Tonight Could Be Last Home Game For St. Louis Rams

With Gurley amassing 140 yards and 2 touchdowns on the ground on just 16 touches to contribute an impressive 8.13 Rushing Net Expected Points (NEP) on the day, the Rams’ first round draft pick showed that he could shoulder the load and carry this team to victory. “Gurley!” as the Rams ended a five-game skid that gave them another irrelevant December. But with the Buccaneers having a road game against the St. Louis Rams this week, then they have the extra time to prepare for their final home game against the Chicago Bears, before their season finale against the 2015 NFC South Champion Carolina Panthers. Here’s the current point spread for the Bucs vs. Rams game.

Gurley has run for 8 touchdowns over his past 8 games played.

Whether or not Tampa Bay makes the postseason, the team and Winston have both exceeded expectations.

Brendan is 6-7 in his St. Louis Rams predictions on the year.

The Bucs also have a top-ten run defense, and the Rams struggle to throw the ball with any kind of consistency. He’s among the league leaders with 11 on the season, two more than last season when he was the NFL’s Defensive Rookie of the Year. Tampa Bay has permitted opponents to convert a whopping 46.6 percent of third-down attempts.

A 6-7 record still has them on the fringes of the potential post-season scenarios after a damaging defeat to New Orleans in front of a packed Raymond James Stadium last weekend so it will be interesting to see how well-honed their powers of recovery are on a short week.

Image: St. Louis Rams rookie running back Toddy Gurley. He needs just 25 yards to reach the 1,000-yard mark on the season. While the Buccaneers have a quarterback who has proven he can make plays in Jameis Winston.

Bucs standout defensive tackle Gerald McCoy has seven sacks. Also, it must be noted that none of them had as much skill position talent from the outset as Winston does, with Doug Martin nipping on Adrian Peterson’s heels for the rushing crown and Mike Evans already one of the league’s more prolific young receivers despite an annoying case of the dropsies in his second year. He has caught three of his six targets for 31 yards in each of his two games since returning from injury but has split time with Cameron Brate, who played in Seferian-Jenkins’ absence.

The Bucs cannot win the NFC South, but they still could clinch a wild-card spot with a ideal end to the regular season. The Rams have some momentum heading into this game and will get to play at home.

“I think we wanted to look like West Virginia for Tavon (Austin)”, Laurinaitis kidded.