The Tampa Bay Buccaneers had things rolling in the third quarter against the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday in Germany.
And then, they tried to get cute.
With 6:34 left in that third quarter, the Bucs called a direct snap to and throw by running back Leonard Fournette. Fournette rolled right at first, and then threw across his body, to the backside receiver. Some guy named Tom Brady, who has a grand total of three catches in his NFL career, and not one since 2018.
It did not go as offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich expected. First of all, it’s tough to ask a running back to make an intermediate cross-body throw that a few NFL quarterbacks would struggle to make. Then, why are you putting your quarterback in harm’s way like that?
None of that happened, because Brady slipped and fell to the cushy turf, and Seahawks rookie cornerback Tariq Woolen picked up his fifth interception on the season.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, Brady was busted for tripping Woolen with a figure-four leg lock as the cornerback tried to run the ball back.
man tariq woolen really can lock anyone up pic.twitter.com/3gAEd0mYmP
— NFL Fantasy Football (@NFLFantasy) November 13, 2022
Tampa Bay had tried a direct snap to Fournette four plays before on the same drive, and Brady was out wide. No Seahawks defender was within 10 yards of Brady, because you just don’t expect Brady to be a target.
So, the Bucs went back to the well when they really shouldn’t have.
