The Buccaneers’ run game has become a fantasy football player’s worst nightmare - three running backs that can all run the ball, catch the ball, and no telling which back is going to be the top dog in any given game.
Todd Bowles was asked about the Bucs’ running back room on Wednesday after the emergence of Sean Tucker last week and he said;
“We’re going to need all three of them. All three are good football players and all three will play when they’re all healthy. As the game goes, we’ll go with the hot hand and who’s running what style and how it fits the game and go with that guy.”
Now the challenge is going to be getting the run game going enough in order to figure out who the hot hand is going to be. Against a team like the Baltimore Ravens - who are allowing just 59 rush yards a game, the league’s best - if the Bucs fall behind early the run game could be abandoned altogether before any of the three backs had a chance to emerge as the hot hand on Monday night. That leaves Rachaad White as the most likely candidate to lead the position in snaps due to his pass catching and being by far the best of the three at picking up blitzes.
Not being one dimensional against the Ravens is going to be important moving forward, but against the Ravens it will be vital. While their pass defense is towards the bottom of the league, they have some serious pass rush threats that could make Monday a very long night for Baker Mayfield. Mayfield stressed the importance of the run game to have a balanced offense, saying;
“That’s huge. That’s huge in a game that obviously Mike coming in and out of the game, having some guys down, people rotating in and out and Rachaad being down as well but just to have those numbers… I’m not really a stat guy but to really look at the numbers and see the type of run game that we had, it was impressive. It takes everybody in that group as an offense to be able to run the ball like that and so it was impressive, [and] we have to keep it going.”
If the Bucs are going to establish the run, they need to do it early in the game but that is going to be easier said than done. While there’s every opportunity in the world for Sean Tucker to have the kind of fourth quarter he did against the Saints, but not if the Bucs are playing from behind and are needing to score in a hurry as the clock begins to factor in.
It’ll be interesting to see how Liam Coen deploys each of these backs and in what situations, but this is an impossible rotation to predict heading into this week at the very least, perhaps for the rest of the season.
Bucs (4-2) vs Ravens (4-2) Game Information
When: Monday, October 21st 2024
Where: Raymond James Stadium (Tampa, FL)
Kickoff: 8:15 p.m. ET
TV: ABC/ESPN/ESPN2 - Joe Buck (Play-by-Play), Troy Aikman (Color Commentary), Laura Rutledge (Sideline)
ESPN 2 ManningCast - Peyton Manning, Eli Manning, Bill Belichick, Guests TBA
Bucs Radio: 98Rock – Gene Deckerhoff (Play by Play), Dave Moore (Color), T.J. Rives (Reporter)
Spanish Radio: 96.1 Caliente – Carlos Bohorquez (Play by Play), Martín Gramática (Analyst), Santiago Gramatica (Sideline Reporter)
The Buccaneers’ run game has become a fantasy football player’s worst nightmare - three running backs that can all run the ball, catch the ball, and no telling which back is going to be the top dog in any given game.
Todd Bowles was asked about the Bucs’ running back room on Wednesday after the emergence of Sean Tucker last week and he said;
“We’re going to need all three of them. All three are good football players and all three will play when they’re all healthy. As the game goes, we’ll go with the hot hand and who’s running what style and how it fits the game and go with that guy.”
Now the challenge is going to be getting the run game going enough in order to figure out who the hot hand is going to be. Against a team like the Baltimore Ravens - who are allowing just 59 rush yards a game, the league’s best - if the Bucs fall behind early the run game could be abandoned altogether before any of the three backs had a chance to emerge as the hot hand on Monday night. That leaves Rachaad White as the most likely candidate to lead the position in snaps due to his pass catching and being by far the best of the three at picking up blitzes.
Not being one dimensional against the Ravens is going to be important moving forward, but against the Ravens it will be vital. While their pass defense is towards the bottom of the league, they have some serious pass rush threats that could make Monday a very long night for Baker Mayfield. Mayfield stressed the importance of the run game to have a balanced offense, saying;
“That’s huge. That’s huge in a game that obviously Mike coming in and out of the game, having some guys down, people rotating in and out and Rachaad being down as well but just to have those numbers… I’m not really a stat guy but to really look at the numbers and see the type of run game that we had, it was impressive. It takes everybody in that group as an offense to be able to run the ball like that and so it was impressive, [and] we have to keep it going.”
If the Bucs are going to establish the run, they need to do it early in the game but that is going to be easier said than done. While there’s every opportunity in the world for Sean Tucker to have the kind of fourth quarter he did against the Saints, but not if the Bucs are playing from behind and are needing to score in a hurry as the clock begins to factor in.
It’ll be interesting to see how Liam Coen deploys each of these backs and in what situations, but this is an impossible rotation to predict heading into this week at the very least, perhaps for the rest of the season.
Bucs (4-2) vs Ravens (4-2) Game Information
When: Monday, October 21st 2024
Where: Raymond James Stadium (Tampa, FL)
Kickoff: 8:15 p.m. ET
TV: ABC/ESPN/ESPN2 - Joe Buck (Play-by-Play), Troy Aikman (Color Commentary), Laura Rutledge (Sideline)
ESPN 2 ManningCast - Peyton Manning, Eli Manning, Bill Belichick, Guests TBA
Bucs Radio: 98Rock – Gene Deckerhoff (Play by Play), Dave Moore (Color), T.J. Rives (Reporter)
Spanish Radio: 96.1 Caliente – Carlos Bohorquez (Play by Play), Martín Gramática (Analyst), Santiago Gramatica (Sideline Reporter)
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