Coming off back-to-back losses to the Patriots and Bills out of their bye week, the 6-4 Bucs have yet another tough test ahead of them in Week 12 as they head out west for a Sunday Night Football matchup with the 8-2, NFC West-leading Rams at SoFi Stadium.

After struggling through October slumps in the 2022, 2023 and 2024 seasons, Tampa Bay avoided an October slide this season, winning two out of its three games during the month. Unfortunately for Todd Bowles and Co., this year’s slump still arrived, only it came a month later than those of past seasons. The Bucs have lost back-to-back games and three out of their last four, which turned a 5-1 start into a 6-4 record heading into the toughest remaining game on their schedule.

As if the Bucs’ current level of play contrasted with the Rams’ hot 8-2 start isn’t enough to strike some dread into the hearts and minds of the Tampa Bay faithful this week, the fact that this game comes on the West Coast – where this franchise has historically struggled – will add to the bad vibes.

Further lowering the vibes heading into the weekend is the fact that this game comes in primetime and on Sunday Night Football. While the Bucs did win on Monday Night Football in Week 2 to stop their primetime losing streak, they’re still 2-8 under the lights in the Baker Mayfield era (including the playoffs).

Before we dive further in our “What to Watch For” preview later this week, here’s a general preview of Sunday night’s primetime matchup between the Bucs and Rams at SoFi Stadium:

The Last Time…

After a four-year stretch from 2019-2022 that saw the Bucs and Rams meet five times, Sunday night will be the first meeting between the two teams since Nov. 6, 2022. On that day, Tampa Bay earned an ugly win over a banged-up Los Angeles team at Raymond James Stadium thanks to a fourth-quarter comeback engineered by Tom Brady.

Bucs QB Tom Brady and TE Cade Otton – Photo by: USA Today

After Ryan Succop hit a field goal in the first quarter to give the Bucs an early 3-0 lead, Matthew Stafford and Cooper Kupp linked up for a 69-yard touchdown in the second quarter to give the Rams a 7-6 lead. The two teams traded field goals from there, then Matt Gay hit another field goal late in the third to make it 13-6 in favor of the visitors.

In the fourth quarter, the Tampa Bay offense came alive – at least as alive as the 2022 version of that offense could be – first with a 50-yard Succop field goal to make it 13-9 with 8:07 to go before the game-winning drive. After a turnover on downs inside the Rams’ 10-yard line looked to have potentially ended the Bucs’ chances, the Tampa Bay defense forced a quick three-and-out and Riley Dixon – Los Angeles’ punter at the time – booted a 47-yard punt to the Buccaneer 40 with under a minute to go.

What followed was a bit of vintage Brady, as he first found then-rookie tight end Cade Otton for a 28-yard gain before later finding Scott Miller for 14 and 7 yards. A defensive pass interference penalty then gave Tampa Bay first-and-goal at the 1 and with nine seconds to go, Brady found Otton for the game-winning touchdown to help the Bucs get to 4-5 on the year.

Overall including the playoffs, the Bucs and Rams have met 29 times, with the Rams holding a 19-10 advantage. Los Angeles has won three of the last five matchups between the two sides.

How The Bucs And Rams Are Trending

There’s no way around it right now: The Bucs are trending downward. They started 5-1 with big wins over the Falcons, Texans and Seahawks on the road as well as a victory over the 49ers at home. But since that win over the 49ers on Oct. 12, it’s been a struggle. They lost to the Lions on Monday Night Football, 24-9, and while they bounced back with a 23-3 win over the Saints in New Orleans, they’ve stumbled out of their bye week.

It started in Week 10 when the Patriots came into Raymond James Stadium and handed the Bucs a 28-23 loss. That was a game that featured three New England touchdowns of 50+ yards, plus a 54-yard play to boot. Then came last Sunday’s loss, a 44-32 defeat against the Bills in cold and windy Orchard Park. In that game, the Buccaneers defense allowed three passing touchdowns and three rushing touchdowns to Josh Allen, with two touchdowns of 50+ yards. It didn’t help that the kick coverage team also allowed returns of 61, 44, 41 and 44 yards throughout the game.

Bucs FS Antoine Winfield Jr. and Patriots RB TreVeyon Henderson – Photo by: USA Today

And while the defensive and special teams units both deserve a significant share of the blame for the way things are going for the Bucs right now, the offense hasn’t exactly been blameless. Baker Mayfield was poor in the loss to the Lions and the win over the Saints, and while his stat line against the Patriots was solid in the end, he was bad for long stretches of that game. And while the offense put up 32 points in the loss to Buffalo, that was largely a result of a massive day from Sean Tucker and the ground game – not Mayfield.

Far too often as of late, Mayfield has been missing open throws, whether through inaccuracy, not seeing the open throws or opting for a riskier throw rather than the right one. Tampa Bay’s defense and special teams certainly need to be better going forward, especially if this team wants any semblance of a chance of beating Los Angeles on Sunday. But Mayfield needs to be better and more efficient, too.

Continued excellence from the ground game would be a help to Mayfield and the passing game, of course. Emeka Egbuka and Tez Johnson have stepped up in the absences of Mike Evans and Chris Godwin Jr., but it’s clear that things are more difficult for the passing game right now. There were signs of progress on the ground against New England’s top-ranked defense in Week 10 and then a full-blown breakout against Buffalo’s 30th-ranked unit last week. Tucker averaged 5.6 yards per carry on his way to 106 yards and three total touchdowns, and Rachaad White ran for a healthy 5.1 yards per carry over 10 carries himself.

Bucs RB Bucky Irving – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Now, the Bucs will continue to deal with the weekly question of whether they’re going to get any of their injured stars back, too. Could this be the week Bucky Irving returns to action for the first time since Week 4? Could Godwin be back for the first time since Week 5? What about Haason Reddick over on the defense? Is Ben Bredeson still out this week? What about Jamel Dean? Injuries have been a prevalent storyline for this Buccaneer team all year, and it would be nice if pretty soon, the storyline shifts toward the team getting some reinforcements as it heads into the stretch run.

Things are much brighter on the Rams’ side of things. There was some up-and-down for Sean McVay‘s team early in the year, first with relatively unimpressive wins over the Texans and Titans and then what appeared to be a win that turned into a gut-wrenching loss in Philadelphia against the defending Super Bowl champions. After bouncing back with a win over the Colts to end September, the Rams then lost in overtime to a banged-up 49ers team on Thursday Night Football to drop to 3-2.

But ever since, Los Angeles hasn’t lost a game. And until last Sunday’s 21-19 win over Seattle, the Rams were breezing through some good teams. They beat the Ravens 17-3 on the road and then pounded the Jaguars by a score of 35-7 the following week. And after the bye, they beat the lowly Saints 34-10 before going on the road for some revenge against the 49ers, beating them 42-26. And with last week’s hard-fought win over the Seahawks, the defending NFC West champs took over first place in the division again.

Rams HC Sean McVay and QB Matthew Stafford – Photo by: USA Today

The Rams have every right to be treated like a Super Bowl contender thus far. They’ll be favored to beat the Bucs this week and then the Panthers next week, and if they follow through and win both games, they’ll head into December at 10-2 and very much alive in the race for the NFC’s top seed and both the first-round bye and home-field advantage that comes along with it. That loss to the Eagles will continue to sting if it comes down to a tiebreaker, but there’s a case to be made that Los Angeles is the likelier of the two teams to finish hot and win that top seed outright.

With respect to the Eagles, who simply keep finding ways to win, the Rams really look like the NFC’s best team. They’ll be challenged down the stretch with games against the Bucs, Lions and a rematch with the Seahawks, but dating back to this time last year, they’re on a 13-3 run in the regular season. They gave the Eagles their toughest test in the playoffs last year and despite preseason questions about Matthew Stafford and his back, they’ve continued to look like a favorite to represent the NFC in Super Bowl LX all season long.

Of course, Stafford has been a major part of that. He very well might win his first career NFL MVP at 37 years old if he continues to play the way he has been through the first 10 games. So far, he has completed 66% of his passes for 2,557 yards and 27 touchdowns to just two interceptions. In the three games prior to last week – a game in which he still threw for two touchdowns to no interceptions – he threw for five touchdowns, four touchdowns and four touchdowns. During the Rams’ five-game winning streak, he has thrown for 16 touchdowns and no interceptions.

Rams LB Nate Landman – Photo by: USA Today

The Los Angeles defense has been one of the league’s best all year long, too, having allowed only 17.2 points per game up to this point. That’s good for second in the entire NFL. Byron Young leads the unit with nine sacks, while Jared Verse has four sacks to go with seven tackles for loss and three forced fumbles. Nate Landman has four forced fumbles and two fumble recoveries, and four different players – Emmanuel Forbes Jr., Kam Curl, Kamren Kinchens and Cobie Durant – have two interceptions apiece to lead the team.

Here’s how the Bucs and Rams stack up heading into Week 12:

Bucs Offense: T-10th in scoring offense (25.2 PPG), 17th in total offense (332.2 yards per game), 15th in passing offense (222.2 yards per game), 22nd in rushing offense (110.0 yards per game)

Rams Offense: 6th in scoring offense (27.2 PPG), 8th in total offense (360.9 yards per game), 6th in passing offense (246.9 yards per game), 18th in rushing offense (114.0 yards per game)

Bucs Defense: T-21st in scoring defense (25.0 points allowed per game), 22nd in total defense (342.0 yards allowed per game), 27th in passing defense (241.6 yards allowed per game), 10th in rushing defense (100.4 yards allowed per game)

Rams Defense: 2nd in scoring defense (17.2 points allowed per game), 13th in total defense (323.0 yards allowed per game), 21st in passing defense (222.3 yards allowed per game), 11th in rushing defense (100.7 yards allowed per game)

As of Wednesday night, the Bucs are 6.5-point underdogs, with the Over/Under set at 49.5 (per Hard Rock Bet).

Bucs at Rams Game Information

When: Sunday, November 23
Where: SoFi Stadium (Inglewood, CA)
Kickoff: 8:20 p.m. ET
TV: NBC – Mike Tirico (Play by Play), Cris Collinsworth (Analyst), Melissa Stark (Reporter)
Bucs Radio: 98Rock – Gene Deckerhoff (Play by Play), Dave Moore (Color), T.J. Rives (Reporter)
Spanish Radio: 96.1 Caliente – Martín Gramática, Santiago Gramática