James Laurinaitis enjoyed a big day in the St. Louis Rams’ win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday, as he recorded 12 tackles, an interception and defended two passes. At certain points, it almost appeared as though the fourth-year linebacker knew what the Bucs were going to throw at him. According to him, that’s because he did.
“We just felt like coaches do a phenomenal job of getting us prepared,” Laurinaitis said after the game, via the Tampa Bay Times. “We felt like we had a good beat on these guys going into the game, and what they were trying to do. They had some tells. So we’ve got to credit the coaches and credit the guys for studying hard.”
At one point in the second quarter, the Bucs were down only 7-6 and had the ball at midfield. Laurinaitis changed the momentum of the game when he recovered on a play-action pass and stepped in front of Vincent Jackson for an interception.
“There are a lot of tells you can get from teams week to week, this team a little more so,” he said. “So you just know when certain guys are in the game, you think more run. If other guys, think more pass. And they broke some tells. That always happens, teams self-scout, they do tendency breakers. But when they come back to the core of who they are, they go back to those tendencies.”
Tampa Bay’s offense has struggled for several weeks, which is one of the reasons they have lost five straight games. Predictability could certainly be one of the contributing factors to the Bucs’ losing streak.
