Rams vs. Bucs, Rams' Defense Have Shown Few Weaknesses

[Selassie I]

I broke 4 vertebrae snowboarding that day and watched the game from the hospital.... Amazing game.... Until it wasn't. Talk about salt in the wound...

Damn man. Ouch.

Yeah... that was the longest and most miserable walk to my car after a game that I have ever experienced. Those fucking Tampon fans were giving me nonstop shit the entire way. I'm surprised I didn't end up in worse shape than you that night. Luckily... my girlfriend at the time insisted on taking me to Mons Venus before we went back to our hotel room. My night turned into something completely different from that moment on.

 

[Dz1]

Send the Blitzes ,play 2 TE"s

We can Beat Them.

 

[RamsOfCastamere]

Its depends on if Brady throws short like in the Superbowl. I think our D is built defeat teams that like to throw it deep first AKA Seattle. Jimmy G kills us because he likes those short throws. I anticipate Brady attacking Kiser and the flats unfortunately.

 

[GoodBadUgly]

...
I will be glad to eat crow if I'm wrong, but I expect a 20 point loss Monday

I totally disagree. Rams will win this in a close game. 20 point loss? No way.

I’m not a pro at the Sportsbook thing, but seem to remember a member custom bet option. I will put $50K on the line that if they lose, it won’t be by 20

 

[kurtfaulk]

I will be glad to eat crow if I'm wrong, but I expect a 20 point loss Monday

Don't they have to actually get to 20 points to have that kind of win? And then keep the Rams scoreless? I don't like your chances.

.

 

[BuffaloRam]

I’m gonna put 20 bucks on the Buccs which will mean the Rams win by 3 TDs...

 

[Elmgrovegnome]

Its depends on if Brady throws short like in the Superbowl. I think our D is built defeat teams that like to throw it deep first AKA Seattle. Jimmy G kills us because he likes those short throws. I anticipate Brady attacking Kiser and the flats unfortunately.

I just read an article about the disconnect between Arians and Brady. As predicted by many when it was announced that Brady was going to the Buccaneers, Arians offense doesn't mesh so well with what Brady likes to do. Arians likes the ball to be thrown downfield and Tom likes his check downs. They aren't built into this Ariens offense. I don't know what happened against the Panthers but the Saints pass rush stifled the Bucs offense. If the Rams can produce similar pressure then the longer routes work in their favor.

I'm more concerned with what Rampage defense can do to Goff. Hopefully McVay runs successfully against Tampa and can stick with it. Seattle had a tough run defense and McVay still ran on them.

 

[Merlin]

Key with Brady as always is eliminating his quick options because that fucker is an extremely quick processor. But I'm with you on the above Elm, and yeah Arians has always hated short passing games so it's funny as hell to see all that unfold.

The problem is Arians probably wants to win more than he wants his way so he'll relent and let Brady do his BS he'll just dial up shots deep. So defensively to destroy Brady you have to take his safety blanket/short routes away and I think we have the secondary to do that.

Game definitely revolves around offense and limiting mistakes, so when you have Bowles dialing up all manner of aggressive shit plus a new LT, well... Goff's going to need to use his outlets quickly like he did vs Seattle and if it ain't there throw it away. And the Rams are going to need to run the ball well.

IMO the passing game can get a boost if they work Jefferson in there more. He'll probably get open quickly more than Reynolds will which helps the QB. Also I like the trend with Akers and hope that he gets enough work to get him in rhythm so we can see what he can do. Having a RB go off would be a great way to flip the script on Bowles who right now probably thinks he's gonna have Goff in third and long all day.

 

[Ewe83]

Just beat he who shall not be named and that will make the season for me

 

[FrantikRam]

Tampa is a really tough matchup for us. They have two talented edge rushers, stop the run well, and blitz a lot. McVay is gonna need to be at his best in this one.

I don't think there's much McVay can do. Our OL isn't built to hold up against elite DLs - that ship sailed with Saffold, and we even struggled against them with him.

Goff also struggles against defenses this good - Niners, Dolphins.

I trust McVay to scheme. Trust the RBs to play well and the WRs/TEs to win their match ups. And I trust the defense to hold them to 24 points.

I don't trust Goff and the OL to execute, and I think it'll be why we lose.

 

[jrry32]

I don't think there's much McVay can do. Our OL isn't built to hold up against elite DLs - that ship sailed with Saffold, and we even struggled against them with him.

Goff also struggles against defenses this good - Niners, Dolphins.

I trust McVay to scheme. Trust the RBs to play well and the WRs/TEs to win their match ups. And I trust the defense to hold them to 24 points.

I don't trust Goff and the OL to execute, and I think it'll be why we lose.

I disagree. There's a lot McVay can do to avoid putting Goff in situations where he'll struggle. Goff has his weak points. I hope if the defense limits Brady this week that McVay will be more conservative on O.

 

[FaulkSF]

If I'm Staley, I'm watching and rewatching what the Saints did on defense a couple of weeks ago. My guess is disguising and mixing pressure.

On offense, I expect to see a lot of Hendo and Akers to counter the blitz with screens. That seemed to be effective against Seattle. I also expect to see a lot of 12 formation for Higbee and GE to block and release into the flat to neutralize the rush. Mix in a couple of handoffs to Woods and JRey too. We will beat Brady at his own game until the LBs get off the line of scrimmage.

 

[Liberator]

Just beat he who shall not be named and that will make the season for me

Possibly our last chance to beat Brady in his career.

 

[dieterbrock]

The Giants have the 30th ranked offense and put up 23 points and just missed a game tying 2 point conversion. Jones threw for 260 and 2 tds. Have a hard time believing the Rams would struggle against a D that the Giants were able to move the ball against.

 

[FrantikRam]

I disagree. There's a lot McVay can do to avoid putting Goff in situations where he'll struggle. Goff has his weak points. I hope if the defense limits Brady this week that McVay will be more conservative on O.

Conservative how? We can try to run the ball, but they have one of the best run defenses in the NFL.

Third and long is one of the weakest parts of our offense (any offense, really), so we need to avoid those - which means we can't count on run/run/pass.

We can try to go back to the play-action roll outs, but teams seem to be keying on that. We can throw more screens, but if I'm Tampa, I'm keying on those too.

In fact, if I'm Tampa, I put every defender within five yards of the LOS for the entire game. Blitz on every play, have the defenders play the short passing lanes and screens.

I think our WRs can beat their secondary, but I'm not sure Goff will every have time to do so.

To put the cherry on top of all this, the Bucs have played embarrassing football in all three of their primetime games thus far - maybe that's a legit trend, but I'm lamenting it because they're going to want to come out and make a statement. I hope I'm wrong, obviously - but I'm also not going to be upset if we get blown out Monday Night. It's a bad spot and a bad match up.

 

[Tano]

If they run a cover 0 blitz with 4 or 5 defenders 7 yards back like Miami, I hope McVay does the same thing he did with Miami in the 4th Qtr

WR screens will blow the Cover 0 blitz out of the water.

3 times in the 4th quarter McVay did that and the Rams got over 10 yards each time.

Against Seattle, whenever they blitzed and McVay ran a screen, they got over 5 to 10 yards each time.

Got to stay with that until the teams stop blitzing and then the playaction plays will work.

 

[Tano]

Conservative how? We can try to run the ball, but they have one of the best run defenses in the NFL.

Third and long is one of the weakest parts of our offense (any offense, really), so we need to avoid those - which means we can't count on run/run/pass.

We can try to go back to the play-action roll outs, but teams seem to be keying on that. We can throw more screens, but if I'm Tampa, I'm keying on those too.

In fact, if I'm Tampa, I put every defender within five yards of the LOS for the entire game. Blitz on every play, have the defenders play the short passing lanes and screens.

I think our WRs can beat their secondary, but I'm not sure Goff will every have time to do so.

To put the cherry on top of all this, the Bucs have played embarrassing football in all three of their primetime games thus far - maybe that's a legit trend, but I'm lamenting it because they're going to want to come out and make a statement. I hope I'm wrong, obviously - but I'm also not going to be upset if we get blown out Monday Night. It's a bad spot and a bad match up.

If they play close to the line and blitzing, I would put 7 guys blocking and have 3 guys go mid to deep and hope Goff has enough time to make his beautiful mid to deep throws he does.

They better have at least a Cover 1 defense otherwise Goff will blow them away too.

Just need to give him at minimum 2.5 seconds in the pocket.

Anything less and yes he does regress quite a bit.

 

[hotanez]

Tampa is a really tough matchup for us. They have two talented edge rushers, stop the run well, and blitz a lot. McVay is gonna need to be at his best in this one.

Unfortunately its not McVay I'm worried about. If Goff can play mistake free and by that I mean not turning the ball over, we have a good chance of winning.

 

[Reddog99]

We need to beat these guys they are going to be in the playoffs and the result of this game will effect the playoff seedings. If we lose we lose but assuming its a loss a week before they play is disrespectful to our Rams.

The Rams and Buccs are probably the most complete and balanced teams in the NFC so its likely this game could be a preview of the NFCCG.

 

[thirteen28]

I'm more concerned about what we do on offense than defense in this one. I'm sure Staley will watch what the Saints did to the Bucs recently, and we are definitely a better D than New Orleans. Our edge guys can beat one-on-ones, and with AD on our DL those guys will have them. We're better at run D than we have been at any time since McVay arrived, and we just now got Robinson back this past week, so if anything our run D will get even better. This is not to ignore the talent on Tampa Bay's offense, of which there is much. But they are not invincible.

Offensively ... I don't know what. I hope McVay has had this game marked for a while and hope he's willing to make changes on the fly during the game because he's probably going to need to do so.