Dirk Koetter took back the Buccaneers’ play-calling reins last week, but the team made history with a 501-yard, three-point showing. The third-year head coach won’t be sending in plays Sunday.
Offensive coordinator Todd Monken will return to his play-calling post against the Giants, Koetter said Friday (via Greg Auman of The Athletic, on Twitter). Tampa Bay’s OC had called the shots prior to Koetter taking over against Washington. Koetter debated this decision throughout the week.
Both coaches are surely on the hot seat for the 3-6 Bucs, who have lost five of their past six games. Koetter was viewed as a hot-seat occupant last season until he was surprisingly given a third season to right this ship. With that having not occurred to this point, Koetter and his staff may be on the verge of offseason relocations.
Despite Jameis Winston failing to deliver this season, Monken’s offense still ranks first in total yardage and 12th in points. Those marks are well north of the Koetter-led 2017 Bucs’ placements (ninth and 18th, respectively). Ryan Fitzpatrick is completing 67 percent of his passes and is still averaging nearly 10 yards per attempt. Against Washington, though, the Bucs set a record by becoming the only team to surpass 450 yards and produce three or fewer points.
Tampa Bay has never led the league in total offense, coming closest during Koetter’s final season as OC (fifth in 2015). Although doing so for a team that’s careening out of the playoff race would be a somewhat hollow accomplishment, it would certainly look good for Monken this offseason, when he may have to look for another job.
Disjunction anyone?
Uh, disfunction.
Disfunction junction what’s your function.
The notion that teams can win at the NFL level by outsmarting the opponents with brilliant play calling is laughable. Every team has a mountain of game film and data on each opponents tendencies. Execution of the fundamentals and limiting mistakes is the recipe to success not trick or gadget plays.
This is an odd take. I mean, these are all components of winning football, but I’m not sure how you can watch the LA Rams, and Goff’s progression from year one to now specifically, and claim that it’s laughable that innovation in regards to scheme and playcalling isn’t enormously important.
Nothing the Rams (or other teams) run has opposing coaches saying “Wow…where did that come from…never seen a play/scheme like that before”. In terms of true innovation (as opposed to tweaks) there have only been about half a dozen since the Bears unveiled the T-formation in 1940.
90% of play calling is simply doing what has been successful in the past and the other 10% is making adjustments for injuries occurring throughout the game. There is no rocket science here.
It’s not about outsmarting the opposing coach it’s about confusing the opposing players. I don’t know how you can say this when things like play-action exist. The key to the successful playcallers this year has been deception.
I agree good playcalling can’t elevate poor talent, but great playcalling can elevate great talent.
It doesn’t matter who calls the plays. They don’t have a good QB. Their non-existent running game then forces the QB’s to throw more which is not a winning formula.