The Bucs offense went from bad to worse in the span of one week, as Tampa Bay lost to a second one-win team in Carolina on Sunday, 21-3. This on the heels of losing, 20-18, at Pittsburgh last week.

Bucs offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich has come under fire – and deservedly so – for a Tampa Bay offense that has clearly regressed from a year ago when it was scoring 30 points per game. Prior to Sunday’s debacle in Carolina, the Bucs were averaging 20 points per game – a 10-point drop off from the 2021 season.

Bucs QB Tom Brady and OC Byron Leftwich – Photo by: USA Today

Now, after scoring just three points against the Panthers, they’re averaging a ridiculous 17.7 points per game. This is an offense that is led by seven-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady, and outside of a 41-31 loss to the Chiefs in Week 4, Tampa Bay has scored 20 points or more just twice. The first time was in a 20-10 win over the Saints in Week 2, and the second came in a 21-15 win over the Falcons in Week 5.

Yet, after Sunday’s loss that dropped the Bucs to 3-4 on the season and marked their fourth loss in the last five games, head coach Todd Bowles said that he wouldn’t be making any coaching changes.

“I will not consider changing coaching, but I will consider what we’re doing,” Bowles said. “We definitely need to change some of the things we’re doing. We’ve been discussing that. It can’t happen over night, but we’ve got to do a lot better than what we’ve been doing as a whole.”

Bucs OC Leftwich Is Safe – For Now

Bucs OC Byron Leftwich and HC Todd Bowles – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Bowles might have a change of heart on Monday after watching the film and thinking about a change at play-caller, where Leftwich has come under fire from Bucs fans and some in the media for his predictable play-calling and the ineptitude on offense. Leftwich has served as the team’s play-caller since 2019, and there are several key pieces missing on offense from a year ago.

Future Hall of Fame tight end Rob Gronkowski and Pro Bowl left guard Ali Marpet retired this offseason. Pro Bowl center Ryan Jensen has been injured since training camp and Hall of Fame-caliber receiver Antonio Brown quit on the team last year and is out of football. As a result, the Bucs have relied on several rookies and new players on offense, and the offense has been a shell of its former self.

Quarterbacks coach Clyde Christensen is the only position coach with play-calling experience at the NFL level. The 66-year old Christensen first called plays in Tampa Bay in 2001 in the last year of the Tony Dungy regime. He was Dungy’s offensive coordinator in Indianapolis from 2009-11, and then he held that title again in Miami from 2016-17. Christensen has been the Bucs’ quarterbacks coach since 2019 and has the best rapport with Brady out of anyone on the staff.

The Bucs seemed to have some more success moving the ball with 11 personnel (one running back, one tight end and three receiver sets) than 12 personnel (one back, two tight ends, two receivers) in Carolina. Leftwich has used a lot of 12 personnel this year, with little success to show for it.

“I don’t know if we had success in 11 (personnel) either,” Bowles said. “We only scored three points. I can’t sit here and say we had success in 11 personnel. We try to mix things up as much as we can and try to move some things around and do some things and I don’t think any of it worked.”

None of it did work, and time will tell if Leftwich is the sacrificial lamb for the incompetence on the Bucs offense. But as of Sunday night, Bowles wasn’t planning on firing him or anyone else on the staff.

That may change in time.