Ramblin’ Fans’ Elite Statistics: Five 5-Star Players From Sunday

For starters, Happy New Years to all of Rams Nations and beyond. This coming year could likely be the turning point in St. Louis Rams history, with a perfect combination of youth, veteran leadership, top tier coaching, and premium draft choices to build on for the future. Still, we at Ramblin’ Fan are not quite ready to let the 2012 season go.  Instead of “silver linings,” we are going to drop some numbers from Week 17 that you might not have been able to tell with blind eye. We’ll call it, Ramblin’ Fans’ Elite Statistics…

1. Chris Long was one of four players on Sunday to record 3 sacks. However, he led all lineman with 5 hurries, on top of the sacks, categorizing him as the best defensive line pass rusher in Week 17.

2. According to Pro Football Focus, Rodger Saffold graded out as the third best offensive tackle on Sunday, at least in terms of pass blocking. Saffold allowed zero sacks and zero hurries, and only one hit on Bradford in 68 offensive snaps.

3. By the same measure, Rob Turner graded out as one of the Top 25 guards in the league, again, similarly allowing no sacks or hurries, and a single hit on the quarterback. Aside from the offsides penalty, Turner was one of the best guards in the league on Sunday, which should make the talk to the St. Louis Rams drafting Chance Warmack more interesting.

4. If you thought you didn’t hear Janoris Jenkins name much on Sunday, you weren’t just imagining things. Of the 53 cornerbacks in the NFL that played, at least, 60% of the defensive snaps, Janoris Jenkins was the only player that was not targeted once. Soak that in for a moment… Not one single time did Russell Wilson throw in Jenkins direction! They always say that for corners in the league, the best ones can go the entire game without hearing their name called. Wilson gave Jenkins no chance to break the rookie interceptions returned for a touchdown mark on Sunday. Or maybe, Jenkins is truly beginning to show his “shutdown” potential.

5. Steven Jackson averaged 4.7 yards per attempt on Sunday, which is the 9th time this season that he has surpassed the 4.0 mark. With that, Jackson finished the season with a 4.1 yards per attempt average throughout the entire year. That is the eighth time in Jackson’s career that he has averaged above 4.0 yards per rush, which coincidentally comes in the same season he surpassed the 1,000 yard for the eight consecutive season.