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The Los Angeles Rams ended the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ hopes of back-to-back Super Bowl victories with a stunning NFL playoff win.
The Rams led 27-3 in the third quarter before seven-time Super Bowl winner Tom Brady led an exciting comeback.
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The defending champions equalized with 42 seconds remaining, but a field goal propelled the Rams to a 30-27 win.
The first three games of the divisional round were all won by the visitors with a field goal on time.
The Rams will now host the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC Championship game next Sunday.
Last year, the Bucs became the first team to play a Super Bowl at their own stadium, and the Rams are now one win away from repeating that feat as Super Bowl 56 will be played at SoFi Stadium on Feb. 13 .
Touchdowns from Kendall Blanton and Cooper Kupp gave the Rams a 20-3 lead at halftime before Matthew Stafford hit with a quarterback sneak.
The Rams’ star-studded defense kept Brady under pressure throughout, but a touchdown by fit running back Leonard Fournette gave the Bucs hope as they trailed 27-13 into a vibrant final quarter.
That hope appeared to be gone when Von Miller recovered a stripe sack on Brady, only for the Rams to return the ball straight to the Bucs with a snap that flew past Stafford.
Tampa Bay failed to score on that possession, but Brady later made a 55-yard touchdown pass to Mike Evans, and just two games later, Ndamukong Suh hooked the ball out of Cam Aker’s grip to save the ball with 2:32 left get back .
Fournette, nicknamed “Play-off Lenny,” ran on his eighth touchdown in seven postseason games before the Bucs scored the extra point to level the score.
There was still time for the Rams, but they almost turned the ball over again on the first play of the drive, with Stafford having to recover his own fumble.
But Stafford then made two big games against Kupp, the league’s leading receiver that season, before goading the ball to give Matt Gay a chance to redeem himself with a 30-yard field goal after only six had missed from 47 yards minutes earlier.
Now what for Brady?
Stafford’s late exploits prevented Brady from extending his record of 35 wins in the playoffs alone. To put that in context, 49ers legend Joe Montana is the second-best quarterback at 16.
Widely regarded as the greatest NFL player of all time, Brady has a year left on his contract and has previously spoken about playing past his 45th birthday, which is a month before the start of next season.
It has been reported that the three-time MVP now plans to compete at least a month beforehand Deciding whether to return for 2022 or retire, But Sunday’s game showed that even now, no NFL quarterback is more feared than Brady.
Every time a team gets a big lead against a Brady team now, Superbowl 51 is mentioned. The New England Patriots trailed the Atlanta Falcons 28-3 in the third quarter, but Brady pulled off the biggest comeback in Super Bowl history when the Pats equalized 28-28 before winning 34-28 in overtime.
It keeps coming up as Brady continues to prove he can field a team like no other. He almost did another rescue mission here, and that came after leading the league in both passing yards and touchdowns that season. Brady threw for a career-high 5,316 yards and only once before has he surpassed the 43 TDs he managed in the regular season.
Despite his brilliance against the Rams and impressive regular-season numbers, is he ready to embark on a 23rd year in the NFL?
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