4 Rams players to watch vs. Buccaneers on Sunday
The Los Angeles Rams will be taking a cross-country trip to face the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the divisional round of the playoffs following their lopsided win over the Arizona Cardinals on Monday. Matthew Stafford secured his first career playoff victory, but the Rams will need to shift their focus to defeating Tom Brady and the Buccaneers on the road.
Los Angeles has topped the Brady-led Tampa Bay squad twice in the past two seasons by a combined score of 61-48. Despite the success they’ve had against the Buccaneers in the regular season in recent years, the Rams will need to be well-prepared to square off with a team that is adamant about defending their title as the Super Bowl champions.
With Los Angeles looking to inch closer to playing in the Super Bowl at SoFi Stadium, here are four players to watch on the Rams in Sunday’s anticipated showdown against the Buccaneers.
(Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)
In Los Angeles’ 34-11 win over Arizona on Monday night, Odell Beckham Jr. finished with four receptions for 54 yards and a touchdown. It wasn’t an overly explosive performance from the Pro Bowl wideout, but I’d argue that it was his best outing since joining the Rams.
Beckham looked to finally be on the same page as Stafford all game, hauling in all four of his targets. Seeing that Stafford only attempted 17 passes against the Cardinals, Beckham was targeted on nearly 25 percent of the Rams’ passing plays.
We all know Cooper Kupp is the No. 1 wide receiver in the offense, but when teams dial-up coverages that make it hard to get him the ball, the Rams need someone else to step up. With Tampa Bay being a pass-funneling defense that has been susceptible to the pass this season, the Rams may need Beckham to repeat his outing from Monday night this Sunday if they hope to defeat the Buccaneers.
Brian Allen
(AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
It’s no secret Todd Bowles loves to be aggressive with his play-calling as the defensive coordinator of the Buccaneers. When you have a group of dynamic defenders like Shaquil Barrett, Jason Pierre-Paul, Vita Vea, Ndamukong Suh, Devin White, and Lavonte David, it’s hard to blame him.
Bowles is going to throw some exotic blitzes at the offensive line of the Rams and the majority of them are going to come from the middle of the defense. Besides having to deal with a gigantic human in Vea, Brian Allen will have to be prepared for interior blitzes from multiple members of Tampa Bay’s defense.
Allen has been a pleasant surprise for the Rams this season, but we’ve seen him struggle when teams can be effective in their interior pressure. Keeping Stafford upright should be a primary focus for Los Angeles on Sunday as he excels when being blitzed, and Allen is going to be key in ensuring that happens.
(AP Photo/Jason Behnken)
On the other side of the trenches, the Rams are going to need to try and make life uncomfortable for Brady. Similar to Stafford, Brady excels when he’s blitzed, so being able to create pressure with no extra people blitzing is going to be crucial for Los Angeles on Sunday.
Throughout his career, Brady has been nearly unstoppable when he’s able to operate and deliver passes from a clean pocket. We’ve seen teams have some success in slowing Brady down by producing pressure from the interior, making Greg Gaines an important player on Sunday.
Aaron Donald is unquestionably going to be the one player that the Buccaneers plan to double-team — or even triple-team — on every play, so Gaines will need to take advantage of his one-on-one matchups. Gaines has flashed plenty of potential as a pass rusher this season, notching a career-best 4.5 sacks in the regular season.
Also, with Leonard Fournette back in the fold for the Buccaneers, Gaines will need to be stout in the interior if the Rams want to prevent Tampa Bay’s rushing attack from getting into a groove.
Jalen Ramsey
(AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian)
After facing the Buccaneers back in Week 3 of the regular season, the Rams will see a different-looking offense take the field for Tampa Bay. Chris Godwin won’t be active for the Buccaneers, making Mike Evans the definitive No. 1 wide receiver for Brady to target.
Considering that Evans and Rob Gronkowski are the two go-to pass-catchers for Brady, the Rams should center their focus on putting their best defenders on both of them. In a perfect world, we would see Jalen Ramsey shadow Evans on every play, but Los Angeles could have Ramsey move around in the secondary like he has all season.
Evans just dominated the secondary of the Philadelphia Eagles in the wild card round to the tune of nine receptions, 117 yards, and a touchdown. And with inexperienced wideouts outside of Evans, the Rams would be wise to make the other guys not named Evans beat them by lining up Ramsey across the All-Pro wideout as much as possible.
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