Rams win possible St. Louis finale

St. Louis Rams safety Maurice Alexander, lower right, and defensive end Eugene Sims force Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Jameis Winston into an intentional grounding penalty during the first quarter of an NFL football game Thursday, Dec. 17, 2015, in St. Louis. His status for a December 27 home game with Chicago isn’t known yet. There will be a vote among the owners in January, and the fans were well aware of that fact-in what may have been the last home game at the Edward Jones Dome, the people inside the half-full stadium shouted “Keep the Rams” at full throat all the way through the game. But it remains to be seen if that was just St. Louis’ final home game of the year or if it was actually the final home game ever.

Jameis Winston threw two touchdown passes in a big fourth quarter and finished with a career-best 363 yards passing for Tampa Bay (6-8).

ST. LOUIS (AP) – Rams players saw the signs, heard the chanting, noticed the volume was turned up.

“They’re great fans”, St. Louis defensive tackle Aaron Donald told reporters.

The Rams beat the Bucs 31-23 Thursday night in an offensive display reminiscent of the team’s “Greatest Show on Turf” heyday.

“The crowd was into it. It was a lot of fun”. The 31st-ranked offense rolled to a 21-3 halftime lead.

And when the Buccaneers showed life in the fourth quarter, scoring their first touchdown on a pass from Winston to Luke Stocker, they gave up a long kickoff return to Benny Cunningham that set up a Greg Zuerlein field goal. “Keep the Rams!” in what might have been the team’s final game in that city. The team announced 51,295 tickets had been distributed for the 66,000-capacity dome. However, the Bucs scored with 1:34 remaining on a 9-yard TD pass from Winston to Austin Seferian-Jenkins. If the Tampa Bay offensive line can keep Donald, Long, and Hayes in check (for the most part), the Bucs will likely win this game.

“We were protecting good enough”.

The halftime deficit was the Buccaneers’ largest since they were down 35-7 against the Titans in their opening 42-14 loss. Tampa Bay has allowed just one 100-yard rusher this year, tied for second in the National Football League….

“We didn’t see a whole lot to be excited about”, coach Lovie Smith said. Running back Doug Martin collected 91 yards on 18 carries, and wide receiver Mike Evans grabbed nine passes for 157 yards. A lack of meaningful pass rush, teamed with bad coverage, equaled the Rams averaging almost 17 yards per completion.

Todd Gurley was held in check for most of the night, but found the endzone just before the half, claiming with it 1,000 rushing yards on the season and joining Eric Dickerson (1983) and Jerome Bettis (1993) as the only Rams rookies to accomplish the feat.

Austin is the first player since Gale Sayers in 1965 to score at least four rushing touchdowns, five receiving touchdowns and one touchdown on a punt return in a season. He leads the Rams with 10 total TDs.

Several stars from the 1999 Super Bowl championship team attended the game, including Orlando Pace, Isaac Bruce and Torry Holt, plus Kurt Warner and Marshall Faulk from the NFL Network. That puts him at 1,023 yards for the season with two games to go.

After Barth drilled a 53-yard field goal with 4:52 left in the first quarter, the Rams answered less than two minutes later as wide receiver Kenny Britt hauled in Keenum’s 60-yard scoring strike.

The Rams also have placed defensive end Robert Quinn on injured reserve and promoted defensive tackle Doug Worthington to the active roster from the practice squad.

“I represent the “12” every day”, Austin said.