For most of this season, the Buccaneers have taken the same approach as most teams on kickoffs: Kick the ball into the landing zone and try to tackle the returner before he reaches the 35-yard line. But for the last three games, the Buccaneers have changed their strategy.
Over the last three games, every Buccaneers kickoff except one has gone into the end zone for a touchback, giving the opponent the ball at the 35-yard line to avoid the risk of a long return. The one time the Bucs didn’t kick it into the end zone, the opposing returner brought it back 47 yards, all the way into Buccaneers territory at the 45-yard line.
Given how badly it turned out when the Bucs kicked short of the end zone, coach Todd Bowles says kicking into the landing zone is not worth the risk of a long runback.
“We’ve talked about it and we’ve talked about guys being here just to cover kicks,” Bowles said. “Obviously, that wasn’t getting done the way we wanted it to get done, so we decided to just kick it in, give it up at the 35, as opposed to close to midfield. Obviously, the one return we gave up, whether it’s missed tackles or missed lanes or missed blocks, that’s kind of a result of it. So we’re just minimizing the damage.”
Asked why the Buccaneers can’t sign better kickoff coverage players, Bowles said that’s easier said than done.
“We’ve been looking,” Bowles said. “It’s hard to find 11 guys that you think can play special teams on someone’s practice squad.”
And so the Buccaneers will keep kicking deep, reasoning that even if they’re giving up good field position, their coverage team would likely give up worse field position.
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