The Road Is a Bed of Roses for Rams
Don’t tell the St. Louis Rams they are perfect on the road this season. As far as they’re concerned, there’s at least one more road victory left to get.
The Rams moved to 8-0 on the road with Sunday’s 38-32 victory over the Carolina Panthers, becoming just the sixth team since 1970 to finish the regular season perfect away from home.
Four of those teams won the Super Bowl and St. Louis wants to join them in the record books.
“We’re not going to hang our hat on the fact that we won eight on the road,” said Kurt Warner, the first player in Ram history to throw for 4,000 yards twice. “We want to make sure that we win at least one more on the road. This is a feather in our cap for down the road, but not now.”
The Rams (12-2) have not yet locked up home-field advantage through the playoffs, and the Super Bowl will be held in New Orleans, assuring St. Louis of at least one more road game if it advances that far.
Those objectives tempered any celebrations over the individual milestones set Sunday.
Aside from Warner’s statistics, Marshall Faulk passed the 1,000-yard rushing mark for the fifth consecutive season and Torry Holt went over 1,000 yards receiving for the second year in a row.
“I think the biggest milestone is that we are one game away from winning the division,” St. Louis coach Mike Martz said. “And that is the first and foremost and most important thing. The rest of this stuff just happens as you win.”
The Panthers (1-13) are on their own collision course with the record books, on track to become the first NFL team to lose 15 in a row. Carolina has not won since Week 1 and went winless in the NFC West for the first time.
There were bright spots, though. Rookie quarterback Chris Weinke had a season-high 312 yards passing, and Carolina still had a chance to win at the end.
“This game was a reflection of how we practice,” Weinke said. “We did some great things, which is reiterated every Sunday, but we weren’t able to close the deal.”
The Rams were just too strong. Warner threw for 217 yards and two touchdowns, Faulk ran for 202 yards and two scores and Holt had five catches for 86 yards.
The Rams rolled up 412 yards and Faulk, who ran for 183 in one half against Carolina earlier this year, contributed 252. He also had three catches for 50 yards. “They have a pretty good weapon there with Faulk,” Carolina Coach George Seifert said. “We don’t know how to corral him.”
St. Louis also used some flash, when Carolina botched a field-goal attempt, the ball sailing through holder Todd Sauerbrun’s hands. Dre Bly recovered at the Panther 44, then lateraled to Dexter McCleon, who ran the final 29 yards for a touchdown 41 seconds before halftime.
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Nothing Can Be Finer
Marshall Faulk’s two biggest rushing games this season have come against the Carolina Panthers, accounting for 35% of his yards and half of his running touchdowns:
AGAINST CAROLINA
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Car. Yds Avg. LG TD Nov. 11 (Week 9) 15 183 12.2 71 2 Dec. 23 (Week 15) 30 202 6.7 70 2 2 Games 45 385 8.6 71 4 Average Per Game 27.5 192.5
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AGAINST REST OF NFL
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Car. Yds Avg. LG TD 10 Games 170 711 4.2 28 4 Average Per Ga 17 71.1
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