Bucs offensive coordinator Liam Coen has been praised by just about everyone attached to football this year. And for good reason.

Pick a metric. Any metric.

And you will find his offense near the top of the NFL leaderboards and the Bucs overall significantly improved from last year:

Bucs QB Baker Mayfield – Photo by: USA Today

There are several reasons for the improvement. Personnel improvement along the offensive line. Improved running scheme. Ascension of quarterback Baker Mayfield. All of these things have helped point the arrow up.

But towards the top is Liam Coen’s play-calling. So, when Tampa Bay had only managed six points and five called runs in the entire first half of Week 18’s win-and-in game against New Orleans, the questions and concerns naturally arose about that very play-calling.

But if the play-calling was an issue, what exactly changed? What went wrong?

I took a look at the first half from a play-calling perspective to see what was what for the offense in the first half on Sunday. The findings may surprise you in a new Bucs All-22 Breakdown video.

Liam Coen’s Run/Pass Splits vs. Saints

Headed into Week 18, Liam Coen has been a fairly conservative first-down play caller. On first down in neutral situations outside of the two-minute warnings Coen has called a run 54% of the time, which ranks 14th in the NFL. In the first half against the Saints that number ballooned to…50%. He called a run on four of eight first downs.

On second down, Coen called just three runs. But Tampa Bay was only in second-and-8-or-less three times in the first half. They were in second-and-10-or-more five times. That doesn’t lend itself to a lot of run calls.

Bucs’ Play-Calling Vs. Execution

Bucs OC Liam Coen – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Even the best play-callers are going to struggle when having to contend with dropped passes and penalties. And that’s exactly what Liam Coen had to deal with during the first half on Sunday. A second-and-10 dropped pass put the Bucs behind the eight ball and eventually stalled the first drive. A timing issue between quarterback and receiver stopped the offense from going more than three plays on the second drive.

Coen and Baker Mayfield were able to overcome separately, a second-and-17 and a first-and-20 on the third drive to get Tampa Bay into the red zone. And that was it.

There were no more first half drives.

Because the defense struggled to get off the field, New Orleans held an almost 2:1 time of possession advantage, Tampa Bay only had three first half drives and a total of six points via two field goals. Excluding the final kneel down of the half they only executed 24 plays. Half of those came on the third drive.

With that context, the team scored on 67% of their first half drives and averaged 2.0 points per drive. That would rank 17th in the NFL this season. How nice it is for Tampa Bay to have an offensive coordinator where a league average efficiency is considered unacceptable.

Watch my new Bucs All-22 Breakdown video for full analysis of the Bucs’ first half play-calling decisions on our PewterReport TV YouTube channel or by clicking on the video below.