33ball right back to Tampa Bay. The missteps continued
after Mike Evans beat Jalen Ramsey for a 55-yard touch-
down to make it 27–20.
Cam Akers, who had already fumbled at the end of
the first half, costing the Rams at least a field goal,
carried the ball loosely on the second play following
Evans’s score, and Bucs defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh
slapped it loose. Linebacker Lavonte David recovered,
and, seven plays later, Fournette bounced off the right
tackle, running around the end to score on a fourth-and-1
play from nine yards out. The game was tied.
Brady had famously authored a comeback from a
28–3 deficit in Super Bowl LI. This comeback from
27–3 felt like it could be its sequel.
But McVay had confidence. What he’d ascertained
about Stafford, and what he learned before they linked
up a year ago, was enough to make him think moments
like his performance on that final drive were possible.
“He’s unf lappable. He’s just got a stillness during the
games and a calmness and a look in his eye,” McVay
said. “You could just feel it, man, the command he has.
He never wavers. And I love the guy.”
That much has been clear for a while now.“It was a total blitz, and I was able to hold on to it long
enough,” Stafford said. “Our guys up front did a great
job, and Coop set a great angle, and he hit it.”
Did he ever, pulling down Stafford’s bomb for 44 yards
to put the Rams at the Bucs’ 12. After the quarterback
hustled the offense to the line to clock the ball, that set
up Matt Gay’s 30-yard game-winning field goal, which
redeemed a 47-yard miss earlier in the day.
To win the game the Rams did more than execute
in the last minute; they also shrugged off a meltdown
that could have been psychologically devastating. After
all, this team had been up 27–3 with 7:11 to go in the
third quarter, after Stafford burrowed in for a one-yard
touchdown. At that point the Rams had been dominant,
outgaining the Bucs 307–140.
But Brady kept coming. Tampa Bay’s 10-play, 62-yard
drive at the end of the third quarter set up a Ryan Succop
field goal to cut the lead to 27–6. After a Kupp fumble
on the next play from scrimmage, the Bucs covered
30 yards in seven plays to make the score 27–13.
Then, early in the fourth quarter, Von Miller got a strip
sack that looked like it would stall the Bucs’ momentum,
but a bad snap from Rams center Brian Allen gifted the
LOS ANGELES RAMS