Talks offense.
Mere hours after the Lions’ defense seal-clubbed the Bucs offense before the eyes of the nation on _Monday Night Football_, Todd Bowles saie he thinks changes will and should come to the offense.
Not necessarily personnel changes, though Bowles said offensive coordinator Josh Grizzard is going to have to embrace life without Mike Evans.
That’s one change.
What was once temporary will now have to be permanent, at least until Christmastime.
> “He’s definitely going to have to do that,” Bowles said of crafting an offense without Evans. “But we’ve been doing it the past couple weeks since he’s been out so it’s kind of the norm right now, unfortunately.
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> “When you lose somebody like that, it’s always going to affect your offense and you’re going to have to change and do different things.”
And it seemed Bowles wasn’t exactly happy with how the offensive gameplan worked out. He seemed to suggest Grizzard should have been a bit more diverse in his playcalling.
> “Patience,” Bowles said the Bucs offense needed last night. “Every game is going to be different – just patience. If your quarterback is not on and not going, you’ve got to help him out with either the run game or screen passes.”
Joe doesn’t know if either of those were working or would have worked. The Lions owned the line of scrimmage. There is not a lot an offense can do when that happens.
So Joe is OK with Grizzard targeting the depleted Lions secondary. That was a mismatch. People really think running at Aidan Hutchinson or Alim McNeill was a smarter move?
> “When you have to protect, you have to do different things and chip,” Bowles explained. “If the running game isn’t going from a power standpoint, we’ve got to try to get on the edge – just different tips.”
Now that Joe agrees with.
Joe thought priot to last night why not use Mayfield’s mobility and mix in an RPO or two or use a pitch to Rachaad White to try to get outside? How about some rollouts with Mayfield?
Bowles noted Grizzard is still in his infancy calling plays.
> “He’s going to learn each week – whether he scores 40 points or 10 points – he’s going to learn different things each week that he can put in his arsenal and get better at next week,” Bowles said.
Joe doesn’t think the maor problem was Grizzard. The problem was the Lions simply beat up the Bucs physically every which way when the Bucs were on offense.
The Bucs’ offense simply got whipped. Lick your wounds and get better. And get healthier!