For the Bucs heading into Week 9, they are going to have a massive test on their hands facing the Rams. Not only are they going up against the defending Super Bowl champions, but they are also attempting to match up against arguably the best receiver in football, All-Pro Cooper Kupp.

Although the Rams have gotten off to a slow start (3-4) much like the Bucs (3-5) this season, Kupp has continued his dominance. Following up having 145 receptions, 1,947 yards, and 16 touchdowns in a stellar 2021 campaign, through seven games in 2022, Kupp has 64 receptions, 686 yards, and five touchdowns. The Bucs will have their hands full game-planning how to stop him, especially when looking at last year’s playoff game between the two teams.

In his record-setting 2021 season, Kupp actually had his highest single-game yardage total against the Bucs in the Divisional Round. He had nine receptions for 183 yards and a touchdown, including a crucial 44-yard catch on the Rams’ final drive that Bucs fans won’t forget anytime soon.

Bucs HC Bowles On Kupp: “He Does Everything Well”

Todd Bowles, the coach responsible for coordinating the Bucs’ defense in that game, is now the team’s head coach. Being all too familiar with Kupp, he heaped nothing but praise on what he does well.

Bucs HC Todd Bowles – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

“He does everything well,” Bowles said in his Wednesday press conference. “He blocks, he runs routes, he’s inside, he’s outside, he’s in the backfield, he’s at the line of scrimmage, he’s in motion, he throws passes, he catches the ball, he’s a very intelligent player, he has a lot of savvy, he’s a very athletic player as well, has good size – that goes unnoticed when he’s blocking, but he has good size to get on you. He’s one of the rare players that comes around every couple [of] years, but he’s a great player.”

Kupp definitely does it all for the Rams, continuing to put up numbers and get open even though quarterback Matthew Stafford has thrown more interceptions than touchdowns this season and as a team only putting up 16.9 points per game, a mark that ranks 28th in the league.

Team struggles aside, his dominance is something that the Bucs’ secondary will have a tough time containing. Safety Mike Edwards prefaced their matchup with Kupp as well.

“He’s a great player, one of the best guys in the league,” Edwards said. “Just watching him on film, he stands out. With the amount of volume and balls that he gets, they feed him a lot. He gets open, no matter what… he runs some crazy routes that you gotta stop, try to stop to guard. He’s just a great player, he finds open zones to get in, in man-to-man he shakes his guy to try to get open, he’s a good ballplayer.”

Bucs Looking To Be Ready For The Task

For the Rams, while they have talent in other positions on offense, Kupp remains the only true “game-changer.” In their receiver room, Allen Robinson II has struggled this season as a big free-agent signing, while Van Jefferson has yet to play a game for them in 2022. Further down their depth chart, rookie second-round pick Tutu Atwell has disappointed with only one catch this season. Their rushing offense has also failed to impress, leaving their only way to move the ball and score centered around Kupp.

The star receiver suffered an ankle sprain last week in the fourth quarter of a 31-14 loss to the 49ers, but Kupp is expected to play.

Bucs CB Sean Murphy-Bunting – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

If they manage to keep him in check, perhaps the Bucs can break a three-game losing streak against the Rams that dates back to 2020. Besides their well-documented playoff loss, the Bucs also lost to them 34-24 in Week 3 last season and 27-24 in Week 11 of 2020.

Year in and year out, they seem to battle with the Rams all the way until the end. Cornerback Sean Murphy-Bunting added to this sentiment while reflecting on last season’s postseason loss.

“We lost an important game,” Murphy-Bunting said. “Whenever you lose an important game, you just don’t want to lose in that situation again. This is a team we obviously go at it with each and every year, and they’re a team that’s going to compete each and every year. Whether our records say otherwise, we know what type of game it’s going to be, and I think that just going into it, being ready for the task and ready to compete.”

Being ready for the task and ready to compete is something that’s been missing for the Bucs as they have lost five of their past six games, but to put that in the rearview and win against a tough opponent could be a huge boost for a team needing to get back into the win column.