2-Point Conversion: Bucs Offense’s Start Has Been Delayed

Scott Reynolds’ 2-Point Conversion post-game column offers up two big statements, asks two probing questions and makes two big predictions after each Bucs game. Tampa Bay fell to 2-1 on the season after a tough, 14-12 loss to Green Bay in the Bucs’ home opener on Sunday afternoon. The Bucs offense struggled again while the defense continued to play well. Tampa Bay had a chance to tie the game at the end, but after a delay of game penalty backed them up five yards, the Bucs failed to convert.

2 BIG STATEMENTS

STATEMENT 1: Bucs Offense’s Start Has Been Delayed

What happened on the Bucs’ two-point conversion is a microcosm of what has been happening all season long to Tampa Bay’s offense – so far. We have a delay of game – on the Bucs offense.

Not just on Tom Brady for recklessly taking the play clock all the way down before calling for a snap from a brand-new center on a possible game-tying two-point conversion, either.

“We got a delay of game, we didn’t get set up fast enough, and it’s something that can’t happen,” Bucs head coach Todd Bowles said.

But it’s a delay on the entire offense through the first three games of the season.

The Bucs have struggled with execution. Tampa Bay ranks 28th in third-down conversions with 28.57%. On Sunday against the Packers, the Bucs were only 2-of-11 on third downs for a season-worst 18.2% conversion rate.

That’s what happens when the Week 3 lineup barely resembles the Week 3 lineup from a year ago. In Week 3 a year ago, the Bucs had eight starters – EIGHT! – who had been to a Pro Bowl. On Sunday against Green Bay, Tampa Bay had just two – Tom Brady and Tristan Wirfs.

Injuries aren’t an excuse for the Bucs offense lacking the chemistry and execution to average just 17 points per game. They are a legitimate, valid reason.

Don’t believe me? Look at the lineups for yourself:

Week 3 Starters – 2021 / Week 3 Starters – 2022

QB Tom Brady / QB Tom Brady
RB Leonard Fournette / RB Leonard Fournette
WR Antonio Brown / WR Breshad Perriman
WR Chris Godwin / WR Russell Gage
TE Rob Gronkowski / TE Cameron Brate
RT Tristan Wirfs/ RT Tristan Wirfs
RG Alex Cappa / RG Shaq Mason
C Ryan Jensen / C Robert Hainsey
LG Ali Marpet / LG Luke Goedeke
LT Donovan Smith / LT Brandon Walton
WR Mike Evans / WR Scotty Miller

No wonder the Bucs offense is averaging two touchdowns less per game than a year ago – for now.

But that’s not to say that the Bucs can’t win without their great players surrounding Brady. They came damn close to tying and possibly beating the Packers on Sunday with some of their J.V. players.

Perhaps that’s a harsh term for professional athletes, but the Bucs were starting their No. 5, No. 6 and No. 7 wide receivers in Perriman, Miller and Darden, and their third-string left tackle in Brandon Walton.

Not to mention, they were playing a receiver they signed off the street earlier in the week in Cole Beasley and a practice-squader in Kaylon Geiger Sr. And there was also the fact that they were playing veteran tight end Kyle Rudolph for the first time after two weeks of being a healthy scratch.

And yet, the Bucs were only three points away from starting the season 3-0. Sorry for the optimism and the cup-half-full approach, Bucs fans.

I agree with Josh Queipo’s assessment that Byron Leftwich didn’t help the Bucs offense out at all. The 1st-&-20 run call was just dumb. As a play-caller, Leftwich has to ask himself – are the Packers going to bring pressure to force a quick throw or are they going to drop seven or eight and play coverage?

With essentially three rookies along the O-line in Walton, Goedeke and Hainsey, Leftwich should’ve known that the Packers were going to bring pressure against those inexperienced players. And the Packers did bring pressure. They rushed five and essentially spied one.

Leftwich had no business calling a run on that play. It was just as bad as the Bucs’ failed double reverse flea-flicker that resulted in a 12-yard loss in a fourth quarter drive that was ultimately quashed.

Miraculously, Leftwich’s play-calling should improve once Evans, Smith, Godwin and Julio Jones return to the lineup. Why? Because football is just as much about the Jimmy’s and the Joe’s as it is about the X’s and O’s.

STATEMENT 2: Bowles’ Post-Game Comments Set A Great Tone

Todd Bowles set a great tone after his first loss as Tampa Bay’s head coach with some of the comments he made on Sunday evening. Even though he is still the defensive play-caller, Bowles is holding the offense accountable. He had some terse words about the play of wide receiver Russell Gage, who led the team with 12 catches for 87 yards and the game-winning touchdown.

“He had a lot of catches,” Bowles said. “Anytime you fumble the football, that takes away everything you did [well]. But he’s a fighter, he’s feisty and he comes to play. He just has to clean up the turnovers.”

The knock on former Bucs head coach Tony Dungy during his tenure with the team from 1996-2001 was that he held the defense to a much higher standard than the offense. That created some tension and disharmony in the Bucs locker room.
And that’s something that Bowles is definitely not creating right off the bat following his first loss as the head coach. Bowles also didn’t blame the loss on the absence of injured Bucs starters.

“It’s concerning, you know, it’s concerning,” Bowles said. “We didn’t have to have those guys to win this ball game, we just needed to play smart. So, we weren’t waiting for anyone to come off the field and say, ‘If we would have had this’ – we had a chance to win this game. They played a good ball game, they took care of the football, for the most part. We shot ourselves in the foot and that’s something we can’t do. Talent had nothing to do with the way we shot ourselves in the foot.”

Bowles has been preaching attention to detail and eliminating mistakes since taking over for Bruce Arians. He was pointing out that it was mistakes like the six untimely penalties and the two fumbles by Gage and Breshad Perriman as the reasons for the loss.

On Monday, Bowles was putting offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich on notice for not playing reserve running backs Rachaad White and Ke’Shawn Vaughn against the Packers.

“We’ve got to play the other two more,” Bowles said. “When ‘Lenny’ [Fournette] gets in the flow, we’ve still got to play the other two more. We went in the game that way. We didn’t have [the ball] a lot in the first half, but that still should not be a reason to not play the other guys, and we’ll make sure that gets done.”

And perhaps most importantly, even though his defense held Green Bay to just 14 points and essentially shut down Aaron Rodgers and the Packers after the second touchdown drive in the first half, Bowles didn’t pat the defense on the back.

“It’s a team game,” Bowles said. “We expect to get better offensively, we expect to get better defensively and special teams. We win as a team, we lose as a team – there’s no one unit that is going to be down and the other unit is saying, ‘Look at what we did, look at what you did.’ If we lost, everybody lost, and we didn’t do enough.”

Bowles struck the right tone and it was great to see.

TWO PROBING QUESTIONS

QUESTION 1: Who Is To Blame For The 2-Point Conversion Debacle?

Three people – offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich, quarterback Tom Brady and Robert Hainsey.

The Bucs had an unforgivable delay of game penalty on what would have been the game-tying two-point conversion attempt after scoring a touchdown to draw the score to 14-12. So, who is to blame?

It starts with offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich. With the Bucs trailing by eight points, Leftwich needed to have a two-point conversion play dialed up before the final drive started with 3:04 left in regulation. At the very least, Leftwich should have been thinking about it during the two-minute warning.

And Leftwich should have had a backup two-point conversion play – just in case of a false start. The delay of game came as an unexpected surprise. A five-yard false start would be understandable because the crowd and the Bucs offensive players being amped up by a last-second touchdown. Either way, it’s a five-yard penalty for a delay of game or a false start.

So, Leftwich should have a play from seven yards out ready to go, too. Having the plays ready to go is his job. And that play probably shouldn’t involve a motion from one receiver and a shift that could put the play in jeopardy of the play clock running out – especially if Tom Brady wants to audible to a run play, which he did. Click Watch The Video On YouTube and see for yourself.

Regardless, Brady has to receive the snap from Robert Hainsey and call for it a couple of seconds earlier than he did. This isn’t Pro Bowler Ryan Jensen snapping Brady the ball. This is Hainsey in just his third regular season game as a starter.

And remember that the Bucs barely got the snap off on time on Gage’s touchdown catch the play before. Just a bad sequence all the way around because after the audible, Leonard Fournette was likely going to score and tie the game up, which would have forced overtime.

QUESTION 2: Can The Bucs Defense Sustain Its Excellence?

Yes. Why not? The Bucs defense has allowed three points, 10 points and 14 points in three games this year. Tampa Bay is still tops in scoring defense in the league, allowing an average of nine points per game.

The Bucs are third in the league with 11 sacks, including the first from rookie defensive tackle Logan Hall against Aaron Rodgers, which came on a third down in the fourth quarter to force a punt. That was a big moment for Hall, and hopefully the first of many to come.

A week after seeing new safety Logan Ryan force a key fumble in New Orleans, he recovered a loose ball in the end zone. Then, he picked off Rodgers, which was the Bucs’ fifth interception of the season. Pro Bowl nose tackle Vita Vea also forced a fumble at the 2-yard line that Ryan recovered.

Whether it’s holding all three opponents to 14 points or less, holding all three opponents under 41% on third downs, getting sacks or creating takeaways, this Bucs defense has playmakers at every level. As long as the starters stay healthy, there is no reason why Tampa Bay’s defense can’t be elite all season.

2 BOLD PREDICTIONS

PREDICTION 1: Leftwich’s Head Coaching Prospects Tank This Year

The bloom has come off Byron Leftwich’s rose when it comes to his head coaching prospects given the offense’s sluggish start. As previously mentioned, on Sunday the Bucs were without eight starters – many of them elite players – from Week 3 a year ago. But all that’s doing is exposing Leftwich for being an average play-caller. He still has Tom Brady – yet the Bucs offense has scored 19, 13 and 12 points per game in the first three weeks of the season.

Leftwich’s head coaching stock was on the rise last year after the second straight season of the Bucs averaging around 30 points per game. He even got strong consideration from Jacksonville. But now it’s clear that the credit for the success of the Bucs offense was more about the five Pro Bowlers it had last year, three of which – Brady and Mike Evans, along with tight end Rob Gronkowski – are future Hall of Famers, than it was Leftwich. There are still 14 games for the Bucs offense to improve, but it’s likely not to be as dynamic as it was over the last two years. And that will cost Leftwich.

PREDICTION 2: Bucs Lose To The Chiefs – But Not In Tampa

The Bucs have had to relocate this week due to Hurricane Ian and will likely be forced to play this week’s game against the Chiefs at a neutral site. New Orleans is close by and the Saints are on the road this week, but Minnesota might be the location because the Vikings are playing an international game this week.

Losing a home game where the Bucs fans would be in full throat against Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs is tough. Trying to win just days after a hurricane hit the Tampa Bay area and all the distractions that have ensued from practicing in Miami is even tougher. Bad break for the Bucs.

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