While the Bucs had their struggles on both sides of the ball in their 20-6 loss to the Lions at home on Sunday, the most glaring negative was Tampa Bay’s offense being unable to keep the team in the game. Tampa Bay did not reach the end zone on Sunday, managing to kick only two field goals on the evening.

Offensive coordinator Dave Canales has mostly received praise this season for his offensive scheme and upbeat attitude during the team’s 3-1 start, but he understandably came under much scrutiny for this latest offensive output. Canales is a first-year player caller that is still working out some of the kinks. Head coach Todd Bowles understands that it may take a little more time for the work-in-progress offense to come together, and his confidence in Canales hasn’t wavered because of Sunday’s performance.

“It’s not just going to be for him the first time, it’s going to be every year as a play-caller, regardless of whether it’s your first time or not,” Todd Bowles said of Bucs offensive coordinator Dave Canales, a first-time play-caller. “You’re going to learn some things and you going to go through some things and you’re going to have some great games and you going to have some clunkers. We had a clunker yesterday. Dave is a very smart guy, very positive guy. I believe in him 100%, the offense believes in him 100%, and we’re going to be fine.”

The Bucs had hoped to see better progress from the offense this year as it was what held back Tampa Bay recently. Through five games that progress has been minimal at best as the Bucs have averaged 18 points per game this season.

Tampa Bay failed to score a touchdown for the first time all season. In a league with several high-powered offenses it’s very difficult to win in this league settling for field goals without scoring touchdowns. Even though the Bucs defense held the 5-1 Lions scoring 10 points less than their season average, the offense didn’t do enough in the loss.

On Monday Bucs head coach Todd Bowles indicated that the offense is not where it needs to be from a productivity and scoring perspective to play against top NFC teams like the Lions.

“No it’s not, and we’ll get better at it,” Bowles said. “I mean, like you said, it’s five games in and we had a clunker yesterday. No doubt about that. You want to score touchdowns in this league. We didn’t score touchdowns and we’ll get better at it. We’ll work at it and we’ll get better at it.”

Of the specifics for why the offense has struggled, the first thing you can point out to is the run game. The Bucs managed only 46 yards on the ground with an average of 2.9 yard per attempt against the Lions’ run defense, which is now ranked first in the league. Anytime the ball was run up the middle it was met immediately by a Lions defender for a small gain – if not in a loss in the backfield.

Tampa Bay’s offensive line has actually done a great job pass blocking this season, but the run blocking has been a different story.

“We’re not getting it done,” Bowles said. “Sometimes it’s a technique thing sometimes we miss a block here and there. As a group we got to do a better job.”

Another story within the run game has been how the Bucs have divided up the carries. Starter Rachaad White didn’t have anything to boast about with seven rushes for 26 yards. But that pales in comparison to backup running back Ke’Shawn Vaughn, who had one less carry and a paltry nine rushing yards, coming in at 1.5 yards per attempt. Earlier in the season Sean Tucker was RB2, but then the Bucs made the change to Vaughn in that role prior to the Monday Night Football game against the Eagles in Week 3.

Bowles explained why Vaughn has been getting the reps over Tucker.

“He had a good week of practice, a good couple weeks,” Bowles said. ‘Sean got a couple plays in the game. We wanted to see Ke’Shawn more, he’s taking advantage of his opportunities. It’ll probably flip flop like that the entire season. We’ll see.”

A discussion in the passing game that’s come about is whether or not Mike Evans and Chris Godwin have been involved enough. Godwin led the way on Sunday with six catches for 77 yards, but many of those plays occurred later on when the Lions were pulling away. Evans had a bad drop early and a bad penalty, recording four catches for 49 yards in the game after being held without a catch at halftime.

Do they need to be involved even more, considering they’re the best two offensive players? Bowles responded by identifying that it’s something they need to work on.

“It’s easier said than done,” Bowles said. You want to feature the right guys but you also want to include everybody as well. I think we can expand on that and we will.”