I'll copy it for you, but your the one that showed the article. Thanks man! I'd do a smiley but then you won't see what I posted. Haha.
Move over, Marshall: Jackson ready to carry Rams
Pete Prisco June 5, 2006
By Pete Prisco
CBS SportsLine.com Senior Writer
Tell Pete your opinion!
Steven Jackson watched closely as friend Larry Johnson became the running back story in the NFL last season, taking over for Priest Holmes to rush for 1,750 yards and dispelling the notion that he was a draft bust.
Steven Jackson rushed for 1,046 yards last season. (Getty Images)
Steven Jackson rushed for 1,046 yards last season. (Getty Images)
Jackson was happy for his friend, but he also was envious. Johnson, you see, had what Jackson didn't.
Carries.
While Johnson was running himself into the elite list of NFL backs for the Kansas City Chiefs, across the state of Missouri, Jackson was finding out his first season as the feature back for the St. Louis Rams wasn't all it was cracked up to be.
"I'm the type of guy who feeds off touches," Jackson said. "I'm not the type of back who wants it five or 10 times a game. That's not good enough. I was underappreciated by the coaching staff. That's what happens when you have a coach who calls more pass plays than running plays. You get underused."
That coach, Mike Martz, is gone, which won't make Jackson too upset. Martz coached only six games last year because of a heart illness, but disciple Steve Fairchild, who took over calling the plays, kept things the Martz way.
That means throwing it rather than pounding Jackson, who finished with just 254 carries in 15 games. Jackson finished 14th in the league in rushing with 1,046 yards. All 13 of the runners in front of him had more carries with only two others (Pittsburgh's Willie Parker and Atlanta's Warrick Dunn) having fewer than 300 carries. Johnson had 336 carries after getting 140 his first two years.
"It just didn't seem right," Jackson said. "I never could figure out why I didn't get those carries."
He will now. With Martz gone and Scott Linehan in as coach, Jackson will get his touches. He will be this season's Larry Johnson. That means he will get his yards. How many?
Here's an early prediction: Jackson will lead the league in rushing.
"I'll take that as a compliment," Jackson said. "But you're not going out on a limb there. I have the ability to lead the league and now I have the right coaching staff, one that believes in me."
Martz had a strong allegiance to two things as coach of the Rams: the pass and Marshall Faulk. It was Faulk's greatness that helped the Rams win a Super Bowl and ultimately helped Martz become a head coach. He stayed loyal to him to a fault, giving him too many carries in 2004 when many thought Jackson should have taken over as a rookie when he averaged 5 yards per carry.
Faulk only carried 65 times last season, so it was the team's propensity to throw that cost Jackson his carries in 2005. He also had some minor injuries that cut into them.
"They didn't call running plays," Jackson said. "It was that simple."
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The Rams passed it 62.9 percent of the time last season. By comparison, Johnson's Chiefs ran it 50.6 percent of the time and threw it 49.4 percent of the time. When Holmes went down with a hip injury, it was Johnson who was left to pick up the slack.
"All you can do is be happy for guys like him." Jackson said. "He waited his time and then made the most of it. That's what I expect to do. It's funny. There are lot of similarities between our stories. We both had to wait behind great players, although I did get in there a year earlier. But it was his third year when he exploded. I expect that to happen for me."
It became so bad last year that Jackson actually taped a message to the coaching staff above his locker. It read: Give me the Damn Ball.
Linehan is smart enough to do just that.
Even though Linehan prefers a wide-open attack, one that features the use of a lot of three-receiver sets, he also loves to run the football in that style of offense. When he was the offensive coordinator of the Minnesota Vikings, his teams always had success running the football, even though they were considered a pass-first team.
In 2002, his first as coordinator of the Vikings, Minnesota led the league in rushing with an average of 156.7 yards per game and a 5.3-per rush average. The Vikings averaged 4.7-per rush or better each of the three years he was the coordinator in Minnesota.
Linehan's approach to running the ball is a bit different than the more conventional grind-it-out styles. He loves to spread a defense out and try and get the explosive plays, those runs of 20 yards or more.
Jackson is perfect for that style. He is big, strong and has the speed to go the distance. When new Rams defensive coordinator
Jim Haslett saw Jackson from behind in his office one day, he thought the Rams had signed a new defensive lineman, which says something about his size.
"It's perfect for me and a lot like what we used at Oregon State when I was in college," Jackson said. "We'll use a lot of one-back sets and have inside and outside zone plays. That's what I like. I'm much more comfortable in this system. It fits me. It's not like they're trying to fit a square peg into a round hole, which is the way I felt with the previous staff."
Anybody who doubts Jackson's ability only needs to pop in the tape from the Rams' upset of the Jacksonville Jaguars last season. He ran 25 times for 179 yards that day, his best total of his career. He appeared to get stronger too, running for 100 yards in the fourth quarter.
Using history as an indicator, it would make sense to give him more carries. In his two seasons, he's had five games with 20 or more carries. In those games, he's averaged 130.6 yards per game and 5.4 per rush.
"I get stronger as the game goes on, the more carries I get," Jackson said. "Those defensive players get tired of hitting 230 pounds coming at them full speed. That's why I'm so excited about this year. There's nothing holding me back. I'm going to get the football."
Thus, the race is on. It's
Steven Jackson against Larry Johnson, his friend.
First one to 2,000 yards wins.
Who's it going to be? Don't bet against Jackson.
That contest him and Larry Johnson are doing will be interesting, Johnson will get it but it'll be fun to watch Jackson next year!
People are more violently opposed to fur than leather because it's safer to harass rich women than motorcycle gangs.
Re: More love for Jackson... (Prisco)
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