Fourth Quarter
- Three and out again for the Rams. Not a good way to finish this thing off.
- Tampa takes over at its 31.
- More big plays from Tampa puts it in good shape at the Rams’ 6 as Jackson has a 46-yard catch and run.
- Three straight incompletions made it fourth and goal at the 6.
- The Rams got yet another stop on fourth down pinned deep when Doug Martin caught a short pass from Freeman and was dropped for a gain of 3, 3 yards short of the end zone.
- The Rams offense takes over at its 3. They need a solid, time-consuming drive here to help put this one away with 12:08 to go.
- Who else but Jackson to get it done and possibly go over the 1,000 mark for the season?
- He ripped off runs of 6, 19, 7 and 2 yards but a third and 1 pass fell incomplete and the Rams punted it away from their 37.
- Jackson needs 15 more yards to get to 1,000 for the season.
- The Bucs take over at their 16.
- Big interception on a deflection for DE Eugene Sims. Rams take over at Tampa’s 39.
- Jackson loses 2 on first down.
- A screen lost 5 and the Rams will punt. Not a good drive there, had a chance to get 3 more and potentially make it a three-possession game.
- Tampa dinking and dunking its way down the field for a first down to the Rams’ 29.
- Defense gets another stop.
- Rams can milk this one out now, a chance for Jackson to get his 17 yards.
- They can’t quite run out the clock. Two Jackson runs netted 7 yards and made it third and 3 with 2:15 to go.
- Jackson stopped for no gain.
- Tampa gets it back under the two-minute warning.
- A sack for Williams Hayes on first down.
- Freeman overthrows on second down.
- Rams get it back at Tampa’s 31 and can run it out.
- That will do it. Rams win it 28-13 and improve to 7-7-1 on the year. They have won four of five.
Third Quarter
- The Rams get it first and start from their 20.
- On the first play, Bradford hit a wide open Kendricks over the middle. He caught it and raced 80 yards for a TD with help of a terrific block by Amendola that took out two defenders.
- On third and 4 from their 26, Freeman fired an interception into the arms of rookie CB Trumaine Johnson, who made a great read and break on the ball for the pick, the third of the day for the Rams.
- The Rams have it back at Tampa’s 30.
- Richardson runs for 6 on first down to the 24 and gains 1 on second to make it third-and-3.
- Bradford hits Amendola for 8 and a first down to the 15.
- He follows with 10 more to Givens for a first down at the 5.
- Two plays later, Bradford hit Austin Pettis for 5 yards and a touchdown. Rams lead 28-6.
- Tampa gets it back at its 21.
- Four plays into the drive, the Bucs strike back as Freeman hits a wide open Mike Williams for 61 yards and a touchdown.
- Rams lead 28-13 with 8:50 to go in the third.
- They start from their 6 after another special teams penalty.
- Rams go three and out after a holding penalty wiped out a 10-yard run by Jackson.
- Hekker’s punt goes 57 yards and the Bucs start from their 31.
- Tampa worked its way down the field with big passing plays as Williams continues to make big gains with 20 and 16.
- At the Rams’ 5, the Bucs had two plays to get a first down to the 4 and the Rams shut them down, including a fourth-down sneak by Freeman that came up well short.
- Rams get it back at their 5.
- They go three and out again, punting from their 8 after a third down incompletion for Gibson.
- Tampa starts again from the Rams 43 after yet another bad special teams penalty, this time unsportsmanlike conduct.
- Freeman’s deep shot for Jackson fell incomplete on first down.
- Rams defense gets a three and out and they get it back at their 18.
- At the end of three, the Rams lead 28-13.
Second Quarter
- After a 13-yard strike to Givens to the 31, Bradford fired deep for Amendola on a double move but Tampa CB Danny Gorrer didn’t bite and made the interception in the end zone.
- Tampa takes over at its 20.
- A 5-yard sack by Kendall Langford pushed the Bucs back to their 25 after a first down.
- On third and 15, Freeman was pressured and floated a pass toward the left sideline. Rookie CB Janoris Jenkins jumped on it and took it 41 yards for a touchdown.
- It’s Jenkins’ fourth touchdown of the season and third pick-6.
- Greg Zuerlein’s extra point makes it 7-3 Rams with 11:46 to go in the second quarter.
- Tampa starts again from its 20.
- Buoyed by a 15-yard facemask penalty and an offsides penalty, the Bucs got into Rams territory but stalled with an incompletion on third and 3 at the 31.
- Barth hit again, this time from 49 yards out to make it 7-6 Rams with 5:56 to go in the second quarter.
- Rams go three and out from their 20. Tampa gets it back at its 36.
- The Bucs moved into Rams territory on a 13-yard completion to Mike Williams.
- On first down from the Rams’ 49, Freeman fired over the middle for Jackson but LB James Laurinaitis dropped deep and stepped in front for an interception.
- The Rams get it back at their 35.
- Jackson ripped off a gain of 12 on first down to the St. Louis 47. After a 2-yard run, Bradford hit TE Lance Kendricks for 19 yards down the left sideline.
- At the two minute warning, the Rams have it at Tampa’s 32.
- On third and 10, Bradford stood strong in the pocket and hit Gibson for 13 yards and a first down to Tampa’s 19.
- Two plays later, Bradford found Kendricks for 13 yards to the 5.
- On the next play, Jackson lowered his head and snaked his way for a touchdown. The Rams lead 14-6 with 32 seconds to go.
- At the end of the first half, the Rams lead 14-6. They’ll get the ball first to open the second half.
First Quarter
- The Rams won the toss and elected to defer.
- The Bucs methodically worked their way down the field, led by WR Vincent Jackson, who has three catches for 38 yards on the possession.
- A 6-yard sack by DE Chris Long with the ball at the Rams’ 12 pushed Tampa back and ultimately forced a field goal.
- Connor Barth converts for the Bucs, who take a 3-0 lead with 5:22 to go in the first.
- The Rams start their first drive from the 20.
- On second down from there, Danny Amendola caught a pass in the flat, was hit and fumbled and the Bucs recovered but the recovery wasn’t for long as the ball came loose again.
- Rams LG Robert Turner recovered to give the Rams a new life and first down at their own 5 because of the possession change.
- A nice, methodical drive of their own with a 20-yard completion to Gibson and 14 to Givens were the keys.
- The Rams have a second and 7 at Tampa’s 44 at the end of the first quarter.
- At the end of one extremely fast quarter, the Bucs lead 3-0.
Pregame Notes
- Greetings from Raymond James Stadium where the Rams and Bucs cling to the thinnest of playoff hopes but both look to rebound from disappointing losses last week.
- Temperatures here are hovering in the 50s but you’d think it’s frigid by how the locals are reacting. They are all bundled up, guess they aren’t used to mild temps.
- One quick roster note, CB Quinton Pointer has been brought back to the active roster. He takes the spot vacated by G Harvey Dahl, who was placed on injured reserve earlier this week.
- On the inactive front, no major surprises.
- Here’s the list: QB Austin Davis, RB Terrance Ganaway, DT Matt Conrath, T Joe Barksdale, WR Steve Smith, TE Cory Harkey and LB Sammy Brown.
- The Rams are wearing white tops on blue pants today.
- CB Cortland Finnegan was questionable entering today but is active and expected to play.
- It’s been announced that Shelley Smith will start for Dahl at RG but don’t be shocked if Chris Williams gets the start or at least splits time.
- The Bucs inactives are CB LeQuan Lewis, RB Michael Smith, G Roger Allen, WR Chris Owusu, WR David Douglas, DT Corey Irvin, DT Matthew Masifilo.
- Stay tuned for updates throughout the game.
Pregame Notes
- Greetings from Raymond James Stadium where the Rams and Bucs cling to the thinnest of playoff hopes but both look to rebound from disappointing losses last week.
- Temperatures here are hovering in the 50s but you’d think it’s frigid by how the locals are reacting. They are all bundled up, guess they aren’t used to mild temps.
- One quick roster note, CB Quinton Pointer has been brought back to the active roster. He takes the spot vacated by G Harvey Dahl, who was placed on injured reserve earlier this week.
- On the inactive front, no major surprises.
- Here’s the list: QB Austin Davis, RB Terrance Ganaway, DT Matt Conrath, T Joe Barksdale, WR Steve Smith, TE Cory Harkey and LB Sammy Brown.
- The Rams are wearing white tops on blue pants today.
- CB Cortland Finnegan was questionable entering today but is active and expected to play.
- It’s been announced that Shelley Smith will start for Dahl at RG but don’t be shocked if Chris Williams gets the start or at least splits time.
- The Bucs inactives are CB LeQuan Lewis, RB Michael Smith, G Roger Allen, WR Chris Owusu, WR David Douglas, DT Corey Irvin, DT Matthew Masifilo.
- Stay tuned for updates throughout the game.
1. Finding Freeman
After a difficult 2011 season that followed a breakthrough 2010 year, Tampa Bay quarterback Josh Freeman has bounced back in 2012 with perhaps the best season of his young career.
Although there have been hiccups along the way, including last week’s tough performance against New Orleans, Freeman has again flashed the tantalizing potential that made him one of the league’s up and coming signal callers two years ago.
In just his fourth year in the league, Freeman is already just two touchdown passes and a little more than 2,000 yards away from setting franchise records in both categories for the Bucs.
This season, Freeman has thrown for 3,471 yards with 25 touchdowns and 12 interceptions for a rating of 85.7.
The 6’6, 248-pound quarterback does have the ability to make plays on the run and has a special knack for making plays in the clutch as many Rams fans will remember from the Bucs’ come-from-behind win against St. Louis in 2010.
“The tough part about him is he’s so big and strong, he’s hard to get down,” coach Jeff Fisher said. “He is able to get himself out of trouble just because of his strength.”
In 10 of his 23 victories as a starter, Freeman has led a fourth quarter or overtime comeback win.
For the Rams to get a win, they’ll have to find ways to get to Freeman and force him into some mistakes.
2. The Muscle Hamster
Although he has one of the strangest nicknames in all of sports, Bucs rookie running back Doug Martin is becoming a household name no matter what you call him.
The rookie out of Boise State has been an immediate impact player, ranking third in the league in scrimmage yards per game (117.6) and fifth in rushing yards per game (89.3).
Martin also sits seventh in the league in yards per carry (4.6) and is tied for fourth in total touchdowns with 11.
Martin is just 5’9, 215 pounds but is built solid as a rock, running low to the ground and making it hard for defenders to wrap him up for sure tackles.
The Rams have defended the run well for the most part this season but were victimized by Minnesota’s Adrian Peterson for a pair of big runs last week and will need to find a way to eliminate those big plays against Martin.
“He’s just an outstanding back,” Fisher said. “We had high grades on him coming out of last year’s draft. We knew he was going to be a good pro. He’s had a lot of touches and is making a lot of plays in the passing game as well as the running game.”
3. Air It Out
Despite an offseason attempt to bolster the secondary, Tampa Bay’s pass defense has struggled some against a pass-heavy division loaded with talented quarterbacks.
Going into Sunday’s game, the Bucs are 32nd in the league in pass defense, allowing 310.6 yards per game through the air. Last week, they surrendered 307 yards and four touchdown passes to Saints quarterback Drew Brees.
While the Rams and quarterback Sam Bradford
aren’t in the Brees stratosphere in terms of the aerial attack, Bradford did post 377 passing yards and three touchdowns against the Vikings last week, although some of that came when the game was out of hand.
Still, with receiver Danny Amendola close to full speed, the opportunity exists for Bradford and the passing game to put together big weeks back to back.
Of course, in order to take advantage of those chances, the Rams will have to protect Bradford. Tampa is led by end Michael Bennett, who has nine sacks on the year and the Rams are without guard Harvey Dahl, who had season ending biceps surgery on Wednesday.
Getting off to a quick start and grabbing an early lead would be a step forward in that regard.
“Obviously when you fall behind early in a game, especially by the margin that we fell behind on Sunday, they know that you’re going to throw the ball and they pretty much pin their ears back and come,” Bradford said.
4. Slowing Vincent
A big part of the reason for Freeman’s return to prominence in 2012 is the addition of a big-time play maker in the form of wide receiver Vincent Jackson.
Tampa signed the 6’5, 230-pound wideout to a lucrative contract in order to lure him from San Diego in the offseason and Jackson has paid immediate dividends.
Through 14 games, Jackson is fifth in the NFL in receiving yards (1,226) and tied for eighth in the league in touchdown catches by wide receivers with eight.
Jackson has been especially adept at moving the chains on his catches which should come as no surprise given his yards per catch average of 19.8. He has moved the chains on 54 of his 62 receptions, an astounding percentage of 87.1, ranking first in the league.
For the most part, the Rams have fared well against bigger, elite receivers such as Detroit’s Calvin Johnson, Chicago’s Brandon Marshall and Arizona’s Larry Fitzgerald. They are ninth in the league in pass defense but Jackson provides a different dimension that can be tough to stop.
Preventing Jackson from hitting the home run would go a long way toward a Rams victory.
“I think they lead the league in passes over 40 yards,” assistant head coach Dave McGinnis said. “They’re really good at that. Jackson can have a safety over the top and a corner underneath him and Freeman will still launch it up there to him.”
5. Room to Run
In one of the more interesting statistical anomalies you’ll find, the Bucs actually rank on the complete opposite end of the spectrum when it comes to run defense. They are first in the league against the run, allowing just 83.3 yards per game.
That is an amazing number considering Tampa Bay was last in the league against the run in 2011. But this year, they’ve allowed just two 100-yard rushers and are yielding just 3.5 yards per carry.
Of course, many teams have elected to pass more regularly against the Bucs and the 334 rushing attempts against are the fourth fewest in the league this year. That’s essentially a chicken or the egg type of discussion but either way, it’s been tough sledding trying to run against the Bucs defense.
The Rams are 17th in the league in rushing offense with 110.4 yards per game on the ground. Starting running back Steven Jackson is closing in on more history and needs just 91 yards to break the 1,000-yard mark for eight consecutive seasons.
Making history in Tampa would be nothing new for Jackson, who set the franchise mark for rushing yards in the team’s last visit there in 2010.
According to left tackle Rodger Saffold, the Bucs run defense excels because it throws so many looks at an offense, using a variety of twists and stunts that make it difficult to know where pressure is coming from.
Just as important, the Rams need Jackson to find some running room against the Bucs to keep the Rams balanced offensively and control the clock.
“They do many different things upfront,” Saffold said. “As long as we are focused in, we should be able to help him get to that next milestone but if we fall to pieces because of the stunts and the movement that is going on, it’s going to be really tough for him.”
With two games to go in the season and the longest of long shots to make the NFC playoffs hanging by the barest of threads, the Rams believe there is plenty on the line when they head to Tampa Bay this weekend.
So when the Rams and Bucs kick it off at noon Sunday, there will be no need to dig desperately for motivation. The incentive to play this week is no different than it was in any of the previous 14 games according to coach Jeff Fisher.
“Winning this next game is what’s simply motivating us right now,” Fisher said. “We’re not looking ahead. Everybody’s in the building walking around with the attitude not, as I mentioned, not that we lost the game to Minnesota, but rather we’ve won three out of the last four, so let’s go win the next one.”
Using that world view, Raymond James Stadium for Sunday’s game carrying a 6-7-1 record. They are coming off a loss against the Vikings that snapped their three game win streak and made a slim playoff chance almost non-existent.
Going by the facts, though, the Rams have indeed won three of their past four and have a chance to cobble together two more wins that would give them wins in five of their final six games as well as winning record for the first time since 2003 and an undefeated mark in the division.
But for any of that to happen, it starts in the sunshine this weekend and the week to week mentality that’s been in place all season must stay that way.
“No, there’s no doubt,” running back Steven Jackson said. “This team and all… it’s a whole new roster, a whole new team. The chemistry, the excitement, the guys, it doesn’t feel like work. It actually feels like you’re hanging in the locker room with your buddies and because of that, guys are going to go out and play for each other, regardless of what may happen or what may transpire to postseason, that guys are going to play these next two games all out.”
For the record, the Rams playoff chances have a couple of different permutations but the easiest way to put it is the Rams need to win their final two games then hope that the New York Giants, Minnesota, Chicago and one of Washington or Dallas also loses its final two games.
It’s a chance so slim that Fisher threw out a callback to the movie ‘Dumb and Dumber’ earlier this week but it’s still better than not having a chance at all.
Beyond the aforementioned team accomplishments, the Rams also have some other history they can make this weekend, particularly for Jackson.
Entering Sunday’s game, Jackson is 91 yards short of reaching 1,000 rushing yards for an eighth consecutive season. That would make him just the sixth player in league history to reach that mark.
It would be somewhat fitting for Jackson to reach that mark in Tampa on the same field in which he set the franchise rushing record in 2010.
“It was something… I didn’t think about eight years, but I thought year-in and year-out, as long as I was a starter, I wanted to be a 1,000-yard rusher,” Jackson said. “I didn’t realize that so few have accomplished what I have the possibility of accomplishing. It just means that I’ve been consistent over that time and been durable, which is hard to do in this league.”
For Jackson to get the needed yards this weekend, he’ll have to do it against the league’s top-ranked run defense. The Bucs are allowing just 83.3 yards per game and have a reputation for using stunts, twists, slants and every kind of movement imaginable to clog run lanes.
“The scheme is really good,” offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer said. “They have a ton of movement. They’re always slanting and are angling in their alignment and they’re going one way or the other. Going sideways they create kind of piles for people to get through. Linebackers are downhill. They’re fitting well on the runs and they’re playing hard. They’re playing hard. They’re committed to the run. You’re just not seeing a lot of guys break explosives runs. It’s quite a challenge in the run game.”
One way to potentially open some holes is to attack Tampa Bay’s secondary. In one of the league’s quirkier statistical discrepancies, the Bucs are last in the league in pass defense, giving up 310.6 yards per game.
Some of those struggles can be attributed to playing so many pass heavy teams within the NFC South Division but it’s also a function of the Bucs ability to shut down the run.
“I think that’s where you just see some explosives plays,” Schottenheimer said. “Some people have gotten behind them. They’ve missed a few guys here and there in coverage. Some people have gotten behind them for explosive plays. When you’re committed to stopping the run like they are, sometimes you’re sending your guys up on the outside and people have made some plays out there. It’s a good defense. They play hard, like I said, they play really well down there, so it’ll be a quite a challenge for us.”
On the other side, of the ball the Bucs offense has no such chasm between the run and the pass, they do both equally well and present a variety of problems.
Tampa’s offense is led by quarterback Josh Freeman who loves to throw vertically to big, physical wideouts Vincent Jackson and Mike Williams and a rookie running back who has drawn comparisons to Baltimore’s Ray Rice in Doug Martin.
While teams aren’t likely to shut down the Bucs potent offense entirely, the goal for the Rams is to at least attempt to make them one-dimensional.
“You always do,” assistant head coach Dave McGinnis said. “That’s what this league is about. If people in this league have a two-way go on you defensively, no matter who you’re playing, you’ve got a problem. The issue with these people is they’ve already proven… when you give a back over 300 touches after having played 14 games in this league, you’re saying that you trust him to do it. Plus, the fact if they can throw so deep to those big, big receivers, it’s going to be really important. It’s going to be important for us to be able to separate the score, keep the ball away from them some, because they’re a dangerous group on offense.”
Of course the Rams would prefer to be in control of their own destiny with playoff visions still alive and well but that’s not their reality right now.
Still, there’s little doubt that the stimulus to win remains strong with the Rams as they head to Tampa.
“Motivation should never be an issue,” McGinnis said. “There’s so much on the line for you, professionally, as a player and as a coach. You only get 16 chances at it in this league. The years fly by. I can attest to that, that after 27 years it’s so fast. You know how fast this year has gone. It just seems like yesterday that we were just starting this thing out. You can’t afford to waste any chances. If there’s any twitch towards a lack of motivation, then you’ve got the wrong person and you’re in the wrong business.”
40.760218
-73.972232
Like this:
Like Loading...
Nick Wagoner Senior Writer
