There has been a lot of discussion recently surrounding the Bucs continued struggles with running the ball. Offensive coordinator Liam Coen was asked about the issue during his Thursday media availability.

Gap vs. Zone

Bucs RB Rachaad White and C Graham Barton – Photo by: USA Today

Coen was asked by Evan Winter of AtoZ Sports if he has noticed a disparity in success when the team runs gap runs (such as draw, counter, pull lead and power), vs. zone runs like mid zone, wide zone and outside zone. Liam Coen responded, “I think if you saw it Sunday, first run of the game, we don’t really get the zone moving. We’re not running off the ball like we’ve done since we arrived here.

“Everything we’ve preached is running off the ball. Running and trying to create movement. And we didn’t do that. We kind of reverted back to some poor habits at times on Sunday at multiple different positions. And I’ve got to do a better job of being smart about where we call runs and where we call passes to give our guys a chance.

Liam Coen continued.

“That’s a valid point. We definitely have looked into, ‘Hey how can we create a balance between the gap and the zone.’ These guys have been good at gap as well in the past at times. It’s definitely something we are going to try and find a balance of. Those guys last week played a little bit more of five-down front. The gap hit with Bucky out the back door. We needed to probably get to some more gap schemes last week.”

I detailed this disparity between the Bucs gap and zone efficiency after their week one win over the Washington Commanders. The issue is not isolated to a single game this year. It’s not even isolated to this year. Here is a breakdown of the team’s efficiency when running each broad concept on 1st or second down while leading or trailing by ten or less.

Gap Runs

• 14 carries
• 96 yards
• 6.86 yards per carry
• 3 first downs
• 1 stuff (play got stuffed at or behind the line of scrimmage)
• 0.20 EPA/play
• 57% Success Rate

Zone Runs

• 24 carries
• 35 yards
• 1.45 yards per carry
• 1 first down
• 9 stuffs
• -0.41 EPA/play
• 25% Success Rate

The difference is stark between the two schemes. For Liam Coen to acknowledge that and admit that they probably need to create a better balance is the singles best thing to give fans hope about the ground game going forward, and far more important that who is going to be running the ball.

And since we are on the topic, let’s re-visit that Week 1 article regarding the backs and who is better and how. The consensus right now surrounding the Bucs is that Bucky Irving is the better running back and that the numbers prove it plain as day. Irving is averaging 6.2 yards per carry while White is averaging 2.1. That should be simple, case closed. But it’s not simple. And Coen was asked an important contextual question that belies the discrepancy.

Bucs OC Discusses Running Back Usage

Bucs RB Bucky Irving – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Coen was asked about why White and Irving seem to be used differently within the Bucs’ scheme with Irving seeing a larger share of the gap runs and White getting the lion’s share of the zone runs.

“I think that we [the offensive line] weren’t coming off the rock Sunday very much. I don’t think we moved the line of scrimmage. I don’t think the line of scrimmage was played on their [Denver’s] side very often. I thought we did some things. Rachaad had a good outside zone to our right, right before we set up Bucky’s touchdown. That was like an eight or nine-yard gain on the right side that we blocked up well.”

What WZ is supposed to look like. Bredeson and Mauch with great climbs to win at 2nd level. Good job by Palmer sealing the backside DB to squeeze another yard or two out. pic.twitter.com/4ujQzUe4EV

— Joshua Queipo (@josh_queipo) September 23, 2024

“But our thought going into the game was to try to run mid zone, and when you’re lead back is in you are trying to get those runs going to see if they can have any success. And they didn’t end up having much success. And it just so happened that when Bucky was in, we ended up running a couple of gap schemes. But it wasn’t anything specific to him, although Bucky has had more experience with gap in his prior experience at Oregon. So, that’s something he has been a little bit more comfortable with. Whereas, Rachaad has been able to, when we do run zone well, ride the wave and do some things that way.”

“It’s just finding a balance. We are still trying to find the identity. There’s flashes. There’s good things. We did not put enough together on Sunday in order to win the game because of both the run and the pass. So, I can’t put it on either group.”

Bucs RB Rachaad White – Photo by: Cliff Welch P/R

Coen noted that Irving had more experience and comfortability in gap than zone. The comfort-level certainly seems true as he averaged 8.05 yards per carry and 0.37 EPA/attempt on gap runs at Oregon to just 5.28 yards per carry and 0.07 EPA/play on zone runs.

Rachaad White May Be Better At Gap As Well

But I think Coen may be missing that since entering the NFL, Rachaad White has been a better gap runner as well. Over that time period his yards per carry on gap runs is a healthy 4.74 to 3.02 in zone. His EPA/run has a similar disparity at -0.04 in gap to -0.182 in zone.

That leads us to the issue of why Irving’s surface level stats look so much better than White’s. When we isolate for scheme, we can see that both are good at one thing and bad at another.

Gap Runs

• Rachaad White
  • 6 carries
  • 34 yards
  • 5.67 avg
  • 16 YAC
  • 2.67 YAC/att
  • 1 first down
  • 0 stuffs
  • +0.13 EPA/play
  • 67% success rate
• Bucky Irving
  • 8 carries
  • 62 yards
  • 7.75 avg
  • 12 YAC
  • 1.5 YAC/att
  • 2 first downs
  • 1 stuff
  • +0.25 EPA/play
  • 50% success rate

Look there! Right there! The Bucs running backs are good! Both are averaging over five yards per carry on early downs! Lets go! More importantly this shows that the Bucs offensive line is good at blocking gap. And no matter who the runner is they can be effective running it.

Zone Runs

• Rachaad White
  • 18 carries
  • 25 yards
  • 1.39 avg
  • 28 YAC
  • 1.56 YAC/att
  • 1 first down
  • 7 stuffs
  • -0.42 EPA/play
  • 28% success rate
• Bucky Irving
  • 6 carries
  • 10 yards
  • 1.67 avg
  • 8 YAC
  • 1.33 YAC/att
  • 0 first downs
  • 2 stuff
  • -0.36 EPA/play
  • 17% success rate

Well, this took a turn to sad town really quick. Neither back is effective running the ball when the team runs zone concepts. But Rachaad White is getting a disproportionate number of the zone carries, 75% to Irving’s 43%.

Solutions Going Forward?

Irving has certainly made the most of his touches and has earned additional opportunities. You don’t punish players for performing well. But it is also incumbent upon Coen to take a long look at how he is setting up White and whether it is for success or failure. He has preached “players over plays”

He clearly has not one, not two, but an entire Bucs offense that seems to do better when executing one scheme over another. But can he help the Bucs’ run game get out of the doldrums by simply committing to the style of run that has worked thus far? That will be the telling part of whether he can live up to his mantra.