Bucs look to find offensive groove in week 4 against Chiefs

TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — As the Bucs prepare to face the fourth-ranked scoring offense in the NFL in the Kansas City Chiefs, their own offense is hoping to have a break-out game in this week four match-up. So far, through three games, the Bucs have scored just three offensive touchdowns.

They rank 27th in the league in total offense (297. 3 yards per game) and 22nd in points scored (17. 0 points per game).

Tom Brady, Glazer family vow to donate to Hurricane Ian relief efforts “We’re just not good enough really, on first and second down,” said Bucs Offensive Coordinator Byron Leftwich. “You look at last week – we’re starting off on third-and-12. It’s tough to execute on third-and-12 – especially when you’re a banged-up football team.

You’re a banged-up football team and you’re putting yourself in all these third-and-long situations, which means you’re going to punt the ball most of the time. It’s hard to score and punt at the same time. That’s really been our issue– being better on first and second down and giving ourselves an opportunity to score points.

What we’ve always done around here is [give] ourselves an opportunity to score at a high level. We’re just not doing that right now. I think that’s something that we will get corrected.

” Leftwich mentioned being a ‘banged-up team,’ referring to injuries to key offensive players, including Chris Godwin and Julio Jones to name a few. Plus they were missing Mike Evans to a one-game suspension last Sunday. This week, they will get Evans back for sure, but as of Sunday morning, Godwin and Jones were still game-time decisions.

As for the run game, the Bucs are still looking for their first rushing touchdown of the season. And in regards to workload, it’s been the Leonard Fournette show. He’s accounted for 57 of the team’s 77 carries and 227 of their 258 total yards.

Outside of Fournette, the only other running back who’s had carries in a game is Rachaad White (8 carries for 15 yards). When Fournette was asked about his workload this week, he said he wasn’t concerned, and that he’ll do whatever they need to get the job done. “I feel like the coaches are going to find a way to help me out with a lot of the guys coming in– Rachaad [White] and ‘Sneak’ (Ke’Shawn Vaughn) and things like that,” Fournette said.

“It’s all about winning and that’s what I’m trying to do each and every week. I try to put my team in the best position to win– if I’m not on the field, on the field, it doesn’t really matter. It’s all about winning these first couple of weeks.

The wear and tear, it’s all about how you train. I train my body for this in the offseason to get prepared for things like this – running the ball, blocking, things like that. I feel like [with] the hard work I’ve put in throughout the summer, it’s not affecting me right now.

I feel great. ” Bucs continue preparations in Miami for Sunday night’s game against Chiefs Leftwich explained why they’ve been relying so heavily on Fournette through three games, and said he plans on expanding their run game to other players going forward. “I think the way that the games were going, we got in somewhat of a two-minute, no-huddle mode last [week] where we would prefer Lenny in that spot more than any of them,” Leftwich said.

“Not that any of them [are] doing anything wrong. [It’s] just that right now in those situations, with Rachaad being young, right now, I’ve really been leaning towards Lenny. But I do believe I’ll start giving Rachaad more reps just throughout the game.

What we were doing, we were giving him series and it just so happened that Rachaad’s series didn’t go well so they were quick and he was out [of] the game. I’ll do a better job of getting all of those guys involved, because we need to do that to help the room out, to help Lenny out and [keep] Lenny from playing so many plays. ”.