One of the most frustrating aspects of the Bucs‘ struggles in their 6-7 record this season is that the entire team is complicit.
Tampa Bay’s offense has taken a substantial step back — on course for not even half as many touchdowns as the team had a year ago — but the defense and special teams have also had a hand in that, specifically in the complete lack of short fields to make life easier for a struggling offense.
When the 49ers kicked off to open the second half Sunday, rookie receiver Deven Thompkins took the kickoff 54 yards to the San Francisco 44, Tampa Bay’s longest kickoff return in more than a decade. It also ended a similarly jarring drought, marking the first time under any circumstances that the Bucs offense had started a drive in “plus territory” — on the friendly side of the 50-yard line — since Week 4.
That’s eight full games without a single return or turnover to give the Bucs great field position. And naturally, the Bucs offense took that rare opportunity and gave it right back to the 49ers, as on third down Tom Brady threw one of his two interceptions on the day.
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Field position has been a nightmare for the Bucs all season. Consider touchdown drives of 50 yards or fewer. In 2020 on the way to a Super Bowl championship, the Bucs had 18 such drives, most in the NFL. Last season, on the way to a 13-4 record and a division title, the Bucs had 16 such drives, second-most in the NFL.
This year, the Bucs have one such drive, all season.
In 13 games, they have one touchdown drive of 50 yards or fewer, matching Washington for the NFL low. In the last 10 seasons, only one team has gone an entire season with only one touchdown drive of 50 yards or fewer — the 2016 Bears, who went 3-13. The Eagles have 13 such drives already this season. And the only one the Bucs have all year was a largely meaningless score, with an interception by Sean Murphy-Bunting with five minutes left against the Chiefs, trailing 41-24, to set up a 34-yard touchdown drive.
The average length of a Bucs touchdown drive this season is 76 yards. That’s 12 yards longer than Tampa Bay’s average in the Super Bowl season, and an especially long way to go when the Bucs have struggled to create big plays.
What about short fields that at least result in field goals? Surely, there must be some of those when accounting for the Bucs’ struggles in the red zone this season, right? Not at all. The Bucs haven’t had any scoring drive that started in opposing territory since Week 4, against the Chiefs. They had one field-goal drive that started in plus territory in each of their first three games, then the touchdown late against the Chiefs, and none in nine games — half a season — since then.
Tampa Bay’s opponents have no such problems. They’ve had 10 scoring drives starting in Bucs territory, a function of poor kick coverage and offensive turnovers by Tampa Bay, tied for the fifth-most in the NFL this season. The Chiefs had touchdown drives of 20 and 21 yards, due to Rachaad White fumbling the opening kickoff and Brady losing a fumble on a sack. The Steelers returned a kickoff to the Bucs’ 12-yard line, setting up an easy field goal. Even that Bucs drive to open the second half Sunday went the other way, as the Brady interception set up the 49ers at the Bucs’ 38, leading to a touchdown two plays later.
This is shared not to take any significant blame away from the Bucs offense, which has failed to move the chains consistently no matter where a drive starts this season. Scoring drives of 75-plus yards, with no help from the defense or special teams? The Bucs have 11 this year, which ties for 24th in the league. Last year, they had 26, third-most in the NFL, and in 2020, they had 23, eighth-most. But this year’s offensive problems have been exacerbated by having to go much farther to find the end zone.
Remember when “points off turnovers” was a thing? Nothing says complementary football like the offense taking advantage of a defensive splash play to give them the ball and convert it to points.
The Bucs as a team have seven total points off turnovers since Week 4 — over nine games. The only time they’ve converted a takeaway into any points was Devin White‘s forced fumble against Seattle in Munich, which led to an 87-yard touchdown drive (again, it’s never easy) for a 21-3 lead. To put it more globally blunt, the Bucs haven’t scored a single point off a turnover while playing in the United States since Oct. 2.
To end this on a slightly positive note, there’s actual reason to think there could be short fields in short order for the Bucs offense. Their remaining four opponents — the Bengals, Cardinals, Panthers and Falcons — all have allowed opponents to start at least 16 drives in plus territory, all ranking among the NFL’s 10 worst in this statistic. They’ve allowed a combined 43 scoring drives that started on their side of the field, almost one per game.
So the Bucs offense should — OK, could — catch a much-needed break at some point in the final month of the season.
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Greg Auman is FOX Sports’ NFC South reporter, covering the Buccaneers, Falcons, Panthers and Saints. He is in his 10th season covering the Bucs and the NFL full-time, having spent time at the Tampa Bay Times and The Athletic. You can follow him on Twitter at @gregauman.
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