St. Louis Rams vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers
The St. Louis Rams suffered a black eye last Sunday when they hosted the Minnesota Vikings when they lost one of their best players on defense, defensive end Chris Long who suffered an ankle injury that will cause him to be out 8-10 weeks. The Rams also had to play without quarterback Sam Bradford who is out for the season with a knee injury and it led to a 34-6 loss. The Rams also suffered an injury to backup, now starting quarterback Shaun Hill in the second quarter, but he’s expected to start Sunday at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Bucs took a 20-14 loss to a Carolina Panthers team that didn’t have Cam Newton last Sunday and they look to bounce back against arguably the most struggling team in football at Raymond James Stadium.
Date: Sunday, Sept. 14, 2014
Start Time: 4:05 p.m. ET
Location: Tampa Bay, Florida
Stadium: Raymond James Stadium
TV Info: FOX
Live Stream: DirecTV Sunday NFL Ticket
Radio: ST. LOUIS: WXOS 101.1 FM/ TAMPA BAY: WHFS 98.7 FM
Ticket information: For ST. LOUIS RAMS ticket info click here. For TAMPA BAY BUCCANEERS ticket info click here.
Keys to Victory
The St. Louis Rams are going to need to do a lot to win this game, even thought Tampa Bay isn’t a largely talented opponent. That’s how bad the Rams are right now. No starting quarterback, no best defensive player and someone is going to need to step up. That’s running back Zac Stacy as well as wide receiver Tavon Austin. Both had some huge games last season and it was due to excellent play calling from Jeff Fisher’s staff. Austin can run the ball and fast even though he’s a wideout, St. Louis will need to get him involved in the run game. Zac Stacy needs to perform. He only had 11 carries for 43 yards last Sunday and needs to do get more touches and try to expand the Buccaneers defense for quarterback Shaun Hill. The Rams defense doesn’t have too difficult of an assignment. The Bucs were shut out for the first three quarters of their opener and gained 128 of their 264 total yards in the fourth. They ran only 15 offensive plays in the first half, and starting quarterback Josh McCown threw two picks. The Rams will need to shut down high powered receivers in Vincent Jackson and rookie Mike Evans and stop the run game like Carolina did to the Bucs last week.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers struggled immensely last week against a tough Carolina Panthers defense and will need to make some changes in order to beat the Rams Sunday. Doug Martin only had nine carries for nine yards and they’ll need to establish a run game early against St. Louis. The Bucs only ran 15 offensive plays in the first half of their game and only had 264 total yards. They’ll need to find a rhythm with quarterback Josh McCown and he’s going to need to find his big targets including Mike Evans and Vincent Jackson Sunday. The Bucs defense played well against a Panthers team that didn’t have Cam Newton, only allowing 334 total yards and 20 points. Luckily they won’t be dealing with a starting quarterback once again as St. Louis will start backup Shaun Hill who struggled last week against the Vikings. The Bucs will need to watch out for the run game and big upside plays that include jet sweeps to Rams receiver Tavon Austin. If the Bucs can jump on Hill early, they’ll have very good chances.
Betting Odds
Point Spread:
Moneyline: TB -5.5
O/U: 37.0
Prediction
This game doesn’t have much of a wow factor. Two 0-1 teams that played below average in their first week and rank in the bottom ten of FanSided.com’s NFL power rankings. This could turn out to be a better game than we thought between two struggling teams that want some confidence points. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have home field advantage and will be playing a really banged up St. Louis Rams team. If Tampa can find their bearings early and be able to execute on offense in the first half, they’ll take the win and beat the spread.
Final Score: St. Louis Rams: 10, Tampa Bay Buccaneers: 27