HappyDays

Yeah the 3rd down play call gets all the hate, for good reason, but the 4th down play call was arguably just as bad. It's no better than a goalline fade. It's a one read play and you don't give your best playmaker in Allen any chance to find a way to score if the concept doesn't work. Plus it opens up potential for a 99 yard pick 6. What sucks is that we're stuck with Dorsey's play calling this season no matter what, McDermott isn't going to find a justification to fire him. So McDermott himself needs to take more ownership of the offense and get some of these garbage play calls in critical moments out of there. You know who I wish Dorsey would emulate? Ben Johnson. Not in the sense that he can be as creative as Johnson is, but in the way Johnson knows what his players are good at and calls a select few plays that he knows they can execute. Like how has Dorsey not realized by now that Murrary running from shotgun at the goalline is a very low percentage play? We can talk all day about the concept and why it's run that way and yadda yadda, but ultimately our set of players clearly cannot execute that play call. So just stop doing it. Same with the quick swings/screens to Diggs. Occasionally they work but usually they are a waste of a down. Take them out of the playbook.

I'm not complaining about the punts. I thought based on the flow of the game up to that point both of them made sense. I would have kicked a FG on 4th and goal on our second drive too. I'm usually a believer in taking points early (unless facing a really good offense) and playing field position when up 2+ scores. My complaint is about the play calling that got us into 4th downs. Too predictable, too vanilla, we went away from players and plays that worked earlier in the game. We have to stop falling into offensive ruts that last an entire quarter or more. That formula is not conducive to winning a Super Bowl and we've seen it for 4 consecutive weeks now. I agree a fast start/bad finish is better than the opposite because it helps the defense tee off a bit, but it is still not a good result and we shouldn't be satisfied. Plus I wouldn't call 3 points on two drives a "fast start" anyways, but at least we moved the ball. No reason we shouldn't have scored 31+ in this game.

So on one hand I understand the instincts of the fanbase to want Josh to get the ball out fast, but on the other hand we saw tonight the downside of always living in that world - Nonstop quick short passes leads to long drives that carry no margin for error from Dorsey or the players. We have no YAC specialists so most of those passes are getting tackled within 4 yards of the catch point. Slow and methodical sounds good in theory, but in reality because of how our offense is constructed it means every drive is a lot of grind it out work and usually relies on Allen making at least one Superman play just to keep the drive going or score a TD. I guess it looks a little prettier on the field but the final result is still below par.

Allen throws to Diggs in obvious single man coverage situations every time. That read is built into the offense. I will credit Diggs with that one failed drive in the 2nd half but Dorsey was responsible for a lot more of the failed drives. We don't have YAC receivers or contested catch specialists and our OL is average so our margin for error is small. Dorsey can't be the reason that some of our drives stall out.

By default it's an improvement, but 0 points through the final 25 minutes is also really bad. And closing out two good looking drives to start the game with just 3 points combined, directly because of poor play calling, is also very bad. I'm glad one of Dorsey's bad instincts has been unintentionally snuffed out, but his other bad instincts are still there and repeatedly costing us points. We scored 1 less point than we did against the Pats. That's not really an improvement. Slow start or slow finish doesn't matter, it leads to the same result. He needs to find some consistency or he needs to be shown the door.

Well this represents the same problem, just inverted. You can't go entire quarters or longer without putting together a single good drive in consecutive games. I liked the general tempo and personnel usage of the offense tonight. But overall I did not like the play calling. And play calling has been a persistent issue this year.

Again the offense is too streaky. We'll put together a few nice drives then disappear, or vice versa. Three weeks in a row now where we've gone like 20+ minutes of game time without putting any points on the board. A lot of situational play calls just don't make sense at times.

There are still some fundamental problems with the offense and defense. The defense at least has an injury excuse. The offense doesn't. Several drives in the 2nd half that could have put the game away and we just stalled out repeatedly. That stupid attempt to draw them Offside on 2nd and 1 was poor coaching. The vanilla play calling was poor coaching. The 1st and 2nd drive of the game ending with just 3 points combined was a result of poor coaching. I really think coaching is holding the offense back more than the players.

Allen Kincaid Davis Shakir Poyer Martin

That was the longest 90% win probability quarter I've ever watched

There is zero comparison between this and 13 seconds.

Are you for real?? 20 seconds left and they need a TD!

That's why you punt twice from midfield. One 1st down and the game is just about over because we played the clock correctly.

How is that a BS call? He deliberately ripped at his face mask.

What an idiot! That's the kind of penalty that should put him on the inactive list for a couple of games.

We are getting lucky on these drops tonight

Shocking, a blitz on 3rd down actually worked

I know people hate watching this kind of defense but it's 100% the right choice. Make them work for it, nothing easy downfield. The clock keeps winding down.

I don't blame McDermott for punting, it's obviously the right choice. I blame Dorsey for vanilla play calling on several consecutive drives. We've had a few chances to put the game away and we just aren't moving the ball forward enough.

He's had a rough string of games. He is getting beaten inside a lot, the same problem that popped up in preseason.

Smart game management. Not a big fan of our play calls on the past few drives. Still too many horizontal passes to Diggs and Davis, that is not playing to our strengths.

Punt it

You know what really gives them life? The ball at midfield for free.

The kill shot?? We're up 14 and the Bucs offense has done nothing this half! Why does everybody automatically default to aggressive decisions no matter what the game situation? It blows my mind.