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We all Man Crush.
It can be a musician, actor, or athlete...but we all have them whether we admit to it or not. Even if you're not a man. Me? I frequently man crush over NFL players.
I'm not talking about looks. I'm talking about talent and production. I'm talking about performances that make you take notice. I'm talking about Robert Quinn bursting onto the scene with 3 sacks in Week 1 last year. Or Peyton Manning's insane performance that same week. Or Lesean McCoy making the the Lions look silly Week 13 last year.
Unfortunately, the Rams were on the wrong side of one of those performances yesterday. Cordarelle Patterson confounded Gregg Williams' defense yesterday. Simply put, the Rams couldn't contain him. It's hard NOT to be man crushing on Patterson right now... I know I am, and I'm wondering if these guys are too. The Rams weren't the only team to pass on Patterson in last year's draft (he was drafted 29th), so it's hard to justify giving them a hard time about it.
There is another WR that I'm crushing on more than Patterson at the moment, and he just might save the skin of this regime. If you've read some of my prior stuff, you know that I've been driving the Brian Quick bandwagon pretty much since he was drafted. What better way to launch my pet project than with my biggest man crush on the Rams?
I've always loved his talent, but his production has frankly sucked. He has tantalized in the past, but seemed to lack what it took to put it all together on Sundays. After Bradford went down again (sniff), I thought that might be the beginning of the end of my massive man crush. However, Quick showed yesterday that even with a QB situation in flux yesterday, he was the best WR on the field for the Rams.
I crunched some numbers... and was surprised to find that Quick accounted for nearly as much of the Rams offense (31%) as Patterson did for the Vikes (37%). And personally, since more than half of Patterson's yards came on one (electric) play, I'd prefer Quick's quiet consistency.
We have all been pulling for the Rams to acquire a "True #1 WR" ever since Torry Holt left us after the 2008 season. It's unfortunate that Quick was overshadowed by Patterson as he asserted himself the answer to that dilemma. I understand it's only one game, but it was a performance that showed Quick is finally turning that corner that eluded him last season.