All-Twenty Tuesday: Bucs On Third Down

In this week’s All-Twenty Tuesday portion of the Cover 3, I wanted to look at every third down the Bucs attempted against the Ravens.

The Bucs went 3-for-10 (30 percent) on third down that game, a percentage that won’t cut it in just about any contest. Let’s see what went wrong.

On the first third down of the game, the Bucs attempt didn’t go their way.

This was on their first series of the game, and after a first down run by Peyton Barber and a missed touchdown throw via a drop by Chris Godwin, Tampa Bay ran a short pass play to Adam Humphries to get the team in the position we see above.

Third-and-3 should be pretty manageable, but tight coverage and extra pressure from the Ravens not only got the offensive line skittish, but rattled Jameis Winston a bit, too. He probably didn’t have to run that far up in the pocket, but it was just three yards and he was likely trying to scramble for it.

No dice.

The next third down attempt was a successful one, and it’s pretty self-explanatory.

After two straight runs by Barber to get the Bucs in third-and-1, a late push on the quarterback sneak by Winston gave them the yardage thy needed to move the chains.

The Bucs haven’t been known for sneaks with Winston much before this season. It seems they’re more open to it, as of late, which is good since it has a pretty high conversion rate.

On the same drive in which the quarterback sneak was successful, the Bucs didn’t have the same luck on their next third down attempt.

Winston missed Mike Evans for first downs on each of the previous two throws before this play. The first Evans must have just misjudged in the rain. The second went right through Evans’ hands, also likely due to the rain.

In the play above, Winston was once again heavily pressured. The delayed blitz from the Ravens was not accounted for, and Winston had to get rid of the ball before the route he wanted to throw to could develop enough to get the necessary 10 yards.

When the Bucs didn’t have Barber running well on a series, things just fell apart. After an 11-yard run by Barber to set up the next set of down, the Bucs tried a swing pass to Ronald Jones which went for negative yards, and then a screen to Humphries only went for three yards after that.

So on third-and-long (again), Winston had to deal with delayed pressure, but this time he got the time needed to make the throw. The only thing was, Cameron Brate didn’t do a good job of sitting in the soft spot in the zone and kept running his route, which went right into a defender.

I don’t know if Brate didn’t have the option to stop the route there or what, but the defender read it well enough to make the play when Brate continued to drive over.

On the Bucs next series, they once again tried to get Barber involved early and often. They started with a pass to him out of the backfield, but it went for a minimal gain. Then they tried to give it to him on the ground, which only got a few yards and set up a third-and-five.

On that play, the Ravens went real aggressive with press coverage and Cover 1 almost all in man defense. The result was a beautiful back shoulder pass to Evans down the sideline.

This next third down play isn’t much to write about. The Bucs receivers couldn’t separate, but they got bailed out by a penalty on Baltimore.

However, before that, with the ball at the 10-yard line, the Bucs went run and then another run.

What?

Y’all have to be more aggressive than that, Buccaneers.

They also have to think that they know they’re not just going to exclusively call run plays for the next 10 yards. One has to know the Ravens would clamp it down, at some point. And the Bucs also had to know that the closer they get to the goal line the less space they have when you do decide to throw. So isn’t throwing the ball on first down with the ball at the 10-yard line and two more chances after that the most ideal thing to do? And even then on second down wouldn’t that be even more so the case?

Not a fan of that set up.

First down, incomplete. Second down, a 16-yard catch by Godwin that was called back due to holding. And on third down, well, you all saw it.

Jameis Freaking Winston.

What a play.

In reality, one of the receivers should have been working their way back to Winston once he got outside. But it worked out in the best way, even though they didn’t.

Following the bomb to Evans, the Bucs had the ball at the Baltimore 10-yard line thanks to an additional face mask penalty on the Ravens. They ran the ball again on first-and-10 at the 10-yard line, but they got away with it as Barber gain seven yards. They ran it again after that and he only gained one yards.

So the play above is Tampa Bay throwing on third-and-2 from the 3-yard line – whatever. Winston should have gone to Rodgers on his left, but pressure from that area didn’t allow him to look back there long enough in his progressions. After that he just held it too long and no receiver could find space.

This was the first third down attempt of the second half, and things really started to go downhill from here.

After a nice set of downs that got them to midfield, and unsuccessful run by Barber and a missed pass to Jones left the Bucs in third-and-7. In it, as shown above, the Ravens deployed that same kind of Cover 1 man coverage with press coverage technique that Winston and Evans connected on before when he threw that back shoulder pass. This time around, the defender disrupted Evans too much at the line of scrimmage and messed up the timing between them. Winston then threw a ball that didn’t give Evans a chance.

So after the Ravens fumbled the punt return, after the Bucs couldn’t cover the previous third down, they were in prime position for some points. They started this set of down by running the ball again at the 14-yard line – WHY? Then they tried a “pick play” that was called back, but a big catch by Evans to follow set them up in the third-and-5 we see above.

The Ravens played this one well, but Winston missed the more open receiver. He looked Humphries way first, but when he saw the safety sprint down on him, his next look should have been to Evans, who then had the open space in the end zone. Instead he got away from that area of the field and forced a more difficult throw to Godwin.

The final third down attempt of the game for the Buccaneers. Third-and-1 with it all on the line as Tampa Bay was trailing by one score – eight points.

It was a great jump on the snap and a swim move by the interior defensive lineman – but man, that just cannot happen. That showed you which team wanted to win it more – it wasn’t the Bucs. That’s a theme we’ve seen lately. One yard to go with the game on the line? That’s a gut check moment. They have to be able to pick it up, and at the very least, Tampa Bay has to be able to go for it on fourth down with just inches to go, if anything.

Overall, the Bucs once again just could not separate from the Ravens defenders all game long on third down. I though the play-calling was pretty suspect in the red zone, especially with how much they wanted to run when space only gets harder when you do that. Winston wasn’t the best, but he wasn’t bad, either.

Three-for-10 won’t cut it, and unfortunately for the Buccaneers, as has been the case the entire season, it was also just something not working together as the game went on. Things rarely totally went their way in terms of the calls and the execution of them.

It’s just a team that can’t gel for extended periods of time. Tampa Bay can’t play a solid four quarters.