RENTON — Steven Jackson was simply answering a question about his starting quarterback being injured, but his words summed up an unfortunate reality for the St. Louis Rams.
“It’s not me shouldering the load, it’s the whole team,” the Rams’ running back said. “One person can’t win the game.”
Oh how the Rams wished that weren’t true.
Because if one person could win games, Jackson surely would have led St. Louis to a much better record than 1-8.
In his sixth NFL season, the Pro Bowl running back from Oregon State is enjoying perhaps his best season, yet the Rams remain one of the NFL’s worst teams. He is on pace to rush for a career-high 1,650 yards this season, and his per-carry average (4.8) is the best it has been since he became a starter in his second season. Jackson is also on pace to add 370 receiving yards, which would give him over 2,000 total yards for the second time in his career.
And still, the Rams are among the bottom feeders in the NFL.
Instead of having a great year on a great team, Jackson’s 2009 season will be mentioned in discussions of players who had great seasons on terrible teams. That’s something Seahawks fans should know a little bit about. Take, for example, the 1992 season of defensive tackle Cortez Kennedy. Kennedy piled up 14 sacks and was named the NFL’s defensive player of the year, but Seattle finished 2-14.
Jackson, meanwhile, is the second-leading rusher in the league this year, but that’s hardly a consolation for him.
“It’s not really why I play the game — for individual stats,” he said. “I would like to lead this team to a playoff berth hopefully, in the future, and a deep playoff run, and hopefully to the Super Bowl, but right now, they’re calling on me to be a leader and I’m just trying to lead the young troops.”
Those young troops will need Jackson this week. In the earlier meeting between Seattle and St. Louis, Jackson was held to 67 yards, his second-lowest total this season. Both he and the Rams have shown signs of improvement of late. St. Louis gave a scare to Arizona last week and New Orleans a week earlier, and those games followed the Rams’ only win of the season. In his last four games, Jackson has piled up 530 yards and averaged 5.6 yards per carry.
“He’s one of the only backs that has every advantage going his way as far as size, strength, speed, agility, cutback ability,” Seahawks defensive tackle Colin Cole said. “He has the total package. It’s rare that you can find somebody that is so big and so strong that can still move as well as he can.”
What’s most amazing about Jackson’s success this season is that he’s doing it despite being the focus of every opposing team. The Rams started the season young at receiver and have only gotten younger. Starting quarterback Marc Bulger has battled injuries, making it even easier for opposing defenses to focus on the run. Yet Jackson keeps getting his yards.
“He is a bull,” Seahawks coach Jim Mora said. “I mean, he’s really a tenacious runner. He’s a big, powerful, physical, motivated man. And he runs through arm tackles. If you’re not properly gapped out and he gets to that second level, he’s tough to get down. There’s not a lot of defensive backs that want to head him up. He’s just a darn good football player.”
Unfortunately for Jackson and the Rams, one “darn good football player” isn’t enough.
Herald Writer John Boyle: jboyle@heraldnet.com. For more Seahawks coverage, check out the Seahawks blog at heraldnet.com/seahawksblog
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