Still has it.
Joe hopes Bucs coach Todd Bowles can similarly throw Houston’s offense like this.
Many Bucs fans, including Joe, understandably wonder what happened to the Bucs’ run game last Sunday at Atlanta.
Bucky Irving only had 37 yards. Shoot, Bucs quarterback Baker Mayfield had a game-high 39 yards rushing. That’s not ideal. But hey, a win is a win. Eat a W!
If you think the Bucs had a tough time getting the run game in gear, imagine what the poor Dixie Chicks must feel.Atlanta had a grand total of 39 yards rushing.
Atlanta quarterback Michael Penix was four yards shy of leading the Dixie Chicks in running. And he’s not a runner like Mayfield can be.
And yes, one of the best backs in the league, Atlanta’s Bijan Robinson, was healthy.
Per D. Orlando Ledbetter of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Robinson said the defense Bowles crafted for Atlanta totally caught the Dixie Chicks by surprise and Atlanta spent most of the game trying to scheme up their offense to counter it.
In short, Bowles rendered Atlanta’s gameplan useless.
“They came out in a look that we haven’t seen,” Bijan Robinson said. “Our playbook got shorter, and we were trying to run other plays to outscheme them. We prepared for something completely different. It wasn’t about effort or anything like that. We were just outmatched in that game.”
Just when Joe starts to wonder what kind of craftsman Bowles is with defense, because Joe is so frustrated with the Bucs’ pass defense, along comes a game like last Sunday to demonstrate that Bowles sure knows what he is doing against the run.
Hopefully, Bowles can pull off a like-minded trick against Nick Chubb on Monday night.
Here is the video of Bijan Robinson saying the Falcons rushing attack was "outmatched" against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers last week. pic.twitter.com/wSEOyhGAb1
— Evan Closky (@ECloskyWTSP) September 13, 2025