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Who are your favorite rams running backs? Faulk can do it all, Dickerson was an excellent pure runner with good moves and bettis was a powerful and deceptively quick bruiser. Any thoughts?
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The Breakfast Club. You want cheese with that? -
Lawrence McCutcheon. He had some great years as a Ram. -
Ram runners...
Probably Eric Dickerson as a Ram (not as a Colt or a Raider). He was so fast and swift! Very different vertical approach at 6'-3" than the stockier 5-10, 5-11 running backs like the bruisers, Bettis, Charles White, Lawrence McCuthcheon, Dick Bass, etc.
Different backs, purposes and yard gainers. Marshall Faulk, an overachiever due to his natural power and the skills to make so many plays work successfully. Then you have Robert Holcomb and James Hodgins, powerful plowing players that work great either as blockers, decoys or secondary receivers.
Today's halfbacks and fullbacks are more sophisticated, I think. That's where a Marshall Faulk really stands out. Finesse, moves and speed. It used to be they were more of a meat-n-potatoes position; not too many fancy formats (except, maybe, for the screen). Now there are so many optionals and variables that come even from college teams.
Very good thread, thanks! :cool:
And ...GO MARSHALL! GO RAMS!!!Comment
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Hello all, i just wanted to take a moment to recognize Marshall, Marshall, Marshall, who i believe to be the greatest ram ever to wear the horns.
Can anyone else name a rams player who was widely considered at any given time to be the very best football player in the league, regardless of his position?
While i acknowledge that injuries and age have slown marshall down and he is no longer at the supreme peak of his game, his talent is still remarkable. I am amazed at the number of fans that consider him finished as a major force in the nfl. I wish those people would watch a tape of the carolina playoff game before they draw any gloom and doom conclusions about faulk's current abilities.
One of the critical areas in which bulger needs to improve this year is checking off to faulk when his downfield options are not available. If you look at the rams losses since 1999, i think you will find one common element in almost every case- failure to get the ball into faulks hands enough. The loss of hodgins has clearly hurt faulk on the running side, as well as the deterioration in the blocking at the tight end spot. Both are areas that we hope to improve on this year.
While i am sad over the departure this week of captain kurt, i will repeat my mantra regarding the championship season. Taking nothing away from warner who i will always love, if trent green doesnt get hurt in preseason, we might have won it all anyway. We will never know. But if the front office doesnt make one of the most one sided trades in the history of the nfl by trading a #2 and a #5 for faulk, we never win that title.
Kudos to Marshall Faulk, the most talented and skilled player in the history of the organization. Not necessarily the most loveable (although he is my personal favorite), but simply the best. Lets hope that the presence of stephen jackson will prolong faulks career as a ram and allow him, health permitting, to give us another three good years, with appropriately adjusted cap numbers to reflect his changing role. Faulk HAS to go into the Hall as a ram, and his number has to go into the Ring of Fame.
ramming speed to all,
general counsel-05-30-2004, 01:00 PM -
We stink, but faulk was terrific again today. i would love to know what he was doing on the bench with arlen harris in the game for the last drive. our play calling is an abomination. our running game was as effective as its been all year and all of a sudden fairchild is throwing repeatedly on first down.
tough tough year. EIGHT false starts. we blitz over and over and despite the fact that the eagles have ONE starting lineman we only got there a few times.
ramming speed to all
general counsel-12-18-2005, 02:04 PM -
I dont have it in me yet to post all of my feelings on marshall faulks retirement. I have written more about faulk on this board over the last three years than any other poster. I believe that he is a dramatically underated player, even by many in st louis and even by many on this board.
For now, i put forth two thoughts and would love to see anyone debate me on them.
1) Faulk is the greatest player in the history of the franchise because he is the only player ever to play for the rams who was the greatest player in the entire nfl, regardless of position, and i believe that was true for a full three year stretch (99-01). The only other possibilities were bob waterfield in 1945 and possibly johnny drake or parker hall in the late 30's. I dont believe that kurt warner ever reached that level. Warner was the mvp of the league, but not of his team. The bias in favor of white qb's over black running backs is long evident in mvp voting, but lets put it this way. On a crappy team without an offensive line and all of those weapons, warner may still have been effective, but no where near his level during the gsot, whereas faulk was a superstar for some very average/lousy colts teams.
2) If Trent Green doesnt get hurt, the GSOT might not have lost a beat. I am taking nothing away from warner who was the best qb in the nfl for a period of time, but green was poised for a monster season when he got hurt. He had the arm, the accuracy and the leadership. I think you could make the case that green might have won superbowl 34 anyway. I am not saying that he would have, only that it was a distinct possibility. At the minimum, the rams offense would have been very very prolific with green at the helm. However, if the rams dont trade a 2 and a 5 for marshall faulk, there is no way in the world that the rams win one superbowl and come within a play or two of winning another one. Just no way in the world.
ramming speed to all
general counsel-03-27-2007, 09:39 AM -
I was perusing through a few statistics and noticed something. The league leader in yards from scrimmage (YFS) this year was our own Steven Jackson. On the last day of the season he managed to edge out LT by 11 yards. As well, this performance by Jackson ranks 5th all-time for the best season YFS.
When looking at the all-time list of top YFS season's, I couldn't help but notice that 10 of the top 11 were notched in the past decade. Marcus Allen's '85 season (7th all-time) stood alone as the only pre-'97 effort in the top 11.
So what has happened in the past decade that has blown up the YFS of RBs into astronomical performances? I believe it can be narrowed down to Marshall Faulk. This was the time period when Faulk changed the definition of a RB. No longer did the RB run, and the WR receive. Now, the RB had to do both. Once Faulk came into his own in Indy, and then exploded in the GSOT, it was no longer adequate for a top tier RB to notch 20, 30, or 40 catches per year. That was now obsolete, and too one-dimensional. Faulk introduced the era of RBs with 60, 70, and 80 catch seasons.
Now, all the top RBs have to reach to numbers close to Faulk to be considered at the top of their game. If you look at this year's top 6 YFS efforts, only Larry Johnson had fewer than 55 receptions, and he had to set the Rushing Attempt record to do it!
Whether Faulk is done or not, I don't know. But either way, in his time, he changed what it meant to be a Running Back.-01-04-2007, 06:21 AM -
Name......Years..rushes...yards...catches..cyards....tyards...TotalTD's
Eric Dickerson 5....1525....7245........123......912......8157...56
Marshall Faulk 7....1447....6959........470....4071....10030...85
Steven Jackson 6...1548....6707........281....2287.....8994...48
There are the numbers, but numbers don't always tell the tale. Who do you think was the best and why?-06-01-2010, 04:00 AM
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