-Quarterback Tom Brady has seen some things. He's done some things, too. Like the postseason. This is a guy who has the best postseason record in NFL history, in fact. So, you could say that he knows what it takes to get there. And though the national narratives circling the Bucs currently include postseason aspirations, Brady insists he's just taking it one week at a time.
"I think when you start the football season everybody has goals of whatever type of achievements you can put together," said Brady. "For all of us, you play to win. I think those situations, like the playoffs, take care of themselves. The focus right now is just one game – it's not anything beyond that. There is a lot of football left. Every game is very important. Every game was important in September. I think just having to realize that it's a series of one-game seasons and you've got to put everything you can into that one week. You empty the tank and then you've got to fill the tank back up for the next week. It's still November – it's not even Thanksgiving yet. This is the time where we've got to go out and put the work in every day and have a lot of mental toughness about what we're doing. We haven't been it for two weeks, we've been in it for a while. You get bumped around – you've got a lot of bumps and bruises. It feels like Groundhog Day, but you've still got to put the work in and go out there and be excited about what you're trying to do, and try to improve so that you can continue to put yourself in a good position to succeed."
'A series of one-game seasons.' Well, in that case, the Bucs are about to embark on 'The One with the Los Angeles Rams' for all my Friends fans out there. This one also happens to take place in primetime on Monday Night Football.
Last time these two teams met, it was the Bucs making the cross-country trek to the L.A. Coliseum in 2019. The game was a shootout in every definition of the word with the Bucs ultimately claiming a 55-40 victory. This time around, however, the Rams have a vastly improved defense, letting up the second-least total yards on average per week. The Bucs rank third in the same category.
"It's different than what they did last year," said Offensive Coordinator Byron Leftwich about the Rams' defense. "Just having the opportunity to play against these guys last year, it's entirely different. Some of the personnel is the same and the personnel has always been good. Obviously, they're doing a lot of really good things on defense. They're playing well up front, they're playing well in the secondary [and] they're really playing well as a whole. Once you watch the guys play you can see they enjoy playing with each other, they play the game with a certain type of energy [and] they're running around. Everything that a good defense is supposed to have, they have it. They have all the things that come with having a really good defense. We understand that, so we just have to make sure we're ready to roll, we're prepared [and] doing the things we need to do to give ourselves an opportunity Monday night to win the football game."
And to that effect, the defense will have to aid in those opportunities for the Bucs, too. They'll have to shut down yet another top 10 offense led by offensive whiz kid Sean McVay at head coach.
"I would say just their misdirection – a lot of jet motions, a lot of boot legs and play-action passes is what they do well," said rookie safety Antoine Winfield Jr. "We have to make sure that we go out there and we're reading the right things, keying on the right things and not getting our eyes confused with looking at too many different things. We have to take sure we're disciplined in our play."
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