‘Twas the week before Christmas and whilst dressed as Santa Claus, the Bucs were in perfect giving mode to their hosts in St.Louis as they fell behind 28-6 going into the fourth quarter thanks to the usual combination of penalties, big-plays given up on defense and turnovers. A fourth quarter rally that saw Jameis Winston pass for a career-high 363 yards and the offense rack up 500+ yards for the second time this season was not enough as a late onside kick attempt failed and the Rams were able to run out the final 90 seconds. The loss pretty much ended the Bucs’ slim chance of a wild-card berth and was their third consecutive loss on Thursday night prime-time television.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers 23 St.Louis Rams 31 Thursday 17 December 2015 at the Edward Jones Dome
SCORING STL 11:54-1Q Austin 17 pass from Keenum (Zuerlein kick) TB 4:52-1Q Barth FG53 STL 3:15-1Q Britt 60 pass from Keenum (Zuerlein kick) STL 2:09-2Q Gurley 3 run (Zuerlein kick) TB 9:16-3Q Barth FG32 STL 5:35-3Q Austin 21 run (Zuerlein kick) TB 13:05-4Q Stocker 3 pass from Winston (Barth kick) STL 10:39-4Q Zuerlein FG19 TB 7:31-4Q Barth FG24 TB 1:34-4Q Seferian-Jenkins 9 pass from Winston (Barth kick)
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS RUSHING BUCS: Martin 18-91, Sims 7-50, Winston 2-5. RAMS: Gurley 21-48, Austin 4-32, Mason 3-13, Cunningham 2-8, Keenum 3-(-3). PASSING BUCS: Winston 50-29-363-1-2. RAMS: Keenum 17-14-234-0-2. RECEIVING BUCS: Evans 9-157, Humphries 6-60, Seferian-Jenkins 3-29, Stocker 3-25, Sims 3-22, Brate 3-20, Dye 1-44, Martin 1-6. RAMS: Cook 4-64, Austin 3-41, Kendricks 3-27, Britt 2-71, Gurley 2-31. INTERCEPTIONS BUCS: none. RAMS: Johnson 1-9. KICK RETURNS BUCS: Rainey 2-38. RAMS: Cunningham 4-188, Reynolds 1-0. PUNT RETURNS BUCS: Rainey 0-0. RAMS: Austin 0-0. SACKS BUCS: Smith 1-1, McCoy 0.5-6, Jones 0.5-6. RAMS: none.
STARTERS OFFENSE DEFENSE LT 76 Smith LDE 92 Gholston LG 70 Mankins DT 93 McCoy C 68 Hawley DT 77 McDaniel RG 74 Marpet RDE 56 Smith RT 78 Cherilus MLB 51 Lansanah TE 88 Stocker WLB 54 David TE 84 Brate SLB 45 Lemon WR 13 Evans LCB 26 Moore WR 17 Dye RCB 38 Adjei-Barimah QB 3 Winston SS 23 Conte RB 22 Martin FS 31 Wright PLAYED 5 Schum, 10 Barth, 11 Humphries, 21 Verner, 24 Jenkins, 27 Banks, 30 McDougald, 34 Sims, 37 Tandy, 43 Rainey, 46 Lane, 48 DePaola, 52 George, 53 Glanton, 57 Keyes, 59 Brown, 62 Smith, 64 Pamphile, 87 Seferian-Jenkins, 89 Shepard, 90 Melton, 91 Bowers, 95 Jones DID NOT PLAY 8 Glennon INACTIVES 4 Griffin, 50 Carter, 69 Dotson, 82 Myers, 83 Jackson, 94 Johnson, 97 Spence
COMMENTARY CREW Ian Eagle and Trent Green
GAME REPORTS Roy Cummings reports on another prime-time TV failing for the Buccaneers How Rick Stroud saw the game unfold Changes in the secondary still did not have the desired effect The third man in the middle in as many weeks for the defense The Bucs find themselves part of the NFL’s Color Rush experiment Notes and anecdotes from the Tampa Bay locker room The official NFL gamebook Scott Smith’s detailed game report
GAME HIGHLIGHTS Click on the boxes below to view the clips Donteea Dye almost gave away a touchdown with a unbelievable bonehead play at the goal-line Luke Stocker made amends on the next play with a scoring pass from Jameis Winston Austin Seferian-Jenkins brought the Bucs within a score inside the two minute warning