Finally Bucs Found A Way To Limit Cooper Kupp
November 8th, 2022
Bucs safety Keanu Neal.
Yeah, it is almost like clockwork. When the Bucs play the Rams, receiver Cooper Kupp will burn them.
And Kupp did just that. Once on Sunday. One play. Yeah, for a touchdown. He finished with eight catches for 127 yards.
Aside from his 69-yard touchdown catch, Todd Bowles’ nemesis was barely a factor. He had only 58 more yards receiving.
Bowles spoke Sunday night on the job his defense did limiting Kupp.
“For the most part I was happy with the YAC yards. They didn’t catch and run for a bunch of yards, minus that [scoring] play, which was big because they’re a big catch-and-run team and they’re a big jet sweep team,” Bowles said. “I thought they did a heck of a job between [Sean] Murphy-Bunting, Carlton [Davis III] and [Jamel] Dean, and Mike [Edwards] and Keanu [Neal] – they did a heck of a job of containing the receivers when they were running the football. We thought that was big going into the game.”
Given the Bucs were without Bucs sack king Shaq Barrett, Joe was scared Kupp would just roast their tails with Matt Stafford having time to throw. That didn’t happen. Kupp has taken apart the Bucs in the past when the defense was at full strength.
Keanu Neal played like the old Keanu Neal. He did a heck of a job limiting YAC with 10 tackles.
Cooper Kupp's ability to be open ALL THE TIME even though he's by far the Rams best offensive player never ceases to amaze me.
— Ross Tucker (@RossTuckerNFL) November 6, 2022
November 8th, 2022 at 7:13 am
We should be at full strength and healthy with our secondary when AWJ returns…..that’s good.
November 8th, 2022 at 7:39 am
Hopefully we get Winfield and Logan Ryan back this weekend.
November 8th, 2022 at 7:52 am
Cooper Kupp is one of the best receivers in the NFL. All you can do is try to limit him, but seldom will you completely stop him.
Tony Romo commented on his size. Kupp is listed at 5 ft 10 but he is really 6 ft 2 and very athletic.
He seems to understand our defensive scheme, and manages to always get in at least one big play against up.
Seeing Vita Vea pushing up the middle Sunday was a beautiful thing! Let’s hope he can manage pressure on Geno Smith in Germany Sunday.
November 8th, 2022 at 7:55 am
Neal is what I need in my life.
until Logan gets back we don’t have a true free safety.
November 8th, 2022 at 8:18 am
Played well even without our best defensive back….AWJ
November 8th, 2022 at 8:24 am
IT’S A RUN!
November 8th, 2022 at 8:42 am
Joe … ‘Aside from his 69-yard touchdown pass, Todd Bowles’ nemesis was barely a factor. He had only 58 yards receiving aside from his touchdown catch.’
I couldn’t help but laugh when I read that Joe. We now define ‘success’ as limiting Kupp to catching 8 out of 9 targets for 127 receiving yards & 1 TD? Oh how our standards have fallen.
Kupp’s 8 receptions were 3 more than all the rest of the Rams’ receivers. Stafford had a bad day, going 13-for-27 for 165 yards. Well, bad compared to him going 28-for-38 for 366 yards in last year’s playoff game. Hmmm, oh wait, MAYBE Todd Bowles did make an adjustment or two since last year.
That 1 touchdown BTW looked eerily similar to the play that bounced us out of the playoffs last season. Edwards was giving him lots of room; OK, way too much room. But then again, I’m not sure that a Safety can effectively cover Cooper Kupp in any defensive alignment. Looked like I saw some confusion in the Secondary about who was supposed to take him on that one.
November 8th, 2022 at 8:55 am
Ramone… Logan Ryan is out until maybe the playoffs I believe. He had surgery on his foot that was supposed to help get the blood flow back to it iirc from an article on this here website.
November 8th, 2022 at 10:40 am
Would it ever occur to Toad that maybe doubling Kupp when the Rams have no one else would be an ok idea?
Naaaa.
November 8th, 2022 at 10:56 am
You wanna limit Cooper Kupp? Have Jamel Dean follow him wherever he goes in man to man. Dean is a shutdown CB… giving up a QB rating of 57 this year when targeted. In nine games this season, QBs have only thrown his way 35 times… 14 less than Davis despite playing two more games…. and McCollum was targeted 14 times in the other two games…. that’s 28 less targets than the CB on the other side of the field. Dean is gonna get paid by someone. I hope it is us.
November 8th, 2022 at 11:04 am
@Brandon
They’re too busy complaining about the offense to see how good of a season Dean is having being a full time starter and I’m also hoping we can retain Dean next offseason
November 8th, 2022 at 11:08 am
The Rams O-line, especially in the middle is absolute trash.
November 8th, 2022 at 1:10 pm
“Holding” Cupp to a line of 8-127-1, to me, that’s not something I celebrate or would give credit for. But maybe it’s just me.
November 8th, 2022 at 2:50 pm
Haha! If Kupp decides to go for it and not slide, we probably lose that game.
November 8th, 2022 at 3:51 pm
The REAL reason bucs won was making them punt over and over and over and over. Only way Brady did what Brady does is because D kept it close.
November 8th, 2022 at 3:52 pm
Doubling the other team’s best catcher of the pass is a radical concept. I’m sure no one has ever done it before. Toad wants to play his Calculus 7 zone defenses that no one knows their assignments in. What a crock.
November 10th, 2022 at 4:09 pm
You consider a WR on a bum ankle, who goes for 127 yards and a TD to be contained? Put down the big storm.