defense is Pityful. You gotta wanna be a Champion. And we, are satisfied with being division champs.
November 28th, 2025 at 10:44 am
I’ve noticed that a lot of teams, both college and pro, are having problems with those screens.
November 28th, 2025 at 11:09 am
No Mauch or Kieft?
November 28th, 2025 at 11:23 am
The bottom line is, Canales and Liam Coen were top tier offensive minds. You can’t just replace them with a guy who’s 35 years old and never called plays in his entire life before and expect greatness.
Maybe Grizzard will figure it out down the road, but right now his offense blows.
D coordinators are continuing to outscheme him every single week. And the O line has regressed quite a bit. They can’t even handle stunts (See RAMS game)
I say we fire everybody and bring in an offensive minded coach like Klint Kubiak or Jim Bob Cooter to be the HC.
This is an offensive driven league and teams like the Steelers and Bucs who have defensive minded HC’s will always get their OC’s plucked from another team, thus relying on slam dunk OC hires every year to keep themselves relevant.
Unfortunately, we just didn’t hit as hard on our OC this year as we did in years past.
November 28th, 2025 at 11:34 am
Anyhow, good call with Kieft. Often the role players go overlooked.
Joe or anyone, did anyone get details about his injury? I mean I know a broken leg is no joke but I was thinking at the time they sure called him out for the year real quick. Was it not just “broken”, but BROKEN?
November 28th, 2025 at 11:47 am
Also, going to have to push back a bit on the thinking that Canales is a great offense mind. Both him and Grizz were first time play cllallers. Through 11 games with Canales the Bucs scored 212 points. So far this year they have scored 259. A difference of 4-5 points per game is a pretty big margin.
I think Canales gets a better rep than deserved because we went from Byron Leftwich to him.
November 28th, 2025 at 11:54 am
Joe said, “Well, Solak did mention injuries. He also mentioned the blocking for the screens is not there. You can hear the entire segment which is linked above.”
That was going to be my comment. It seems like every time they throw a screen, the only person out in the flat is the person to whom the pass is thrown. No blockers! And without any protection, the receiver gets creamed almost immediately. How many times does that have to happen before the OC takes notice and adjusts?