Probably the most fascinating developments of this season for the Bucs has been their burgeoning area of interest personnel package deal of two working backs and one tight finish. This “Pony package deal,” or 21 personnel, as it’s extra generally referred to, has been one of the crucial explosive and environment friendly offenses in all the NFL.
I’ve loved documenting the evolution of this package deal all through this season. And this previous week Bucs offensive coordinator Liam Coen introduced new wrinkles to additional stage up this modern portion of his offense.
Bucs Pony Bundle – Effectivity And Explosiveness
Bucs RB Rachaad White – Picture by: USA At present
Liam Coen referred to as for the Pony package deal six instances on Sunday. The Bucs offense put up 83 yards on these performs. That’s 13.8 yards per play.
That they had a 100% success fee and a 17% explosive fee in 21 personnel whereas producing a brand new first down half the time. The Bucs’ epa/play on this grouping was an unbelievable 0.92! That’s 4.5 instances extra environment friendly than the Buffalo Payments, who’re the most effective offense within the NFL proper now.
Their lowest yardage complete of the six performs was 5. Three of the performs went for 10 yards or extra, together with a 34-yard run that in the end led to the Bucs placing the sport out of hand.
That run, a Sean Tucker run to the Raiders’ 3-yard line that arrange a landing on the subsequent play, was a counter run. Counter is the most typical name that Coen goes to with two backs on the sector. Of the 54 performs they’ve run in Pony this yr, 14 have been a counter run. That represents 47% of their 30 run performs and simply over 1 / 4 of their complete calls. And true to this tendency, Coen referred to as counter on three of the six calls on Sunday.
Setting Up Sean Tucker’s Run
Bucs RB Sean Tucker – Picture by: Cliff Welch/PR
The Sean Tucker run was a counter run with left sort out Tristan Wirfs and heart Graham Barton wrapping to the proper aspect. Graham Barton sealed center linebacker Robert Spillane and Wirfs was capable of lead Tucker to the third stage as he barreled down on a security on the third stage. However that play was arrange two quarters earlier when the Bucs ran a guard-tackle counter with Wirfs and proper guard Ben Bredeson pulling.
On the earlier run, Wirfs was slowed on his wrap as a result of tight finish Cade Otton peeled off of his double group to climb to Spillane. Otton did so as a result of proper sort out Luke Goedeke didn’t want the assistance, and Otton was looking for work. However, it threw off the timing of the play and in the end slowed Tucker down for merely a 9-yard acquire. Moreover, Raiders defensive finish Maxx Crosby practically chased Tucker down from behind for a loss due to the double pull from Wirfs and Ben Bredeson gave Crosby sufficient room to movement to the play.
So, on the fourth quarter run, Coen made small changes to his counter name to account for what the Raiders have been doing. As a substitute of pulling each finish males on the offensive line he stored Bredeson on a down block to condense the accessible house for Crosby to make use of to chase. He additionally adjusted his name to ask Otton to base block the Raiders’ play aspect edge defender and have Goedeke solo block the defensive finish.
This freed up Barton to merely need to test Otton to ensure he sealed the sting, which Otton did nicely. That meant Barton might proceed to wrap to Spillane and gave Wirfs the chance to climb to not the second, however the third stage with Tucker in tow.
Small changes equal huge positive factors for Coen and firm.
Creativity Leads To A Massive Run By Baker Mayfield
Bucs QB Baker Mayfield – Picture by: Cliff Welch/PR
At this level Liam Coen has gone full mad wizard. Absolutely the most depraved play that he broke out from this distinctive grouping resulted in one of the crucial average positive factors – simply seven yards. However the design was close to unstoppable as a consequence of simply what number of choices it afforded the offense. To steer off the second quarter, Coen broke out a triple choice RPO with one of many latest developments in soccer inbuilt.
Out of an offset pistol formation the Bucs ran a run-pass choice with Bucky Irving from the pistol as the primary name on an inside zone run. Quarterback Baker Mayfield opted to maintain the ball seeking to discover a throw on a three-level flood idea to his proper. The swing flat choice in that idea was Rachaad White behind tight finish Payne Durham on an escort movement designed to present White a display screen blocker to spring him for a giant yards-after-catch acquire.
To the credit score of the Raiders, they foiled the escort movement by widening their edge rusher into the flat and coated up the remainder of the flood nicely.
It ought to have blown the play, proper?
Nicely, we’ve solely coated two thirds of the triple choice!
The ultimate tag on the play was a quarterback choice for Mayfield to name his personal quantity as he rolled away from the pocket in direction of the escort. If it was coated up, because it was, he might simply simply run the ball into the void created by the flood. And Baker did simply that for yet one more profitable play.
Try the BUCS ALL-22 BREAKDOWN video within the Bucs Movie Room on our PewterReport TV YouTube Channel right here for this totally bananas play.
