7 winners (and 3 losers) from Bucs blowout Wild Card win over Eagles
By Josh Hill
Winner: Bucs Run Game
For all the good Dave Canales did on Monday, nothing might top what he was able to do with the Buccaneers run game.
His undying desire to establish a run game has been a source of frustration all season for Bucs fans, mostly because it wasn't working. Despite making key changes this offseason, the run game was somehow worse than it was last year -- which was at the bottom of the league.
We thought it couldn't get any worse, yet somehow it did. That all changed in the Wild Card game as Tampa Bay averaged 4.1 yards per carry, which is night and day from where things were during the season. Rachaad White was running all over the Eagles defense and the Bucs offensive line was setting blocks we thought it wasn't capable of based on all we saw during the year.
Tampa Bay averaged under 85 yards per game at home this year and just 3.3 yards per carry -- both ranked last in the league. Against Philly in the Wild Card, the Bucs rushed for 119 yards and found chunk yardage runs to get the offense flowing the way Dave Canales always imagined.
Maybe it's not the way things will be every week, but the run game that had been the bane of Bucs fan's existence all season finally figured it out when it mattered most.