Bittersweet finale as St. Louis fans protest possible Rams exit

“The first half, I didn’t play good enough for us to win”, the Tampa Bay quarterback said after the Buccaneers’ surge fell short in a 31-23 loss to the St. Louis Rams on Thursday night.

(AP Photo/L.G. Patterson). St. Louis Rams running back Todd Gurley, left, runs with the ball as Tampa Bay Buccaneers defensive end William Gholston tries to make the tackle during the second quarter of an NFL football game on Thursday, Dec. 17, 2015, i… Keenum as completed 10 of 12 passes for a whopping 175 yards and two touchdowns, with a flawless passer rating of 158.3 to go with it. “We haven’t handled some situations well, but I’ve seen improvement from that”. His wide receivers and tight ends had no drops.

Keenum lacks arm strength, but clicked on a 60-yard touchdown pass with Kenny Britt and has won both of his starts since coming off a concussion.

The team amassed 509 yards total offense, with Jameis Winston setting career highs for completions (29), attempts (50) and passing yards (363). “Everybody had a part in that”, the coach said.

Running back Benny Cunningham added a 102-yard kickoff return to the Tampa Bay three-yard-line to set up a 19-yard field goal by Greg Zuerlein in the fourth quarter.

And that includes an offensive line that allows him to be hit in the backfield darn-near every play. It’s especially impressive that he was able to pull off the feat during the Rams’ fourth game of the season, considering that he was inactive for the Rams’ first two games of the season. Cook finished the day with 64 yards, as Kendricks had 27 yards to his name. Winston struggled early, misfiring on five of his first six passes and throwing a late pick to dash the Bucs’ hopes of completing the comeback after going down 21-3. “You’ve got to be able to not give up long touchdown passes and big plays”.

The Buccaneers owned the ball for more than seven minutes to open the second quarter, but got nothing as running back Doug Martin was stuffed for a 2-yard loss by defensive tackle Aaron Donald on 4th-and-1 at the St. Louis 23. However on Gurley’s touchdown run, he would eclipse 1,000 yards on the season.

After winning twice in five days, players earned the weekend off. Some of them are planning to visit wide receiver Stedman Bailey, recuperating in a Miami-area hospital after getting shot twice in the head last month. A 5-8 season has been a disappointment, especially after a 4-3 start, and the franchise – through Cleveland, Los Angeles and St. Louis, with L.A. perhaps in the foreground – sits at two games below. As he told me while watching the aftermath of the 1:00 p.m. ET games last Sunday, Rodney never smiled after a game that his team lost.

“We appreciate our fans”, Fisher said. From my standpoint, that’s a competitive advantage.

“When we correct those things, we’ll become a championship team, ” Smith said “Until then, we’re going to continue to talk about them”. The Rams have been trying to conserve him a bit throughout the season so that he’s not overworked in his first season off the surgery, and with Tre Mason still in the stable, it’d be easy to back off Gurley somewhat against San Francisco and Seattle.

Martin has 1,305 rushing yards, the third-most in a single season in franchise history.