No time for a decent preview for tonight's Condiment Bowl. Did I ever mention I HATE Thursday night games? CBS cares so much about this game they didn't even send their #1 crew to do the game like EVERY OTHER Thursday night game. It'll be Ian Eagle and Trent Green on tonight's game for the Network.
Speaking of getting your best out for the Rams, the league has sent Jerome Boger here for the SECOND time. Boger twice this year and Jeff Triplette twice this year. Screw you, Dean Blandino. The Rams at least won Boger's game here earlier this year, 27-6 over the 49ers, but this game is now likely to take 4 1/2 hours.
Then again, if it's lots of Todd Gurley vs. lots of Doug Martin like it should be, maybe this game will move along pretty quickly. That's your preview, sorry.
FIRST QUARTER
I need not mention both teams look truly hideous in their Halloween catsup bottle and mustard bottle costumes (though by itself, I like the Rams' jersey). And the Rams logo at midfield has also been painted yellow and looks like a giant Cheeto. Benny Cunningham does not get off to a cheesy start, though; he slips two awful tackles near the Ram sideline and wizzes out to the 43. Todd Gurley gets a lead block from Greg Robinson and Garrett Reynolds follows and pushes the pile for 6. Flare to Lance Kendricks, who has a lot of room and turns up the sideline for 11. The yellow shoes make the Rams all look like they're playing in footie pajamas. Kendricks got open that play because the Bucs were paying Tavon Austin a ton of respect outside. Lovie Smith's soft coverage scheme could be in for a long night. Gurley spins out of a tackle behind the line and gets 4 up the middle. Orie Lemon, who should be playing for the Rams judging from these uniforms, blitzed in untouched but didn't make the play. Which he'll regret, as Gurley is wide open for a swing pass, runs past as bad a tackle attempt as I've seen in football this season, and charges down the sideline to the 18. (18 yard gain) Early indications are the Bucs did not come to play tonight. Gurley gets a yard up the middle and a belt from Lemon. Rob Boras finishes a well-crafted opening drive with a bubble screen to Tavon Austin for a 17-yard TD! Nice initial block by Kenny Britt, nice lead block by Greg Robinson, and two more missed tackles by a truly awful Buccaneer defense so far. Rams 7, Bucs 0 The Bucs are tackling like they don't want to get any of that Ram yellow on their uniforms.
Windy inside tonight? Both kickers have had the ball fall off the tee prior to kickoff. Touchback for Greg Zuerlein. Michael Brockers stuffs the middle but no one gets to Doug Martin right away; he bangs out 3. Aaron Donald does his usual backfield flash but Martin STIFFARMS him and gets the edge for 8. The Buc jerseys are truly awful. I can barely read the 11 on Winston's. At least I can read the Rams' jerseys this week for a change. Martin bolts for another 9; Brockers got double-teamed out of the way, I'm pretty sure Donald got held, the fullback blocked Mark Barron, and I don't know why James Laurinaitis was so far out of position. I'm not sure either team wants to tackle tonight. Rams show blitz, Brockers whiffs at Martin's feet in the backfield, Martin gains another 4. Tonight is going to be a tackling non-clinic. Time to finish a play, fellas. Another 5 for Martin, with Donald mauled by a guard and Chris Long mauled even worse by Jorvorskie Lane, the fullback. Play-action as the Bucs finally do something besides hand off to Martin, but Donald puts a ridiculous rip move on Ali Marpet and hurries Jameis Winston into a bad throw. Bucs barely get the snap off in time on 3rd-5, and Akeem Ayers blitzes around left end untouched and forces another bad throw. Austin fair-catches the punt at the 14.
Wrap play only gets Gurley a couple as Tampa had the box stacked. PENALTY #1 FALSE START GREG ROBINSON ARRRRGH Pistol formation handoff to Gurley for about 3. The Bucs rush 7 on 3rd down and get 2 in clean on Keenum, who has to scramble madly and nearly gets pick-sixed trying to dump a screen off to Benny Cunningham. Couple of pre-snap failures by Keenum there. He should have checked out of the 1st-down run and he didn't get the Rams out of a doomed play on 3rd. 46-yard by Johnny Hekker fair-caught by Bobby Freaking Rainey.
Bucs at their 38. Rollout pass to somebody named Adam Humphries beats Mo Alexander for a quick 11. Martin immediately pops for another 11. Gosder Cherilus manhandled Long and Lane nullified Barron on the pull. This will work for Tampa night if they keep running it. Martin stops, starts, still runs over Ethan Westbrooks for 4. Kid is strong. Poor pass in the flat for Martin is incomplete. Just run it, doofuses! Blitz doesn't get there on 3rd-6 but Mike Evans looks over his inside shoulder but Winston threw outside. Connor Barth puts the Bucs on the board from 55. Rams 7, Bucs 3
Benny should have kneeled, only gets to the 18 from 7 deep. Note: Hekker is warming up his arm on the sideline. End around right to Austin for 15 off Lance Kendricks' lead block and fine seal blocking on the line by Cody Wichmann and Tim Barnes. Full credit to OC Rob Boras for remembering the Rams have Tavon two games in a row, something his predecessor could not do. Counter left / wrap play gives Tre Mason a big hole for 7. DE way overpursued while Kendricks, Robinson and Reynolds all got strong blocks. The Bucs are either very tired or very uninterested tonight. 1st-10 from the Ram 40, with outstanding protection from Barnes, Robinson and Reynolds, who pushed his man almost to the Buc sideline, Case Keenum gets plenty of time to throw a perfect 60-yard TD bomb to Kenny Britt, who burned rookie Jude Adjei-Barimah with a double move. Oh, crap, there's a penalty. Oh, it's OK; illegal contact on J A-B. And he still gave up the TD. Hey Jude, you made that bad. Suffice it to say the Catsup Bottles cannot cut the Mustard so far. Rams 14, Bucs 3
Rob Boras doing another fine job showing the opponent a little bit of everything. Touchback for Zuerlein. Martin grinds out 4, carrying Brockers for 3. Martin for another 3, tripped by Rodney McLeod. 3rd-3, 3-man line for the Rams with Mo Alexander blitzing off LDE, and he's on Winston in a flash, wraps up his ankle and nearly gets him to throw a pick to William Hays. 123-kick! Trent Green points out the Rams fooled Winston into sliding his protection the wrong way, letting Mo fly in untouched. The Rams had Laurinaitis and Barron faking a blitz off RDE. Adding insult to injury, Boger calls Winston for grounding. Good call. Terrible punt rolls down to the STL31.
Britt looks downright frisky tonight, getting 12 from Keenum off a roll right. These are really working because the Ram line is dominating. Havenstein, Wichmann, Barnes are just shoving the Bucs around. It looks like riot police controlling a bunch of elderly nuns. Gurley up the middle for a couple; that's a big gain if Robinson blocks left instead of right, which left a man unblocked. Another 3 around left end for Gurley behind Kendricks and Reynolds as the Rams' best first quarter in a long time wraps up.
SECOND QUARTER
Liking Boras again for remembering you're allowed to run left. But on 3rd-5, Keenum misses an open Bradley Marquez with a poor throw. Ball looked like crap coming out of his hand; no pressure on him at all. Christian Bryant helps down yet another punt inside the 5; kid is killing it on punt coverage lately.
Bucs at their 3. The Rams still can't get to Martin, who stutter-steps through the hole for 4. Never mind, illegal formation. Green points out Cherilus lined up wrong. Martin gets back out to the 7 again anyway. Long overpenetrated as usual, but I do have to say he's moving as well as he was at the beginning of the season. 2nd-8, Trumaine Johnson stops Mike Evans a couple of yards short, but Martin's right back up the middle for another 4. Lane continues to kill Ram LBs in the hole, Barron this time. Barron blitzes Winston into a poor overthrow of his TE Austin Seferian-Jenkins. Martin cuts back a pitchback for 8 thanks to an uncalled hold of Alexander right where he made his cut. Come on, Boger. The Bucs pass on 3rd-2; Winston hits Evans over the middle for 10. Soft zone leaves Evans open for another 19, to the Ram 45. Charles Sims now up the middle for ANOTHER 13 off the Rams' USELESS run defense. Westbrooks overran it this time, so did Donald. A Barron blitz slows down a draw to Sims, and Donald polishes it off for a 3-yard loss. Good call by Williams there; they're going to have to run-blitz more if they're going to stop the Bucs tonight. Quick slant to Humphries leaves 3rd-6. Here comes the blitz; Barron does a nice job preventing Winston from escaping left, but he does escape right thanks to McLeod's blitzing overpursuit and scrambles for a 1st down. Unhappy about getting a helmet-to-helmet hit from TruJo, which is legal here - the QB was a runner and did not give himself up sliding - Winston jaws with TruJo, gets in a shoving match with Donald and brilliantly lets the play clock run out. Looks like Lovie Smith got off a timeout, though, to preserve 4th-1. Winston is berating the ref through the whole timeout and should really get a penalty for it. Rookies can't get away with that garbage! Bucs go for it from the STL23, and it's the first stop of Martin all night, by the incomparable Donald, who just punked a future Hall-of-Famer. He rocked Logan Mankins off the snap, threw him aside and lunged at Martin for a 2-yard loss. Rams ball!
Play-action to Gurley; Keenum hits Austin in the zone for 13 at the 38. Gurley loses 3 running left; Robinson accidentally blocked Lemon right into him. Reynolds also really got pushed back. Dumpoff to Kendricks gets 8 and leaves a manageable 3rd-5. Rams go to 22 personnel; pretty sideline pass by Keenum to Jared Cook for 17. Keenum next burns a Buc blitz with a dumpoff to Gurley for 12. Nick Foles sure wouldn't have outrun that blitz like Keenum did. Gurley cuts back for 4, and might have had a TD had a fallen Robinson not been in the way. Robinson and William Gholston had gotten tangled up. Then, Gholston gets up and flatout kicks a prone Robinson in the backside. Robinson kicks back, and the flag flies. Don't tell me they got the retaliation. HOORAY FOR JEROME BOGER. Personal foul is on Gholston only, who, honestly, should be thrown out of the game. You can't kick guys like that. Sounding like a guy who took one too many dirty shots to the knees, Trent Green thinks there shouldn't have been a penalty for it. Nonsense. He kicked a guy lying on the ground! The correct call moves the Rams down to the Buc 12. Gurley up the middle for 2. Jared Cook makes his best grab of the season, snagging a dumb Keenum throw forced between two Bucs, and then wrestling half the Tamp defense all the way to the far sideline. Gains 7; 3rd-and-1. That's the Cook we've been looking for since, well, ever since the Rams signed him. Gurley gets wrapped up for no gain at the 3 but keeps churning and DIVES for the goal line and another Rams TD! That wasn't the greatest "wrap" play in the world, but Gurley made it work. Also got his 1,000th yard of the season! Rams 21, Bucs 3
Isn't taking me long to get tired of the Ian Eagle "if this remains their home" cracks. I don't watch enough Chargers or Raiders games to know if they're having to put up with any crap, but shut up. Let St. Louis enjoy this one.
Third touchback for Zuerlein with 2:09 left in the half. Eagle just mentioned next week's game between the Chargers and the Raiders without saying the words "Los Angeles," so really shut up now. Alexander blows up a screen to Sims for a 4-yard loss. Super play by Mo. Sims fumbled but recovered it, contrary to Eagle's call of already down. 2:00 warning. Tampa bizarrely calls a pitchout to Sims that Alexander blows up AGAIN, and Jeff Fisher should start firing timeouts here. No, we're going to show the killer instinct of SpongeBob (who the Rams are kind of dressed like) and let the clock run. Donald goes through Cherilus like butter (which the Rams are kind of dressed like) past a hot knife (tortured metaphor) to drop Sims for ANOTHER loss, and woe to the foolish Dirk Koetter for thinking anyone can pull-block Aaron Donald. Fisher stops the clock now at 1:17. Austin fields a VERY short punt across midfield.
Keenum fires a quick out for Cook and nearly gets picked off by Dan Tanna or somebody. Hey, Jim Thomas just stole my "cut the mustard" line! Meanwhile, Keenum gets sacked all the way back at his own 40. Greg Robinson will get charged with that, and here's the problem for G-Rob right now. He blocked Howard Jones well, and Jones went down to one knee, but, afraid he'd get the sucker holding call, Robinson stopped on the play. Jones didn't, and got up ran Keenum down, along with Henry Melton, who'd gotten by Reynolds. Keenum could have helped things out a ton by getting rid of the ball, too. The Rams just run out the clock from there, a cruddy end to a very successful half.
HALFTIME ADJUSTMENTS
For the Ram offense: Gurley, Gurley, Gurley. Then Gurley, Gurley, Gurley. Then maybe Mason, then more Gurley, Gurley, Gurley. Defensively, I'd complain more about their run defense, but the Bucs figure to pass a lot in the 2nd half. Gregg Williams' game plan has looked mostly strong anyway. I can't believe they can play stupidly enough to blow this lead, especially with Winston and a lot of his teammates playing like they're in a fog. This weekend Lovie Smith can write Roger Goodell a nice letter about scheduling his team for a road game on a Thursday.
At halftime, the Rams had a ceremony to honor Kurt Warner, Isaac Bruce, Orlando Pace, Torry Holt and Kevin Greene (the only one not there) for qualifying as semifinalists (again) for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. I argued back in January that the Rams should have been putting these guys, and Mike Jones, and Jim Hanifan, and Adam Timmerman, in the Ring of Honor while they still had a chance for sure.
THIRD QUARTER
More dignified treatment of the Rams' potential final game here by Rich Eisen, who uses it as an excuse to say the Rams are "going out in a blaze of mustard." Wasn't OUR idea to have our team dress in clown suits, buddy. And thanks for taking it so seriously that we could be losing football here forever.
Touchback #4 for Zuerlein. Play-action dumpoff to Luke Stocker for - really, Eagle? 7 and a half? OK, 2nd and 2 and a half. Another 5, or possibly 5 and a quarter, for Martin, running through weak tackling of Ayers and Westbrooks. Sims drills Winston a split second late, but he still well overthrows Evans, double-teamed deep. I haven't been following Evans around the field, but the Rams have shut an elite WR down for a 2nd straight week. Alexander and Donald neatly hold Martin to 1, so naturally, PENALTY #2, roughness call on Jenkins. Bucs at the 48 now instead of having 3rd-and-long. And, I had to talk, now Evans beats TruJo for 26 on a corner route. That comes back for another illegal formation. Yeah, the Bucs only had 6 on the line. They're as crisp as the Rams were against the Bears. 1st-15 at the 43. Chris Long flushes Winston, but he hits Evans in front of TruJo for 18. Boy, Evans barely had that back toe down. Fisher challenges the catch, but I think he's going to lose it. Bucs go 5 wide, with Evans getting open in the zone, but it's incomplete and he's charged with a drop. I thought Barron tipped it. Winston then hits Humphries for 8, and horrifying tackling by Lamarcus Joyner lets him get away for another 6. PENALTY #3 Hayes jumps offside. Bucs at the Ram 18. Sims crashes into Brockers, with Westbrooks cleaning it up for a 2-yard loss. Brockers runs off the field as if his arm is falling off. He finished the play off despite getting hurt, so toughness points for Michael there. Ayers nearly gets Winston on a blitz, but he escapes and hits Stocker, who Barron let get open behind him, down to the 6. Martin tries to wander outside with a run but gets HAMMERED by Barron. Loss of 3! Winston can't hear what's going on and can't get his guys organized before time runs out. Delay of game, put them at the 14. Blitz is a half-second late again; Winston gets the pass off but Seferian-Jenkins can't complete a diving catch at the 1. Hayes flushes Winston, who gets off a fastball on the run, but Donteea (WTF kind of spelling is that?) Dye lets it through his hands at the goal line. Bucs finish off a VERY long paragraph settling for 3. 21-6 Rams
No blocking for Benny, who gets buried at the 17 on an 18-yard return. BIG hole for Gurley for 9. Frank Cignetti had to quit watching this game because he's beating himself up thinking, HOW COULD I FORGET THE WRAP PLAY? The Rams are killing with it again tonight. Big block by Cory Harkey here, and Rob Havenstein deposited his man all the way over to left tackle. The Rams have gone from getting overrun 3-4 weeks ago to completely dominating the trenches tonight. Jared Cook beats Major Wright down the seam for 25; another nice throw by Keenum. Oh, there's a hold; must be Robinson. No, it's on Wright. The Rams decline. 2nd time tonight the Bucs haven't even held well enough to stop a big gain. Gurley loses 1 on a wrap because Reynolds is on the ground instead of blocking Gholston. Another 15 to Cook in the seam as the Rams continue to abuse Lovie's zone coverage. Austin catches a quick slant, turns on a dime, leaves a nickel change, gets 11 on the cut back. Gurley up the middle for 3, down to the TB21. And Austin scores from there on an end-around! Neat flip from Keenum after faking a handoff to Gurley. Austin sweeps right, turns the corner, runs through a couple of half-hearted arm tackles and scores fairly easily.
That run was this whole game in a nutshell. The Rams have been creative, aggressive and are just completely outplaying the Bucs, who are flatfooted, flat emotionally and flattening each other in collisions. 28-6 Rams As Jeff Fisher for yet another season deposits a very big check in the too little, too late bank.
Oh God, if the Rams are undefeated in these awful unis, they're coming back, aren't they?
Rainey attempts a kick return for the first time but Cody Davis and Bryant wipe him out at the 14. That crowd chant that sounds like "De-Fense" is actually "Keep the Rams". Nice work, crowd! Sims nearly cuts Martin off but he gets outside for 4. Laurinaitis gets away with taking him down well out of bounds. Blitz forces a quick throw, well over Evans, but Evans was blanketed by Janoris Jenkins, who's been following Evans around when the Rams are in man. Crap, they're playing well off Evans on 3rd-and-6, and he beats Jenkins for 20. Let them press, Williams! Winston overthrows an open Evans on 1st down. Not a lot of pressure there; the Rams have rattled Winston tonight. Martin gets 17 on a draw; Donald really got stoned at the line, Ayers couldn't get around traffic, Jenkins got embarrassed by Martin putting on a move. Looks like the Bucs are getting so momentum, but just as they do, they find a way to lose. Martin doesn't get the handoff cleanly from Winston, puts the ball on the ground, and DOUG WORTHINGTON recovers for the Rams at the 45.
The rollout TE pass WORKS to Kendricks for 9. EVERYTHING is working for the Rams tonight. Mason follows Havenstein for 3 and a 1st down. That wasn't a big play, but the Rams still have to call timeout #1 to prevent a delay of game. After the break, Keenum hard-counts the Bucs offside. 1st-5 at the Buc38. Mason cracks up the middle for 3. Austin gets buried for a big loss by Lavonte David, who Kendricks didn't block. It's the MIDDLE LINEBACKER. SOMEBODY block him! The Rams get completely confused, seem to have at least 4 players lined up wrong, and take a delay of game rather than another timeout to make it 3rd-and-9. Is this offense really that complicated? It shouldn't be, witnessing the lameass draw to Benny that gets 3. Rams will punt to start the 4th but they're in control.
FOURTH QUARTER
After a bunch of pointless formation shifts and another delay of game, the Rams down another Hekker punt around the 5, and a Tampa penalty backs them up to the 2. So much for backing them up in their end zone; Williams gets caught blitzing and Evans beats McLeod with no trouble for 20. And now Evans beats Jenkins down the sideline for 30. So much for shutting down the elite WR again. Winston follows that by hitting Dye with a wobbly bomb for about 50 more inside the 5. Boy, way to pin them at their goal line, clowns. Boger's crew does not blow the whistle even though Alexander had touched Dye down; he got up and tossed the ball thinking the play was over, and if the Rams had come up with it, they would have gotten the ball. Stocker falls on it at the 4 instead, and he and Winston chew Dye's ass out for the referee's mistake. (Play to the whistle, though, young man.) The Rams continue their 98-yard nap on 1st-and-goal; Stocker suckers everyone, especially Alexander, into thinking he's blocking; easy TD pass from Winston. The Rams clearly suffering from a case of big-lead-itis there; that was an abysmal defensive series. Marpet was called for holding on a successful 2-point try, forcing the Bucs to settle for a very long extra point. Rams 28, Bucs 13
GAH! Benny Cunningham misses a kick return TD by 2 yards! It starts with nice work by wedge blockers Demetrius Rhaney and Eric Kush. (!) Are you kidding me? Kush? Then Chase Reynolds knocks Mike Jenkins down the sideline for about 10 yards. Benny cuts back to the middle of the field; two Bucs dive and miss. Cody Davis gets him another block as he cuts back to the far sideline. Bradley Marquez PANCAKES a guy! Benny is gon... aw hell, where did Jenkins come from? He just kept running after getting blocked out of the play by Reynolds at first. Tripped Benny up at the 5.
Has this happened very often in NFL history, by the way? A play of over 100 yards that is not a scoring play? Leave it to the Rams.
First and goal Rams at the 3. The Bucs stack up the right side and stop Gurley at the 2. Hey, send Benny back in there to finish it off! Uh oh, Gurley gets stopped again. Bucs swamped the left side that time. Ram o-line didn't hold its own either of these downs. Reynolds gets Gurley a nice hole on 3rd-goal but the Bucs fill it at the 1. Don't tell me. Yes, the Rams returned a kick ONE HUNDRED AND TWO YARDS AND ARE SETTLING FOR A FG. Rams 31, Bucs 13 That's the 2015 Ram offense in a nutshell right there.
Ha, Winston is chewing out the Buc special teams on the sideline? #1, you want to concentrate on not throwing balls five feet over wide open receivers' heads, buddy? #2, hey Lovie Smith, any thoughts about keeping control of your darn team?
Bucs at their 20 after Barron smeared Freaking Rainey on the return. Draw to Sims for 9, way overshot by Hayes. Let's start playing some damn defense, huh? Humphries beats Joyner AND Jenkins for another 11. Decent pressure by Hayes rushes another incomplete. Bubble screen to HUMPHRIES for ANOTHER 12 after TruJo whiffs, but Alexander's trainwreck of a hit decidedly does not miss, or maim one of his own teammates, T.J. MCDONALD. 2nd-10 at the Ram 48 after a Buc receiver breaks the wrong way. And OH, COME ON. Pitch left to Sims for 33. Williams got caught blitzing, Alexander committed too soon and went to the ground, Stocker took out Barron on the sideline and Sims isn't going to have a lot of trouble outrunning Laurinaitis around the corner. The Bucs are ripping off big chunks of yardage now and taking little time to do it. Overthrow of Seferian-Jenkins at the goal line; maybe somebody should yell at Winston! Nice cutoff there by Alexander, too. Sims jumps offside anyway to put the Bucs at the 8. Looks like that's just PENALTY #4, though. Seferian-Jenkins gets inside the 1 on a quick slant, then idiotically fires the ball in anger for some reason - I guess he thought he had the TD though he was a foot short - and moves the Bucs back to the 6. Finding ways to lose. Alexander has the TE blanketed in the end zone and nearly picks Winston off. Somebody yell at HIM! Somebody named Russell Shepard is wide open for a fade route, thrown perfectly well by Winston despite what Green says, and gets all turned around as it falls incomplete. Winston gets flushed again on 3rd-goal and fires incomplete into a crowd in the back of the end zone. Good coverage by Alexander and others throughout this sequence. Tampa settles for another FG. Rams 31, Bucs 16
Let's chew up some clock now and head home. From the 19, Gurley cuts back for 5. The TE rollout then fails again. Kendricks gets wiped out on the edge. Keenum ducks and gets two Bucs to crash violently into each other but still ends up taking the sack. This is a naked rollout, so it's hard to blame the line. Also, I'm out of rewind time on the TiVo. Austin gets nothing on an end-around attempt, and the Bucs are feeling frisky all of a sudden and call timeout at 6:21. Rams only got 1:09 off the clock there. Around a 50-yard punt by Hekker, fair-caught at the 31.
Soft zone leaves Evans wide open on the sideline for another 17. ANYBODY in yellow interested in playing some DEFENSE THIS HALF? A couple more dumpoffs get Tampa to the Ram 39, then an awful through by Winston goes right to Trumaine Johnson, who returns it to the 32. Somebody go yell at Winston!
Harkey gets blown up in the hole; Gurley trips up for 3 trying to hurdle him. Gurley gets stopped again up the middle for a couple as the Bucs use another timeout. A rare audible by Keenum on 3rd-and-5, and I'm pretty sure Tampa knows that means run, and Gholston blows up Kendricks and buries Gurley for a loss. Somebody should have figured out by now that Harkey is about the only TE you can reliably run behind here. Rainey makes a fair catch at the 18 (46-yard punt) with about 4:00 left. Make the Bucs work for it at all and this one's over.
Dumpoff to TE Cameron Brate (?) for 5, then 6 more to Martin over the middle. Brate beats Barron for another 8. Quick slant to Seferian-Jenkins for another 13. Um... Crazy lob out of bounds with Sims all over Winston. Evans (9-157) open in the zone AGAIN for another 14. At the Ram 35, Barron hits Winston, who's nearly picked off. SCREEN TO SIMS for another 20, and the Bucs are down to the Ram 15 at the 2:00 warning. Laurinaitis didn't play that one very well. Sims takes a dumpoff inside the 10, and Seferian-Jenkins pushes off Alexander at the goal line to get open for a short TD. Rams 31, Bucs 23 Where's my Zantac? Or my Xanax? The Rams have gone from dominating to having to survive another onside kick.
No matter; Barth rolls it right to Bryce Hager (!), who handles it without a problem. Keenum kneels it out, and the Rams send their fans home happy. We just hope it isn't for the last time.
YES! A "Kroenke Sucks" chant at the end of the game for America to hear. Give that crowd a game ball.
I am not at all sure when the RamView recap will be out; SOMEBODY still has a lot of Christmas shopping to do.
-$-
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