Following Monday night’s dramatic come-from-behind victory over the New Orleans Saints, the drumbeat continues to grow in Tampa for more no-huddle offense.
Tom Brady spearheading a 13-point comeback late by utilizing tempo underscored the reality that the Buccaneers offense moves the ball better in no-huddle situations. The question is why Tampa doesn’t use the quick operation more often.
On Tuesday, head coach Todd Bowles noted that the Bucs could get to their no-huddle more, even if it’s not wise to play fast all game.
“Well, we’ve implemented it some,” he said. “We did it against Atlanta. I thought we did it a little bit, it was either Carolina or Pittsburgh, as well. We can implement it more so. Obviously, we can’t do that the whole game — the defense and special teams would be worn out. But we can try to take advantage of some things that way. Really, it’s a block here and a block there or a play here and a play there for us to continue keeping offensive drives alive.”
It’s stunning how more efficient the Bucs are when Brady is mainly calling his own plays in the hurry-up. The added benefit of keeping defenses in mostly vanilla schemes also helps a Bucs offensive line that has struggled to protect.
“It all starts with the quarterback,” Bowles said when asked why the no-huddle works so well. “He can dissect things — he’s seen it plenty of times. I guess the urgency clicked even more so in the two-minute [drill] being down that way and guys just locked in. You want to do that the entire game, but unfortunately, that didn’t happen. We’re just glad we got it in the end.”
It might be prudent for the Bucs to attempt more no-huddle in Sunday’s matchup against a San Francisco squad that sports a ferocious defense that hasn’t given up more than 17 points in the past five weeks.
The Niners rank first in yards and points allowed this season. Brady is 7-0 in his career versus the No. 1 scoring and total defense in Week 5 or later, including playoffs (based on ranks entering the week for regular season games). But the Bucs have scored 22 points or fewer in each of their last eight games.
If the 6-6 Bucs are to move above .500 first the first time since Week 5, they’ll need Brady and the offense to put up points. Utilizing more no-huddle Sunday would help.