Good evening…

Retired Rams RB Marshall Faulk, an analyst for the NFL Network, was a Tuesday afternoon guest of the “Fox Hole” radio show hosted by Martin Kilcoyne and Maurice Drummond on Team 1380 AM.    www.team1380.net 

Faulk, the future Hall of Famer, had a lot of strong things to say about the sorry state of the Rams and their season-opening 38-3 loss at Philadelphia.

With a big thank you to Team 1380 producer Ben Boyd, who recorded and transcribed the interview, here are some excerpts of Faulk’s most notable comments…

Faulk suggested that the Rams should be better than they are:

“Decisions have to be made. Do you blow it up, where do you go, what do you do? I mean, players that have had big time success, we’re talking Pro Bowl caliber players: Marc Bulger, Torry Holt, Orlando Pace, Steven Jackson. They look like they don’t belong in the league. And it’s not because they can’t play. You’re not going to tell me that. I’m not believing that they all of a sudden can’t play in this league.”

Faulk contrasting the Bears’ upset of Indianapolis to the Rams’ poor play:

“You’re not going to tell me that the (Bears) offense that they put out there is more talented than the offense that the Rams put out. It’s preparation, it’s understanding what you have; it’s having guys that are reliable.”

Faulk, on the Rams’ decision to release WR Isaac Bruce to open a starting job for Drew Bennett:

“I’m sorry, I’m a little biased to Isaac Bruce. I love Isaac Bruce, and I’ll let facts be known that there’s no way — and I don’t dislike Drew Bennett — but there is no way that this guy is better than Isaac or belongs or should be on that team instead of Isaac. It’s things like that, it’s misjudgment of talent. The guy’s been hurt. He’s often hurt. No knock on him personally, but they needed (Bruce). They could have used him (Sunday).”

Faulk on Steven Jackson:

“I said this earlier in the year, and I think people took it wrong, because I heard a couple comments. I said the Rams shouldn’t pay Steven Jackson. I don’t understand why they’re going to pay him. And I think people took it, like, maybe Steven’s not good or not dynamic. When you can’t block, and when you can’t sack the quarterback and stop the run, there’s no need to have a running back like this. There’s no need to pay him what you’re going to pay him–you’re not going to get to use him. What was he, like, 11 (actually 14 carries) for 40 yards? That’s a lot of money sitting in the backfield, and not have it or be able to use it, or you fall behind by 20 points. Now he’s definitely out of the game. And his effectiveness and what you love about him and what you’re paying him for is no longer necessary. I only forecasted that the Rams would be playing from behind, and people thought I was taking a jab at Steven–it had nothing to do with Steven; it had more to do with the team.”

Faulk on Rams defensive coordinator Jim Haslett:

“I love Jim. I used to find his defenses to be the most complicated to play against. And now I look back and I say even at (age) 35 with a bum knee I might go for maybe a hundred yards rushing and another hundred receiving right now,” against the Rams defense.

 Faulk continued talking about Haslett:

“I like Jim. I’ve always thought highly of him. And I don’t know, maybe he’s upset of the old Rams-Saints days and he’s throwing games or whatever. Some of the things I saw happening out there the other day, I wonder when he sat in his office yesterday morning, what was his mindset? Was he thinking, ‘I need to change it up.’ Was he thinking, ‘my players screwed it up.’ Or was he thinking that he messed it up. Because one of the three things happened, or needs to happen.”

(Note: I think Faulk was joking about Haslett throwing games).

 Faulk said Rams coaches should avoid showing the players the game film from Philadelphia:

“I went through a rough patch like this with the Colts, and coaches often don’t even want to look at the film. You don’t want guys to look at the film because it can be so bad that when players notice that it’s that bad, it’s hard to recover from. So I’m hoping that he didn’t allow them to watch the film, the coaches watched it and they go out there and try to make corrections and try to get guys to move forward from the debacle that happened. Something like that can linger though out a whole season just like last year with the Dolphins. It’s tough to get over losses like that.”

If you’d like to listen to an audio of the entire Faulk interview, it is posted at Ben Boyd’s web site, www.STLsportsInsider.com

OK, a quick postscript from me on this: 

* I know for a fact that Faulk wants to step in and do what he can to turn the Rams around … he is willing to come back as a personnel executive or possibly even as a head coach … but he will not do so as long as Scott Linehan is the coach. And he probably would stay away as long as Jay Zygmunt is the GM. Faulk has told me that he likes Zygmunt personally but isn’t sure how a working relationship would go.

* Faulk has a good rapport with Rams managing partner Chip Rosenbloom and Rams president John Shaw.

* I believe Marshall is being a little disingenuous about the Steven Jackson stuff. I don’t think he has a lot of love for Jackson. I don’t think Jackson has a lot of love for Marshall; let’s just be honest about this. And I know Faulk wants to see how Jackson competes after signing the big contract.

* Faulk has intense feelings about the Rams and is saddened and frustrated by their demise … after having the best and most successful years of his career in St. Louis, he is disgusted by the decline of the franchise, which he blames on many years of terrible mistakes made on personnel decisions. It kills him inside when he hears the Rams being the butt of jokes with analysts at the NFL Network, or elsewhere on TV. Some critics will say that Faulk should hold his comments instead of speaking up and possibly creating controversy … I disagree. He’s like anyone else who loves the Rams. He’s mad as Hell. And it’s hard to keep those feelings bottled up.

This won’t be the last time we’ll hear from Faulk this season …

-B