{"id":26340,"date":"2015-12-18T09:04:45","date_gmt":"2015-12-18T17:04:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/austin-gurley-lead-rams-past-bucs-31-23\/"},"modified":"2015-12-18T09:04:45","modified_gmt":"2015-12-18T17:04:45","slug":"austin-gurley-lead-rams-past-bucs-31-23","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/austin-gurley-lead-rams-past-bucs-31-23\/","title":{"rendered":"Austin, Gurley lead Rams past Bucs 31-23"},"content":{"rendered":"

ST. LOUIS<\/strong> \u2014 Rams players saw the signs, heard the chanting, noticed the volume was turned up. The effort was inspired on what could have been the final home game for the franchise in St. Louis.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a great atmosphere,\u201d quarterback Case Keenum said after the Rams beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 31-23 on Thursday night. \u201cI think it was a great atmosphere for the nation to watch.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe crowd was into it. It was a lot of fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tavon Austin scored twice, Todd Gurley topped 1,000 yards rushing, and Keenum threw two touchdown passes in the first quarter. The 31st-ranked offense rolled to a 21-3 halftime lead.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was just great for them to come out and show the support tonight and it was a beautiful thing,\u201d defensive end William Hayes said. \u201cWe haven\u2019t been putting the best product on the field the whole year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fans chanted \u201cKeep Our Rams! Keep Our Rams!\u201d and carried signs, one of them reading \u201cWe Don\u2019t Need Kroenke, We Just Want our Rams.\u201d<\/p>\n

Owner Stan Kroenke, who wants to move the Rams (6-8) to Los Angeles, attended the finale but kept a low profile.<\/p>\n

The team announced 51,295 tickets had been distributed for the 66,000-capacity dome.<\/p>\n

Up 31-13, the Rams became conservative, and Jameis Winston took advantage with two touchdown passes in a big fourth quarter. He had just 125 yards passing the first three quarters, but finished with a career-best 363, his first 300-yard effort, for Tampa Bay (6-8).<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first half, I didn\u2019t play good enough for us to win,\u201d Winston said. \u201cWe were protecting good enough, I just have to make the throws.\u201d<\/p>\n

The halftime deficit was the Buccaneers\u2019 largest since they were down 35-7 against Tennessee in their opening 42-14 loss. So, Tampa Bay\u2019s total output of 509 yards rang hollow.<\/p>\n

\u201cTonight, we didn\u2019t see a whole lot to be excited about,\u201d coach Lovie Smith said. \u201cBeing close just doesn\u2019t do it on a night like tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mike Evans had nine receptions for 157 yards and topped 1,000 yards.<\/p>\n

Austin Seferian-Jenkins\u2019 9-yard scoring catch cut the deficit to eight with 1:34 to play, but the Rams\u2019 Bryce Hager recovered the onside kick.<\/p>\n

Benny Cunningham had a 102-yard kickoff return to the Tampa Bay 3 in the fourth quarter and a 44-yard return on the opening kickoff capped by Austin\u2019s 17-yard scoring reception.<\/p>\n

Gurley needed 25 yards to become the first Rams rookie to rush for 1,000 yards since Jerome Bettis and didn\u2019t get it by much, gaining 48 yards on 21 carries.<\/p>\n

Austin is the first player since Gale Sayers in 1965 to score at least four rushing touchdowns, five receiving touchdowns and one touchdown on a punt return in a season. He leads the Rams with 10 total TDs.<\/p>\n

Several stars from the 1999 Super Bowl championship team attended the finale, including Orlando Pace, Isaac Bruce and Torry Holt, plus Kurt Warner and Marshall Faulk from the NFL Network. At halftime, Warner took off his sports jacket and tossed a pass to Bruce, who made the catch as he was running along the home team\u2019s sideline and jogged into the end zone.<\/p>\n

Tailgating was down with the 12th consecutive non-winning season ensured and temperatures in the high 30s, although it didn\u2019t stop Shamus McDonough\u2019s family, who have set up shop nearby at Laclede\u2019s Landing every game since the Rams came to St. Louis in 1995.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven through the worst years, we have stayed loyal,\u201d McDonough said. \u201cWe say the same thing at every tailgate \u2014 If you Ram Up hard enough, anything is possible. If this is the last game, we\u2019re going out strong.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kenny Britt\u2019s 60-yard catch was the first by a Rams wide receiver since Stedman Bailey against Arizona in Week 4.<\/p>\n

The Rams were also playing for Bailey, who is recovering from two gunshot wounds to the head in a Miami-area hospital. Austin and some teammates are planning to visit Bailey during the weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cI represent the \u201812\u2019 every day,\u201d Austin said. \u201cA couple of us are going to go visit our brother and show him some love.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

NOTES: <\/strong>Winston has 20 TD passes, breaking the franchise rookie mark of 19 by Mike Glennon in 2013. … The Buccaneers\u2019 98-yard scoring drive for the first of their two fourth-quarter TDs tied the record for longest in franchise history.<\/p>\n

… Buccaneers S Chris Conte (left knee) was injured on Austin\u2019s second TD in the third quarter when he got tangled up with another defender.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP NFL website: www.pro32.ap.org and www.twitter.com\/AP_NFL<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Online: http:\/\/pro32.ap.org\/poll and http:\/\/twitter.com\/AP_NFL<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ST. LOUIS \u2014 Rams players saw the signs, heard the chanting, noticed the volume was turned up. The effort was inspired on what could have been the final home game for the franchise in St. Louis. \u201cIt was a great atmosphere,\u201d quarterback Case Keenum said after the Rams beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 31-23 on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-26340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26340"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26340\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26340"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=26340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}