2012 Opponent Preview: St. Louis Rams face Minnesota Vikings and Tampa Bay Buccaneers
This is the concluding episode of St. Louis Rams’ series of opponent preview. In this addition, we will preview games that will be played in Week 15 and 16 of the regular season.
Rams will face Minnesota Vikings in Week 15 and Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week 16. They will play their last game against Seattle Seahawks. We have previewed Seahawks before in this series.
Week 15: Minnesota Vikings
Minnesota Vikings look to have a tough season again, as their rebuilding of roster continues. Last season, they finished 3-13.
Most of their elite players are very old and thus becoming more sloppy. On the other hand, their young players have not reached the stage of maturity in their professional game.
Quarterback Christian Ponder had a rough ride in his rookie season. He will have to learn his lesson from the mistakes he made during the last season.
Vikings hope that Ponder will be an improved player this time. The rest of the offence does not look much promising.
Vikings’ defensive team looks much stable this time with Jared Allen in his prime. Last year, he fell just one sack short of breaking the league record of most sacks in a season.
Head-to-Head:
Rams and Vikings have played 41 games against each other. Rams have won 16 games while Vikings have won 23 games. Two games have ended in a tie.
Week 16: Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Tampa Bay Buccaneers will have a fresh start this season after hiring a new coach Greg Schiano, who carries the reputation of making any team more disciplined.
Schiano is a good addition to the coaching staff as the roster certainly showed a lack of discipline last season.
Buccaneers have strengthened their roster to a great extent. With the likes of Vincent Jackson, Doug Martin, Carl Nicks and Mark Barron added into the roster, Buccaneers have a good backup in case of emergency.
One thing that Buccaneers will be concerned about is the performance of their quarterback Josh Freeman.
Freeman’s performance was very disappointing throughout the last season. With better players alongside him, Freeman might be able to give good output.
Head-to-Head:
Rams and Buccaneers have played against each other on 19 occasions. Rams have won 11 times while Buccaneers have won eight times.
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