Bucky Irving — Week 2: Seventeen Carries, Eighty-Nine Yards
2026 NFL Season · Half-PPR Scoring · Monday, Sep 21
Irving carried 17 times for 89 yards, 38 of them on one first-quarter run around left end; the other 16 carries gained 51. He caught all four of his targets for a net of one yard. He had 17 of the 19 carries by Tampa Bay running backs, up from 8 of 13 in Week 1, in a 23–19 loss to the Browns.
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Three to three, six 27 left in the first quarter, second and six at the Tampa Bay 29. Bucky Irving, out of the shotgun, went around left end for 38 yards to the Cleveland 33. +2.6 expected points added — expected points added is what a play was worth given down, distance and field position — and 8.9 points of win probability, the chance of winning the game after the play against before it, the second-largest gain on any Tampa Bay run or pass. The drive ended in a 45-yard field goal.
The line: 17 carries, 89 yards, no touchdown, three first downs, six of the 17 successful, −0.1 expected points on the carries. They went four, 38, three, five, four, −1, one, 14, nothing, four, −5, one, one, five, six, three and six. Take out the 38 and it is 16 carries for 51. Seven before halftime for 54, 10 after for 35. The 14 came on the second snap of the third quarter, on the drive that ended in Emeka Egbuka's touchdown. The last four came on the final drive, five, six, three and six, the last of them on third and one at the Cleveland 25 with a minute 23 left, converted. One carry inside the 20, four yards from the 15. As a receiver: four targets, four catches, one yard. Three, −3, −3, four, every one of them thrown at or behind the line of scrimmage, −2.3 expected points. A 12-yard catch on third and five in the second quarter came back on a holding penalty.
The split: Irving 17 of the 19 carries by running backs, Kenneth Gainwell two, and 17 of Tampa Bay's 22 designed runs. In Week 1 it was eight of 13. The targets went the other way, seven last week and four this week, the same four Gainwell had.
Back in June the preview called Irving a top-18 per-game rate sitting on the league's worst rushing efficiency, a hundred 26 yards below expected at 3.4 a carry, and the first thing it said to watch in September was whether the burst was back. Week 1 was 15 touches, a touchdown and a lost fumble. Sunday has an answer of a kind: one run of 38, and 16 others at a little over three yards each, which is close to last year's number. No fumble this time. Through two games it is 25 carries for a hundred 34 yards and one touchdown, and the backfield is more his than it was a week ago. One long run is one long run. Tampa Bay is home to the Vikings on Sunday the 20-seventh.
_Data via nflverse._
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