I came into the game thinking this was a top 5 (Bucs) vs. top 10 (Rams) matchup. I was pretty confident the Rams could do what they did defensively and hold Tampa to 24 or less. It was the Rams' offense I wasn't sure about.
Not a stellar game, but on the road vs. clearly a top 3-4 defense (and THE best run defense in the league) the Rams showed up and traded punches all night. To put up 27 points (could have been 30...) and 413 yards, control the ball for 33 minutes and convert 8/15 3rd downs on a night when the running game was going
nowhere is a nice showing, period. Also credit McVay for at least continuing to
attempt to run periodically throughout. And they game planned well against that zone defense.
So where are these Rams? I'd go from calling them a top-10 team to top-8 now. Maybe they will become more, we'll see. But they are firmly in the NFC playoff mix, may have ended up locking in the 5th seed with last night's win, and now at least a shot to win the division. Statistically they now have 90%+ odds of making the playoffs and about 45% chance to take the West.
Long way to go. They can't let the opportunity they just gave themselves slip by losing to SF this Sunday. Division winners take care of division business. At least set themselves up for a showdown with Seattle in week 16 by keeping more Ws coming.
And yeah, that was absolutely a fumble by Brady on that hit in the 2nd half. No question in my mind....
Last, not a bad special teams night either. They missed another FG but overall no terrible errors.
