reporters on the Tampa game

Bucs get shot on prime time stage

http://www.tampabay.com/sports/football/bucs/jones-bucs-get-shot-on-prime-time-stage/2258067

There’s something special about NFL prime time games.

They’re must-see TV. Every game feels big. Looks big. Sounds big.

The top announcers. The dramatic music. Elaborate pregame show. That it’s the only game in town — the town in this case being all of America.

There’s the legendary Monday Night Football, the most-watched show on cable with more than 13 million viewers a week. There’s the most-watched television show in the country, Sunday Night Football and its 24 million viewers. And in recent years, there is Thursday Night Football.

Seems like everybody watches prime time games. Actually, the number is somewhere around an average 17.5 million viewers. That dwarfs the few million who typically watch a Sunday afternoon Bucs game.

And here’s the part that the teams really dig: that 17.5 million includes most of the players and coaches in the NFL.

“Absolutely, yes, sir,” Bucs quarterback Jameis Winston said when asked if he watches prime time games.

Winston is not alone. Players might act all cool, but ask them if they watch other NFL games in prime time and they don’t hesitate to turn into football fanatics.

“I watch it as a fan,” Winston said, echoing the sentiment of many of his teammates. “I’m just watching football like I usually watch it.”

The best part is that prime time games usually involve the top teams. Seems like every week the best teams and biggest stars are on display. Tom Brady is as much of a TV star as Judge Judy. Same with Peyton Manning, J.J. Watt and Cam Newton. There’s the Patriots and Packers and Steelers and … the Bucs?

Get ready, America, here comes Tampa Bay. The Bucs hit prime time tonight to take on the Rams.

Okay, maybe the Bucs aren’t one of the NFL’s best teams. So what are they doing on Thursday Night Football?

Well, a new NFL rule states that every team must make at least one prime time appearance, and this Thursday night game drew the short straw … er, I mean, gets the Bucs.

You can imagine that the rest of the country might be a bit skeptical about what the Bucs might offer.

The Bucs’ Thursday night history includes a December 2011 game in which they fell behind 28-0 at halftime to Dallas on their way to a boring 31-15 loss. That was the eighth consecutive loss in a season-ending 10-game losing streak that cost coach Raheem Morris his job.

The last time Tampa Bay played on a Thursday night? The game should have come with a parental guidance warning. The league needed to consider implementing a running clock in the second half as the Bucs trailed 56-0 at one point on their way to a 56-14 loss to the Falcons last year.

“But now,” defensive tackle Gerald McCoy said, “we’re a different team.”

The Bucs are hoping that with a new cast and a new script, this team is putting on a show worth watching.

“I just want to show the world how good this team really is,” Winston said. “This is our chance, and we have to take advantage of it.”

The Bucs aren’t in the best place to play well. They are missing Kwon Alexander on defense and Vincent Jackson on offense. They are coming off a disheartening, flat performance against the Saints — a 24-17 loss that pretty much short-circuited Tampa Bay’s slim playoff hopes. Throw in that it’s a road game in a short week and you might not see the same pep that you would normally see from the Bucs.

But as wide receiver Adam Humphries pointed out, “We haven’t had a prime time game this year. It’s good to go out and show the nation what the Bucs are all about.”

What are the Bucs all about? What might the nation see?

A rookie quarterback (Winston) who has met, if not exceeded, the expectations of a No. 1 overall draft pick. A running back (Doug Martin) who is among the best in the NFL this season. A 6-7 team that might be inconsistent but is leaps and bounds ahead of last season’s two-win fiasco.

“Everybody gets to see what we can do,” receiver Mike Evans said. “A lot of people haven’t seen us. They’ve just seen and heard the numbers. Hopefully, they see the physical team we are.”

It’s true that the Bucs’ reputation has grown in the past couple of months. They have gone from a laughingstock as one of the league’s worst franchises to a respectable team that looks to be on the rise.

If they do keep climbing, you know what that means. More prime time games.

“As we go to that next stage, which we will eventually get to, we’re going to have a lot of these prime time games,” coach Lovie Smith said. “It is a big thing. … This is a big deal to us. We have an opportunity where we are the only team that is playing at the time, and we want to show people we’ve improved. We’re not the same old Bucs or any of that. We’ve improved an awful lot, and now we get an opportunity to show you.”

You and the rest of the country.

Case Keenum’s big game catches Buccaneers by surprise

Nick Wagoner

http://espn.go.com/blog/st-louis-rams/post/_/id/25014/case-keenums-big-game-catches-buccaneers-by-surprise

ST. LOUIS — Since St. Louis Rams rookie running back Todd Gurley clearly established himself as the team’s primary offensive threat in Week 4, opposing defenses have loaded up to stop him, daring the Rams to throw the ball to win.

More often than not, that dare has paid off. For the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Thursday night, that plan didn’t work for one of the few times this season. Rams quarterback Case Keenum completed 14 of 17 passes for 234 yards with two touchdowns for a nearly perfect passer rating of 158.0 as the Rams jumped on the Bucs early and cruised to a 31-23 victory.

“That’s something we did not expect,” Tampa Bay defensive tackle Gerald McCoy said. “I don’t think they ran the ball … the plays they ran wasn’t anything we hadn’t seen before. The passes, I don’t know. I’ve really got to go watch it to see what happened. I don’t know, I really don’t.”

McCoy likely wasn’t alone in scratching his head at the Rams’ newfound aerial success. Gurley and the Rams attempted 33 rushes and managed just 98 yards, an average of 3 yards per carry. That type of success stopping the run has often been a recipe for success for Rams opponents, as the previous four opponents to hold the Rams to fewer than 100 rushing yards came away with victories.

But those opponents also didn’t allow Keenum or fellow Rams quarterback Nick Foles to take to the skies to move the ball, either.

Against the Bucs’ flailing pass defense, Keenum threw two touchdown passes in the first quarter, including a perfectly placed deep ball that went for a 60-yard touchdown for receiver Kenny Britt. Two touchdowns in a quarter is standard operating procedure for guys like Tom Brady and Ben Roethlisberger but for the Rams? Well, they had a total of two touchdown passes over their previous eight games, never mind quarters.

Keenum’s 234 yards also represented the third-best passing yardage total by a Rams quarterback this season. And that number could’ve been bigger had Keenum been allowed to keep attacking in the second half. But the Rams’ conservative second-half approach called for only four passes the entire 30 minutes. That’s the fewest passes the Rams have attempted in a half all season.

For Keenum, it was clear early in the game that he would need to play more than just a supporting role if the Rams were to win the game.

“You always want to have a balanced attack and it’s hard to tell sometimes how the game’s going to go,” Keenum said. “Obviously, Tampa Bay does a great job stopping the run. They really do. They loaded the box. Traditionally, they’re a ‘Tampa 2’ team, playing two safeties high, but they looked down and brought another safety out of the box quite a bit. That opened up the guys outside and got some playmakers outside that can do some special things with the ball in their hand. Our offensive line did a great job tonight. I really wasn’t even hit. The ones I was hit on were movements and stuff where I’m holding on to the ball and screens, stuff like that. So, offensive line did a great job and the guys made great plays for me down the field.”

While Keenum mostly got good protection throughout the game, he also impressed with his ability to hang in the pocket and deliver against the blitz, something Foles really struggled with in his starts. According to ESPN Stats & Information, Keenum was five-of-six with a touchdown and a 21.2 yards per attempt average when the Bucs rushed at least five defenders. In his first 13 games, Keenum completed just 46 percent of his passes on such attempts with an average of 5.7 yards per attempt, three touchdowns and three interceptions.

“He’s done a good job,” Rams coach Jeff Fisher said. “Today, he was on time. He was reading well. I thought he did a nice job managing the game. He made some really good throws and we caught the football today. We made tough catches. We had some runs after catches, which were good. We needed to do that.”

Keenum is now 2-1 as the Rams’ starter on the season and has won both of his starts since returning from the concussion he suffered against Baltimore on Nov. 22. It is also, perhaps, no coincidence that both of those wins have come since Rob Boras took over as offensive coordinator. Fisher said Keenum and Boras have worked well in tandem since Boras took over before last week’s game against Detroit.

Keenum also points to getting consistent opportunities as reasons for his recent success.

“It’s gotten better, it has,” Keenum said. “I mean, game experience, there’s nothing like it. Obviously, there’s stuff that I need to work on, I need to get better at. Times where I can hold on to the ball a little bit more, when the protection is as good as it was tonight at times. I tried to rush it a little bit. I got antsy. I just need to trust my feet, trust my read, trust my eyes and trust the offensive line to do their job.”