That may seem like a proof of concept, admittedly in a small sample size, but conversely the Buccaneers have also shown they can win when Tom Brady is throwing it all over the yard to one of the best collection of skill-position players in the NFL. And now that he’s the head coach, Todd Bowles isn’t on some mission to run the ball down every opponent’s throat no matter what. He’s on a mission to win ballgames.
“My attitude is to win the game anyway possible, and if we have to throw the ball 50 times to win, that’s great,” said Bowles after the team’s first OTA practice on Tuesday. “If we have to run the ball 30 times to win, that’s great. We’ll take what they give us and we’ll always have shots for big plays. Obviously, Brady is a great passer; we want to equal that with the running game if we can. But if they’re taking away the run and we have to throw the ball 60 times and he throws five or six touchdowns, I’ll take the win. If we’re running the ball pretty good and we get going about 25, 30 times, I’ll take the win. Whatever we have to do to win the ballgame.”
In other words, Bowles is not tearing out sections of Leftwich’s playbook or moving others to the front of the binder.
“Nobody’s putting handcuffs on the offense from that standpoint,” said Bowles. “We’re going to do whatever we have to do to win the game.”
Bowles said there will be some tweaks to the playbook on both sides of the ball, just as there are every year. And there will likely be some as-yet-unknown defensive strategies that will force the Buccaneers to emphasize one thing over another on certain Sundays. That was evident last year when opponents hit the Bucs’ with a lot more two-deep safety looks and Brady shifted from his 2020 high dosage of downfield passing to a much more quick-strike approach in 2021. Both strategies worked extremely well.
And there will be certain opponents against which the Buccaneers will specifically need to run the ball better and more frequently. As tight end Cam Brate,…
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