Short-Yardage Defense
July 14th, 2026
Strong (short-yardage) defense.
Bucs coach Todd Bowles has never shied away from his defensive goal: Stop the run first, last and always.
Joe could argue Bowles’ Achilles heel as a coach is his pass defense. Only once since Bowles arrived in Tampa Bay in 2019 has his pass defense finished ranked above No. 20. That’s likely because he puts so much emphasis into stopping the run.
And while the Bucs’ defense last year was sad overall — allowing the second-most points scored in the fourth quarter really is inexcusable — the Bucs’ short-yardage defense was outstanding.
As documented by Alex Blickle of Aaron Schatz’s FTN Football Almanac, the Bucs’ short-yardage defense was one of the NFL’s best in 2025.
The Bucs defense was No. 1 in DVOA on second-and-short and No. 3 in DVOA on third-and-short.
The key number with this stat is unknown. How often (few?) did the defense face second- or third-and-short?
Naturally, if a team has a soft defense, there likely aren’t too many times the same defense sees a third-and-short play. The opposing offense too often is on first down instead. The Bucs ranked 15th in third-down defense.
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