The Tampa Bay Buccaneers scored on seven of their eight drives (excluding an end-game kneel-down) in their season-opening win over Washington and put up the second-highest point total of any team in the NFL in Week One. Three different players found the end zone and four produced at least 60 yards from scrimmage. Baker Mayfield was sacked just one time and was only pressured on a small handful of his throws.
Other than a couple unsatisfying endings in the red zone, there wasn't much to complain about the Tampa Bay offense in its debut with Liam Coen coordinating the efforts. That said, it's a long season and the Buccaneers surely won't put up 37 points every weekend. That's why Coen is not getting too worked up about the Week One results; the key for the Bucs to be a consistently productive offense is to continue focusing on the process. And Coen thinks they can get better in that regard.
"Yeah, there were definitely some good things," said Coen. "I was pleased overall with a majority of the operation except for that one series where we had the back-to-back false starts and then, obviously, I wasn't thrilled with taking field goals on three of those drives that we were down in the low red zone. … Definitely pleased with being able to put points up and score and have a lot of guys impact the game, but from a process-over-results standpoint, [there was] a lot to clean up."
Coen is also surely pleased that this message is getting through to his players. On Thursday, Pro Bowl tackle Tristan Wirfs repeated something that wide receiver Chris Godwin recently said when Wirfs was asked if the Bucs could have one of the league's highest-scoring offenses.
"I think Chris said it best the other day – it's about the process, not the result," said Wirfs. "I thought that was awesome because it's all the work. It's all the work we're putting in right now, all the work we've put in over the summer together, doing everything. Whatever happens happens out there. You know, some days we might not have it. We might not get in the end zone, but the defense comes up big. For the [game that clinched the] division championship last year against Carolina, we put up three field goals, nine points, [and] got that 'dub'. A win is a win, but I think it's about the process, not the result. It did feel nice putting up 37 [points] last week. Hopefully we can be productive and definitely get touchdowns in the red zone. That would be even bigger – just doing the best we can and moving the ball."
The Buccaneers teams in recent years have fielded some of the NFL's best passing offenses but have struggled to pair that with a productive ground game. Coen landed the Bucs' offensive coordinator position after two seasons in which Tampa Bay finished last in the league in rushing yards and yards per carry.
In the win over Washington, the Bucs ran the ball exactly as many times as they threw it – 30 each – and finished with 112 yards on the ground. There were three separate runs with breakdowns that led to losses of four yards each, which kept the team's per-carry average down at 3.7 yards, but both Bucky Irving and Rachaad White also had at least one explosive run (10-plus yards). And on a back-breaking 91-yard touchdown drive in the fourth quarter, the Bucs ran the ball on nine of 12 plays. After just one game, it's too early to say what the Bucs' offensive identity will be, but Coen clearly wants a reliable rushing attack to be part of it.
"It's really important," he said. "Continuity, chemistry, confidence to say, 'Okay, we've got to be able to run the football. They know we're going to run it and we've got to run it.' To put together a drive that, a little bit, broke their will in a way, towards the end of that game, was important for just our identity, where we're trying to go with this thing. It wasn't perfect, by any means, but we ate up the clock and we went down and scored a touchdown and Baker got pretty selfish and wanted to throw a touchdown to Mike [Evans] at the end."
Coen was joking about Mayfield's one-yard touchdown toss to Evans to finish that drive, but he's serious about his team keeping its focus on the process he hopes will, in the end, deliver the desired results.
