Offense determined to dive into the deep end
Despite failure vs. Bears, long passes still OK
While Tom Brady has had much success throwing the deep ball this season, last week’s loss to the Bears was a major step back.
Brady was 0-for-7 on deep-ball attempts — defined as passes of 20 yards or more — in the Bucs’ 20-19 loss in Chicago last Thursday night. That comes after Brady completed nearly half of his deep-ball throws over the season’s first four games, going 12-for-25 for 48 percent.
“I just think we didn’t execute,” offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich said. “I don’t think we executed well enough to win that game. That’s just the only way I really see it. … We’ve just got to do a better job of playing situational football. That game really came down to situational football.”
In their upcoming game Sunday against the Packers and Aaron Rodgers — a contest that could become a shootout between future Hall of Fame quarterbacks — the Bucs hope for a rebound.
Against Chicago, Brady went deep on the Bucs’ second offensive play with a 31-yard throw to Mike Evans down the right sideline in tight coverage. But the ball was slightly overthrown and landed out of bounds.
On the same drive, Brady missed Tanner Hudson in the end zone on a pass that went 34 yards, and the Bucs had to settle for a field goal. Brady couldn’t connect with Hudson on a 26-yard pass on a third-and-6 play on the next possession, forcing another field goal.
Coach Bruce Arians said the Bucs’ deep-ball numbers didn’t reflect yardage gained through defensive pass-interference calls. And Tampa Bay benefitted from
a defensive pass-interference call when Cyril Grayson was taken down on an incompletion into the end zone. But the Bucs netted just 16 yards on the play because it was marked at the spot of the foul.
“I think we’d always like to take those opportunities when you get them to push the ball down the field,” Brady said.
“We tried on the second play of the game. We had a pass-interference call that we got on them. Tyler [Johnson] made a pretty explosive play on a catch-andrun, so you know we’re trying to make them. At the same time, you know if they guard it, we’ve got to do other things. We ran the ball well.”
Getting wide receiver Chris Godwin back from a hamstring injury should help, and Evans having more time for his ailing ankle to recover should help. Even after the Chicago game, Brady had completed 37.5 percent of his deep-ball throws, which is right around his 38.9-percent deep-ball completion rate last season.
IR updates
Arians offered an interesting update on safety Justin Evans, who began the season on injured reserve and hasn’t played since Week 13 of the 2018 season, saying he’s progressing from a foot injury, but not much more.
“Justin’s [injury] is a funny one,” Arians said. “But we think he’s getting better, but he hasn’t done [much]. He’s starting to run a little bit.”
Tight end Antony Auclair, who went on the IR with a calf injury following the season opener, is “getting close” to returning to practice, Arians said. And though the tight end position was one of the Bucs’ deepest at the beginning of the season, they could really use Auclair’s blocking following O.J. Howard’s season-ending injury.
Two other players on IR — wide receiver John Hurst and offensive lineman John Molchon — began practicing Tuesday, starting a 21-day window the team has to activate them to the active roster.