Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs. Los Angeles Rams Preview & Prediction | PFF

Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs. Los Angeles Rams Preview & Prediction | PFF

PFF is running one of their biggest sales ever. 40% off a PFF plus subscription right now using the promo code black Friday. That means that you get everything fully unlocked. You get the grades, you get the stats, you get all the fantasy advice, the betting advice, which our new player prop tool is available on web as well to make you a smarter better. You’ve got all the draft analysis, the free agency analysis, all of that great stuff. Subscribe.pff.com to get 40% off a year-long PFF Plus subscription. Get it now. We got the Buccaneers and the Rams here on Sunday Night Football. So, you know, we had to get Terron Armstead’s take on this trench matchup. Tristan Worf, Luke Geti, Byron Young, Jared Verse, and so much more. Let’s hear what Terron had to say about the Rams and the Bucks facing off on Sunday Night Football. All right, we’re back with our guy Terron Armstead, fresh off a trip across the pond pond to uh to Madrid. Um, got to see the Dolphins win. Got to see your Dolphins get the dub. Talked a little bit before we hit record. Ate some good food. Lovely. But it’s great to have you back, my friend, because we got a big matchup that we got to talk about here. Tampa Bay Buccaneers offensive tackles going up against the Los Angeles Rams defensive ends. Now, I want to start this conversation, Toron, by asking about how an offensive line really defends stunts. You know, then there’s a lot of different terms for it. Stunts, twists, games. It’s where the defensive lineman, they start in one spot and then they’re rushing all around. They’re changing gaps and they sort of make it almost like a simulated blitz type of a feel where you only have four down defensive linemen, but you force the offensive lineman to really communicate. The Rams, they’ve almost run the most snaps this season where they only have four down defensive linemen. So, they trust those guys up front and about a third of the time they’re running one of these stunts, games, twists again, whatever you want to call it. So, as an offensive lineman, how do you prepare for that? How do you defend that? What goes into the preparation and then the execution to defend a team that likes to keep four down linemen like that? Yeah, when you get a team that that’s very efficient at running games, they they are sure about who their penetrators are. And by penetrator, I mean the guy that’s like going to dent the protection, get into a gap and make it hard to exchange with the offensive lineman next to you. You get those teams, you have to be on the same page as an O line like the left guard, the left tackle. If you are setting aggressive, you both got to set set aggressive. If you’re setting vertical, you both got to set vertical. Like everybody needs to be on the same page so you’re on the same plane whenever the exchange happens. So if it’s a TE and we by TE, it’s the defensive tackle first and the defensive end around. So the tackle first, end around. If if that’s the case, the your left guard, left tackle has to be on the same page. is your left tackle has to be conscious about not creating a big B gap because the bigger the B gap the penetrator can get inside the B gap and by the time the end loops around back inside the the guard into the A gap it’s too late so Tristan Worves get those guys will be using a technique what we call the drag arm drag arm is as you’re setting you’re just putting a presence in that B gap so hand out um it fully extended keeping that presence in that B gap so you can feel for the defensive tackle but keeping your eyes on the defensive end so once that loop happens you can make a quick and efficient transition these guys Byron Young and Jared Verse I feel like they’re so twitchy they’re so explosive that that’s sort of the thing that they go to is being able to not just be explosive towards the quarterback but also lateral laterally is that what you have also seen from from those two dudes about what makes them so difficult to defend you know I think Jared verse gets a lot of attention on his side of the defensive line, but Byron Young’s having a hell of a year. And I think it’s because a lot of teams maybe looked at Jared versus like, man, we got to slide protection this way. We got to make sure this guy doesn’t wreck our day. And then Byron Young’s like, “Hey, I’ll take the single blocks. That’s fine with me.” What have you seen from these two guys? Dynamic, man. Dynamic, explosive, dangerous, strong, relentless, motor, all of it. You know what I mean? They they got the bases covered. These two will be a they’ll be a dynamic duo for a very long time. And then when you start to add in games and you got Kobe Turner and Fisk and they they’re it’s an an added element to your pass protection. So I’m trying to give Jared Verse my full attention. So both eyes on him. I want to put both hands on him. But at any moment I can be getting picked. I can get my inside shoulder can get attacked by Kobe Turner. And that’s just it creates another layer of preparation like I have to I can’t fully commit to Byron Young and Jared Verse because I have to be aware of this inside game. But these two guys are capable of being you, you know what I mean? One-on-one. So it just adds so many different layers and elements and it’s really challenging which is why they can just line up four and go get the job done. So let’s talk about that matchup between Jared Verse and Tristan Worf specifically. We we know that the Rams are, like we said, going to want to switch things up. You got defensive tackles that are crashing down. You got defensive ends being the loopers, all that good stuff. And vice versa. They’ll probably do plenty of that as well, the TE stunts and the ET stunts. When it comes to these two going one-on-one, though, verse versus Worps, what is your what is your lean on this matchup? Do you think one of them has a specific advantage? Whether it’s, you know, physically, just the IQ, their style of play, you know, what’s your thoughts with these two guys going one-on-one against each other? Yeah, Jerry Verse, his superpowers is is his power. His bull rush is elite, the best in the league. That’s that’s what he does. This week, he’s going against a guy whose superpower is stopping power. Tristan Worth is a mammoth of a man. He he his anchor is elite. This is what he does. So I think from that standpoint, Tristan will be able to neutralize Jared Ver’s power and his push that he creates on a weekly basis. So it’ll be interesting to watch Jared Vers try to create other ways to win. Winning with his hands, winning the edge, his quickness power. I don’t see that being the the go-to method this week against Tristan. I look as a Bucks fan, I hope you’re right there, cuz they need they need a couple of wins here. They need a couple. They’ve been on a little bit of a slide. It’s a tough opponent to go up against in the Los Angeles Rams when you need a win. We know Jared Vers is going to get his. But hey, if Tristan could just get the better of the matchup, I think I’d probably sign up for that. I think Bucks fans would as well. It’s going to be a lot of fun. Toron, I know you’re going to watch it. We are, too. Appreciate you joining, my friend. Yes, sir. Appreciate you. We know that the Bucks are uh really looking to get a big win here against the Rams out in LA, but Rams aren’t looking to take their foot off the gas in any way, shape, or form. We know that as well. You want to talk about the Rams side of things, Daltton, or you want to talk about the Bucks? I’m going to go on the other side and talk about the pass rush or sometimes lack thereof from the Bucks here. So, I think the issue for one of the issues for the Bucks defense, we’ve talked about it this week, is their inability to get pressure, consistent pressure without blitzing, right? Todd BS is known as a heavy blitzer and he’s always sending simulated pressures and things of that nature as well. But when they don’t blitz, the Bucks are 20th in pass rush grade, the 13th in pressure rate, the 14th in pass rush win rate against elite quarterbacks. They just don’t get enough pressure with four. Their real problem is, look, your problem is dealing with Matthew Stafford in general. But when he is not blitzed this year, he has a 92.7 passing grade. Trevor, that’s eight points higher than any other quarterback in the league. the way that he is seeing and the way that he and Shawn McVey can just pick apart the foundational core of your defense, especially if you only send four, you’ve got a real problem. So, I I think Todd BS the issue is he’s going to have to make a choice between do we not send pressure and sit back in coverage trying to deal with Nua and Adams and all the assets they have on the outside for the Rams or do we just send all of the pressure in the world knowing that the Rams at times struggle to pick it up. The other problem is if you do blitz him, Stafford’s been really good then as well, right? He’s actually the only quarterback in the top six in passing grade against a blitz or against a standard rush and he’s thrown 19 touchdowns against the Blitz this year, Trevor. No one else has more than 10. So that’s going to be the decision as it is any week. I just think when you’re dealing with Matthew Stafford and the absolute burner that he’s on right now, what does Todd BS do? Does he try to confuse this offensive line and make Stafford get rid of it quickly? four. If you let him sit back there, if you let him sit back there and you only rush four, are your guys going to win that battle in time before he starts to shred you like he’s done to everybody else, I think the pressure plan for Stafford and Todd against Stafford for Todd BS in this game is going to be a huge part of of the plan and what’s going to happen here. Yeah, look, Tampa does not have enough one-on-one winners on the defensive line. Without Assan Reic, they don’t really have a player who is consistently high enough when it comes to passers win percentage to be able to get home. And that’s been their issue all season long. uh with Hassan Reic out of the lineup anytime this game and he missed last week he’s going to miss this week as well. At least I haven’t seen anything that tells me he’s going to be back this week. But on the other side of things for the Buccaneers offense, you you talk about guys who aren’t in the lineup. I think we talk about this every single week. Well, you know, they don’t have Mike Evans, they don’t have Chris Godwin, they don’t have Bucky Irving, like and those things are true, but I think that we have said those things and forgot to sort of put Baker Mayfield himself underneath the microscope. And when you look at Mayfield this season, obviously they started out really hot, but he’s got 20 big time throws. He’s got 17 turnover worthy plays as well. When you look at accuracy specifically, 58.2 accurate throw rate, that’s only 32nd out of 43 qualifying quarterbacks that I used a minimum of 50 dropbacks for. And then when you talk about his 21.7% uncatchable inaccurate pass percentage, that’s 36 out of 43 quarterbacks. So Mayfield’s leaving meat on the bone. You know, whether he’s throwing to Mike Evans or Chris Godwin or whoever it is, like those guys obviously aren’t out there, but he is still missing as a quarterback. So he still needs to play better. It’s not just about when those guys eventually come back come back when they get Mike Evans back in December, when Chris Godwood eventually gets back in the lineup. Obviously, it’ll help, but Mayfield also has to play better independently of different wide receivers being out there. And so, this has sort of been a trend for Tampa. They’ve started hot, had a lull in the middle of the season, and then finished strong in each of it feels like the last three or four years. And in order for them to do it again, it’s got to be Mayfield playing sharper than he has over the last couple of weeks. I am going to take the Rams in this one. They’re at home. They’re the hotter team. The Bucks just still don’t have those one-on-one guys that I think that they need. It’s a really tough opponent. I think Tampa is going to bounce back and finish strong, but I don’t think that it starts this week. I’m going to go Rams 27, Bucks 20. I’m with you. I I like the Rams a lot in this game at home. And the way the Bucks have just gotten the high variance part of Mayfield’s game has kind of been a problem, right? He’s the fifth highest graded deep passer in the NFL. But on throws of 20, I should say under 20 yards, he’s outside the top 25 both in the short and intermediate range. So look, the deep ball variance is great. When it’s working, it’s really working. They can hit home runs, right? But with the home runs are coming a lot of strikeouts right now in this Bucks offense. So I have Rams 31 and Bucks 21. I just think Matthew Stafford’s on a heater. The Rams offense is rolling and they got to be feeling really good about themselves after that win against Seattle last

PFF’s Dalton Wasserman and Trevor Sikkema preview the matchup between The Tampa Bay Buccaneers and The Los Angeles Rams.

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