Losing to the New England Patriots, Buffalo Bills, and Los Angeles Rams in quick succession was bad enough, as those three defeats to Super Bowl contenders proved that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers were not at that level of class - at least, not yet.
But now that the Buccaneers have lost three games in a row to NFC South foes the New Orleans Saints, Atlanta Falcons, and Carolina Panthers, people are starting to wonder if the Bucs were ever even good at all. And so much of the blame for that has to go down to the coaching staff, as the Buccaneers have all the marks of a team that is poorly coached.
Todd Bowles is obviously the main culprit at the top of the mountain, but he is not the only issue here. Offensive coordinator Josh Grizzard has been a massive downgrade on Liam Coen, who is currently putting Bowles to shame over in Jacksonville with the playoff bound Jaguars.
Josh Grizzard reached a new low
Grizzard sunk to a new low in the loss to Carolina, as David Canales and the Panthers completely carved him up. He put together the most pedantic, ineffective play calling many of us have ever seen at the NFL level, and the stats back it up. And no stats back it up more than the stats produced by the elite wide receiver pairing of Mike Evans and Chris Godwin.
These two superstar receivers have done it all and won a Super Bowl together. Grizzard used them in a way that was inept on a historic scale. As Greg Auman of FOX Sports points out, in the 95 games Evans has had in his career with at least five catches, he never produced fewer than the 31 yards he did last Sunday against Carolina. And the same went for Godwin. In his 73 career games with five receptions or more, Godwin never had fewer yards than he did on Sunday with 30.
That is embarrassing. Grizzard's Brian Schottenheimer cosplaying of running on every first down was bad enough against the Panthers and doomed Tampa Bay, but then turning Baker Mayfield into Checkdown Charlie and having his best wide receivers run Jarvis Landry or Jerricho Cotchery lite routes in the first of two do or die games for the division is just awful. It is straight up coaching malpractice, and, honestly, full credit to Evans and Baker Mayfield for not blowing up and throwing this guy under the whole bus.