6 Buccaneers who deserve blame after brutal 39-37 loss to Texans
By Josh Hill
Dave Canales
The Dave Canales honeymoon is officially over, and it might be time to head to marriage counseling.
Bucs fans were once again pulling their hair out watching the offense stunt its own momentum by turning back to the run game despite how well things in the passing game were going. Football dorks will insist that the pass game is useless without establishing the run game, but sometimes it's better to not overthink things.
That's the feeling everyone gets when Canales calls a run play to set up third-and-long or begins a drive by handing the ball off knowing full well the chance that play produces negative yards is pretty high. Five times the Bucs started drives by running the ball and none of those attempts went for more than 2 yards. Twice the Bucs ran the ball again after trying it on first down, only to set up a third and long situation.
As tough as it was to watch the run game, the worst play-calling sin Canales committed is perhaps his most fatal.
Entering the fourth quarter, Mike Evans and Chris Godwin had a combined 42 yards and just six targets between them. Evans eventually finished with 87 yards but 54 yards came on a bomb late in the fourth quarter and Evans got one more look the rest of the game.
How Canales can't find a way to scheme open his two best players remains a mystery of the universe. It's not a coincidence that when Evans starts cooking the Bucs offense finds a rhythm. It happened in the first two wins of the season and has not happened in every single loss Tampa Bay has suffered.
It's a special kind of frustration being felt by fans who have to consistently be subjected to watching two of the best wide receivers in the league be mere accessories in an offense that is hellbent on finding a way to make a non-existent run game work at their expense.