Thoughts From the Morning After…

Before we kick off our mid-season report with the quarterbacks and running backs, let’s look back at the border-line debacle that was the Bucs 27-16 loss to the Saints. I say borderline debacle because at one point it looked like the Bucs may be headed towards another San Francisco-style rout, before they made it look respectable at the end of the game.

This was not the Buccaneers best effort, they came out sloppy, they lacked focus and they didn’t have any of the killer instinct that is required to win an NFL division, especially one as competitive as the NFC South. While I don’t think that the Bucs are in deep trouble yet, they certainly put their backs up against the wall and there were more than a few questionable tendencies that reared their heads on Sunday.

I’ve already touched on the lack of discipline the team played with. And while that issue permeates a lot of the other ones, there was more wrong on Sunday than just some undisciplined football. Right now Tampa needs to decide who they want to be, whether they want to be a solid club that can go 9-7 or 8-8 and feel like they’re building or whether they want to move up a level in the NFL hierarchy and start to play like an experienced group of veterans. This Bucs team is the youngest in football again this year, but they are far from the least experienced.

Play-Calling

I hate to be knee-jerk and call for a coordinator’s head or anything, and that is not what I’m doing here, but Greg Olson needs to step it up a little bit. I’m not going to blame him for the seeming lack of progression out of several of the Bucs big-name guys in their second years, but I will blame him for the fact that the offense at times seems unimaginative, uninspired and far from potent.

Think about this, Josh Freeman plays his best football out of a no-huddle, two-minute offense. That’s a huge bonus for the Buccaneers but it’s hardly a great way to run an offense. Yesterday Raheem Morris said the team went away from the run because they had to go into the two minute offense with 8 minutes left in the 4th. That means all day with Olson calling plays the Bucs accomplished nothing and then when they get into hurry-up mode and the team could just rely on its athleticism and go make plays, suddenly they started making plays.

It’s beginning to look as though Olson may be holding this Buccaneers offense back. He’s not the only culprit, obviously the Bucs hurt themselves with penalties and mental errors regularly as well, but it isn’t good when your team functions better when the offensive coordinator becomes less involved.

What Script?

Consider this, the Buccaneers had two weeks to prepare for this Saints game. I know that Tracy Porter’s injury stopped the game for a while on the first drive, but a three and out is not what you are looking for.

Almost every team scripts their first drive and has the first 12-15 plays it will run called and prepared ahead of time. It’s a common practice. The goal being to come out and set the tempo by putting points on the board. This is honestly one of my favorite parts of football. A good team executing well on their opening drive is like a well-oiled machine. All the parts move efficiently and the ball goes where it’s supposed to go. It can force you to challenge your preconceptions about a game or a team. Sometimes it’s a 12 play, 80-yard drive, sometimes it’s a five play, 60 yarder, but you can tell because everything looks like it was drawn up perfectly.

The Bucs have now scored a total of three points on their opening drive, those came in week one against Detroit and  they were courtesy of a 78-yard kick return. So the Bucs are technically 1-8 when it comes to scoring on their opening drive. Which is supposed to be scripted.

Part of it is the Bucs typically do get off to a slow start. But seemingly more often than not their best offensive production comes out of necessity late in games. It’s too early to say. And I am not calling for a change in coordinators yet. But I frankly think depending on how the rest of the year plays out, the Bucs may look at a change in play-callers down the line.