All-Twenty Tuesday: Bucs’ Offensive Play Calls

In this week’s All-Twenty Tuesday segment, I’m going to breakdown three separate moments (drives), one from each of the Bucs’ games this season, identifying a point where their play call killed their own momentum.

We begin with Week 1. The Bucs were down 20-14 to the 49ers with 8:51 left in the fourth quarter.

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After climbing back from an ugly pick-6, the Bucs were just six points down on the scoreboard coming off a strong defensive series that forced a punt. With nearly nine minutes to go in the game, they found themselves in Niners territory to begin the drive. On 1st-and-10, Leftwich called a run up the middle to running back Ronald Jones.

This decision turned out to be a good one, as it was blocked very well – shout out to tight end Antony Auclair to seal the angle on 49ers defensive lineman Solomon Thomas – and resulted in an 9-yard gain.

The Bucs then ran another play with Jones up the middle and converted the first down.

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On their third play of the drive, now 1st-and-10 again, Leftwich called his third consecutive run play of the series. This one, again, was very successful and went for a 16-yard gain all the way to the 49ers 11-yard line.

This was perfect. Three straight run plays, two first downs and the ball just outside the 10-yard line. The playbook should have been wide open and the defense was likely seeing stars after getting punched in the mouth on the ground like that. Now they would have to allocate more players towards the line of scrimmage with eyes in the backfield, which should have opened up the play-action passing game perfectly.

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Okay, so no play-action on the next 1st-and-10. Instead it was their fourth run play in a row with the same running back. Not the worst thing in the world, as it gained five yards and they still had the defense in a vulnerable play-action state.

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Okay, how in the world was this another run play? The fifth run play in a row? It was 2nd-and-5 from the 6-yard line. The defense had eight people in the box, nine if you count the cornerback who was close enough to the line of scrimmage.

I understand the phrase, “if it ain’t broken don’t fix it.” That works in lower levels of football. If you’re in high school and your lead running back can’t be stopped, run him all day. The defense you’re playing likely isn’t good enough to adjust.

But in the NFL, all defenses will be good enough to adjust if you give them time to. The best offensive coordinators don’t run something until it doesn’t work. They run something that works and use the success of that play and the ones after to constantly stay one step ahead of the defensive coordinator to the point where the opposite side has no idea what’s coming next.

The Bucs’ conservative approach following their initial successful runs resulted in a sack on third down, a field goal that followed, but when the Niners marched down the field and kicked a field goal on their next drive, it rendered Tampa’s previous drive null.

It didn’t have to be that way.

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Four days later, the Bucs were facing the Carolina Panthers on Thursday Night Football. In the situation above, Tampa was down 6-3 with 3:47 left in the half starting the drive at their own 27-yard line.

The first play was a beautiful bomb down the sideline to wide receiver Mike Evans.

The Bucs had punted the ball on their last three possessions, so hitting that deep shot to Evans was important. It should have been a play that swung momentum in their favor, now in field goal range. But the play calls that followed did not capitalize on that.

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1st-and-10 at Carolina’s 31-yard line after a 41-yard pass the play before. How was this play not play-action? Or contain any deception at all?

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It’s 2nd-and-5 at Carolina’s 26-yard line. How in the WORLD was this not play-action against a single high safety look with essentially nine defenders in the box?

With two straight forward runs coming from two straight forward formations, the Bucs took all the momentum they had from Evans’ big catch and sucked it right out of the drive. Leftwich saw the three points, as they were in field goal range, and got comfortable – very conservative.

Now, the Bucs did score a touchdown on this drive in Carolina. They hit Brate on third down and then Godwin in the end zone two plays later. But this is a process-over-results thing for me, especially since I’ve seen the process fail them in surrounding weeks.

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Fast forward to the second half of last Sunday’s game against the Giants. The Bucs had given up 15 unanswered points in the blink of an eye to start the half, but the game had slowed down since then. There were four consecutive punts between the two teams, and Tampa Bay had the chance to really take control, then up only 28-25.

On the sixth play of a 19-yard drive shown above, on 3rd-and-5 – following two straight Barber runs on first and second down – Winston missed Evans over the middle for an interception.

Two plays later, Bucs pass rusher Shaq Barrett forced a fumble, so the Bucs took over relatively close to where they lost the ball and everything should’ve been fine.

But it wasn’t.

As if Leftich’s play-calling wasn’t conservative enough with momentum, after Winston threw that interception it got even worse. The Bucs proceeded to run the ball five times in a row before the play we’re about to watch below. Now, again, the run plays worked. They marched down the field well enough to get within the 10-yard line.

But, again, you cannot be as literal with the phrase “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” in the NFL. Instead you have to use what “ain’t broken” to your advantage to set up and compliment the rest of the offensive game – and that means a play-action pass. This allows you to elevate other areas of the offense while also keeping your strengths a strength.

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On 2nd-and-4, in a situation where a touchdown could have really put this game away with under eight minutes left in the fourth quarter, Leftwich called his sixth run play in a row.

How was this not play-action? You just ran the ball to varying success five times in a row. You have the defense right where you want them for any kind of RPO, play-action – any deception at all.

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On 3rd-and-2, Leftwich called his seventh run play in a row – the seventh run play since Winston threw his interception. If Evans runs a quick slant from the slant that’s an easy touchdown for Winston across the middle as the safety vacates the middle of the field.

If you’re going to call plays that scared when Winston throws a pick, just give Arians the headset right now. Winston is going to throw interceptions. It’s going to happen. What you can’t let happen after that is allowing them neuter an offense that was pretty explosive for much of the game.

Tampa Bay racked up 499 yards and put 31 points on the board with Winston throwing for 380 yards and three touchdowns. His long ball was on point all game, including his 44-yard shot to Evans in the last seconds of the game to try to set up a game-winning field goal.

The Bucs have run the ball well on many drives this season, but it hasn’t been used as a compliment. Instead it’s been run to the point where it has become predictable before the Bucs change it up.

The point of running the ball well should be to compliment the passing game. Right now Leftwich isn’t doing that. Instead he’s taking the emphasis of balance in the game plan and turning it into a fault.