Rams prepare rude welcome for Tom Brady and Tampa Bay

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Rams prepare rude welcome for Tom Brady and Tampa Bay
Sunday's game between the Rams and Buccaneers at SoFi Stadium will be Tom Brady's first game in Los Angeles
Tampa Bay quarterback Tom Brady passes around Rams defensive end Aaron Donald during the first half Nov. 23, 2020, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Jason Behnken)

By KEVIN MODESTI | kmodesti@scng.com | Daily News
PUBLISHED: September 25, 2021 at 12:29 p.m. | UPDATED: September 25, 2021 at 12:30 p.m.
There’s not much Tom Brady hasn’t seen and done in 20 years in the NFL, so what’s happening Sunday at SoFi Stadium qualifies as special.

As if walking into the one-year-old stadium for the first time isn’t enough, Brady will be playing in Los Angeles for the first time – in any venue. When he entered the league in 2020, the Rams were Super Bowl champions in St. Louis. The Chargers still had one more run of division titles in them in San Diego.

“Pretty amazing to never have the opportunity in all my years of sports to be on the field there,” Brady, a San Francisco Bay Area native who has a sister living in Southern California and a niece playing softball at UCLA, told reporters in Tampa on Thursday. “It should be a really great atmosphere. I’ve heard really great things about the stadium.”

If the welcoming group consisted of Brady’s sister and niece, it might be an easier visit.

Instead, it’s Aaron Donald and Jalen Ramsey and the rest of a Rams defense eager to get after Brady when the Rams host the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in a meeting of 2-0 teams.

The Rams will be trying to beat a reigning Super Bowl champion for the first time since they split two division games against the Seattle Seahawks in the 2014 season.


Since this game is billed as a “measuring stick” for the Rams’ own Super Bowl chances, it’s worth noting that beating the Seahawks in 2014 didn’t make them contenders. They finished 6-10.

Nor did beating Brady and the Buccaneers last season, in the November of Tampa Bay’s championship season, get the Rams close to the Super Bowl. They lasted two round in the playoffs.

That 27-24 Rams win in Tampa might be misleading when it comes to predicting what will happen Sunday, since the Bucs had yet to hit their stride and begin their current 10-game win streak.

“We were still in the crawling stages,” Bucs coach Bruce Arians said Wednesday in a Zoom call with L.A. writers. “We made some critical errors, on both sides, offensively and defensively, that cost us a lot in that ballgame.

“It’s light years from that game to this game as far as the quarterback and all the guys on offense. And defensively, we shouldn’t make the critical errors that we made.”

Which would make the Bucs, a rare champion that has all of its starters back, a formidable test for the Rams.

Formidable for the offense, led by quarterback Matthew Stafford and wide receiver Cooper Kupp (135.5 yards a game, three touchdowns) and likely to have Sony Michel carrying the ball after Darrell Henderson hurt his ribs in the win over the Indianapolis Colts.

And even more formidable for the defense, led by Donald on the line and Ramsey in the secondary, as it tries to show the departures of defensive coordinator Brandon Staley and some key players haven’t produced a dropoff.

In 2020, the Rams’ league-leading defense limited Brady to 4.5 yards per pass, with rookie safety Jordan Fuller intercepting two.

“Getting that big-time win, it was kind of the formula on what you would like to get done versus a Tom Brady football team,” said Raheem Morris, the Rams’ first-year defensive coordinator. “You got to go out there and you got to find a way to affect the quarterback, meaning whether it be hits or making them throw the ball off schedule when he doesn’t want to.

“He then goes to what we know as the short passing game, getting it out of his hand, trying to get his guys to make tackles. You got to make those tackles.”

Tampa Bay will play without outside linebacker Jason Pierre-Paul (shoulder), who intercepted a Jared Goff pass in last year’s game, and probably without wide receiver Antonio Brown (COVID-19), who had eight catches.

Brown’s absence would leave only wide receivers Chris Godwin and Mike Evans and tight end Rob Gronkowski, who have combined for eight of Brady’s league-high nine touchdown passes in home wins over the Dallas Cowboys and Atlanta Falcons.

In the Rams’ first two games, wins over the Chicago Bears and Colts, the defense gave up yards but came up with interceptions, sacks and goal-line stops. That was against Andy Dalton and Carson Wentz. Brady might not make the same mistakes.

“(We’re) playing against a veteran guy that’s been doing it a long time and playing at a high level,” Donald said. “We’ve got our hands full, but we’re prepared.”

All of that sounds like an understatement about Brady, 44 and looking for his eighth Super Bowl title.

“He gets the ball out of his hands fast,” Donald said. “So you got to get prepared for that, find ways to get your hands up. There’s going to be opportunities to where he’s going to have to hold the ball. And we’ve got to take advantage of that, and that’s getting sacks or getting hits on him.”

Donald has never sacked Brady, and his teams are 1-2 against Brady’s, including the Rams’ 13-3 loss to the Patriots in Super Bowl LIII. But the Rams held Brady below his career passer rating in all three games.

Ramsey’s teams have gone 2-1 against Brady’s, the loss coming when the Patriots beat the Jacksonville Jaguars in the AFC championship game following the 2017 season.

“He is the greatest to play the game, so there is just a lot of respect there,” Ramsey said. “He does a good job of leading his team, having his team ready to play. That’s one thing that I respect even more is just his team’s always ready.”

Ramsey’s ability to line up all over the field contributes to what Brady said is one of the hardest parts of facing the Rams.

“It’s just a challenging team, because I think they do a good job of disguising coverages (and) they’ve got a great pass rush,” Brady said. “The corners do a good job of locking onto receivers, and they all do a good job of having their eyes on the quarterback and reacting to where the quarterback’s looking.

“There’s not a lot of chances to go to second reads and so forth. If you look one way, chances are the ball’s got to come out, because of how fast that pass rush gets home.”

Welcome to L.A.?

“Everything about this week is challenging,” Brady said. “Really good defense, really good offense. We’ve got a long way to travel. It’s a big game for both of us.”

NOTES
Rams linebacker Kenny Young was fined $12,000 by the NFL after he was ejected from the Week 2 game against the Colts for making contact with an official. …

The Rams called up running back Buddy Howell and defensive back Tyler Hall from their practice squad for the Bucs game.