Karraker: Putting the 3 game win streak in perspective

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Randy Karraker
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[wrapimg=left]http://www.101sports.com/images/authors/medium/rkarraker.jpg[/wrapimg]The Rams have won three games in a row for the first time in 93 games, the longest such streak in the NFL. The last time the Rams had won three in a row Scott Linehan was completing his first season as head coach in 2006. The capper of that streak, a 41-21 win at Minnesota on December 31, saw Steven Jackson score four touchdowns and rush for 142 yards. The mop-up quarterback for the Rams at the end of that game was second year pro Ryan Fitzpatrick.

Fitz, now the Bills’ quarterback, was under siege on Sunday, being sacked five times by the Rams’ defense and hit numerous other times. And with their dramatic last minute touchdown, the Rams improved to 6-6-1 on the season.

Between three game winning streaks, St. Louis employed four head coaches; Linehan, Jim Haslett, Steve Spagnuolo and Jeff Fisher. That ’06 offense was coordinated by Greg Olson. Linehan took over those duties in 2007, and then hired Al Saunders in 2008. Pat Shurmur ran the offense under Spagnuolo in 2009-10, Josh McDaniels in 2011 and Brian Schottenheimer this year.

Since the Rams’ last three game winning streak, the Giants have beaten the Patriots in the Super Bowl. Twice. The Steelers won their sixth Super Bowl, the Saints won their first, and the Colts won their second…but first as a team based in Indianapolis.

Before Sunday, the last time the Rams completed a trifecta of wins came with George W. Bush still having more than two years left on his second term as President. Four days after the Rams last third consecutive win, a young senator from Illinois named Barack Obama would celebrate two years in the Senate.

Since December 31, 2006, Randy Moss retired and came back. Brett Favre retired and came back three times, before retiring for good and making four a charm. The Rams “Greatest Show on Turf” nucleus of Kurt Warner, Isaac Bruce, Torry Holt and Orland Pace all played for teams other than the Rams before retiring…Bruce and Holt doing so as members of the Rams.

Not only did the Saints win a Super Bowl, but they were nailed for a bounty scandal. Indianapolis won their championship, had their coach Tony Dungy retire, fired his successor Jim Caldwell, watched Peyton Manning miss a full season with a neck injury and leave for Denver, drafted a new franchise quarterback, and pretty much made their way to the playoffs with that guy, Andrew Luck.

The last time the Rams won three in a row, Twitter had been introduced to the public five months before, and in the interim attracted 140 million users who tweet 340 million times a day.

Here in St. Louis during the drought, The Cardinals failed to defend their 2006 World Championship, but won their eleventh title five years later. The Blues worked their way back from a season long NHL lockout to post the second best record in the NHL…and got locked out again.

Michael Brockers, who turned sixteen years old ten days before the Rams last three game winning streak, turned seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty and twenty-one, completed a career at LSU and became the Rams first round draft choice.

In that game in Minnesota that capped the Rams last three game winning streak, Tye Hill and the rest of the Rams surviving draft class…Joe Klopfenstein, Claude Wroten, Dominique Byrd, Victor Adeyanju, Marques Hagens, Tim McGarigle and Mark Setterstrom…completed their rookie years. Soon after, they completed their careers. Two players from the class that was picked four months later remain in the NFL, Adam Carriker, on IR with Washington, and Brian Leonard, a backup running back in Cincinnati.

Since the Rams last three game winning streak, Mizzou’s football team went to their first two Big XII championship games, then missed two, and ultimately moved to the SEC. Between Rams three game winning streaks, the Tigers had fourteen players drafted, including first round picks Jeremy Maclin, Ziggy Hood, Sean Weatherspoon, Aldon Smith and Blaine Gabbert.

The metronome, like the consistency of Rams futility, is gone after the win in Buffalo.

Even though it seems the Rams are leaving their futility in the rear view mirror, the Cubs are up to 104 years without a World Series win. It’s nice to know we can count on something.