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http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/10/25/week-eight-three-and-out/
Week Eight “Three and Out”
Posted by Mike Florio on October 25, 2014
Rams at Chiefs
1. What have they done with Zac Stacy?
Stacy started the year as the starting running back in St. Louis. But with Benny Cunningham performing well and rookie Tre Mason making a bit of a splash, Stacy participated in only one play during last Sunday’s win over the Seahawks. And he didn’t touch the ball at all.
“It was just a weird situation,” Stacy said this week. “Right now, we’re doing a rotation with me, Tre, and Benny — and we’re going with the hot hand. I’m just staying positive, I’ll keep working, and whenever my opportunity is called just take advantage of it.”
For the year, Stacy remains the leading rusher, with 240 yards. Cunningham has 136 and Mason has 125. But Mason had 85 against the Seahawks, which qualifies him as having the hottest hand, as of right now.
2. Is Austin Davis the next Tom Brady or Kurt Warner?
Brady? No. Warner? Probably no.
The comparison came from Brett Favre, who emerges via satellite from Mississippi with the frequency of Punxsutawney Phil to spout off a wide variety of opinions about a sport that he doesn’t follow very closely. His point was that Davis, who became “the guy” in St. Louis after the first “the guy” looked awful in Week One while trying to replace “the guy” with the torn ACL. The biggest comparison to Warner is that Shaun Hill was supposed to be Warner, 15 years after a preseason ACL tear for Trent Green opened the door for the former Arena League grocery-bagger.
Davis doesn’t have the same compelling back story as Warner. Sure, Davis was a walk-on at Southern Miss and became the starter as a redshirt freshman and set 15 school game and single-season records (breaking some of Favre’s records) and eventually broke most if not all of Favre’s school records and went undrafted in 2012 and bounced around the league a little before returning to St. Louis for good (for now) when Sam Bradford tore his ACL for the first time last October.
It’s an intriguing tale, but the Rams are still 2-4. They’ll need more than multiple special-teams tricks and gimmicks to get into the playoff hunt, and Davis has a long way to go until he’s lighting things up the way Brady and Warner did en route to Super Bowl titles in seasons they found themselves unexpectedly under center.
3. Is Alex Smith reflecting much on his most recent game against the Rams?
He says he’s not. But how can’t he be? It was a concussion in November 2012 against St. Louis that opened the door for Colin Kaepernick and closed the book on Smith’s career in San Francisco.
“I haven’t given it that much thought,” Smith said this week. “Certainly I recognize when we go over the personnel, some of these guys. I remember the game. I remember it well. But I haven’t really thought about the what-ifs.”
There’s no way of knowing whether Smith would still be the starter in San Francisco but for that concussion. The 49ers presumably didn’t trade up in the second round of the 2011 draft for a guy they planned to park on the bench for four years. Still, that Rams game from nearly two years ago provided the impetus for change, and Smith’s new surroundings have him facing the Rams for the first time with his new team.
Week Eight “Three and Out”
Posted by Mike Florio on October 25, 2014
Rams at Chiefs
1. What have they done with Zac Stacy?
Stacy started the year as the starting running back in St. Louis. But with Benny Cunningham performing well and rookie Tre Mason making a bit of a splash, Stacy participated in only one play during last Sunday’s win over the Seahawks. And he didn’t touch the ball at all.
“It was just a weird situation,” Stacy said this week. “Right now, we’re doing a rotation with me, Tre, and Benny — and we’re going with the hot hand. I’m just staying positive, I’ll keep working, and whenever my opportunity is called just take advantage of it.”
For the year, Stacy remains the leading rusher, with 240 yards. Cunningham has 136 and Mason has 125. But Mason had 85 against the Seahawks, which qualifies him as having the hottest hand, as of right now.
2. Is Austin Davis the next Tom Brady or Kurt Warner?
Brady? No. Warner? Probably no.
The comparison came from Brett Favre, who emerges via satellite from Mississippi with the frequency of Punxsutawney Phil to spout off a wide variety of opinions about a sport that he doesn’t follow very closely. His point was that Davis, who became “the guy” in St. Louis after the first “the guy” looked awful in Week One while trying to replace “the guy” with the torn ACL. The biggest comparison to Warner is that Shaun Hill was supposed to be Warner, 15 years after a preseason ACL tear for Trent Green opened the door for the former Arena League grocery-bagger.
Davis doesn’t have the same compelling back story as Warner. Sure, Davis was a walk-on at Southern Miss and became the starter as a redshirt freshman and set 15 school game and single-season records (breaking some of Favre’s records) and eventually broke most if not all of Favre’s school records and went undrafted in 2012 and bounced around the league a little before returning to St. Louis for good (for now) when Sam Bradford tore his ACL for the first time last October.
It’s an intriguing tale, but the Rams are still 2-4. They’ll need more than multiple special-teams tricks and gimmicks to get into the playoff hunt, and Davis has a long way to go until he’s lighting things up the way Brady and Warner did en route to Super Bowl titles in seasons they found themselves unexpectedly under center.
3. Is Alex Smith reflecting much on his most recent game against the Rams?
He says he’s not. But how can’t he be? It was a concussion in November 2012 against St. Louis that opened the door for Colin Kaepernick and closed the book on Smith’s career in San Francisco.
“I haven’t given it that much thought,” Smith said this week. “Certainly I recognize when we go over the personnel, some of these guys. I remember the game. I remember it well. But I haven’t really thought about the what-ifs.”
There’s no way of knowing whether Smith would still be the starter in San Francisco but for that concussion. The 49ers presumably didn’t trade up in the second round of the 2011 draft for a guy they planned to park on the bench for four years. Still, that Rams game from nearly two years ago provided the impetus for change, and Smith’s new surroundings have him facing the Rams for the first time with his new team.