The Bucs’ play-calling has come under fire following Tampa Bay’s unraveling against the New York Giants this past Sunday, a game in which the offense put up just three points in the second half as Daniel Jones led an 18-point comeback victory.

A conservative game plan late, specifically nine consecutive run plays following a Jameis Winston interception, was the focal points when Byron Leftwich stepped up to the podium on Thursday.

Bucs QB Jameis Winston – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

“We’re trying to win games,” Leftwich said. “We’re trying to win football games and we’re trying to put ourselves in the best position to win games. We weren’t predicting to run nine runs. We were having success on the ground and we just have to find a way to score points there, whether it’s running or throwing, whatever it is. I didn’t even know it was nine straight runs but we felt as though that those were the plays that were best for us to score points.”

Following Winston’s interception, with Tampa Bay clinging to a three-point lead in the fourth quarter, the Bucs’ would get the ball back quickly via a strip-sack from Shaq Barrett and lead a seven-play drive – all seven plays coming on the ground – that would eventually stall out inside the New York five-yard line. Facing a fourth-and-2, Tampa Bay settled for a field goal to take a six point lead.

“We were trying to get a touchdown running it,” Leftwich said. “Not just to run it, we thought those were the best plays to score a touchdown. That’s what we try to do every play. Every play we’re trying to put ourselves in the position to score points.”

After a tough loss that ended with a missed kick in the game’s final seconds, Leftwich touched on what can be taken away from that kind of game.

Ronald Jones – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

“You can take everything from it,” The first-year offensive coordinator said. “It’s a true understanding that it takes 60 minutes to win football games in this league. Unfortunately for us, we had to learn that way. If it had gone the other way then we would have learned differently, from winning, but it would have been the same scenarios.

“We preach to these guys that all the time that in the National Football League the game comes down to the last series or the last drive. If that wasn’t true the other day… That just gives them an understanding that, no matter what’s going on in that game, you have to assume, statistics say, who wins the football game will be determined by the last series. We’ll be fine, unfortunately for us it didn’t go our way, but we’ll learn from it.”