TAMPA, Fla. — Four days after watching Tom Brady finally re-gain his downfield mojo, the Bucs’ offended coordinator was ready to unleash a few shots of his own.
Byron Leftwich, one of the NFL’s most beleaguered play-callers this season, was asked Thursday about a light finally coming on for his unit, which gained a season-high 478 yards and watched the Brady-Mike Evans connection regenerate in Sunday’s 30-24 win against the Panthers.
But there was a lot of defense in Leftwich’s response.
“When you really listen to people talk about us, that’s emotions talking,” he said. “That’s not really people that’s watching us, watching us get better every week. For some reason, everybody wants to throw dirt on the Bucs, but we’re not ready for people to throw dirt on us.”
Indeed, any figurative shovels have been shelved for at least another week. Sunday’s offensive renaissance (complemented by three defensive takeaways) helped the Bucs (8-8) clinch the NFC South and earn a home playoff game in the first round.
But as for weekly improvement? The numbers, no matter how they’re dissected, don’t reflect that.
Second in the NFL in scoring (30.1 points per game) in 2021, the Bucs are 25th (18.5) this season, with only two games of 30 or more points. Their 29 offensive touchdowns through 16 games are less than half of their 17-game total (61) last season.
Their third-down conversion rate (36.9%) represents a significant dropoff from 2021 (44.8), when they ranked fifth in the NFL. Partially accounting for that dropoff has been the loss of key Brady targets (Rob Gronkowski, Antonio Brown) and a patchwork offensive line that has featured only two starters from last season’s team (Donovan Smith, Tristan Wirfs).
But while acknowledging the team has struggled mightily on third down and in the red zone, Leftwich told reporters that “the numbers say we’re not that far off.”
“I think (there’s) been moments where we haven’t really been that bad,” he said. “I think you guys over-exaggerate because we look different.”
When asked Thursday where he has seen the biggest offensive growth, Brady was more vague than vehement.
“I think over the year different things have changed with our offense. Players have changed, some scheme things have changed,” he said.
“Some things we’ve done consistently well, some things we haven’t, and we try to get rid of those things. I think the point is, you’re always trying to gain progress every day. And certainly we didn’t start at a great place. There’s certain games where it was probably better early and worse late, some games where it was not great early and great late.”
Sunday’s title-clinching triumph fell into the latter category.
For the fourth time in a five-game stretch, the Bucs managed 10 or fewer points in the first three quarters, but exploded for 20 in the fourth. Two of the late touchdowns resulted from Brady exploiting the Panthers’ single coverage of Evans for scoring passes of 57 and 30 yards to the 6-foot-5 receiver.
“I think we’re getting better as a group,” Leftwich said.
“I think this group is learning how to play the moments that we’ve got to make plays, understanding what we’ve got to do to really win football games. It’s so hard to get that done when you’re switching so many bodies in and out of the huddle during the season.”
