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The St. Louis Rams can lift their NFL-best record to 9-1 with a victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Monday night (ABC, 9 p.m. ET).
ESPN analysts Ron Jaworski and Sean Salisbury break down the game plans of each team.
| SALISBURY VS. JAWORSKI |
 | | Salisbury on the Bucs |  |
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are a vulnerable football team. Not only are there a lot of question marks surrounding Sunday's game against St. Louis, but the Bucs are questioning themselves as a team. In the past, the Bucs' defense has been the strength, the glue that holds them together, while they have begged the offense to make plays.
Now, Brad Johnson has been putting up decent passing numbers, and Keyshawn Johnson is at the top of the league in catches. But the defense is no longer bailing them out of trouble, making Tampa Bay less of a team than before. The Bucs can't afford to lose any more games. One or two more losses and they are done for the playoffs. They are feeling the pressure to win every game as well as the pressure to save Tony Dungy's job, which is a big burden to carry around. The Rams won't make it any easier for the Bucs on Monday night.
Five keys for the Bucs:
1. Contain Faulk. Pick your poison, but everything on the Rams starts with Marshall Faulk, who can hurt teams in the passing game as well as the running game. If the Bucs limit Faulk and make the other Rams make plays, they have a better chance of winning, but it's still not a very good one.
2. Play zone. The Bucs' defense needs to play two-deep zones. They must make the Rams beat them slowly by running zone routes with 10- or 12-yard gains. If they play much man-to-man coverage, it will allow the Rams to catch and run, putting the Bucs at risk of giving up long gains. They must keep the plays in front of them and tackle.
3. Throw off Warner's rhythm. Kurt Warner has more confidence in himself and his receivers than any quarterback in the league. No one else would continue to throw the ball after throwing two early interceptions like he did last week. Warner continues to gun it and go for big plays. The Bucs need to force him to hold the ball and maybe throw where he doesn't want to or throw it away. They have to keep him out of rhythm and disrupt his timing with either different looks or blitz schemes.
4. Limit the big play. The Rams are the best big-play team in the NFL. And Tampa Bay has been giving up more big plays, as the Bucs did last week when the Bears struck them for three touchdown passes to Marty Booker. If the Bucs' defense allows seven or eight plays over 20 yards, they have no shot to win.
5. Use Dunn like Faulk. The Bucs need to mirror Warrick Dunn with how the Rams use Marshall Faulk. Dunn is a weapon. He has been moved around a little more this year so he can catch the ball out of the backfield and run. The Bucs can do this to create mismatches instead of just lining up and pounding on the Rams. With Brad Johnson in control and Keyshawn Johnson making plays, the Bucs are getting the ball downfield more, but Dunn needs to be a factor. |
 | | Jaworski on the Rams |  |
The St. Louis Rams are the best team in football. Everyone knows about their high-scoring offense, but they have all the components, although I don't think their defense has played as well over the last four weeks as it did through the first five games. The defense must get back to the flying-around, dominant style they displayed earlier in the season.
The Rams use a lot of different personnel packages. When that happens, a team gets to be inconsistent, particularly on the defensive line. The Rams' defense is on the field a lot because they play an offensive style that doesn't worry about ball control. That means the defense is on the field for more snaps than normal. This week, though, the Rams are not going up against a prolific offensive team in Tampa Bay.
Five keys for the Rams:
1. Protect Warner. The health of Kurt Warner is paramount to the Rams. He has been nicked up with a bad thumb since the first week against the Eagles. The Rams have to keep Warner upright. Against New England, the Patriots blitzed him 38 of 68 snaps (56 percent), coming with five rushers or more. The book is out on Warner and the Rams' offense; if you play coverage, he will eat you up. But if you blitz him, you give yourself a chance.
2. Run at Rice. In the running game, the Rams will run at Simeon Rice. He is a hand-on-the-ground quarterback pass rusher. If he is in situations where he can rush the quarterback, he is tremendous. The Rams must negate his ability by running at him. He will be going against Orlando Pace, who outweighs him by about 100 pounds. Pace will get in Rice's face and drive-block him out of his area.
3. Maintain run-pass balance. The Rams have to run the football, taking the Bucs out of their predominant double-zone coverage. They will play the run with seven in the box. But the Rams must make them bring an eighth defender down, either Dexter Jackson or John Lynch, to defend the run. That forces one-on-one coverage on the outside, where the Rams can attack.
4. Key on Keyshawn. The Rams must take Keyshawn Johnson out of the game. He is the go-to receiver for Brad Johnson. Against Keyshawn, a tall, gangly receiver, they must get bump-and-run coverage on him, try to jam him at the line of scrimmage and do not let him release into his route. They should always back up the bump-and-run with a safety over the top. That will force Brad Johnson to go somewhere else with the ball.
5. Blitz a bunch. Looking at what the Steelers did to Brad Johnson, the Bucs' offensive line had tremendous problems with the zone-blitzing scheme. So the Rams will take that template and use it to pressure Johnson with zone-blitz packages.
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