All-Twenty Tuesday: Bucs’ Opening Drive

For this week’s All-Twenty Tuesday – which is technically a lie since there is no All-22 for preseason games – we’re going to take a look at all 12 plays of the Buccaneers’ opening drive against the Steelers that resulted in a touchdown. These are the first dozen plays that Byron Leftwich called in his new role as the offensive coordinator in Tampa Bay.

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The first play was a run play out of 12 personnel (one running back and two tight ends) with Peyton Barber in at running back. It seemed like a common run play, but it was a little more than that.

The blocking concept on this play is called “split zone.” In it, the offensive line moved to the right in unison while the tight end in motion moved across the line of scrimmage in the opposite direction to act as a lead blocker.

I liked this idea, as split zone concepts are one of my favorite blocking concepts in today’s game. However, Cameron Brate, as a tight end who is more of a receiver than a blocker, looked hesitant when hitting the running lane as the lead blocker. This hesitation caused Barber to be tackled for minimal gain. I like the concept. I just needed to see more confidence from Brate as a blocker.

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The second play was pretty simple. The Bucs had a trio of receiving options to the right side of the play with Chris Godwin, Breshad Perriman and O.J. Howard all in a tight triangle. The Steelers were in a Cover 3 zone defense and Jameis Winston as able to attack the sideline knowing there was cushion from the outside cornerbacks.

A good read from Winston in the pre-snap to know where the ball could go quickly, and a good play call to dial up a quick out route to Perriman as the hot read for the first down.

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On the Bucs’ third play, Winston went through a bevy of progression reads before settling in on his target. Winston’s eyes started on the left side of the field, likely looking for Mike Evans trying to win to the sideline. But it appeared the cornerback had a good bead on what route it might have been, so Winston had to move on and dump the ball off to Barber.

This play from Leftwich had multiple layers to it that were well timed so that, as Winston went through each progression, their routes were breaking at that time.

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The next play was another run (the Bucs ran six run plays and six pass plays during their 12-play drive).

It was yet again another zone blocking concept, this time to the left. The Bucs struggled with zone concepts last season, so seeing them more confident and willing to make it happen this early is encouraging.

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Ah, the deep ball.

This was Winston’s lone miss of the drive, but it is certainly one worth noting, and one that carries importance to it.

Though I believe head coach Bruce Arians and Leftwich will design and call plays to help Winston with more passes over the middle, as well as quick passes on easier routes, he is still going to have to hit passes like the one above in every game if they are going to win.

It is tough to hit deep shots like the one above when the cornerbacks are in off coverage Cover 3 because they are likely going to stay stride-for-stride with the receiver much longer due to the cushion (or head start). But Perriman has a good amount of speed to him and Winston took the shot.

It wasn’t a bad decision, as Perriman did end up getting some separation at the very end, Winston just put it a little too far in front of him.

A miss, but not the worst kind, as it didn’t result in an interception.

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The Bucs followed up their deep shot with a run, which I’m not generally a fan of, but it’s the preseason, so I don’t know how much of a tendency that will be.

In this play, the Bucs ran a single-back Power run play with pulling guard Alex Cappa – a staple of football. What I liked about the execution of this play was that the 3-tech defensive tackle was blocked well enough for left guard Ali Marpet to get to the second level quickly off the double team.

The two main components of a power blocking scheme are: a pulling lineman used as a lead blocker and a double team on the play side defensive tackle. The goal here is to push the closest defensive tackle back by overpowering him with two blockers, then releasing one of the blocker to the second level to pick up a linebacker at the same time the guard is pulling through the running lane in a lead blocking role to take the other linebacker.

When blocked well, it can yield some very nice ground game returns.

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The Bucs continued to attack the Steelers off coverage defense with plays to the outside, converting this third down with a pass to Godwin.

The Steelers cornerbacks were playing outside leverage (meaning they were wanting the wide receivers to go to the outside), which they did and it resulted in a first down.

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Knowing the Steelers would likely get aggressive after being picked on in Cover 3 so much, the Bucs called a screen to the running back.

Now, the Steelers weren’t as aggressive as the Bucs thought they would be (maybe because it’s just preseason), but the play still yielded a decent result because of how well the offense sold the fake and held onto the ball. Ronald Jones picked up five yards.

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I thought Winston’s scramble play was great. Arians said afterwards that he wants Winston to throw that ball in those situations where he keeps his eyes down the field. But for those of us who have watched Winston for years, this play – mainly him just not throwing a pass that has a higher turnover rate than completion rate – was nice to see.

I still think Winston kept his eyes up field for a decent amount of time, so his decision to tuck and run was fine with me. I’ll also admit that i didn’t have All-22 for this one, so maybe there was something he should’ve seen downfield that you can’t see from the broadcast angle.

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Leftwich followed up the Winston run with an easy play for his quarterback to command: a hand off up the middle to Jones, who had a nice gain. This continued the balanced flow of the first drive that was then well established.

The play above was a man blocking concept where there was a double team on the nose tackle and a release by the center to the next level. That’s something I noticed the Bucs first team offensive line did well on Friday. They were able to execute combo blocks and get to the next level with ease and good timing. Also, look at the nasty finish by Cappa at the end of the play. He’s making big strides in his second year.

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This play was Jones’ best play of the day, and honestly it could have been even better.

RoJo has been having a great training camp, and this play shows what kind of confidence he has gained. The Bucs once again ran a man blocking concept than was pretty straight forward – just my man being better than your man. If Jones would have cut up the field to meet that safety sooner, he might have been able to break that one for a touchdown.

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The final play of the game was one we would not have seen much of, if at all, from Diek Koetter’s play book.

It was a wide receiver screen where the main blocking components came from the offensive line swinging out, not the wide receivers. Last year you’d often see them try to get the ball to former receiver Adam Humphries with two tight ends at the sideline as the main blockers. In this play, they let the linemen be the blockers (imagine!).

Though this play was not blocked to perfection, it involved getting the ball in the hands of a playmaker quickly and Godwin made the play. I don’t think there was enough of that in Koetter’s offense. Over the last two years I believe the Bucs relied too heavily on Winston’s arm.

It doesn’t always have to be that way. Sometimes it’s just a matter of letting your playmakers make plays. That’s what it seems like Leftwich is trying to do as the new play designer and play-caller.

It’s not all on Winston, nor should be.

And Leftwich, a former first-round QB knows that.