Rams top Buccaneers in what might be their St. Louis swan song

If this is it, if Thursday was the final Rams game ever in St. Louis, what then? What will be this strange team’s legacy in a baseball town?

In an impressive performance, which have been few and far between this season, the Rams jumped on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers early and hung on to beat them 31-23. It was a rare offensive explosion from a team that last reached the 30-point mark in Week 1.

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Mere hours before a key aldermen’s meeting on Friday that could help determine the future of the Rams in St. Louis, the Rams were greeted by a sparsely populated but vociferous Edward Jones Dome crowd that fell well short of a sellout as the franchise rolled out several heroes of yore — Torry Holt, Marshall Faulk and other memories of the good old days.

The Greatest Show on Turf is long gone, and the two teams’ “Color Rush” jerseys made the game look more like a summer picnic. But Thursday was a brief remembrance of what it was like to light up the scoreboard. If Rams owner Stan Kroenke moves the team, this game will be a painful reminder that the franchise features some very good young talent that will develop elsewhere.

In the closing moments of the game, the fans who remained chanted “Keep our Rams!”

Rams quarterback Case Keenum, in perhaps his most efficient career game, completed 14 of 17 passes for 234 yards and two TDs — one to Tavon Austin for 17 yards and one to Kenny Britt for 60. Austin also ran for a touchdown, Todd Gurley (in a battle for Rookie of the Year with Jameis Winston) chipped in with a score and had 79 yards from scrimmage, surpassing the 1,000-yard rushing mark in the game.

The defensive star of the game, and perhaps the favorite for Defensive Player of the Year, was the Rams’ Aaron Donald, who had five tackles (two for losses, including a key fourth-down stop) and three hits on Winston. The two of them were seen much of the game, too.

“It’s a young quarterback,” Donald said on NFL Network after the win. “We wanted to get our hands on him, and get in his head early.”

The Buccaneers had faint playoff hopes dimmed completely with the loss. Winston struggled early, misfiring on five of his first six passes and throwing a late pick to dash the Bucs’ hopes of completing the comeback after going down 21-3. He finished with 363 yards and two touchdowns but on 29-of-50 passing in an uneven performance.

The Rams started quickly.

They scored on a tidy six-play, 57-yard drive in the first three minutes of the game, nicely called by new play-caller Rob Boras, who last held that duty in 2003 at UNLV.

After a punt on their second possession, they wasted little time moving on their third. Austin took an end around 15 yards, Gurley added 7 on a run, and then Keenum hit Kenny Britt on a stutter-and-go for a 60-yard touchdown and a 14-3 lead — a stunning offensive outburst for a team that had 42 first-quarter points all season coming in.

Tampa’s Doug Martin ran hard and effectively early, but Donald tackled him for a 2-yard loss on fourth down just outside the red zone.

The Rams made them pay. Gurley, Jared Cook and an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty by the Bucs’ William Gholston moved the ball down the field easily, and Gurley’s 3-yard plunge made the score 21-3. After Bucs linebacker Danny Lansanah dropped a sure pick-six it became clear that the comeback wasn’t in the cards.

Winston engineered a nice attempt, throwing for 314 yards after halftime. He and Evans connected nine times for 157 yards, but he and the other receivers dropped too many passes and the team made too many mental mistakes.

After a four-play, 98-yard Bucs drive made it a two-score game early in the fourth quarter, Tampa got a  penalty on a successful two-point conversion attempt. They ended up kicking the single extra point and then allowed a 102-yard return on the ensuing kickoff, which resulted in a Rams field goal.

It was a strange night in the Dome, with no one sure what to make of what was happening. A 5-8 season has been a disappointment, especially after a 4-3 start, and the franchise — through Cleveland, Los Angeles and St. Louis, with L.A. perhaps in the foreground — sits at two games below .500 for its 78-year history with two games left to play this season, both on the road.

For now, the Rams will celebrate a rare strong outing and the team’s second straight win at home. It’s all the fans have to hold onto right now in these strange, unknown times.

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Eric Edholm is a writer for Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Eric_Edholm