The Los Angeles Rams are set to face the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the divisional round of the playoffs on Sunday. There will be a ton of chatter surrounding both quarterbacks in Matthew Stafford and Tom Brady ahead of Sunday’s contest, and rightfully so.
While there isn’t much pressure for Brady to win another ring, there are heightened expectations for Stafford to lead the Rams deep into the playoffs. Ahead of Sunday’s pivotal showdown, Stafford knows Todd Bowles is going to be ultra-aggressive in his defensive play-calling for the Buccaneers.
“Definitely. I think they probably – I don’t know the exact stats – pressured us more than any team that’s played against us this year – in all varieties. They’re bringing corners, they’re bringing safeties, they’re bringing backers, they’re bringing simulated, they’re bringing all sorts of stuff,” Stafford said. “So, just got to do a great job as (the) quarterback trying to decide what’s coming – either get it picked up or get the ball out of your hand, try to make sure we’re running into favorable looks. It’s a lot on my plate. It’s a lot on the plate of our entire offense. At the same time, we’re excited about the opportunity. Sometimes you play aggressive coordinators. You try to be aggressive right back to them and see what happens.”
Stafford is coming off of Monday night’s win over the Arizona Cardinals, where he was blitzed on a season-high 50% of his dropbacks. The veteran signal-caller has excelled when blitzed this season, finishing with the seventh-most yards per attempt and the third-best completion rate against the blitz.
Bowles is an aggressive defensive coordinator who loves to send everything but the kitchen sink at opposing quarterbacks. Throughout the regular season, Tampa Bay had an extra rusher on 40.8% of their defensive snaps and they blitzed 45 times more than any other team in the league.
When facing the Buccaneers, you know Bowles is going to dial up some exotic blitzes to confuse the quarterback. It’s going to be up to Stafford to dissect whether Devin White or Lavonte David are blitzing, or if Tampa Bay is drawing up elaborate stunts for Shaquil Barrett, Jason Pierre-Paul, Vita Vea, and Ndamukong Suh.
Despite the Rams defeating the Brady-led Buccaneers twice in the past two seasons, it’s clear that Stafford and the Rams’ offensive line are going to need to be on their toes on Sunday with Bowles on the opposing sideline.
