Jenna Laine, ESPN Staff Writer 6y

Wild-card weekend strategies could provide blueprint for Bucs

TAMPA, Fla -- After finishing the season 5-11, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers found themselves sitting at home on wild-card weekend, taking notes. Here's a look at some of the biggest takeaways and how the Bucs can apply similar strategies:

Pass rush is paramount

In other news: water is wet, the sky is blue. This is an area the Bucs absolutely have to improve after producing just 22 sacks for the season and it's been written about extensively. But it was even more painfully obvious watching the L.A. Rams and Jacksonville Jaguars, who suffocated opposing quarterbacks.

The Rams (Aaron Donald in particular) had Atlanta Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan running for his life. The Jaguars were especially good up front in the first and fourth quarters, when they had 15 of their 20 pressures. Interestingly enough the Jags only blitzed on 10 of 74 snaps (13.5 percent) and the Rams on nine of 72 snaps (12.5 percent). The rest were all standard rushes. Some teams use a lot of stunts and twists to make this happen. Others use a good rotation to keep guys fresh or just have really dominant players who either beat double teams or can't be double-teamed because the talent level is dispersed all across the line.

One thing to keep in mind, however, is that spending more on a position doesn't necessarily equate to more production. Two teams among the top three in money spent on their defensive lines in 2017 were the New York Giants $52,080,382) and the Bucs ($38,330,572).

Even with high-priced veterans Calais Campbell (14.5 sacks) and Malik Jackson (8.0 sacks), the Jaguars will spend the eighth-fewest dollars of any team from 2017-2019 on its defensive line. That's because they've had success in the draft with Dante Fowler Jr. (8.0 sacks) and Yannick Ngakoue (12.0). From 2016-2019, the Rams will have spent ninth-most on its defensive line.

You have to be able to stop the run

The Carolina Panthers limited the Saints' near-unstoppable duo of Mark Ingram and Alvin Kamara to just 41 total rushing yards, allowing them to average just 1.86 yards per carry. If the Saints didn't have former Super Bowl Bowl MVP and future first-ballot Hall of Famer Drew Brees slinging the ball for 376 yards, the Panthers could have won. The Buffalo Bills bottled up Leonard Fournette, who had 57 rushing yards on 21 carries, and the Jaguars would have likely lost had it not been for their defense and quarterback Blake Bortles rushing for first downs.

The two things the Bucs failed to do this that that left them vulnerable against the run were not being in position to make tackles and missing tackles. Run fits were particularly a problem on the outside, with the Bucs surrendering 455 yards before contact when running backs went off-tackle, fourth-most of any team in the league. Missed tackles were not nearly as bad as simply being out of position, but they were an issue. The Bucs were also among the worst in the league at giving up yards after first contact on screen passes.

Don't neglect running the ball

One of the most baffling things from wild-card weekend was Chiefs head coach Andy Reid's decision not to run the ball more. Rookie sensation Kareem Hunt, who led the NFL with 1,327 rushing yards in the regular season, had 11 carries for 42 yards and just five carries after the first quarter. Hunt was a better back in the second half of games this season, averaging 5.5 yards per carry, and Chiefs quarterback Alex Smith only completed just five passes in the second half Saturday (the Chiefs' offense was dramatically different without tight end Travis Kelce) when Hunt was nearly invisible as the Titans erased a 21-3 deficit to win 22-21.

Often when coaches find themselves in tightly contested games or behind, they either play 'not to lose' or hit the panic button, which is a huge mistake, as a balanced offense is the most difficult to stop. In the case of the Titans, despite being down by 18, they still ran the ball and ran it a lot with Derrick Henry, who produced 114 of his 156  rushing yards in the second half. He went from averaging 4.2 yards per carry in the first half to a whopping 8.77 yards per carry in the second. That's why it's imperative to remain true to your identity. The Titans showed that this was perfectly do-able while still going up-tempo, too.

A screen game is your friend -- so is the play-action screen

Brees threw more screen passes than any quarterback in the league this season. Right behind him -- Ben Roethlisberger, who had a first-round bye. The Bucs really didn't have much of a screen game until Ryan Fitzpatrick led them to a 15-10 win against the New York Jets and then their 30-20 win against the Miami Dolphins in Week 11. In fact, in Weeks 1-9, Jameis Winston attempted 13 screen passes -- 19th in the league. This was against some pretty aggressive pass rushes, even as his shoulder injury began to take a toll. That's interesting because Winston's 92.3 percent completion percentage on screen passes in 2017 was sixth-best in the league. Once the Bucs began incorporating more screens and stopped focusing solely on the explosives downfield, they were able to move the ball much more effectively.

The quarterbacks who mixed play-action with their screen passes the most this season were also among the best in the league -- Brees, Case Keenum, Tom Brady, Smith, Jared Goff and Ryan all used a heavy dose of it. Houston Texans rookie Deshaun Watson had enormous success with this prior to his season-ending injury. He threw 13 touchdowns off play-action screens in seven games, the most in the league during that span.

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