The inevitable is about to get into full swing in St. Louis. Marc Bulger is hurt. Kyle Boller steps in and throws 2 touchdowns in one game. In Bulger's previous two starts the Rams offense managed to dent the end zone only once. The stage is set. A full fledged quarterback controversy should rage all week.

Marc Bulger has been under fire for the last several years. Bulger Bashers have been waiting for another alternative; enter Kyle Boller. I guess I don't see myself getting very excited about this debate one way or the other. In fact I think it will probably bore me before long.

Here's why. Bulger is in decline and Boller has nothing in his past to suggest he'll be any more than pedestrian.

Bulger has a decent track record. You don't have to go that far back to find some pretty good stats. In 2006 Bulger started all 16 games, completing nearly 63 percent of is passes for 43 hundred yards. He threw 24 TD's against only 8 picks for a 92.9% rating. Not bad. The two years prior to that he had similar numbers in partial seasons.

During that same time he took a tremendous beating. From 2003 through 2008 Bulger was sacked 228 times.. an average of 3.5 sacks per game. Gone are playmakers like Bruce and Holt. It is not surprising to see the decline in Bulger's stats when you consider those two factors.

Boller did not play a single down in 2008. He managed an impression 104% rating in 2006. But if you look deeper to see that was in only 5 games.. all in reserve. His best rating besides that is 75%. For his career he has thrown only one more touchdown than interceptions.

Bulger has shown he can get it done with skill players around him and time to throw. I don't think he has enough of either of those now.
Boller adds some scrambling ability, but his passing accuracy is not up to snuff.

It's tough to get excited about either guy. As the Rams rebuild they will have to invest a high pick on a franchise QB.

Brian Barthold

2 Comments

Juan Alvarez said:

I think Marc Bulger is a very good quarterback who would do very well if he had a great front line to protect him. Warner got rid of the ball so fast and had awesome receivers and that was why he was succesful for a while but as the line fell apart he was getting murdered! The interesting thing that I noticed in the last game was how much harder this exact same line played as soon as Boller came in. There was a palpable sense of excitement and everyone in th estands felt it immediately even when he over threw the 1st 2 passes! Is there a personality issue in the huddle that Bulger is missing? Is he as good of a leader as a Warner or a Farve? Clearly no quarterback can be successful here for a long time and I do feel sorry for anyone that gets that job. Furthermore, no one can survive that many blows and not be gun shy.

October 2, 2009 6:05 AM

Ulises said:

Good write up and I agree that there is no QB controversy on the RAMS because they don't have a quality QB that can lead this team to a Division title. Bolger has done the best that he could in his years here with our future Hall of Fame receivers. Boller is quite different than Bolger in what he can do on the field, scrambling, for instance, and get hit/sacked more because he's "new" to that aspect of "our" game. Drafting a well known college QB would, at the very least, keep fans interested and may be that "shot in the arm" that this team needs to be competetive in the league. Surround this new QB with an offensive front line that can protect him and the Rams will be on their way to another great season.

October 2, 2009 1:01 PM

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