One week ago I wrote that the Bucs offense was thriving off of play-action passes, despite only throwing six per game in each of their first three contests this season. I’m not saying offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich read the article, but I’m also not NOT saying he read the article … you get it.

Against the Chargers, Leftwich called nine play-action passes, on which the Bucs completely shredded the Los Angeles defense. Brady finished the game 9-for-9 for 137 yards and two touchdowns off of play-action, averaging over 15 yards per play.

Let’s start with my favorite one of the day: a four verticals call out of 13 personnel (one running back, three tight ends, one wide receiver) from Leftwich and head coach Bruce Arians.

The Bucs perfectly deploy their personnel here, with Cameron Brate acting as the decoy man on the outside, tasked with drawing the cornerback on the wheel route. When the dropping safety shades over the top of Brate and turns his back to Brady, the quarterback rifles in a perfect throw to a flying O.J. Howard.

This is a good concept for a lot of reasons, but my favorite wrinkle is that Howard is aligned to the inside of Brate, where he is more likely to draw a safety or linebacker in coverage. Howard’s ability to outrace Rayshawn Jenkins or Kyzir White was a big advantage for the Bucs before the two teams ever took the field, but credit to Arians and Leftwich in drawing up a killer play and taking advantage of the match-up.

More O.J.? Sure, I can do more O.J. I’m still sick about his injury, though. The Bucs were just starting to figure out all that Howard can offer this offense, and he got hurt again. Watch how fast he crosses the middle-of-the-field on this play-action pass.

Another big play for the Bucs off play-action, as the linebackers bite up big-time into the core of the formation, and there’s simply no underneath coverage to contest this ball getting to Howard. If not for a shoestring tackle by safety Nasir Adderley, Howard is taking this one to the house.

How about the other touchdown off of play-action? I think this is the first time all season the Bucs have gone play-action out of the gun, and you can immediately tell how lost the Los Angeles defenders are.

With everyone’s eyes in the backfield on 1st-and-10, I loved the play-action call from Leftwich to go for the kill shot on the very next play after Scotty Miller’s 44-yard bomb from Brady. Three receivers actually come open on the play, but Brady correctly delivers to a completely uncovered Miller for six.

Ok, let’s backtrack to that 44-yard catch by Miller on the play before.

This play is awesome for several reasons. ‘989’ is a staple of any Air Coryell-based offense, asking three receivers to win isolation routes on vertical patterns. The outside receivers run go routes (‘9s’), while the ‘Y’ runs a post (an ‘8’). It’s an Arians staple play, and it requires speed to be successful.

With the Chargers playing with a single-high free safety, the middle-of-the-field is closed, so Brady knows pre-snap the post pattern isn’t an option. Still, Brady holds the free safety between the hashes with his eyes for a beat, staring down the post and forcing Adderley to hold his ground until the ball is released. At the last second Brady heaves deep for Miller, who is in the process of running by 31-year old cornerback Casey Hayward.

One overlooked aspect of this concept is Miller’s heavily reduced split, as the receiver lines up almost in an in-line, 2-point stance. This split keeps the cornerback off-balance, as Miller has the space and opportunity to push vertically and then break to the sideline for an easy completion on an out-breaking route if the cornerback bails out too early.

Miller does a great job of pushing like he’s trying to get outside the cornerback, then snaps his route vertical and mashes the gas. Brady’s throw leads the receiver perfectly away from the pursuing safety and outside the numbers, and the result is a 44-yard hook-up one play before the Bucs took a 28-24 lead in the third quarter.

The last encouraging sign that we’re seeing from Brady and his receivers? His trust in them to go up and make plays on 50-50 balls is growing. We saw it last week with Howard against Denver, and this week it was Mike Evans and Rob Gronkowski dunking on Chargers defenders.

I’m not going to lie, this is one of the stranger downfield completions you’ll see, but Brady loves the matchup pre-snap with Evans working against Hayward, who was simply lost in this game. The veteran cornerback gives up his blind spot early in the route, similar to the way Panthers cornerback Donte Jackson did on the back-shoulder touchdown between Brady and Evans in Week 2. Corners are just terrified of Evans running by them.

So with Hayward having no clue where the ball is, Brady is fine with him maintaining leverage in the route, as he lofts one up that Evans can simply wait for rather than trying to run under it. You don’t see this ball thrown very often with the cornerback playing over the top, and it’s a sign of a lot of confidence and trust between quarterback and wide receiver on a crucial 2nd-and-20 situation. In fact, Arians told the media on Monday that Brady called this play on the field.

“I think they gave us those shots,” Arians said. “Not everybody’s been giving them to us. He saw it – we actually got a play in late. The long ball to Mike [Evans] from the seam, that was something he called. Obviously, he had a reason he called it because he was going to Mike all the way. Mike came up with a great 50-50 ball. I think it’s a trust thing and just continual repetitions in practice. Knowing where to go with it, when to go there and all those things that go with practice that we didn’t get [in the offseason].”

It was no surprise to see Brady eventually start to trust his old pal Gronkowski despite tight coverage on a 2nd-and-11 on the very next drive after the completion to Evans. Again, it’s about taking higher percentage tight window throws. That’s what Jameis Winston never fully got, and what Brady excels at.

With the linebacker’s back to the ball, there is a very small chance of this pass being intercepted. Brady puts it slightly back-shoulder, where only Gronkowski has a real chance to catch the pass, or it’ll fall incomplete. Say what you want about Gronkowski’s speed and athleticism, but the ball skills are still there to win these contested catches, and that’s big for this offense moving forward.

Sunday felt like the first time we saw the fully-operational firepower of the Bucs offense on consistent display, even with a few bumps in the first half. Shredding a good, albeit banged up, defense without wide receiver Chris Godwin or running back Leonard Fournette, and with Evans and Miller at less than 100 percent, was an indication of just how high the ceiling is for this unit.

With their next four games against Chicago, Green Bay, Oakland and the Giants, the Bucs have a great opportunity to get to at least 6-2 before their Week 9 rematch with the Saints on Sunday Night Football in Tampa Bay.