Tampa Bay Buccaneers Statistical Roundup, Part 1: A Look Back the 2013 Bucs By the Numbers
By Leo Howell
Dec 8, 2013; Tampa, FL, USA; Tampa Bay Buccaneers outside linebacker Lavonte David (54) against the Buffalo Bills during the first quarter at Raymond James Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
Now that the dust has settled from the 2013 NFL regular season, and the Buccaneers are finding tee times at local golf courses, it’s time to start looking back at the season that was for Tampa Bay.
Over the course of the offseason, we’ll take a look back at every position and consider the best and worst moments for almost every player on the roster. But to begin our offseason coverage, here is a look at some of the statistics from the Buccaneers’ 2013 campaign.
Overall Offensive Rankings
The Buccaneers finished as the worst offense in football, coming in almost 17 yards per game below the next best team, the Jacksonville Jaguars. The Jaguars and the Buccaneers were the only two teams to finish below 300 total yards of offense per game.
The main culprit for the Tampa Bay offense was the passing game, which gained only 176.3 yards per game, dead last in the league. And while most of the teams near the Buccaneers at the bottom of the passing rankings (the Jets, 49ers, Panthers and Bills) all have powerful rushing attacks, the Buccaneers finished with just over 100 yards rushing per game, which ranks 22nd in the league.
All told, those yardage numbers led to an offense which scored 16.7 points per game.
But yardage statistics can often be deceiving. So how did the Buccaneers’ offense fare using advanced statistics?
According to Football Outsiders, the Buccaneers ranked 24th in offensive efficiency. The passing game ranked 22nd, while the rushing attack finished 26th.
Football analytics website numberFire wasn’t quite as kind, ranking the Buccaneer offense 29th in their NFL team rankings.
So the analytics reveal an offense that isn’t quite as bad as the total numbers indicate, but it’s still quite clear that the offense held the Buccaneers back in 2013.
Overall Defensive Rankings
The numbers were a bit better on the defensive side of the football for the Bucs in 2013.
The defense finished 17th, giving up 348 yards per game. That’s thanks to a pass defense which ranked 17th at 237.9 yards per game, and a rushing defense which finished 15th at 110.1 yards per game.
The Tampa Bay defense was as average as can be when considering these numbers, but with the offense as poor as it was, the defense was put in a bad spot quite often. As a result, the 24.3 points the defense allowed per game were 21st in the NFL.
The defensive analytics tell a different story.
Football Outsiders rank the Buccaneers as the eighth best defense in the NFL, ahead of the Chiefs, Jets and 49ers among others. That’s thanks to an 11th ranked passing defense and a rushing defense ranked seventh.
The numbers at numberFire aren’t quite as favorable, but they still have the Buccaneers as the 15th best defense in the league.
The play of the defense is the most encouraging aspect of the 2013 Buccaneers, and the Football Outsiders data points to an efficient defense held back by a horrible offense.
We’ll look at the individual performances of some of the Buccaneers on offense and defense as the offseason continues to roll on.