Bucs OC Josh Grizzard.
Thursday at One Buc Palace was the first day since the Bucs lost to the Lions that Bucs offensive coordinator Josh Grizzard had a chance to speak with the local and mic club.
After the game, and yesterday, Bucs coach Todd Bowles groused about how Grizzard, who is building his eighth NFL gameplan in his football coaching career, has to learn patience and lean more on the run.
Grizzard admitted yesterday that throwing the ball 50 times — which is the number of times Bucs quarterback Baker Mayfield put the ball in the air — is just too damn much.
“Yeah, 50 throws in a game cannot happen,” Grizzard said. “It’s got to be through leaning on the run, trusting the run, and sticking to that – especially in the first half – being able to establish it.
“Once you got into the fourth quarter and it was, what, 13–14 minutes left and it essentially turned into a two-minute drill, then you’re really forced to throw it. If we can handle [moving the ball on the ground] earlier on and keep that [game] closer, that way we can now turn the fourth quarter into having an opportunity to run some of them, I think it evens the game out a little bit.”
Grizzard either had a talking-to or he got the talking points down: Run good, even though the Bucs were running to nowhere.
Joe doesn’t have a problem with Grizzard’s gameplan: Expose the mismatch the Bucs had, even without Mike Evans. And that was attack the backups in the Lions secondary.
Problem though, the line of scrimmage was dominated by the Lions. Joe would much rather Sterling Shepard take on some scrub than the Bucs run Rachaad White or Sean Tucker right into Alim McNeill or Aidan Hutchinson.
Throwing 50 times is fine, so long as it is working. And given how Mayfield was off all night, in part due to getting passes batted down, Joe doesn’t think anything the Bucs could have done Monday night would have helped, run or throw.
If an offense is owned at the line, the game is close to over before it gets started.