Bucs Offense Is A Joke
December 7th, 2025
Offensive offense.
Joe’s had it with this dink-and-dunk offense!
Joe isn’t against dink-and-dunk offenses as long as they produce. The only thing the Bucs’ offense produces is indigestion. It sure as hell isn’t producing points.
And this “hot hand” nonsense.
Remember Sean Tucker and Rachaad White running in third quarter on a dive that ended with Tucker scoring from a yard out to retake the lead 17-14?
To that point, Bucky Irving was largely struggling — averaging about 1.5 yards per carry. Joe noticed during a timeout that Bucky lay on the ground the entire time stretching. Later, Evan Closky of WTSP-TV Channel 10 said he saw Bucky hobbling on the sidelines.
So the Bucs finally got the ground game going by running left. Success! Hot hand! Feed Tucker and White the ball. But no!
When the Bucs next got the ball back, it was Bucky running right for two yards then Baker Mayfield attempting a pass on second down that was tipped.
Hot hand; Joe’s arse!
Then, Grizzard seems fully allergic to throwing downfield. He cannot use injuries as an excuse any longer. Chris Godwin is back and looking healthy.
Later, the Bucs had second-and-15 in slimy Saints territory. Bucs offensive coordinator Josh Grizzard calls for a run up the middle that netted two yards.
Next play, third-and-13, Mayfield tries for unreliable Cade Otton.
This was the best Grizzard could do? What are the Bucs playing Godwin all this money for? Why did the Bucs draft Emeka Egbuka No. 19 overall? Otton has just about played himself out of a new contract. He’s had a bad case of the dropsies. And when you desperately need a first down, you target Otton? Really? And then there’s what happened on the final drive.
This offense is a joke.
It’s pretty clear Grizzard’s offense is an east-to-west offense. The problem is, you have to go north-and-south to score. Joe isn’t sure Grizzard knows what a successful play is. He seems content with three-yard gains to set up third-and-one.
This team is just a hot mess right now.
December 7th, 2025 at 5:45 pm
Liam is home sipping a bourbon and laughing his arse off, he knew Grizz was a 5 play a game guy but Todd thought he could handle all 60
December 7th, 2025 at 5:45 pm
Grizzard will not be the OC next season. He is just normal ready.
December 7th, 2025 at 5:45 pm
I’m bringing out my El Serpiente voodoo doll and long thick knitting needles.
December 7th, 2025 at 5:46 pm
Can we trade 2 firsts to get Liam back?
December 7th, 2025 at 5:47 pm
Stone hands Otten should be sitting. Let’s see the other tight ends, doesn’t matter who but Otten is done. Or get Otten some gloves so his stone hands has some help. All the horrible screens and throwing the ball to routes not past the first down marker is a joke. Evans and McMilan come back and they still won’t throw it down the field. Plus Bakers happy feet are killing them, he’s so worried about getting hit he won’t let anything down field play open. A lot of that looks like a line isn’t blocking very good for him. When he steps up and throws it looks pretty good, but just hardly never happens anymore
December 7th, 2025 at 5:47 pm
Get rid of this guy. Young, does not know what he is doing, and weird.
December 7th, 2025 at 5:48 pm
The dropped TD from EE was North to South. The plays are there on offense the players aren’t making them. On Defense, well nothing is there
December 7th, 2025 at 5:48 pm
Grizz is not the answer.
December 7th, 2025 at 5:50 pm
Its honestly insane. How do you not even just realize as a coach that you suck and its not what they did last year. We avg 28 points. Ridiculous. Stop fing calling short plays
December 7th, 2025 at 5:50 pm
Grizz experiment is done. Tell me why Tucker isn’t the starter with Bucky as the change of pace guy. I’m not dissing on the TE’s, Grizz has no idea how to use them. Out routes and screens do not win games. Calling the same plays that don’t work on 4th and 1 and handing opponents the ball at mid field is criminal.
December 7th, 2025 at 5:51 pm
Yes it is. And so is the defense and the apecial teams are even worse but we are .500. Maybe the NFL is the joke.
December 7th, 2025 at 5:51 pm
The problem with dink & dunk offense is you have to have high completion percentage (a la Brady). I just don’t see Baker as that type of QB. He’s not that accurate, he’s not the best at reading the open man. Not saying he’s great at the deep ball either, but if you can hit on some 20+ yarders, you need a lot less completions to move down the field. What we’re doing is CLEARLY not working. Grizz’s pacing and scheduling of plays is so baffling.
December 7th, 2025 at 5:51 pm
FIRE JOSH GRIZZARD!!!!!
December 7th, 2025 at 5:52 pm
Yeah the offense looks like complete trash at this point
December 7th, 2025 at 5:53 pm
Dead man Bowling
December 7th, 2025 at 5:53 pm
Averaged scoring19 and giving up 31 the last 3 games. Cant win like that.
Those are real stats.
December 7th, 2025 at 5:55 pm
Grizz is terrible. It’s official.
How can’t you copy and paste Coens offense!? If Grizz schemes a WR open, it’s a 3rd read and Baker doesn’t see it or get it there.
Terrible play calling, terrible execution.
Get Otton on the bench for someone hungry like Durham or Culp. If we need possession receivers… get Miller in there for Tez or Shepard lol guys who can’t get separation apparently.
Typical Bowles and Grizz coaching scared. Rain is coming down… can’t take any chances. Run run run until we get as many 3rd and 8s as we can. Joke is right.
December 7th, 2025 at 5:55 pm
-26 scoring differential. Same as the Vikings. Not a good team. Bucs are average. Any above average offense will absolutely shred this defense. I thought the offense could carry us but unfortunately the injuries didn’t help. Coaches aren’t good enough to make up for the injuries like other coaches in the league can do.
December 7th, 2025 at 5:56 pm
Hopefully Coen and Canales send Jason and the Glazers a postcard from 1st place.
December 7th, 2025 at 5:57 pm
Liam Coen in his first year HC role with what was a struggling team > Bowels several years as HC with his same team!
December 7th, 2025 at 5:57 pm
Yup, offense sucks, but defense is worse and that is what Toad is responsible for.
December 7th, 2025 at 5:58 pm
Brokeneers
December 7th, 2025 at 5:58 pm
Fire Todd
December 7th, 2025 at 6:01 pm
I agree with this post 100%. Bucky was NOT a hot hand, he was awful, White and Tucker were great, could not believe Bucky was put in over those two–its like no adjustments get made at all. Offense was as bad as defense.
December 7th, 2025 at 6:05 pm
I remember…… baker had a 70 percent completion rate last year. Of course it works. How you implement it is what matters. To be fair, baker has been pressured way more this year than last. The o line has never been 100…
December 7th, 2025 at 6:05 pm
man we shoulda made liam cohen our head coach
FIRE BOWLES
December 7th, 2025 at 6:10 pm
Joe, articles like this are fair and accurate but they also give Bowles cover. He could avoid getting axed by throwing Grizzard and the special team coach under the bus. He will call the Grizzard experiment a fail just like Leftwich but at the same time he will want to continue calling the plays on D.. I am sick of it. Bowles has to go even if he somehow gets in the playoffs and gets boat raced by the Rams or Seattle. Enough is enough. Glazers, do the right thing….
December 7th, 2025 at 6:15 pm
Is there enough top shelf liquor to convince Arians to step out of whatever his semi-retirement (with pay) role is with the team and into a role that can maybe help Grizzard with play calling? The defense is crap, everyone with working eyes can see that, but that’s a lost cause as long as defensive coordinator is also the head coached . Therefore this team needs to score early and often to have any shot of winning more often than not.
December 7th, 2025 at 6:22 pm
Hmmm. Did this team need a 2 for 9 targets E² more than, oh Idk, Campbell. Licht is a pawn, wh is bad for your top dog
December 7th, 2025 at 6:26 pm
The offense sucks because Grizz doesn’t know how to build a game plan. He knows how to call plays but doesn’t know when to call what play. At no point have Iwatched this offense this year and thought man that was well done schematically.
December 7th, 2025 at 6:26 pm
Ain’t gotta worry about losing our OC this off-season
December 7th, 2025 at 6:28 pm
Ever notice how teams know that they want to attack our defense in the middle of the field and run a collection of plays with different guys from different formations all catching the ball in the same place? That is an offensive coordinator understanding how to attack a weakness. We just run plays and hope for the best.
December 7th, 2025 at 6:28 pm
Probably not fair to expect 3 for 3 on OCs but coaching is without a doubt holding us back as much as injuries
December 7th, 2025 at 6:34 pm
Should have kept Coen!!
December 7th, 2025 at 6:45 pm
Agree with all, Coach G in over head, bad routes, bad play designs, Mayfield under pressure way too much At least get him outside the pocket more
December 7th, 2025 at 6:45 pm
If you aren’t sure what real defenses look like or what a competent offensive coordinator brings (since we see💩every week) GB vs CHI are playing on tv.
December 7th, 2025 at 6:48 pm
White was the hot hand today. He was knocking off 5 yards a crack. Why would you not feed him in those conditions? I’ve seen hard headed Grizzard do some dumb stuff this year. I call him hard headed because he continues to make the same mistakes over and over. He’s got to figure it out soon because time is running out. I hate when good teams lose to bad ones. This was a very bad day. This kind of game, you just line up and run the ball as much as you can. They would have won if they stayed on the ground today.
December 7th, 2025 at 7:11 pm
Offense defense special teams. the coaches the GM.
December 7th, 2025 at 7:14 pm
Let’s be completely honest here. Bowles wanted Grizz because Grizz isnt a threat to take his job. Bowles couldn’t handle the noise of Liam as HC.
December 7th, 2025 at 7:16 pm
Thinking we were gonna pick THREE straight top notch O.C’s and keep on improving is a fools paradise…Eventually everybody craps out at the table…and here we are…I thought it at the time everyone assuming we would be as good or better offensively than last year was wishful thinking. Now the defensive is a whole different story…its ur head coach’s forte and the reason he is at the helm correct!? And we’ll it has aged like warm milk…I truly believe the Glazers will clean house next year, they have moved off better coach’s in the past
December 7th, 2025 at 7:23 pm
Grizzard seems fully allergic to throwing downfield.
——-
When the Bucs have thrown it down the field, Baker keeps missing wide open guys.
They don’t need more shots downfield, they need to actually go watch the tape last year of what was working, and it wasn’t running up the middle on every first down. It was motion, misdirection, mixing things up more.
Grizz is ultra predictable 90% of the time, then today, when he actually broke his trends, they moved the ball at ease. I have no idea how he can’t see that, how he doesn’t watch the tape of his calls, and not realize how predictable they are – and how when he goes off script, they have success.
Just watch the tape from last year, have a database of what Coen called in each situation, then call a play from that. This is allegedly the same offense as last year, yet it seems like we’re using a much smaller portion of the playbook – it looks much more like Leftwich and Canales than Coen.
I’m not saying don’t run the ball, just don’t run the same plays in the same situation, over and over. Again, use motion, use misdirection. They have so many tells, like if they repeatedly run up the middle, then bring in Tucker, it means it’s going to be an outside run, then inside. If I’m sitting at home noticing this, what do you think defensive coordinators are doing?
December 7th, 2025 at 7:24 pm
When Coen left the a lot of fans where saying its not a problem and with Grizzard it will be seamless transition. I was surprised to see how many people think that gameplanning and gamecalling are something easy and everyone can do it. Its not Madden its real football.
December 7th, 2025 at 7:38 pm
The play-calling can only fix so much. The OL is inconsistent and needs an elite player to couple with Wirfs. The WR injuries have been too much to bear. The TE is mediocre on a good day. The RB-by-committee is not ideal, but not the biggest issue.
December 7th, 2025 at 7:46 pm
Not only did he NOT go with the hot hand he doesn’t call plays past the sticks for 1st downs.
December 7th, 2025 at 7:47 pm
Christos Says:
December 7th, 2025 at 7:24 pm
When Coen left the a lot of fans where saying its not a problem and with Grizzard it will be seamless transition. I was surprised to see how many people think that gameplanning and gamecalling are something easy and everyone can do it. Its not Madden its real football.
———-
Over the offseason, the biggest worries I had was all the articles about Wiz Kid Grizz, who was going to open up the offense, and take more downfield shots. Coen tried that early last year, and Baker kept missing guys, would get happy feet, take sacks, etc. After the Denver game, he went to the quick passing game, and that’s when the offense took off and Baker shined. Coen mixed it with a ton of motion, a lot of misdirection runs, etc – all stuff we see very little of this year, and it makes no sense why we’re not seeing it.
But as far as calling the game goes – as someone who has played Madden for 35 years, I’d put my play calling vs Grizz any day of the week, and I can assure you it would have more flow and make sense than Grizz does, and certainly wouldn’t be as predictable.
December 7th, 2025 at 7:51 pm
Tautology Says:
December 7th, 2025 at 7:38 pm
The play-calling can only fix so much.
———-
I know what you’re saying, but I also completely disagree.
When defense are sitting on your plays, when they know what is coming, it makes it much easier for them to do their job. Coen kept defense off balance, over and over again last year we saw easy runs because they couldn’t stack the box and expect the Bucs to do the predictable thing. The Bucs still might run on 1st down, but it wasn’t a simple power run up the gut on every first down – it was off tackle, it was a two back set and they didn’t know who was going to get the ball, etc.
Better play calling would make everything look a lot better, including Baker, including the offensive line, including the receivers, including the tight ends, including the running backs.
Same thing on defense. We saw again today when he brought pressure, he got stops. When he sat back in that awful super soft zone, the Saints moved the ball at will. That’s a play calling issue, and the same issue is happening on offense.
December 7th, 2025 at 7:52 pm
Firing Grizz, and keeping Bowles is not an option. We need a whole new direction. Time to clean house.
December 7th, 2025 at 7:56 pm
Captain Checkdown strikes again
December 7th, 2025 at 8:00 pm
John Gruden
December 7th, 2025 at 8:05 pm
Until the last minutes we were never so far behind that we had to throw the ball. And we never had to throw Bucky into the middle of the line just to see if something would happen. With the patchwork line of fairly solid individuals and two stalwarts like Tucker and White, you just had to drive back the defense and let the runners find the cracks. That worked on the Bucs’ best drive of the game. If you have the better players, let them go at it one-on-one. Get Bucky into space, where he excels as a receiver as well as a runner. A wingback or slotman would allow him to run sweeps and traps as well as go downfield, where I have to believe he will get more open than some current receivers.
December 7th, 2025 at 8:08 pm
It seems as if this dude is out of his league here. His game planning blows. He’s not ready and we should’ve went outside for an OC instead of rolling the dice a second time. Seems like we crapped out on this roll!
December 7th, 2025 at 9:17 pm
Bucs receivers for whatever reason don’t get much separation. Very unlike opponent WR’s who always seem to have a 5 yard separation from our DB’s. This game ends very differently if EE hangs onto the TD. Not every throw in the NFL is perfect but the rule has always been if you get 2 hands on a ball you should catch it.
December 7th, 2025 at 9:40 pm
Grizz is in over his head. Reverted back to dunk and dunk. This offense actually looked far better with a makeshift oline the first few weeks. I gotta think Bowles has had a hand in making this offense so predictable.
December 7th, 2025 at 10:24 pm
Let AI come up with the plays. We don’t have five years to find out if Grizz can turn it around.
December 7th, 2025 at 11:45 pm
Bring back Gruden
December 7th, 2025 at 11:58 pm
Egbuka wasn’t ready for the ball so the issue is timing. As soon as he left the defender in the dust, he should have been looking for the ball. He didn’t get his hands up fast enough. That should have been an easy catch. Those things happen, this is their first year together. I’m not down on EE at all. He’s going to be great!
Yes the offense is a joke right now and the defense an even bigger one. If anyone saw the Chiefs and Texans tonight, you saw what defenses should look like, especially the Texans.
December 8th, 2025 at 12:04 am
Speaking of defenses, the Saints, Falcons and Panthers all have better defenses than the Bucs and we’ve had less injuries than all of those teams on defense.
December 8th, 2025 at 12:32 am
As a matter of fact, right now you could say that the defense is the most inept defense in the league over the last several weeks. Truly the Rodney Dangerfield of defenses. It’s a combination of bad scheme and coaching, lack of talent perhaps and just not playing hard enough. They’re still playing for something so it’s hard to justify the lack of effort. It’s easy to say that the effort is there but we’re not getting the maximum effort for sure and that is on the coaching. They’re not motivated enough. I can’t remember the last time I saw someone make a bone jarring tackle.
December 8th, 2025 at 12:40 am
Look at what the Texans did to Mahomes tonight. I think it was the most ineffective game he has ever played. Other than some good run’s scrambling, he was neutered. 3 picks, no touchdowns, less than 50% completions. Even the refs couldn’t help him tonight.
December 8th, 2025 at 12:48 am
Get rid of Grizz now. He’s terrible.
December 8th, 2025 at 2:16 am
We must stop expecting the offense to win almost every game! When is this organization gonna hold Todd Bowles accountable for being a bad DC and a bad HC?
December 8th, 2025 at 3:57 am
The “hot” part of hot mess is an overstatement. It’s just a mess.
December 8th, 2025 at 5:35 am
It’s Grizzard’s first year as an offensive coordinator, I don’t blame him. But he’s got to step his game up next year.
December 8th, 2025 at 8:28 am
I would have to go back and watch the entire game (and I’m not a glutton for punishment, so that’s not haplening), but I think almost (if not all) of our 3rd down conversions were on QB scrambles. The OC is not scheming anyone open and has to rely on Baker’s legs if they get behind the sticks. That’s not a winning game plan and it’s not sustainable for Baker’s health.