RamView, December 23, 2012, Game #15: Rams 28, Buccaneers 13, by Mike Franke
(Report and opinions on the game.)
In possibly their best effort of the season, the Rams turn Josh Freeman into Santa Claus and dominate the Bucs in Tampa. And they leave behind not a Christmas card, but a calling card to the rest of the league: these Rams are, and will be, a team to be reckoned with.
Position by position:
* QB: Sam Bradford (13-27-196, 81.7 PR) didn't pick the Bucs apart as hoped, but did enough to guide the offense to a win. The Rams started out in a hole after a Danny Amendola fumble and a crazy scrum, but Sam led them out of it with a 3rd-down conversion to Chris Givens, then by standing tall with a blitz coming and hitting Brandon Gibson for 20. The drive went foul, though, after Bradford made a poor decision and a poor throw, firing deep into the end zone for a well-covered Amendola. Poor throw because Bradford threw it inside Amendola instead of outside, giving Danny Gorrer an interception. (Ye gods.) Poor decision because Matthew Mulligan was all alone in the middle of the field inside the 20. Bradford did lead the Rams back to a TD before halftime, even after missing a wide-open Amendola badly on a bootleg. But he stood strong against another blitz, and even while getting hit, drilled a 3rd-and-10 pass to Gibson in a crowd for 13. Two plays later, he fired another 13-yard laser to Lance Kendricks at the 5 to set up the TD. After halftime, Bradford went from laser to lightning. He got the entire Tampa defense to bite on a play-fake to Steven Jackson and hit Kendricks all by his lonesome in the middle of the field for a Buc-breaking 80-yard TD. Bradford's play-action skills helped the Rams turn a turnover into another TD right after that. He got rookie safety Mark Barron biting harder than a bear trap and tossed a 5-yard TD to Austin Pettis to put the Rams up 28-6. Game, set, match. That drive got rolling with a play Bradford doesn't seem to see a lot, but this week, he caught the Bucs trying to cover Amendola with a LB and exploited the mismatch to convert on 3rd-and-2. Sam did well on a hard day to establish an offensive rhythm. In the first half, Tampa had long drives, and the Ram defense set the offense up on short fields or scored themselves. In the second half, after the Kendricks TD, the offense repeatedly got backed up near its goal line and struggled to get out of the blocks. Bradford ultimately prevailed with better protection, hanging really tough in the pocket and getting the ball downfield. He showed more growth throwing for 196 this week than last week throwing for nearly twice that. At QB and as a team, the Rams are moving in the right direction.
full report: http://www.nflfans.com/rams2/article.ph ... 6152207179
(Report and opinions on the game.)
In possibly their best effort of the season, the Rams turn Josh Freeman into Santa Claus and dominate the Bucs in Tampa. And they leave behind not a Christmas card, but a calling card to the rest of the league: these Rams are, and will be, a team to be reckoned with.
Position by position:
* QB: Sam Bradford (13-27-196, 81.7 PR) didn't pick the Bucs apart as hoped, but did enough to guide the offense to a win. The Rams started out in a hole after a Danny Amendola fumble and a crazy scrum, but Sam led them out of it with a 3rd-down conversion to Chris Givens, then by standing tall with a blitz coming and hitting Brandon Gibson for 20. The drive went foul, though, after Bradford made a poor decision and a poor throw, firing deep into the end zone for a well-covered Amendola. Poor throw because Bradford threw it inside Amendola instead of outside, giving Danny Gorrer an interception. (Ye gods.) Poor decision because Matthew Mulligan was all alone in the middle of the field inside the 20. Bradford did lead the Rams back to a TD before halftime, even after missing a wide-open Amendola badly on a bootleg. But he stood strong against another blitz, and even while getting hit, drilled a 3rd-and-10 pass to Gibson in a crowd for 13. Two plays later, he fired another 13-yard laser to Lance Kendricks at the 5 to set up the TD. After halftime, Bradford went from laser to lightning. He got the entire Tampa defense to bite on a play-fake to Steven Jackson and hit Kendricks all by his lonesome in the middle of the field for a Buc-breaking 80-yard TD. Bradford's play-action skills helped the Rams turn a turnover into another TD right after that. He got rookie safety Mark Barron biting harder than a bear trap and tossed a 5-yard TD to Austin Pettis to put the Rams up 28-6. Game, set, match. That drive got rolling with a play Bradford doesn't seem to see a lot, but this week, he caught the Bucs trying to cover Amendola with a LB and exploited the mismatch to convert on 3rd-and-2. Sam did well on a hard day to establish an offensive rhythm. In the first half, Tampa had long drives, and the Ram defense set the offense up on short fields or scored themselves. In the second half, after the Kendricks TD, the offense repeatedly got backed up near its goal line and struggled to get out of the blocks. Bradford ultimately prevailed with better protection, hanging really tough in the pocket and getting the ball downfield. He showed more growth throwing for 196 this week than last week throwing for nearly twice that. At QB and as a team, the Rams are moving in the right direction.
full report: http://www.nflfans.com/rams2/article.ph ... 6152207179