By Ed Baylor: The St. Louis Rams (7-8) did a number on the hapless Tampa Bay Buccaneers (4-11) in beating them by a 23-13 margin at the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis, Missouri. It wasn’t so much the final score in how the Rams were able to dominate the Bucs, it was more on the defensive side of the ball.
The Rams sacked Buccaneers rookie quarterback Mike Glennon 7 times in the game with 3 of the sacks coming from Rams defensive end Robert Quinn. The Bucs failed to make adjustments to the constant heavy pass rush by the Rams, and this led to Glennon having a miserable game. They could have done what the San Francisco 49ers did to beat the Rams by throwing short screen passes, but the Bucs head coach Greg Schiano didn’t seem to figure that out.
The Rams led at halftime 14-10. They took advantage of a fumble by Bucs running back Bobby Rainey in the 2nd quarter to score on a 1-yard touchdown run by Zac Stacy. The Rams also got some trickery on a reverse run by Stedman Bailey, who galloped 27 yards for a touchdown in the 2nd quarter.
The Bucs scored on a 35-yard field goal by Rian Lindell with no time remaining on the clock at the end of the 2nd quarter to make it 14-10 in favor of the Rams. Lindell added a 32-yard field goal in the 3rd quarter to narrow the score at 14-13. However, the Rams came back and scored on a 54-yard field goal by Greg Zuerlein to go up 17-13 in the 3rd quarter. In the 4th quarter, Zuerlein kicked field goals of 25 and 48 yards to round out the scoring at 23-13.
Mike Glennon completed 16 of 26 passes for 158 yards with 1 fumble and 7 sacks. Several weeks ago Schiano had been gushing about how good Glennon was, but things have really changed since then with him having played several poor games in a row. I wonder if the Bucs owner is thinking about drafting a quarterback in the 2014 draft. If he’s not, then maybe he should because Glennon is a limited player without the great talent that the Bucs are going to need for them to become a good team in the future.
Rams quarterback Kellen Clemon completed 16 of 20 passes for 158 yards with 1 fumble and 1 sack.
Rams running back Zac Stacy rushed for 104 yards on 33 carries with 1 touchdown and 1 fumble.
Buccaneers running back Bobby Rainey rushed for 37 yards on 20 carries with 1 touchdown and 1 fumble.
Buccaneers wide receiver Vincent Jackson caught 5 passes for 98 yards.
Stedman Bailey caught 3 passes for 44 yards.