In a low-scoring battle that we have grown accustom to with Buccaneers football, Tampa Bay ended recent losing woes and came up on the winning side of a 16-13 battle with the defending super bowl champion Los Angeles Rams. The Buccaneers are now 4-5 and take the lead in the NFC South, passing the Atlanta Falcons.
Defenses For Both Teams Stand Out in a Big Way
Preventing the big play and stopping third down conversions were the keys to success for the defenses in this matchup. The Buccaneers and Rams were both just 9-21 (42%) and 4-15 (26%) on third downs respectively. This led to plenty of halted drives. The teams also averaged 4.1 and 3.7 yards a play respectively showing the lack of big plays that appeared throughout the game.
Tampa Bay also held the Rams to 206 yards of total offense and held Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford to just 165 yards and a touchdown pass to Cooper Kupp. Kupp had 127 of those yards. The Buccaneers did an excellent job of keeping the rest of the Los Angeles offense at bay while allowing the star receiver to do his thing.
The Bucs also got to Stafford quite a bit, forcing many sacks and coming up big in key situations. Vita Vea had an explosive outing with two sacks while Rakeem Nunez-Roches and Genard Avery had sacks too.
Head coach Todd Bowles on the defensive play at the line of scrimmage: “We knew we had to win at the line of scrimmage and Vita was a big part of that… having [Akiem] Hicks in there helps free up other guys to make plays because you have two big guys in there.”
Keanu Neal also had a big game for the Bucs with 10 tackles. Carlton Davis III and Sean Murphy-Bunting had 5 and 4 tackles each. They also both got in the back field a good bit, being disruptive and continuing to allow the Bucs to win at the line of scrimmage.
Cade Otton’s First Career Touchdown Seals the Deal
Despite the win, Tampa Bay struggled to score a good bit throughout the game. They headed into halftime down 7-6 with two Ryan Succop field goals. Succop would add one more in the fourth quarter.
The Buccaneers found themselves down 13-9 late in the game with right around six minutes on the clock. This is a situation that they and quarterback Tom Brady have found themselves in multiple times. However, an incompletion to Mike Evans on fourth and goal gave the ball back to Los Angeles with 1:57 to go.
The Buccaneers’ defense, as it had done all game, came up big, holding Rams’ running back Darrell Henderson to two short runs and Kupp to a minimal five-yard catch and run. This set up a Rams’ punt and gave the Bucs the ball back with no timeouts and 44 seconds left. After a long pass to tight end Cade Otton to start the drive and some runs and catches by Scotty Miller and Leonard Fournette, Brady got into the Los Angeles red zone. A pass interference was called on Rams’ cornerback Derion Kendrick, setting up a first and goal at the one-yard line.
Brady would then find Cade Otton, the rookie tight end out of Washington, for a one yard touchdown on a flat route to win the game and end a three-game losing streak.
Bowles on Otton’s performance: “Cade has been huge the last couple of weeks just blocking, making quality catches, making timely catches… he is developing into a good pro early in his career.”
Up Next
Tampa Bay is now 4-5 and holds a lead in the NFC South heading into next week. They will play the Seattle Seahawks in Munich, Germany at Allianz Arena. Kickoff is at 9:30 a.m. E.T.