TAMPA — For a year, the Rams had been trying to emulate the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. They got Matthew Stafford, the way the Bucs got Tom Brady in 2020. They got hot at the end of the season, the way the Bucs did on the way to the championship. They drew motivation from the chance to play a Super Bowl at SoFi Stadium, the way the Bucs took advantage of the home field last February.
Sunday, they took imitation one better. They dominated for much of the game. They found magic when it mattered most.
After losing a 24-point lead, the Rams beat the Buccaneers 30-27 on Matt Gay’s 30-yard field goal with :00 on the clock at Raymond James Stadium.
Stafford had hit Cooper Kupp for a 40-yard gain to put the Rams in range, and the quarterback spiked the ball to stop the clock because L.A. was out of timeouts.
The win sent the Rams on to the NFC championship game next Sunday at SoFi Stadium against the San Francisco 49ers.
For much of a cool afternoon, it looked as if they’d do more than move on, as if they’d beat the defending champions handily and stamp their credentials as Super Bowl LVI favorites.
But the Bucs’ rally made it good enough just to survive.
Leading the way on offense was Stafford, who won his first playoff game in 13 NFL seasons when the Rams beat the Cardinals last Monday but looked better than the GOAT. Stafford completed 28 of 38 passes for 366 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions.
The first big play was a 70-yard pass-and-run to Kupp that put the Rams ahead 17-3 early in the second quarter. Kupp finished with nine catches for 183 yards.
Leading on defense was Aaron Donald, who had one of the Rams’ three sacks of Brady as the Rams put constant pressure on the quarterback.
Ahead 20-3 at halftime, the Rams got the first score of the third quarter on Stafford’s 1-yard sneak to make it look like a runaway at 27-3.
The Bucs chipped away with Ryan Succop’s second field goal, and then took advantage of Cooper Kupp’s first fumble of the 2021 season to march 30 yards to a 1-yard Leonard Fournette touchdown run, cutting the Rams’ lead to 27-13 going to the fourth quarter.
Gay’s miss of a 47-yard field-goal attempt that would have made it a three-score lead with 6:31 to play and kept the Bucs alive.
Brady hit Mike Evans, who beat Jalen Ramsey, for a 55-yard touchdown pass to cut the Rams’ lead to 27-20 with 3:20 to play.
A fumble by Cam Akers then gave the Bucs the ball at the Rams’ 30 with 2:25 to play.
That was too much of an opening to give Brady, who guided Tampa Bay to a tying touchdown on Leonard Fournette’s 9-yard run on fourth and 1 with 42 seconds to play.
The teams were playing for the right to host the NFC title game next Sunday against the San Francisco 49ers, who beat the Green Bay Packers on Saturday. The game will be at 3:30 p.m. at SoFi Stadium. The Rams have lost six games in a row to the 49ers.
Both teams went into the divisional-round game with star offensive linemen injured, the Rams missing left tackle Andrew Whitworth and the Bucs right tackle Tristan Wirfs.
From the start, the Rams handled it and the Bucs couldn’t.
Stafford had time to throw, and Kupp had time to get behind cornerback Carlton Davis, on the long play that put the Rams up by two touchdowns early in the second quarter.
Kupp caught Stafford’s throw at the Bucs’ 33, faked out safety Mike Edwards at the 15, and scored untouched to make it 17-3.
The receiving Triple Crown winner was one of seven Rams to catch passes from Stafford in the first half, including third-year tight end Kendall Blanton, whose 7-yard touchdown to make it 10-0 in the first quarter was his first in the NFL.
The Bucs were the defending champions, and Brady is the seven-time Super Bowl winner, but you couldn’t tell from their lack of poise in the first half.
Tampa Bay drew three after-the-play penalties, each for 15 yards. The third was on Brady for screaming at an official after he didn’t get a call after a heavy pass rush. TV showed Brady with a bloodied lower lip.
It was a fitting image on a day Brady finished with 30 completions in 54 attempts for 329 yards, one touchdown and one interceptions.
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