 IN PRAISE OF MARSHALL FAULK, BY PHANTMJOKR (Jan
11) |
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THE RARER TALENT.
I found it almost funny that there was a little friction in some places on the Warner vs
Faulk debate. The two have had top top seasons at their postion. Faulk has the yards from
scrimmage record and the second 1000 rush/1000 rec season. He could had quite a bit more
yardage too IMHO. Warner is only the second QB with 40 TD passes and the Rams yardage mark
among other things (like the 5th highest QB rating ever). Whatever difference one
would like to find let's all remember that they are slight, very slight actually.
MOHO is that Faulk is the rarer talent. Warner of course is the much better story. THE DIFFERENCE IN THE PLAYOFFS. The great difference between the Rams and all the other NFC playoff contenders is really that the Rams have Faulk and they don't. I say even a great game by Moss could be meaningless because...the Vikes don't have anything close to Marshall Faulk. Vikes. Their secondary is porous and while Robert Smith has his moments he's not shifty for sure and hasn't had one of his better seasons. The Rams D though has been nails against the run. There's your difference in this game. The likelihood that the Vikes are forced to pass almost exclusively becomes the deciding factor between two teams that can light up opposing secondaries. The Rams, despite almost any sort of day by Moss, can match them through the air and then beat them on the ground. Faulk again. Bucs. Well they do have a ground game spread out around several players and they can play terrific defense but again the diference is what Marshall brings to the passing game for the Rams. It is something they haven't faced yet and something they can't match offensively. They have the least effective passing game of the playoff teams. Washington. They better find a defense. The difference still appears that the Rams have a run defense and the Skins will have to stop Faulk. Advantage Rams, again---because of Faulk. . So what do we have? In every scenario the Rams because of their run defense and their ability to us Faulk as runner and receiver win the ground war... and of course Warner only threw 41 TD passes. They can match anyone through the air... TURNOVERS. If the Rams lose we have seen the blueprint. They die in the wake of their own mistakes, most often turnovers. Again look to Faulk who is a high ball security back... Turnovers, unforced mistakes, can be the only undoing of this team and I think we have seen that those things are not the norm for the Rams. Yet we have seen that Warner at times makes himself eligible to be stripped, Hakim trades security for big play ability, and Holt and Holcombe are others who have shown less than steller ball security. One of the good things is that Faulk takes care of the ball. In the Eagle game he had a ball go through his hands on the pass. This pass was thrown to the only open spot but that happened to be in a poor spot for a catch---at the hip as Faulk was going away. He's slipped up on a couple of those but he makes most of them and the turnoevers he does have in comparison to how often he handles the ball leads to a good feeling. |
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