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Tampa Bay Buccaneers offensive coordinator Josh Grizzard watches the action against the Pittsburgh Steelers. Barry Reeger-Imagn Images

Buccaneers have massively improved in one key area over last 2 games

Originally posted on Tampa Bay Buccaneers on SI
By River Wells | Last updated Oct 17, 2025 3:21 PM ET

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are 5-1 and currently stand as the NFC's top dogs (and are tied for the best record in the NFL). They've gotten the job done, but it hasn't always been pretty getting there.

The Bucs have narrowly won four of their five games on the last drive, thanks to some heroics by Baker Mayfield. Injuries have massively affected the team, so that's something to keep in mind, but there are always areas to improve.

One area they've been good with on offense is scoring points. The Bucs offense scores 27.5 points per game, the sixth-best mark in the NFL, and they've been able to do that recently due to a big aspect of the offense that has markedly improved — getting the ball in the end zone once they reach the red zone.

Buccaneers have gotten a lot better in the red zone

Health probably has a bit to do with this, too, but offensive coordinator Josh Grizzard has gotten his Bucs offense to find paydirt in the red zone quite a bit these last two games — especially after struggling with it previously this year.

In Weeks 3 and 4 against the New York Jets and Philadelphia Eagles, respectively, the Bucs went 2/8 in the red zone, scoring a touchdown just 25% of the time (2/6 against the Jets, 0/2 against the Eagles). Tristan Wirfs wasn't back in the lineup yet against the Jets, but he was against the Eagles, which put most of the Bucs' out-of-position linemen back where they normally play.

There's been a significant difference the past two weeks, though, when the Bucs played the Seattle Seahawks and the San Francisco 49ers. The Bucs went 4/7 in the red zone against Seattle and a perfect 2/2 against the 49ers, converting 66.7% of their red zone trips to touchdowns the last two weeks. The Bucs also missed out on their first two red zone trips against the Seahawks, so they're also 6/7 in their last seven trips there.

So what happened? How did the Bucs turn it around?

Offensive coordinator Josh Grizzard spoke to media on Friday, and he explained that execution on early downs has helped the team a lot in that area.

"A little bit of it was the execution on first and second down," Grizzard said. "And being able to shorten some of the third downs.... really the execution part of it, taking care of the little things on first and second down and continue to drive."

After some struggles at the beginning of the year scoring in the red zone, the Bucs have gotten touchdowns in the red zone at a 66.7% clip their last two games.

Here’s OC Josh Grizzard on what’s improved there: pic.twitter.com/u8tPCb9t49
— River Wells (@riverhwells) October 17, 2025

The Bucs are particularly good about extending those second downs into new first downs. Per SumerSports, the Bucs convert 32.6% of their second downs into firsts, good for No. 7 in the league. The Bucs extend a lot of drives that way, and it allows them to have sustained red zone success.

The Buccaneers are expected to have perhaps their most lethal red zone threat, Mike Evans, back in the fold on Monday night against the Detroit Lions. The Lions defense hasn't been amazing at keeping teams out of the end zone in the red zone, doing so on a 66.67% clip — 24th in the NFL. It seems as if the Bucs are primed to take advantage on that matchup on Monday night.

The Bucs and Lions face each other at 7 p.m. on Monday night.