“Quit Running The Damn Ball”.
Joe will start this morning off with a cool story about how a coach, against his conscience, decided to mold an offense around his talent
There was a high school coach near Joe’s hometown. A rival school. The coach believed in “balanced” offense which is sort of an oxymoron in itself. He wanted to throw as much as he ran.
Problem was, he had no quarterback who could throw the ball (effectively). He also didn’t have a quick running back.
What this high school coach did have on his roster were beasts on his offensive line and a monster fullback (think a high school version of Mike Alstott). The coach thought to himself, “You know, we might be able to have a helluva offense if we ran a wishbone.”
Problem was, the high school coach thought the wishbone was the work of Satan. He loathed it. But, he had an open mind and an eye for talent.
So this coach went out, hired an offensive coordinator who had a background with wishbone offenses and told the guy, “You build a wishbone. I don’t want to know anything about it. I want nothing to do with it. I hate it, but it might be best for the team.”
What happened? That team won a state title. Yes, running the wishbone.
Joe brings up this story because of what he sees with the Bucs. The Bucs, since they returned from Munich last season, have demonstrated over and over and over and over again they cannot run the ball, despite forcing the run often.
What the Bucs can do is move the chains passing. And the Bucs have some very talented weapons in the passing game.
Below is a chart of what NFL receivers do when they find themselves in single coverage. As you can see, Bucs receiver Mike Evans is in a league of his own.
Now a creative offensive coach would find multiple ways and schemes in order to get Evans matched up in one-on-one coverage and get him the damn ball.
It’s getting to be crunch time in the NFL. It’s mid-November. It’s the time of the year when playoff teams begin to separate themselves from the chafe.
The Bucs, despite having a 4-5 record, are very much in the playoff hunt. But Joe fears that hunt will be fruitless if the Bucs continue to pound the ball. Crazy is when people do the same thing over and over and expect a different result.
It would be different if the Bucs were not in a playoff chase. Then yeah, if you believe constant running will at some point in the future develop a breakout run game, OK, keep pounding. What do you have to lose? The downside if it doesn’t work is you improve your draft status.
Currently, the downside to constant, repetitive running to nowhere means no playoffs. That gets the attention of people who pull the strings at the highest levels of One Buc Palace.
Sometimes, with this perpetual desire to run when you cannot run, Joe thinks Bucs coaches ought to go to some self-help group meeting called “Football Running Anonymous,” sit in a circle and when their names are called, stand up and say, “My name is (insert name) and I’m a runaholic.”
If a high school coach, against his full wishes, desires, DNA and soul, can be responsible and figure out what his offense is good at and utilize the talent he has, Joe fully expects NFL coaches to be able to do this as well.
As a Bucs fan yelled during the loss to the Dixie Chicks, “Quit running the damn ball!”
