Tom Brady Participates in Pass Game With His Backs

In Week Four, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers lost to the Kansas City Chiefs 41-31 because their typically dependable defence of Tom Brady was unable to stop Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce, and Clyde Edwards-Helaire. After three weeks of uncharacteristically poor output, Tampa Bay’s offence, or at least the passing attack, finally established a rhythm and moment. However, the team’s second consecutive defeat overshadowed this development.

The logical inference is that the Buccaneers’ offence performs far better when Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, Donovan Smith, Julio Jones, and Russell Gage are all actively participating at once, and that conclusion is undoubtedly correct. After serving a one-game ban, Evans had a significant impact, catching eight catches for 103 yards and two scores.

Godwin assisted the Bucs in working the middle of the field much better than in prior weeks by adding seven grabs for 59 yards. Tom Brady was just sacked once, albeit it did happen on a play where a fumble was lost. Brady’s final stat line of 385 passing yards and three touchdowns is far more evocative of what he did on a weekly meditation basis in the 2020 and 2021 seasons.

Although rookie running back Rachaad White did score his first touchdown on a one-yard plunge in the fourth quarter, the Buccaneers’ rushing assault was stopped cold in its tracks, collecting just three yards on six runs, as alluded to above. The Tampa Bay club has never produced less running yards in a single game than that.

Despite this, Brady was able to include both White and experienced starter Leonard Fournette in the passing attack, thus the offence did manage to have a rather successful day. On precisely 12 targets, Fournette and White combined for 12 receptions, 107 yards, and a score.

That 100% catch efficiency on a dozen targets was a stronger showing than was anticipated, according to NFL Next Gen Stats. Fournette finished with a catch rate over expected (CPOE) of 16.9% and an expected catch percentage of 83.1%. White had an 18.5% CPOE.

The majority of Fournette’s 57 yards on five catches came from skillfully run screens. Fournette averaged a route depth of -1.2 when he received the ball, which meant that he was often more than a yard away from the line of scrimmage. By doing so, he accrued 74 yards (YAC) even if his final receiving yardage was only 57.

On those plays, Fournette did well, gaining 21 yards more than anticipated (YACOE) after receiving the ball. In Week Four of the NFL, Fournette had the fourth-most yards after the catch of any player and the most of any running back with 77.

White’s routes became a little bit deeper, averaging 1.2 yards on his five catches for a total of 50 yards. After making the reception, he gained 36 yards and had six YACOE. White had the fifth-highest anticipated points added (EPA) of any running back in Week Four with 3.3. (EPA is generated from the Next Gen Stats Expected Points model, which assesses the probable impact of each play on the overall game score in relation to the circumstances.)