The Bucs’ offensive system
I obviously don’t have access to the Bucs’ offensive meeting rooms or anything like that, and I’ve only been watching their offense for a week, but based off of their film from the 2020 season so far, the principles of their offense are relatively evident.
1. Have a powerful run game that is built around duo- https://alexbyrne.substack.com/p/duo
In order to run duo well, you need offensive linemen that can create vertical displacement, tight ends that can block anyone at the point of attack, and powerful running backs that can turn three yard gains into five yard gains and make it hard for DB’s to tackle them, and also a WR, or WR’s that can block DB’s at the point of attack as at least one WR will usually have a tight split or a ‘choke’ split.
The reason why it’s important to have at least one WR in a tight or ‘choke’ alignment is so that he is in a position to pin a DB, usually a safety, to the outside and force the CB to be the extra defender.
Here is an example of what can happen if the WR isn’t able to pin the safety outside:
The Bucs certainly have all of those things, which is an indication of how Arians has built his personnel around his offense, and particularly his base concepts.
2. With a powerful run game in place, the defense will feel the need to put an extra defender in the box, and thus play single high coverages.
This will then open explosive passing opportunities off of play action as almost all of their play passes (in-pocket PA) came against single high, and they didn’t have much success when they did run play passes against 2 high.
Also, their two base pass concepts, double go (the first pass play in Arians’ install-https://alexbyrne.substack.com/p/bucs-pass-install) and four verticals are designed to create isolations against single high coverages. They also like running speed outs, deeper outs, and comebacks against single high zone coverages, which are made much more effective when the buzz defenders, who are responsible for the curl-flat area of the field, and thus responsible for providing help underneath for the bailing CB’s, are closer to the ball as they’re more concerned about their run fit responsibilities than working out towards the sideline.
They also like using concepts like Winston and seam (Arians’ terminology) to decoy the buzz defenders and prevent them from working out to the flat.
14 yard stop routes are Arians’ preferred way of attacking a bail CB underneath when the WR has a wide split
Against single high man coverage, Arians likes calling either four verts or seam. On both plays Brady will choose which seam he likes most pre-snap, and then move the post safety with his eyes and throw the seam route. The same thing applies if the defense is playing some type of cover 3 match/rip liz.
If the buzz defender doesn’t get decoyed by the inside route, then it should be open.
Brady has experience of throwing the seam route on hoss juke when the buzz defender works to the flat too quickly.
Arians also likes using 6 yd hitches and six step speed outs (roughly 10 yds) when the CB is off and the curl/flat defender is too far away to cover the flat.
Overall, their offense is built around creating isolations:
If the defense wants to play single high they will primarily pass the ball to the outside WR’s (Evans and Miller) using isolation routes.
If the defense wants to play 2 high they will have to defend the run without an extra defender, which will be a challenging task for the DL and LB’s.