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Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Daily Bucs Trivia: Making His Carries Count

Tuesday's trivia quiz asks fans to locate a player from team history who had fewer than 10 career carries for the Bucs but scored multiple rushing touchdowns

TAMPA, FL - DECEMBER 30, 2018 - Detail shot of the NFL logo on a football before the game between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Atlanta Falcons at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, FL. Photo By Kevin Sabitus/Tampa Bay Buccaneers
TAMPA, FL - DECEMBER 30, 2018 - Detail shot of the NFL logo on a football before the game between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Atlanta Falcons at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, FL. Photo By Kevin Sabitus/Tampa Bay Buccaneers

A week ago, I was the first person ever to use the term "Trivia TuesdayTM." I thought it was so clever I'm breaking it out again this week. It's Trivia Tuesday! Let's do some Bucs trivia!

Each workday in April I'm posting a Bucs-related trivia question at 10:00 a.m. ET for your enjoyment, or perhaps frustration. At 4:00 p.m. ET, I return to add the answer, and share it on Twitter. Today's question is a player who didn't have a lot of carries but did turn a high percentage of them into points.

Today's topic came to me when I was thinking about Dare Ogunbowale. The Buccaneers' first-year running back got to play in two games for the team in 2018 but was primarily a kickoff returner. He made the squad again in 2019 and emerged as the primary third-down back, thanks in part to his excellent work in pass protection, and that led to 35 receptions for 286 yards.

The Buccaneers didn't often use Ogunbowale as a ballcarrier, but he did log 11 rushes, a good number of them near the goal line when the Buccaneers kept their third-down package on the field and hurried up to make a quick snap. It wasn't the recipe for a lot of rushing yards, and Ogunbowale finished with 17 of them, along with two touchdowns. Of his 11 carries, four gained three or more yards. All in all, a pretty normal output for the role that he filled.

What was not normal about his numbers, at least for a short while, was the combination of yards and touchdowns. Ogunbowale got his first career NFL rush in New Orleans in Week Five but the play lost four yards. His second carry came the next week against Carolina, from the Panthers' three-yard line, and this time he punched it in for a touchdown.

If you do the math there, you'll notice that after Week Six of the 2019 season, Ogunbowale had one career rushing touchdown but negative-one career rushing yards. That isn't easy to do! It's not really a career highlight, of course, more of an oddity, and by Week 12 it was no longer true. Which is good.

View photos from Scotty Miller and Mike Edwards's trip to ZooTampa. (All footage was taken prior to social distancing guidelines)

Well, guess what. With his 17 yards, Ogunbowale does not have the fewest career rushing yards as a Buccaneer for any player with multiple rushing touchdowns as a Buccaneer. The person who holds that honor only carried the ball eight times in a Tampa Bay uniform but found the end zone on two of them.

Bucs Daily Trivia Question, April 21:

Who is the only player in Buccaneers franchise history to have scored twice on rushing plays without also recording at least 10 carries for the team?

Come back at 4:00 p.m. ET for the answer!

Answer: B.J. Askew, who carried the ball eight times as a Buccaneer and scored touchdowns on two of them.

Askew was a fullback who signed with the Buccaneers in 2007 after four seasons with the New York Jets. He had carried the ball occasionally as a Jet, recording 102 yards on 27 carries. He played in 28 games over three seasons in Tampa and caught 33 passes in that span. He didn't get his first carry until his 17th game as a Buccaneer, though he turned it into a one-yard touchdown, the Bucs' only touchdown in a 19-13 win over the Minnesota Vikings. Later in the 2008 season he scored again on a one-yard run against San Diego. Askew finished the season with seven total carries for 14 yards and two touchdowns, and he got one more carry in 2009, for no yards, before his NFL career came to a conclusion.

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