| | | | | | | | Thursday, September 19, 2002
MNF Breakdown: Rams-Bucs
By Mike Diegnan
ABC Sports Online
In short time, the Rams and Buccaneers is quickly becoming one of the best rivalries in the NFL. Since the Rams edged the Bucs 11-6 in the 2000 NFC championship game, they have met on Monday night the last two seasons with Tampa Bay pulling out a pair of exciting wins.
The meeting two years ago remains one of the most exciting games ever on Monday Night Football as it featured six lead changes and excitement to the end. Tampa Bay's defense could not shut down the Rams attack, with Marshall Faulk finding the end zone four times, three on the ground and once in the air. Torry Holt added a 72-yard touchdown catch with just over five minutes to play to give the Rams a 35-31 lead.
But it was not enough.
|  | | Warrick Dunn leaps high for the go-ahead touchdown to defeat the St. Louis Rams 38-35. |
In one of the most unbelievable plays seen on the gridiron that season, Shaun King threw a swing lateral to Warrick Dunn around the right side. But Dunn was trapped far behind the line and, as he was being dragged down, suddenly pitched the ball back to King. King shook loose and streaked down the right sideline for a 15-yard gain, and 15 more yards were tacked on for a late hit called on linebacker Mike Jones.
Later, on a fourth-and-4, King scrambled for a first down. He then threw a 22-yard pass to Reidel Anthony, which set up Dunn's 1-yard TD run to clinch the 38-35 win for Tampa.
That's all ancient history when St. Louis comes to Tampa Bay on Monday night (ABC, 9 p.m. ET). Dunn is now in Atlanta, King is third on the depth chart and the Rams are 0-2 for the first time since Kurt Warner became a household name. Plus, St. Louis heads into Monday night's contest needing to wake up its offense. So far, the Rams rank 24th in the NFL in scoring, and have been especially anemic on the ground and on third downs.
They will have to do it against a defense that has scored as many touchdowns as it has given up (2) so far this season, and has seemed to have the Rams' number the past two years. With Jon Gruden brought in to jump-start the Bucs offense, he's looking for something more this week after last week's 25-0 victory, which had no touchdowns from the offense. Maybe a visit from the Rams will help spark them again.
MNF record
St. Louis: 20-23 (2-1 last season)
Tampa Bay: 6-4 (2-0 last season)
Season record
St. Louis: 0-2 (3rd, NFC West)
Tampa Bay: 1-1 (3rd, NFC South)
Head-to-head
St. Louis leads the all-time regular-season series 8-5 (and has won both postseason games.
Tampa Bay won in St. Louis last season 24-17.
Notes
Kurt Warner has averaged 303.5 yards in his last two games against the Bucs, both losses. He only needs to attempt 17 passes for 500 in his career and qualify for the NFL's all-time highest rated passer. His current rating of 101.8 dwarfs record-holder Steve Young (96.8). Warner has completed 997 of 1,483 passes for 13,232 yards, 99 TDs and 56 INTs.
Including the playoffs, the Rams have committed two or more turnovers in 15-of-21 games dating back to 2001.
| St. Louis vs. Tampa Bay |
| |
 |
 |
| OFFENSE |
| Points/G (rank) |
18.5 (24) |
22.5 (16) |
| Rushing/G (rank) |
62.0 (29) |
73.0 (25) |
| Passing/G (rank) |
277.5 (4) |
233.0 (13)
|
| Yards/G (rank) |
339.5 (13) |
306.0 (21) |
| 1st downs (rank) |
33 (23) |
36 (20) |
| 3rd down eff. (rank) |
6-21, 28.6% (26) |
13-33, 39.4% (18) |
| 4th down eff. (rank) |
0-2, 0% (18) |
0-1, 0% (18) |
| DEFENSE |
| Points/G (rank) |
24.5 (21) |
13.0 (4) |
| Rushing/G (rank) |
103.5 (17) |
86.5 (11) |
| Passing/G (rank) |
239.0 (23) |
184.0 (11) |
| Yards/G (rank) |
342.5 (18) |
270.5 (8) |
| Sacks (rank) |
6 (9) |
5 (14) |
| MISC. |
| Takeaways (rank) |
3 (16) |
2 (21) |
| Giveaways (rank) |
6 (30) |
1 (2) |
| Turnover ratio (rank) |
-3 (27) |
+1 (11) |
| Penalties (rank) |
14 (16) |
18 (29) |
| Penalty yards (rank) |
84 (6) |
159 (30) |
Individual leaders
| Passing |
|
NAME |
CMP |
ATT |
YDS |
CMP% |
LNG |
TD |
INT |
SACK |
RAT |
|
Kurt Warner |
58 |
80 |
581 |
72.5 |
43 |
1 |
3 |
4 |
81.3 |
|
Brad Johnson |
52 |
83 |
489 |
62.7 |
38 |
2 |
0 |
4 |
86.1 |
| Kicking |
| NAME |
1-20 |
20-29 |
30-39 |
40-49 |
50+ |
TOT |
PCT |
AVG |
LNG |
XPM/A |
PTS |
|
Jeff Wilkins |
0/0 |
0/0 |
1/3 |
2/2 |
0/0 |
3/5 |
60.0 |
41.0 |
43 |
4/4 |
13 |
|
Martin Gramatica |
0/0 |
0/0 |
3/3 |
1/2 |
1.2 |
5/7 |
71.4 |
37.0 |
52 |
4/4 |
19 |
| Punting |
| NAME |
PUNTS |
YDS |
AVG |
LNG |
TB |
IN20 |
NET |
|
Mitch Berger |
7 |
295 |
42.1 |
49 |
1 |
5 |
41.6 |
|
Tom Tupa |
13 |
601 |
46.2 |
56 |
3 |
3 |
40.2 |
| | |
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