The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are off to an expectedly good start, sitting pretty at 2-0 through their first two games.
But on Sunday Tom Brady & co. face one of the better teams in the NFC—the Los Angeles Rams—for a 4 p.m. tilt happening at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California.
In the offseason, the Rams went from being a defense-first team with Jared Goff (barf) as their starting QB to a team with a genuine chance to give any team in the NFL a real run for their money.
Defensively L.A. has the most talent at every level of any team in football. Defensive lineman Aaron Donald is considered by many to be the best overall player in football regardless of position.
He recorded 13.5 sacks last season (a “down year” compared to his league-leading 20.5 sacks in 2018) and had 4 forced fumbles. While his numbers are certainly gaudy, his impact on games goes beyond the stat sheet. And what makes the numbers he puts up even more impressive is the fact that every team in football knows just how good Donald is. He’s not a well-guarded secret. Teams game plan for him every time they play the Rams, and yet he still manages to make at least two or three game-changing plays every time he steps on the field.
And that’s not even mentioning the Rams’ second-best player on that side of the ball, the best corner in football, Jalen Ramsey. The Florida State product and fifth-round pick by Jacksonville has been a lockdown corner since he entered the league in 2016.
So those are just two guys Tampa Bay has to steer clear of when game planning for this Week 3 matchup, and without Bucs wide receiver Antonio Brown in the lineup (COVID list), doing that certainly makes things a little more difficult. Brown is a great third and fourth option for TB12, and without him, the GOAT has to rely on Mike Evans, Chris Godwin and Gronk to all have great games and get separation quickly to avoid the elite Rams pass rush.
Without even mentioning how well Rams QB Matthew Stafford has played in his new home, the Bucs are already at a relative disadvantage. The Rams have a potent offensive attack through the air, with a pair of elite targets in Robert Woods and Cooper Kupp. Worse, the Bucs defense has certainly struggled against the Cowboys and Falcons, giving up over 25 points a game through the first two weeks of play.
If the Bucs can get a good pass rush against the Rams, then Tampa Bay has a decent chance at slowing the high-flying Rams down, but if not, it could be a long Sunday afternoon in the City of Angels.
My guess is the Bucs will experience their first taste of defeat in 2021, falling to the Rams 31-21. TB12 will do his best, but it won’t be enough to keep up with Stafford picking apart Bucs safeties Jamel Dean and Carlton Davis III.
A challenge is not necessarily a bad thing, though. The Bucs need to face adversity. They need to get knocked down so they can prove to themselves that they can get back up and fight through any situation. Last season certainly wasn’t a perfect straight line to the Super Bowl, and it almost never is for Super Bowl teams.
Hopefully, Sunday will be just a minor setback for the Bucs. Or maybe Tampa Bay will once again give me the figurative middle-finger on Sunday and beat the shit out of the Rams—that’d be fun.
Regardless, it will be a very interesting game and a huge test for the Bucs.
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This article appears in Sep 23-29, 2021.
