The key to playing Brady is the same as it has always been. On pass plays, you need to pressure him off his spot. Force him to move and take him out of his comfort zone. Once you do his play is good, not great and that is usually when he will throw INTs. The Rams beat him last year because they were able to do just that.
The key last year was Staley's disguising the coverage. Morris simply doesn't do that and so he puts the defense at a disadvantage against a QB like Brady. It's why simply better than average QBs like Dalton, and Wentz played well against a Morris defense. The coverage disguises were designed by Staley to force QBs to take an extra, half to a full second to read the coverage. That extra second is huge in terms of the pass rush being able to get to the QB.
Raheem will have to play a lot of 2 ILB sets to limit the run. When he did play Reeder & Young the Rams did control the run against two pretty good lead RBs. Their leading RB only had 50 yds. So in other words, if Raheem is going to roll out his cover two then he needs to play basically the same defense set against the Bucs.
The Ram secondary is a good matchup vs the Bucs receivers. That is the other way to force Brady to hold the ball. They need to plaster the receivers early. The Rams really played the Bucs well last year. Their OL is the same as it was last year as well and the D got to Brady and took him off his game. Remember, Goff, outplayed Brady in 2020. The Ram OL is better this year and now the Rams have Stafford at QB. The Rams were built to beat teams like the Bucs and Niners who have a lot of similarities.
Raheem will have last year's film to build his defensive game plan around. It will be essentially the same Buc team he will be facing. The Ram secondary with Williams instead of Hill and bringing in a CB as their nickel such as Rochell and Long will be an upgrade in their secondary over Johnson. Fuller and Rapp are very good safeties, and both have equal range and coverage abilities as Johnson who IMO is overrated especially if played as a FS. Johnson is good but there were solid reasons to move on from him as he's strictly a SS and the Rams already had Fuller and Rapp.. Time and time again he was a step slow in his coverages. That is why in Morris' scheme he plays Rapp and Fuller in his two-deep shell and brings in a fast CB as his nickel.
IMO if Henderson is limited, there won't be much of a drop off having Michel and Funk in rotation at RB. It will be interesting to see if they are coaching up Buddy Howell on the PS to play FB. He certainly has the measurables to play the position at 6' tall, 225 lbs running a 4.6 with the ability to catch dump-offs. If you notice McVay is setting the stage to play two RBs in the backfield when he lines up Woods there. McVay is trying to run a power run blocking scheme without a lead blocker. It can be done but is difficult when the defense negates the OL's ability to pull that OG to compensate for a lack of a FB. That is exactly what has been happening. If the Rams had a true FB lead blocker it would make a difference in the run game. With the emergence of Higbee as a receiving threat, it's time to unveil a 21 personnel set, keeping in mind all the Rams RBs are good receivers as well.
The bottom line is that though I'm concerned about this game, I'm not overly so. The Rams beat a Bucs team that is essentially the same as last year. Meanwhile, the Rams will come in improved at RB as Michel is an upgrade over Malcolm Brown, Allen is an upgrade at center over Blythe and Stafford is an upgrade over Goff at QB. If McVay occasionally uses his 21 personnel he can use Jefferson at X WR with Kupp at Z, and Higbee can run his Y route tree if the play is play-action. Also, take into account that a swing pass to Henderson or Funk is like a long handoff. Either is one broken tackle away from breaking a big run, while Michel or even Howell can provide that dump off option.
Teams are beginning to understand McVay's layered WR approach. He needs to have a change of pace and IMO 21 personnel is the way to go with the personnel they have. IMO this is why the Rams are developing Harris as a TE. A simple chip block before running his Y tree will make him a mismatch for a LB or SS trying to cover him. If Higbee is a threat now, then with Harris' speed the TE position will be forced to scheme coverage for that position weakening both the pass rush and run defense.
IMO the offense we see now is in transition. That is evidenced by their moving away from strictly an outside run attack, to a more power-oriented between the tackles running game, as well as how they are positionally drafting.
Yeah, I'm concerned about this particular game but only from the perspective that they must play a clean game. No more clown acts and mistakes. Play clean and the Rams will win this game, as IMO the only way the Bucs win is if the Rams hand the game to them.
