By james art TAMPA — Three days before the season opener against the Commandos, Bucs offensive coordinator Liam Cohen was asked how he planned to rotate running backs Rachaad White, Bucky Irving and Sean Tucker.
Cohen immediately dismissed the idea.
“I’ve done three-back rotations in the past and a guy that gets exhausting — for a coach, for a player who plays,” Cohen said. “Because now it’s like, well, who’s in the game? What are they good at? What do we want to do with them?
“At the end of the day, it’s Rachaad’s show and Bucky and Sean are going to have a lot to do and hopefully they’ll be efficient and do a great job when they’re there.”
Fast forward to last week, when Cohen watched Tucker and Irving run around the Saints.
With White inactive due to a leg injury, Tucker rushed 14 times for 136 yards and a touchdown while catching three passes for 56 yards and another score. Irving added 81 yards and a TD on 14 carries and caught two passes for 24 yards.
It was a remarkable performance in which the “Buck and Tuck” show produced 297 yards of total offense.
But with White recovered and expected to play Monday night against the Ravens, Cohen was asked Friday if the Bucks planned to bring him back with Irving and Tucker.
“All the guys are going to play; they’re going to get reps, and at the end of the day, whoever gives us the best chance to win that game is probably going to get the majority of the carry,” he said.
Cohen said he would give everyone a streak back at the start of the game so they wouldn’t be tracked.
“At the end of the day, it’s going to have to be all three of those guys getting a run and really whoever gives us the best opportunity,” he said. “It’s a game we’re going to need to break shots and we need to run furiously, so whoever gives us that, we’re going to be able to ride it.”
So what changed Cohen’s stance on the three-back rotation?
Why submit to “exhaustion” after a record-breaking performance in which the Bucs produced 594 net yards of offense, the most in a single game? Where did they rush for 277 yards, the third most in club history, and average 7.9 per carry, their fourth best?
Cohen is a hot player right now. But given White’s 3.7-yard rushing average this season, is this plan sensible or ridiculous?
Over the course of a 17-game season, the Bucs will need all three running backs, maybe more. This is a position that has a high number of injuries and a shorter lifespan.
But why don’t Cohen and Bucks continue to run the tandem coming off a historic performance?
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Some of them may be political. White has been the Bucks’ starting running back for three seasons. Despite a career average of 3.7 yards per carry, he rushed for 990 yards last season. If you believe players can’t lose their jobs due to injury, it happens.
But running backs coach Skip Peet offers another perspective. He thinks splitting the attempts between White, Irving and Tucker in the same game is the right thing to do.
“You look at college football these days and these guys don’t play every game,” Pete said. “Everyone is a platoon. Bucky said when he was at Oregon, the first three games they played six (backs). You look at any college team and they play three or four running backs.
“I think guys in this era are not built that way, to play 50 times a game. They think they can. They’ll give you 50% for 25 of them, and the other 25 they’ll make it harder because they have to.”
Pete, who has coached running backs for the Raiders, Cowboys (twice), Bears and Rams, has experience playing running backs at the position. He rotated Marion Barber, Felix Jones and Tashard Chois to Dallas. Six running backs – Tyron Wheatley, Charlie Garner, Terry Kirby, Randy Jordan, John Ritchie and Zach Crockett – shared carries with the Raiders.
Pete told them the same thing:
“You have a role. You understand your role in this crime.
The eyeball test tells you that both Tucker and Irving are special backs. Tucker went undrafted after a stellar career at Syracuse when doctors flagged him for the NFL with a heart condition.
He was named NFC Offensive Player of the Week for his performance against the Saints.
“(It) meant a lot,” Tucker said. “(It) just shows all the hard work I put into the game. Big thanks to my O-line and receivers that helped me along the way the whole game, but it definitely felt good and it just shows the work I’ve put in.”
Baker Mayfield sounds ready to give Tucker more of a workload: “He’s a guy we want to get the ball in his hands, explosive,” the quarterback said “… We’ve just got to get him the ball more.”
One more thing: The Ravens’ defense ranks No. 1 against the run.
Can you afford to throw away one of your 10 or 12 items trying to get all three back in a streak?
“I think they’re all in their own minds thinking, ‘I’m that guy,'” Pete said. “Their skill set is different. I think they can all be successful just by playing within themselves. Don’t try to do anything extra. They don’t need it. As coaches, we have to help put him in those situations.”
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