The Arians/Leftwich Offense Has To Change To Be Successful IN The Playoffs
The Washing ton Football shouldn’t be taken lightly. Despite the shortcomings on offense, they’ll field a pretty tough defense. And tough defenses have made our BUCS look pretty shaky. Washington defense features some impressive young players all over the field. Despite their win/loss record, that defense is highly ranked. The only thing that really worries me is the exact same thing that has worried me the entire season. The offensive game plan.
Even with the monster defensive line and their capable secondary, our offensive players should be enough to overpower them. The Mike Evans injury put a bit of a damper on things. But even still, with the likes of Godwin, Gronkowski, Miller, Brown, Jones, Fournette, Brate, and Brady at QB, this Team is loaded with enough #ARSENALForArians that a good game strategy should see it to victory.
Keyword: Should.
Arians and Leftwich failed to take advantage of the many weapons available throughout the season. Even in the games that resulted in wins, questions about the offensive scheme, game plan, and play calling ran rampant. While many took it as being nitpicky, it was definitely deserved criticism. And it reared its ugly head on the biggest stages. In all but one of the primetime games, the offense came away looking discombobulated for the vast majority of the games. The offense either started slow or went on long lulls without moving the ball. Sometimes both. All pointed to a lack of an actual game plan for the opposition.
We’ve seen this offense keep the opposition in games by having slow starts throughout the season. And that was mostly against teams that fielded defenses that were average or worse. Saturday night, Washington has what could be the biggest threat to the BUCS offense we’ve seen this year.
Week 1 vs New Orleans(#5 Ranked Defense)
| # | Quarter | Time | LOS | Plays | Length | Net_yds | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | 12:20 | TAM 15 | 9 | 4:53 | 85 | Touchdown |
| 2 | 1 | 4:32 | TAM 12 | 3 | 2:15 | 9 | Punt |
| 3 | 2 | 11:39 | TAM 25 | 2 | 0:43 | 1 | Interception |
| 4 | 2 | 10:09 | TAM 25 | 12 | 6:42 | 39 | Blocked FG |
| 5 | 2 | 0:44 | TAM 25 | 4 | 0:35 | 6 | Punt |
| 6 | 3 | 15:00 | TAM 25 | 5 | 1:47 | 7 | Interception |
| 7 | 3 | 13:13 | TAM 25 | 2 | 0:53 | 75 | Touchdown |
| 8 | 3 | 9:39 | TAM 14 | 4 | 1:48 | 9 | Punt |
| 9 | 3 | 6:16 | TAM 11 | 8 | 3:54 | 69 | Field Goal |
| 10 | 3 | 0:07 | TAM 22 | 3 | 1:04 | -2 | Punt |
| 11 | 4 | 8:01 | TAM 25 | 3 | 0:22 | 0 | Punt |
| 12 | 4 | 5:59 | TAM 10 | 11 | 3:18 | 90 | Touchdown |
| 13 | 4 | 0:23 | TAM 1 | 1 | 0:23 | 11 | End of Game |
Week 9 vs New Orleans
| # | Quarter | Time | LOS | Plays | Length | Net_yds | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | 15:00 | TAM 25 | 3 | 0:54 | 7 | Punt |
| 2 | 1 | 9:34 | TAM 25 | 3 | 1:50 | -1 | Punt |
| 3 | 1 | 3:36 | TAM 2 | 3 | 0:58 | 2 | Punt |
| 4 | 2 | 15:00 | TAM 18 | 3 | 0:53 | 7 | Punt |
| 5 | 2 | 11:44 | TAM 23 | 2 | 0:47 | 11 | Interception |
| 6 | 2 | 8:45 | TAM 25 | 8 | 3:48 | 37 | Downs |
| 7 | 2 | 1:49 | TAM 25 | 3 | 0:52 | 32 | Interception |
| 8 | 3 | 11:48 | NOR 21 | 6 | 2:16 | 20 | Downs |
| 9 | 3 | 4:46 | TAM 19 | 8 | 3:49 | 39 | Interception |
| 10 | 4 | 9:07 | TAM 25 | 7 | 3:15 | 45 | Field Goal |
| 11 | 4 | 0:34 | TAM 31 | 1 | 0:34 | -1 | End of Game |
Week 11 vs Los Angeles(#1 Overall Defense)
| # | Quarter | Time | LOS | Plays | Length | Net_yds | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | 15:00 | TAM 25 | 6 | 3:13 | 16 | Punt |
| 2 | 1 | 3:55 | TAM 25 | 10 | 4:45 | 75 | Touchdown |
| 3 | 2 | 12:00 | TAM 32 | 10 | 3:25 | 68 | Touchdown |
| 4 | 2 | 4:31 | TAM 25 | 8 | 3:31 | 24 | Punt |
| 5 | 3 | 13:32 | RAM 22 | 4 | 0:51 | 2 | Field Goal |
| 6 | 3 | 8:25 | TAM 34 | 2 | 0:43 | 10 | Interception |
| 7 | 3 | 5:39 | TAM 25 | 3 | 0:58 | 1 | Punt |
| 8 | 3 | 1:24 | TAM 13 | 3 | 1:24 | -5 | Punt |
| 9 | 4 | 13:35 | TAM 20 | 5 | 1:44 | 22 | Punt |
| 10 | 4 | 10:18 | TAM 37 | 6 | 2:02 | 20 | Downs |
| 11 | 4 | 7:17 | RAM 44 | 7 | 3:24 | 44 | Touchdown |
| 12 | 4 | 2:36 | TAM 19 | 4 | 0:47 | 19 | Interception |
It may seem a bit hypercritical to mention the errors of the offensive brain trust coming off a 4-game winning streak to end the season and end up in the playoffs. Yea. Well, it’s necessary to gain perspective as to gauge expectations.
Don’t let the last 4 weeks fool you. Those were some weak defenses. Especially in the passing game.
Minnesota Pass defense--25th in yards/23rd in TDs allowed.
Atlanta Pass defense--32nd in yards/27th in TDs allowed.
Detriot--30th in yards/32nd in TDs allowed.
And coming out of all those games was talk of the offense, specifically the passing attack, and how it finally looked cohesive. That’s a bit precarious. It’s actually quite reminiscent of the 4-game winning streak towards the end of last season that had many believing the offense and, specifically, the QB had turned a corner(again). And all it took was a defense worth a damn to bring all back to reality.
More disturbing than anything though was Arians’ remarks after the Detroit game when suggested the fast start against a terrible defense was important just so people could stop talking about it as if it was a minor issue.
He followed that up a week later saying scoring points was never a problem. The BUCS scored under the League average in all 5 losses this season. For a loaded roster, even with the injuries, that’s a bit too many times to not look average on offense for me. And the smug attitude just worries me that the confidence to bounce back is so much higher than the expectancy to start strong. There’s something so terrible about that idea. I’ve seen it fail QBs over and over again. I hope that mentality doesn’t show up in the playoffs.
Come Saturday night, Arians and Leftwich need to take several big steps forward. In fact, I’d say they both need to look completely different than they have all season. There needs to be a plan to take advantage of the aggressiveness that Washington displays on defense. There need to be plays called that show they’ve been dialed in on the Washington Football Team and nothing else. There can’t be another generic line-up-and-see-what-happens-for-a-few-quarters approach in this game.
Getting the ball to Jones, Gronkowski, and Brate should be prioritized in order to slow down the pass rush of that defensive line. Very much like the approach the Raiders took to defeat the same New Orleans team we lost to in Week 1 because we decided to use our weapons as extra blockers for 90% of the game. Instead of forcing the ball to our WRs on the outside early, give the defensive line and LBSs something to be hesitant about. Screen passes to Godwin. Move the offensive line. Pull with Donovan Smith. Be tactful rather than forceful.
Granted, Washington’s offense isn’t expected to score a lot against our defense. If that does happen, it’ll be a bit of a surprise. But it Arians and Leftwich don’t have the offense looking like a solid, competent unit, it’ll feel like a disappointing deja vu and things can pretty ugly pretty fast in Tampa.
Here’s to Arians and Leftwich calling the best of their lives. For all our sake.
Go BUCS!!!!
