A couple of views from Tampa on the game. Always interesting to read the other team’s take.... A lot of respect for the Rams offense in the second article.
The Bucs play host to an NFC playoff contender before a Monday Night Football audience in Week 11, as they seek their eighth win against a 6-3 Rams tie that is tied for the lead in the NFC West
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What's Next: Bucs Head Back to Home…and Prime Time
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers beat the Carolina Panthers, 46-23, in Week 10 at Bank of America Stadium in a game that kicked off at 1:00 p.m. That ended a run of five straight Buccaneer contests played in the late afternoon or the evening, including three prime-time affairs, but the team's work in front of national audiences isn't done yet.
On November 23, the Los Angeles Rams will visit Raymond James Stadium for a Monday Night Football showcase on ESPN, with kickoff scheduled for 8:15 p.m. The Buccaneers also played on Monday night on the road against the New York Giants in Week Eight, squeaking by with a 25-23 victory. That, coupled with a 38-3 loss to the Saints on Sunday Night Football in Week Nine and the Bucs' Thursday night loss in Chicago in Week Five has the team eager to prove it can play just as well under the lights.
Tampa Bay improved to 7-3 with its win over the Panthers and remains a half-game out of first in the NFC South, behind the 7-2 New Orleans Saints. The Green Bay Packers are also at 7-2 and atop the NFC North.
The Buccaneers have an extra day to prepare for the Rams and will likely hold a bonus session of some sort on Wednesday, whether it be a walk-through or a more robust practice. The team will be looking to build on the momentum from Sunday's win, in which the offense rolled up 544 yards of offense and scored on nine straight drives while the defense only allowed 187 yards and one third-down conversion in nine attempts.
Tampa Bay's offense will definitely look to repeat the sort of balance it had in Sunday's win between the rushing and passing games, something that has frequently been lacking this year. Behind Ronald Jones' career day of 192 yards, including a team-record 98-yard touchdown run, the Bucs picked up 210 yards on the ground and 334 through the air. The Tom Brady-led passing attack was the best example yet of what the team can do to opposing defenses with a collection of talent that includes Chris Godwin, Mike Evans, Antonio Brown and Rob Gronkowski. Those four combined for 289 yards and two touchdowns Sunday.
Tampa Bay's offense might also get starting left guard Ali Marpet back from a two-game absence due to a concussion, though the line's play with A.Q. Shipley at center and Ryan Jensen at left guard was quite good against Carolina.
Meanwhile, the Rams head to prime time coming off an enormous win over Seattle in Week 10 that put both teams at 6-3. The NFC West is incredibly competitive, making every game critical, as the Arizona Cardinals are also 6-3 following a stunning last-second win over Buffalo. The Los Angeles Rams somehow slowed down MVP candidate Russell Wilson, picking him off twice, not allowing a touchdown pass and recovering a Wilson fumble in a 23-16 decision.
Monday night's game is a rematch of one of the most remarkable games in franchise history from last season. In Week Four of the 2019 campaign, the Buccaneers went to Los Angeles and exploded for a franchise single-game record 55 points, the final ones scored on a 37-yard fumble return touchdown by former Ram Ndamukong Suh. The Bucs needed all of that scoring to hold off the Rams in a 55-40 decision, and they got big games from both Chris Godwin (172 yards and two touchdowns) and Mike Evans (89 yards and a touchdown). Godwin and Evans are both rounding into shape in 2020 as they come back from a variety of injuries, and they were part of a varied and impressive passing attack in Carolina in Week 10. The Buccaneers will be looking for another such performance from their offense as they try to get an eighth win and keep pace in a thrilling conference playoff race.
Jared Goff has a wide array of talented skill-position players around him, but what makes the Rams' offense under Sean McVay particularly tough to defend is the way it tries to mess with a defender's eyes
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Bucs Need 'Eye Discipline' Against Rams' Offense
Jamel Dean is fast. Ndamukong Suh is powerful. Lavonte David is rangy. Jordan Whitehead is a rugged hitter. The Buccaneers feature a wide variety of skills among their various defenders, all of whom have come together to form the NFL's third-ranked unit. To have their usual level of success this Monday night, though, those defenders are all going to need the same thing: Eye discipline.
Tampa Bay's opponent on Monday night is the Los Angeles Rams, who are rolling up nearly 400 yards of offense per game behind quarterback Jared Goff and a depth and breadth of skill-positions that rivals the Bucs' own group. What makes the Rams' offense a different sort of challenge than most they have faced this year is the amount of added movement they graft onto many of their plays, all designed to get defenders looking and leaning in the wrong direction.
"[They use] a lot of motion, a lot of stuff to get your eyes messed up, a lot of play-action and bootlegs," said rookie safety Antoine Winfield, whose position is particularly susceptible to being moved out of the right spot by this sort of movement. "We just have to make sure we're disciplined in our reads and with what our jobs are."
Obviously, every offense in the league uses pre-snap motion and misdirection on occasion, but the Rams make it a central part of their approach. For instance, wide receiver Robert Woods has shifted or gone in motion before the snap on 631 plays since the start of 2018, over 100 more times than any other player in the league, according to NFL Next Gen Stats. So while avoiding being fooled before the snap is always an important part of a defender's job, it has to be a specific point of emphasis for the Bucs this week against Sean McVay's schemes.
"We just have to do our jobs," said Defensive Coordinator Todd Bowles. "It's about eye discipline every week from that standpoint, but we have to be fundamentally sound. They do a good job of making sure all 11 guys have to be fundamentally sound because if you're not, they will find the weakness.
"I think they do a great job changing up the tempo of the football game.
They can hit you in the mouth, they can run outside, they can play-action you deep [and] they can play-action you short. [McVay] does a great job of mixing his plays up and I think all his guys play fast."
According to Kacy Rodgers, the Buccaneers' defensive line coach, the Rams actual offensive plays aren't notably different than what they see from week to week. He calls them 'NFL 101' plays but says the Rams make them look different with their movement and their tempo.
"That's why when you watch them and [think], 'How are these people getting wide open?' [it's] because they really harp on everything looking the same speed and tempo," said Rodgers. "And another thing people don't realize is the way they utilize their wide receivers in blocking. They get the support player [blocked]. 'Just put the safety down in the box.' Don't worry about it – they've got the safety blocked. Then they mess with the linebackers with this motion here. This guy ran a reverse, but then they handed it off inside. The misdirection and the timing is just unbelievable.
"They just pose a heck of a problem. This is probably one of the toughest offenses to face in the league."
This might seem like something that applies more to the passing game, but the motion also helps create lanes for the Rams' rushing attack, which is averaging 134.2 yards per game. Darrell Henderson, Malcolm Brown and Cam Akers share carries and having a trio of backs involved allows the Rams to mix up their approach to the ground game a bit.
"They do a great job with a lot of motion," said Head Coach Bruce Arians. "They've got three backs, really, that are just fresh all the time. They're different, but they're also very similar. The style of what they do with each one is pretty much the same [and] they've added some more power game [and] some more gap scheme stuff this year that makes them a little bit harder to defend.
"Jared is playing very, very well [and] protecting the football, they're running the ball well [and] their play-action game is outstanding."
Play-action fakes are the most obvious way NFL offenses try to mess with a defender's eyes to get him moving in the wrong direction, and the Rams use play-action very well. But that's just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to misdirection in the Los Angeles attack. The Bucs can have all the speed, power and range they want on defense but they won't slow the Rams down on Monday night if they don't stay disciplined with their eyes.
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