Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs. Los Angeles Rams Review | PFF Grade Release Show

Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs. Los Angeles Rams Review | PFF Grade Release Show

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. Shout out to the boss man Chris Collinssworth on his 500th game that he was calling in the NFL last night on Sunday Night Football. And unfortunately, my Tampa Bay Buccaneers didn’t exactly give him a lot to talk about on their side of things. The Rams who look like the best team in the NFL, right? I mean, like they just they look like world beaters right now. They win this game huge. 34 to7 was the final score, but uh it was basically over at halftime. Let’s look at the top five graded players that we had for the Los Angeles Rams in this game. Look at the guy who’s on the on number one on their list. Emanuel Forbes playing like a first round pick. Playing like a firstround pick. He was not when he was in Washington, but my goodness is he with the Rams. And I think that in and of itself is such an encapsulation of when you were a good organization with a good coaching staff. You get talented players what could happen. He had a 92.4 overall grade um on Sunday Night Football. Quarterback Kobe Durant with a 90.6. Defensive tackle Kobe Turner with an 87.3. Wide receiver Puka Nua an 86.3. defensive tackle Braden Fisk in 844 and then Matthew Stafford the front runner for MVP and I think deservingly so uh with an elite 91.5. You were just nodding your head there uh as the graphic is on the screen here. So you agree with the MVP sentiment completely right now? Right now I don’t think there’s an argument with six weeks left. It’s about as good as it gets. Staff told the story here for you. Um look I think like you mentioned this game was over by halftime. the when you look at the offensive grades in the first half, the Rams 88.9, which is just ridiculous as a team, the Bucks 58.1, the defensive grades 89.9 for the Rams, uh 61.8 for the Bucks, 7.7 yards per play to 2.6. And look, I just think when you look at this Rams team right now, you mentioned it, they’re the best team in football. There isn’t really one stat that encapsulates this right now. And you look at how close they are really to being actually 12-0 instead of 10 and two. You’re a block field goal and a fumble at the one yard line on a Thursday night game against San Francisco for being 12-0. This team’s got everything. They’ve got a Hall of Fame quarterback. You’ve got two dynamite receivers and a bunch of tight ends and backs that can run the ball. The offensive line looks better than last year. The only question I had was pass protection, but they’ve at least gotten that to an average of late. They’re doing enough. off. Stafford gets rid of the football and sees the field so well that you don’t have to be outstanding in pass protection. You don’t have to be the best pass protection team in the league. And then you’ve got a great front seven. You got linebackers like Nate Landman and Omar Spates who have emerged as secondary. They’re leading the league in coverage grade. That was the other question we had on defense or number one in coverage grade right now. It it’s starting to feel a lot like Philadelphia’s run felt last year where it was just how do you beat this team? You just have to play a perfect game and they’ve got everything in all facets at this point. This right now is the best team in football. They dismantled the Bucks last. No, I I was saying this a couple of weeks ago. Has there been a game where they’ve really been outplayed? Cuz again, you go to the Eagles game that they lost. They I thought were the better team in that game. They just have the special teams blunders and that’s why they end up losing. And then the Niners game, like I don’t want to take anything away from the 49ers in that one. Obviously, it was a close game back and forth, but you’ve got the Rams who fumble the ball at the goal line and I think they had another fumble in that game or another turnover in that game if I remember correctly. like I thought front to back they were also the better team in that game. So, it’s hard for me to remember a game this season that they have played where I didn’t go, “Yeah, that was actually the better team with them having two losses here.” Uh, no, they there has not been a game where and they’ve just been dominating everybody lately. They’ve won, what is this, six games in a row, sorry, five of their last six games outside of the Seattle game by double digits. I I mean, and you again, you look at the two games they lost. You got a fumble from Kairen Williams on the oneyd line of San Fran that would have given him a lead and then you had the block field goal where Stafford put him in game-winning position. No, I think this team right now they’re the best team in football. They’re the most well-rounded. They have everything you could ask for in a football team and to me as long as the offensive line stays healthy enough to protect Stafford enough then I I man, it’s hard to find just one singular way to beat them. All right, let’s take a look at Tampa’s top five graded players because that goes along with my stat that told the story here. Say you tried to slide by it there. You tried to slide past. No, we’re getting to it. We were. I just wanted to talk about Matthew Stafren and the Rams a little bit because I felt like that’s where the conversation was going. Edge rusher Yaya Dyabi was at the top of the list for the Buccaneers on Sunday Night Football with a 76.1. Offensive tackle Luke Geti a 717. Running back Rashad White with a 70.4. Edge rusher Anthony Nelson a 695. Wide receiver TZ Johnson is 642. And then Baker Mayfield a 66.3. I don’t necessarily have a stat that told the story. I have a list that told the story here for the Buccaneers because this game was not close. They were not ready for this game. They were out coached. They were outgame plan. They did not have the right execution. But alongside all of those things, which I wanted to say off at the top are true. They don’t have the horses to win the race right now. They just don’t. When when you look at what this team has had to deal with injurywise so far, Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, Luke Geti, Bucky Irving, Jamal Dean, Hassan Reic, Tristan Warf, Kijijah Cany, Cody Mock, Ben Bredesen, uh Jaylen McMillan, if you want to throw his name in there as well. And now Baker Mayfield, who leaves this game at halftime and his uh left shoulder was in his left ar arm was in a sling for his shoulder, which the MRI showed that he might not have to miss this upcoming game, but we’ll see. That’s the that’s the the injury list that we’re talking about here for the Buccaneers. And look, they did not play as well as they needed to anyways to even keep that game close. You know, with a better game plan, I think with better preparation, all of that, even with them going up against the best team in the NFL, that game’s a little bit closer. They’re a little bit more competent. But I think that this team knows that they’re hurt, that they don’t have a lot of their stars out there. And even Baker Mayfield before the game, I mean, you’re kind of like watching him the pregame interview, you know, him standing on the sideline, he looked kind of wideeyed. Like he didn’t he didn’t look like that Baker Mayfield that was, you know, pissed off and ready and motiv like motivating his team. Like he just didn’t have that look to him. I don’t know if it’s because, you know, there’s a little bit of a soft spot in his heart for playing out in LA, that stadium, that team, because they even said in the broadcast that team and that time of his career helped him fall back in love with football after he was, you know, everything that happened in Cleveland and then Carolina and then he gets picked up off off waiverss for the Rams. So, before he had signed with Tampa, that was the spot where he says, “I was able to fall in love with football again.” So, I don’t know if it was just that he doesn’t have that hate for the Rams. It just it was very different. But the next man up mentality, right? I think fans, coaches love to say that because when you’re in the moment, especially if you’re coaches and players, you have to. You’re still going to play the game even after star players get hurt. And when you’re fans, you know, you don’t want to give up on a season. You love that next man up type of a mentality. But the fact of the matter is Tampa’s down two of their starting offensive linemen. Even with Gtki and Tristan Worfs back, they’re down two of their starting offensive linemen. They’re down their playmaking running back. They’re down their best pass catching weapon in in Mike Evans and Chris Godwin is is barely coming back. They don’t have Jaylen McMillan to give them that depth at the wide receiver spot. They’re down, this is very, very important. They’re down their best cover corner in Jamal Dean and they’re down their best two individual one-on-one passers winners and I would argue the only ones that they have. Yep. So, you can sit here and say like, “Ah, I don’t want to I don’t want to hear the excuses. I don’t want to hear the injury.” Tampa’s roster can’t compete with the Rams. Now, could they have made it closer than what it was last night? Yes, they were still out coached. They still didn’t have the right execution. They did not play well last night. That is all true. They were never beating the Rams. They were never going to beat the Rams. And to be honest with you, this season sure like looks like it’s going to come down to those final three weeks of the year with Tampa where they play Carolina two out of the last three weeks including week 18. Yeah, that’s simply what it’s going to come down to. You got to get healthier. You got to hope that you’re slingingshotting your chance of getting into the playoffs, winning those two games, winning the division, being a lot healthier at that point, and then maybe could compete. But right now, they just don’t have the guys out there to compete with a team like LA. They also have a much easier schedule moving forward than Carolina. At least the Bucks get to go back home and play three straight home games against the Cardinals, Saints, and Falcons before you finish your season with the Panthers twice and the Miami Dolphins. So, the Bucks have winnable games that are only winnable if you win them. But you look at these last six and you still think to yourself, okay, if they can at least get they can they win four of these last six even with a lot of their injuries. Absolutely. I think they can. You’re talking about a rough stretch in the schedule where look, you played Seattle, you played San Fran, Detroit, New England, Buffalo, the Rams. These are some of the best teams in football right now. It drops off a little bit for them and they get to go home and just figure out any way to get healthy. It would help if Baker Mayfield was healthy starting this week. Maybe there’s still a chance that he plays this week against Arizona or they’re going to have to rely on Teddy Bridgewwater. Right now, it feels like this entire season has been about just finding a way to wins against the best teams in football. Like you just mentioned, teams like New England and the Rams and Buffalo, you’re just not going to go in there at less than maybe 90%. You could do next man up for two or three injuries. You can’t do it for 10 or 12. You run out of men at that point, right? And a lot of key spots like you mentioned and even fully healthy, we had questions about their defense anyway, but against this Rams team, they didn’t stand a chance with as many injuries as they have. They’re just trying to recover and get ready here for the stretch run. Yeah. Especially because, you know, part of what makes Matthew Stafford playing so well, you know, into that formula is you can’t blitz him. He just has all the answers at this point. So, if you don’t have the guys who could win one-on-one as pass rushers when you’re only rushing four, how do you expect to beat this team? Unfortunately, my most impressive was Devonte Adams. Great game from him. Two touchdowns. Um, above 80 receiving grade in this one. He looked fantastic. And then on the other side of the coin, my most disappointing was Zion McCollum. Zia McCollum 42.4 coverage grade. gave up six catches in this game. Five of them were for touchdowns. I mean, he just had a target on his back. And unfortunately, it was even worse than that. There were multiple times when I’m sure that you saw this, Dalton. He’s lined up with outside leverage and Devonte Adams still gets across his face and gets to the sideline or the the the fade route in the end zone, like whatever it was. And it’s like, Zion, you’re playing outside leverage. Like, the whole point is if he runs across your face, you can get hands on him. like if he is going to cross your body, you can get hands on him because you can re react a little bit later and then all of a sudden you’re locked with him as he’s going to the outside. It didn’t happen either of those times in the first half when the Rams were really putting up all their points and it just was not a good game from him. Now, I think people get on the contract with Zion and they’re like, “Oh, they just signed him into a contract. They’re paying him to be the CB1.” Not really. I mean, his contract is outside of the top 20 in uh average salary per year and total guarantees for a quarterback. So it’s not like they paid him like a top 10 quarterback corner, but you need him to play better than this. Jamal Dean’s not in this game. You got to step up a little bit better than that. So again, was Zion McCollum going to cover Puanua and Dvonte Adams for the full game? No, probably not. But did it need to look better than it was last night? Yes. I think both of those things are true. Yeah. No, absolutely. I think it’s going to take a special level of defense right now to slow down that Rams offense. The way that Stafford’s throwing the ball, like you mentioned, the MVP front runner, Adams, has been great, especially in the red zone and in one-on-one situations. They find a million ways to use Puk and Nakua, all the tight ends, I mean, they’ve just got every weapon at their disposal. So again, this would be a tough team to play if they were 100% healthy and being that you don’t have the weapons or the horses on defense that you have right now, that’s just not going to happen against the Rams. And boy, the Rams have plenty of horses on defense themselves and I look at my most impressive, it’s got to be Emanuel Forbes, right? The the comeback trail here that you’ve seen with the Rams and how much this has now exploded. And look, the Rams again, coverage was one of the things that we questioned for them coming into the season. They have the best coverage grade in the NFL. It It really is reminiscent of what the Eagles did last year when the year before they were 28th and they finished last year first. Also, Forbes eight targeted eight times in this game, did not allow a catch and had four forced incompletions and the interception on the Hail Mary right before halftime. I I mean, this sort of turnaround along with, you know, Kobe Durant making the great play on the pick six that he did, Cam Kinchins and Cam Curl playing great on the back end, the linebackers. I mean, this is a real threat, a three-level threat, I should say, for the Rams on defense. We came into the year going, “Okay, defensive lines elite, the back seven, let’s see where it goes.” Where it has gone now is between young players stepping up, veterans stepping up, reclamation proh projects like Forbes, everybody is stepping up. This Rams team, maybe they don’t have the household names that everybody knows, but this Rams secondary is outstanding, and it keeps getting better every single week. Mah in the chat saying, “Trevor now knows how Dalton feels as a Jets fan. Take it easy.

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

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