Wake up Leftwich! Run the ball

By Anthony Caruso III | Publisher

Wake up, Byron Leftwich. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers offensive coordinator is a part of the problem for their lackluster season thus far.

Leftwich has been around the game long enough to know that you must run the ball. As a former quarterback in the league, he was definitely told this.

However, this season, Leftwich has decided to go against the run game.

Sure, they have run the ball. But not enough to open up the defense to attack it through the air.

Another example was on Thursday night against the Baltimore Ravens. During their first drive, which resulted in a touchdown, Leonard Fournette had 21 yards, including a one-yard rushing touchdown.

For the rest of the game, which included three more quarters and additional time, the Buccaneers added 23 more rushing yards.

Looking at the rest of the season, the Buccaneers rushing numbers have been bad. They had 46 rushing yards against the Carolina Panthers.

In the loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers, they had 75 rushing yards. The week prior against the Atlanta Falcons, the team had 69 yards.

Their season-low came against the Kansas City Chiefs as they had 3 yards. They also had 34 rushing yards against the Green Bay Packers.

In their first two wins to begin the season, the Buccaneers had over 200 rushing yards. They had a season-high 152 rushing yards in the season-opener against the Dallas Cowboys.

In the Week 2 win against the New Orleans Saints, they had 72 yards. Combined against the Cowboys and the Saints, they had 224 rushing yards.

In their last six games, the woeful Buccaneers running attack has had 271 yards. They are averaging 45 yards per game.

The run game has had 495 yards through eight games. Fournette has had nearly all the yardage as he has 386 yards.

In comparison, the Buccaneers’ run game last season when they went 13-4 in the regular season, they had 1,672 yards. Fournette had 812 yards in 2021.