The Tampa Bay Buccaneers struggled in all phases of the game in their 23-20 loss to the Carolina Panthers in Week 16.
However, an area that particularly pained them was first down.
The offense had 26 first-down plays, and outside of Rachaad White’s 39-yard run, no other play went further than six yards. Their other 25 plays gained just 56 total yards, for an underwhelming 2.24 yards per play. Baker Mayfield was just 6-for-8 for 19 yards on his first-down pass attempts.
Speaking to the media Monday following the loss, Bucs head coach Todd Bowles did his best to explain the lack of production.
Todd Bowles explains Buccaneers' lack of first-down success against Panthers
“It's not by design,” Bowles said. “We're always trying to get first downs. Obviously, some of the things they did kind of stymied some of the things we did, whether it was run or pass. At the same time, we’ve got to move the ball more efficiently on first down.”
The problem is that the Bucs rarely passed the ball on first down. Of their 26 plays, just 8 of them were passes. At some point, smart defensive coordinators are going to pick up on that and adjust the defense accordingly. Unfortunately, it seemed offensive coordinator Josh Grizzard had no answers for the adjustment as he ran it 18 times.
Bowles was asked if he senses that teams have started to pick up on those tendencies and either game plan for it or adjust to it during games
“[It] depends on what's working,” Bowles said. “If they're running the ball and it's successful, then you keep at it. If it's not successful, then it's going to be difficult for you.”
Unfortunately, this isn’t the Bucs' first time dealing with a lack of production on first down, especially on running plays. These issues and the inability to gain a yard or two when you “got to have it” go all the way back to when Byron Leftwich was the offensive coordinator. They were present with Dave Canales, and are present with Grizzard.
Part of the issue is personnel, and that’s on Jason Licht and the front office, but a big part is execution. That falls on the players. They knew coming into the game, the plan was to run the ball, and while they totaled over 160 yards on the ground as a team, the offensive line, especially the interior, needed to do a better job at pushing the pile.
Bowles said on Monday that while they mentioned wanting to get close to 30 rushing attempts, that wasn’t the reason for the abundant first-down calls. He added that it was a game plan that worked for them last season, and they wanted to have a balanced attack.
“We didn't have to get [to 30 rushing attempts],” Bowles said. “We wanted to. It was a formula for us that worked last year. Last year we had 41 and 38 rushes against them. When you win the game, it's different; when you lose the game, we were right there…We did everything we wanted to do. We controlled every category except for the turnover battle at the end and we lost the ball game. So, we try to get the ball to our stars, but at the same time, we try to establish the run game and make it balanced as well.”
It’s kind of contradictory of Bowles, who often says, and I’m paraphrasing, “last year's team is last year's team, and what they did last year doesn’t matter.” And while Mayfield’s turnover was the deciding factor, it was not the reason they lost. Inability to adapt and adjust to what wasn’t working was the offense’s ultimate downfall.