Who Is To Blame For The Sacks, Baker Mayfield Or The Offensive Line?
October 25th, 2026
Chicken or the egg?
Joe held onto the following since just after Baker Mayfield got hurt.
A little over a week after Mayfield got hurt, Joe was tagged on this video that tried to blame the Bucs’ offensive woes on Baker Mayfield.
The handle of the video is “leahlytics.” Whoever she is, she won’t be the first person to try to build a career for herself on social media.
In the video, she tries to make the case that Mayfield is responsible for the Bucs starting 0-3. Mayfield was getting sacked right and left and fans were screaming about the offensive line.
Fair. Dude gets sacked, that’s a line problem. Right? Well, perhaps, that’s too simple.
This girl claimed that (after Week 3), the Bucs’ pressure rate allowed was 11th. This got Joe curious.
When Joe searched “pressure rate allowed,” a site called “StatRankings” appeared with different numbers. Per StatRankings, the Bucs had the worst pressure rate allowed in the NFL (through six games). Worst. Not average. Worst. No. 32.
However, Joe also clicked on “Last 3,” as in the pressure rate allowed for the last three games. Interestingly, the Bucs ranked No. 18, meaning close to league average (which is what this girl claimed).
Joe doesn’t care what kind of stat you are talking about, “baseball card stats” or advanced analytics. Any time a team (or player) jumps from dead last to right about average, that’s a big jump.
So what has been different with the Bucs the past three weeks? Mayfield didn’t play. Jalon Daniels was the starter.
The Bucs’ pressure rate allowed plummeted to the positive with Mayfield out? Maybe this girl is onto something?
October 25th, 2026 at 12:44 am
I think the o line needed time to gel, cant ignore that. They played o snaps together last year. And had jalon gone up against the vikings and browns D lines he would have fared far worse.
October 25th, 2026 at 1:05 am
Why pressure a kid who can’t thru out routes, or read defenses?
Just stop the run, and let him self destruct.
And the WRs are killing the offense as much as the Oline. Line can’t pass protect. Young WRers can’t get open.
When you are a pathetic 1-6, it’s never just one thing.
In the Bucs case, it’s 2 things. Licht and Bowles.
And I don’t have to go to some agenda driven Stat site.
I have eyes, and know what I’m looking at.
October 25th, 2026 at 1:15 am
Baker sucks! He has happy feet and he holds the ball to long making it impossible for his line to block that long while he runs around and makes terrible throws that get his receivers hurt just ask Mike why he left? It’s a terrible OC and HC on top of it! Jalon is a rookie and will make rookie mistakes but at least the team is more fired up to play for him than Happy feet big contract choker baker. The problem is all of it from top to bottom. It’s time to trade get the picks for new GM HC and players Go Bucs 2027!
October 25th, 2026 at 2:02 am
before the injury, baker’s feet seemed pretty darn happy…
shades of trent difler actually
October 25th, 2026 at 2:30 am
This is the same type of infuriating circular problem we have with the defense. WRs can’t get open, so the line can’t hold up long enough, so Baker gets happy feet. On defense the CBs play so soft and allow quick & easy completions, the rush never has time to get home. Which is the root cause? If we fix one area, will the others get better? We may never know because this team is run by the WORST coach in the nfl by a country mile and he has NO ANSWERS to fix ANYTHING.
October 25th, 2026 at 3:13 am
It all goes back to the OC. The guy calls plays that are so obvious the defense knows exactly what the bucs are going to do. He telegraphs every play to the defense.
On top of the obviously bad OC, plays take too long to develop, Bucs have a really bad WR corps, the Oline is getting over run and Baker holds on to the ball too long.
I think my biggest disappointment is that Licht hyped EE and Hurst. Both have turned out to be garbage and CG hasn’t been used to the fullest by the OC. Offense is a total mess.
October 25th, 2026 at 6:07 am
Buc4evr,
Yup. While the line and the wrs are very, very bad- the biggest problem the last two years has been the offensive Corrdinator.
A First time Coordinator last year, who sucked.
Followed by a guy who sucked bad at Atlanta last year, so the minute they fired him- we fired him- so he can suck even worse here.
Both guys are destriying an already weak offense.
Its gonna be a long season
October 25th, 2026 at 6:12 am
Don’t let the RB’s off the hook for pass protection. Bucky missed on a block that led to a sack last week. Doesn’t seem like they are kept in block very much
either. Then again no RB on the team can come close to Richaad White as a third down back willing to take on a unblocked blitzer.
October 25th, 2026 at 6:21 am
‘Who Is To Blame For The Sacks, Baker Mayfield Or The Offensive Line?’
Choose E – All of the Above.
October 25th, 2026 at 7:00 am
It’s definitely both. Baker has held on to the ball to long, and the O line has had busts. Play calling too has added to our woes. This team from top, to bottom hasn’t had it’s sh#t together since last years bye. I don’t see a turn around coming. Serious changes need to be made, and that won’t happen this season I’m afraid.
October 25th, 2026 at 7:10 am
You left out the WR’s
October 25th, 2026 at 7:15 am
Baker holds the ball, the line misses blocks, receivers can’t separate, and Bowles stands there looking like he’s waiting for his number at the DMV.
Over it.
October 25th, 2026 at 7:15 am
Joe, don’t turn into Minch.
October 25th, 2026 at 7:16 am
Munch
October 25th, 2026 at 8:06 am
Mayfield has always been a volatile QB. If he doesn’t trust the offense as a whole he tends to run into sacks and missing open wrs.
October 25th, 2026 at 8:27 am
Everyone. Sad Zack allowed unblocked edge rushers get to the rookie QB 2 and 3 times in successive plays… and from the same defensive spot!
October 25th, 2026 at 8:28 am
Yes all of the above! Simple question simple answer. The question I have is where are the strengths? I guess the D has come around a little, but I wouldn’t consider it a strength. Stopping the run? Teams don’t really even try to run. 133 rushing attempts against the Bucs are third only behind the Vikings and Chiefs. Passing attempts and completions against the Bucs are 7th so for the last 15 games or so teams just come out passing. I guess we will see today against the Panthers who are averaging 35 points a game at home.
October 25th, 2026 at 8:42 am
She’s 1000% correct!!
That’s what several of us have been saying after watching video of Mayfield’s plays the first 3 games.
HE DOES NOT GO THRU HIS READS!!!!!
Receivers were running crossers wide-ass open and never pulled the trigger. Have no clue what he is looking at but he’s horrible.
He’s fidgety in the pocket and he literally ran himself into sacks.
He has zero pocket awareness anymore.
I predict at least 2 turnovers from him today.
October 25th, 2026 at 9:31 am
It’s not just sacks either, it’s that tendency he & Daniels have as shorter QBs drifting or having to use their legs to find throwing lanes. Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn’t but it stresses the OL and their ability to maintain the pocket.
Wirfs can have a good pass pro rep, maintain leverage and have his guy sealed off. However there’s a point that the QB can move laterally instead of vertical and cause Tristan’s leverage to level out. Now the rusher has a shortened path and put the man who’d otherwise have a clean rep look bad because it finished in a hold flag/rushed throw/sack and anything else that comes with it
Not absolving the OL of all theirs lapses whether it be straight up play or mental errors that effect play, but it’s easy to look bad with help from the same guy who you’re protecting. Both are true in our case, and it’s hard for anybody offense to look good with our level of dysfunction.
October 25th, 2026 at 9:32 am
Both! And add Zac to that thought. When once very reliable receivers disappear or average 6 or 7 yards a catch? There are all kinds of issues. RBs also need to get after picking up blitzes. Seen some piss poor effort there. Gruden would not let them in the game till they proved they could do it.
Go Bucs!
October 25th, 2026 at 9:39 am
It’s been crazy but, both qb’s were sacked multiple times rookie or not the kid knows himself pretty well, right?? Both can run good to. Time that 2.5 second release was one and a half seconds to slow last week because why? Not the qb I saw them looking wild and running for their lives. Who has the most penalties as a unit? I’m the Oline has the Oline beat. Cluster FVCK is what we are watching take place, Maybe Ashawn was right and it’s every man for himself still. Consistency and continuity has left the building. What makes the defense fall apart late game? There’s a question as well. The Oline is not standing up and no Luke today, I smell a bad day. Can you do it !
October 25th, 2026 at 9:49 am
Football is such a complex game, it seems hard to do deep analytics. You’d need to do a play-by-play calculation, looking at receiver separation, QB time to throw, QB mobility, time to pressure, and some adjustment for defense rush/blitz frequency/quality. My own sense is there was a sharp difference between inside and outside OL protection, which is bad news for Mayfield, since he’s too short to throw over inside pressure. That’s a QB variable, but hardly his “fault”. One of these days, I may go down the rabbit-hole of football analytics and try to figure out what’s possible…but it will not be this day. lol
October 25th, 2026 at 9:54 am
Up next, the water intake to sweat rate of Graham Barton and its cumulative effect on whether or not Mayfield uses it as an excuse for not being able to hold onto the ball.
October 25th, 2026 at 10:11 am
Here’s an interesting stat: 1-5.
October 25th, 2026 at 10:27 am
The Glazers, JL and Bowles are to blane.
October 25th, 2026 at 10:36 am
The sacks have been mostly on Baker for holding onto the ball too long and being too indecisive.
October 25th, 2026 at 10:41 am
If Baker loses this game, I’m going to protest and not watch a single game the rest of the year unless Daniels is at QB. (Or unless wee ends up winning a few in a row and get close to .500, which we prob won’t obviously)
October 25th, 2026 at 10:51 am
Baker doesn’t seem quite as good this year (so far) moving in the pocket. There was a couple of sacks that it seemed he kind of ran into when he scrambled. Hopefully we get the old Baker back today.
October 25th, 2026 at 11:09 am
so someone said if baker loses this game he won’t watch unless jalon is at qb, that makes zero sense. we just watched jalon lose the game against the steelers. so you hate baker so much that you don’t care if jalon and the bucs lose, you just don’t want bucs to lose if baker is at qb. that might be retarded
October 25th, 2026 at 11:10 am
The OL got a bit better, Robinson adjusted slightly and the guys up front knew they had to pull up their socks for an UDFA.
Simple as that.
Baker was not good but you also didn’t need advanced analytics to see that the OL was getting dominated and allowing quick pressure constantly. Eye test was telling us that.
Pat Mahomes had a good playcaller and couldn’t score a TD vs the Bucs in the Super Bowl. Is that because he just started sucking? Of course not, his OL was allowing heat. This isn’t rocket science.
October 25th, 2026 at 11:11 am
1st 2 posters nailed it some other good posts also
October 25th, 2026 at 11:46 am
Please Erik! Stop posting also
October 25th, 2026 at 11:50 am
Im not getting caught up in this stupidity!Pewter Sunday Go Bucs!
October 25th, 2026 at 12:02 pm
Happy feet experts again. Go watch video of Peyton Manning to see so called happy feet. QB’s keep their feet moving so when they spot a receiver they can set and plant for the throw. Seems obvious but maybe not to the tuba players who post here pretending they know something about playing QB.
October 25th, 2026 at 12:04 pm
I am not a Baker supporter, but if the WR’s are not getting adequate separation, there isn’t much he or anyone else can do about it. He’s holding onto the ball because he knows if he tries to thread the needle he will get picked off so he defaults to either running or just eat the ball. Mike Evans is sorely missed.
October 25th, 2026 at 12:14 pm
Gipper bakers drop back are horrible this guy is a vet? His footwork is all over the map
October 25th, 2026 at 12:22 pm
Let’s see:
#1 – this o-line has not played together since sometime in the beginning of 2025 season. It takes time to ‘gel’, and a new OC with new line calls/protections definitely slows down the process. It DOES seem that they have been getting better game over game. Not playing together during pre-season also hurt.
#2 – Buc’s REALLY miss Rashad White – who was BY FAR the best pass protector. Bucky, Gainwell, and Tucker do NOT protect well. I like Gainwell, but they should have paid White and figured out how to use him better.
#3 – Some WR’s are NOT getting open quickly. EE has been missing in action, haven’t heard McMillan’s name in ages, and CG has been ignored until the last 2 games. Hurst and Tez seem to be the most successful so far. I blame the OC for these issues… It seems the scheme he’s running isn’t working. Our best receiver thus far has been Otten, who should NOT be our best option…
#4 – FAR, FAR too many pre-snap penalties. These put us in a hole, and give the defense much more options for blitzes, etc. Not sure if this is a cadence issue, or something else.
#5 – the play action and especially roll out options have disappeared from the playbook. These are some of Baker’s best plays.
#6 – ALL of the above has led Baker to get ‘happy feet’ and hold the ball too long at times, and force throws he should not. A QB with confidence in his line and his play caller does not play like that… It’s all about confidence, and right now Baker has none.
Overall, I blame the OC for most of the problems. Some of them will work themselves out, some may not. It’s not just one thing, and it’s never just one thing.
October 25th, 2026 at 2:33 pm
Zach Robinson and his play calling.