Game 7 - St. Louis 34, Cleveland 3

ST. LOUIS (Sun Oct 24 19:30:02 1999) -- If a case of the flu could not stop Marshall Faulk, the Cleveland Browns certainly were not going to.

Faulk, hospitalized Saturday night with the flu, totaled 200 yards from scrimmage as the St. Louis Rams remained the NFL's lone unbeaten team with a 34-3 victory over the winless Browns.

Kurt Warner threw a trio of scoring passes for the Rams, who are 6-0 for the first time since 1985. They are four games ahead of San Francisco and Carolina in the loss column atop the NFC West.

"This is a good football team," Rams coach Dick Vermeil said. "Every time these guys have lined up and played, they have played well. They deserve to be 6-0."

Faulk had 117 yards in the first half, as the Rams built a 21-3 cushion, but saved the play of the game for the start of the fourth quarter as he danced through Cleveland's defense for a 33-yard score.

"This morning, he said he felt real good," Vermeil said. "He said he was ready to go and obviously he was ready to go."

Coming off a career year, the first-year Ram finished the day with 133 yards on 16 carries and 67 yards on nine catches. He was forced to receive fluids intravenously at halftime and left the game after his touchdown.

"I hope I feel a lot better tonight," he said. "I ate this morning for the first time in a day and a half. I just came out and played. I dug deep and had a little more than I thought."

The new Browns finished the game as woozy as Faulk, losing for the seventh straight time to start the season. They have been outscored 181-53 this year.

"It's tough when you're not winning," Browns rookie quarterback Tim Couch said. "You see some improvements but you still come out on the losing end. Being a starting quarterback in this league is tough enough and being a rookie makes it tougher."

Couch, the top pick in the 1999 draft, had the longest run in franchise history -- 40 yards on the final play of the first half -- but threw a pair of interceptions. He completed 22-of-40 passes for 185 yards.

Seldomly pressured, Warner was 23-of-29 for 203 yards before leaving in the fourth quarter. He has an NFL-best 18 TD passes against only three interceptions for St. Louis, which leads the league with 217 points.

"What can you ask? He just keeps doing what he's supposed to do," Vermeil said of Warner, a former Arena League star who became starter in training camp when Trent Green suffered a season-ending knee injury.

The Rams are one win from matching a 7-0 start in 1985. They entered the season 45-99 this decade.

"I was thinking they were pretenders up to this point because I played in the NFC West, but now I see they're for real," said Browns tight end Irv Smith, a former 49er.

St. Louis scored on its first three possessions. Warner flipped a pair of one-yard TDs to tight end Roland Williams around a four-yarder to Isaac Bruce for a 21-3 lead four minutes into the second quarter.

Williams' first score capped an 11-play, 75-yard march on the game's first possession, and Bruce's TD followed a fumbled kick return by rookie Ronnie Powell.

"We dug a hole for ourselves and we were really never able to get out of it," Browns coach Chris Palmer said.

In the second half, Jeff Wilkins kicked field goals of 28 and 36 yards around Faulk's highlight run.

Hospitalized between 11:30 p.m and 6:30 a.m. this morning, Faulk finished a three-play, 73-yard drive. He took the ball up the middle, hesitated across the line of scrimmage and sprinted toward the end zone for the score.

"The guy is special," Warner said. "You can't say anything else about him. It's great to see him out there doing the things he is doing."

The Rams totaled 436 yards of total offense -- 211 on the ground -- to 272 for Cleveland. They held a 15 1/2-minute advantage in time of possession, punted only three times, had no turnovers and committed only four penalties.

"I'm not amazed," Warner said. "The people in this room thought we had the capabalities and we're going out and showing it. It's fun to be a part of it. We have that menatlity -- we can score every time out there as long as we don't stop ourselves."

Williams finished with five catches for 50 yards and Bruce added four for 44, moving into third place on the franchise's all-time receptions list with 344 and sixth with 37 TD grabs.

Couch had 50 of Cleveland's 94 rushing yards and Karim Abdul-Jabbar added 27 on six carries in his first appearance with the Browns. He was acquired from Miami at the trade deadline.

"Offensively, in the first half we had several long drives but didn't come away with any points," Palmer said. "I felt we moved the ball on them better than we were going to be able to."

Rookie Phil Dawson accounted for Cleveland's offense with a 47-yard field goal with 17 seconds left in the first quarter.

NFL FINAL 1ST 2ND 3RD 4TH TOTAL
--- --- --- --- -----
CLEVELAND 3 0 0 0 3
ST LOUIS 14 7 3 10 34 FINAL

SCORING SUMMARY

1ST QUARTER: STL - TD, ROLAND WILLIAMS 1 YD PASS FROM KURT WARNER
(JEFF WILKINS KICK), 6:26. Drive: 11 plays, 75
yards in 6:26. Key plays: Faulk 10-yard run to
midfield; Warner 8-yard pass to Faulk to
Cleveland 38; Faulk 8-yard run to Cleveland 25;
Warner 11-yard pass to Proehl to Cleveland 11;
Warner 13-yard pass to Faulk to Cleveland 1. ST
LOUIS 7-0
STL - TD, ISAAC BRUCE 4 YD PASS FROM KURT WARNER (JEFF
WILKINS KICK), 8:11. Drive: 4 plays, 28 yards
in 1:33. Key plays: Clemens recovery of Powell
fumble at Cleveland 28; Warner 19-yard pass to
R Williams to Cleveland 9. ST LOUIS 14-0
CLE - FG, PHIL DAWSON 47 YD, 14:43. Drive: 13 plays, 51
yards in 6:32. Key plays: Couch 11-yard pass to
I Smith on 3rd-and-10 to Cleveland 31; Couch
17-yard pass to Shepherd on 3rd-and-8 to St
Louis 48; Shepherd 5-yard run on 3rd-and-2 to
St Louis 35. ST LOUIS 14-3
2ND QUARTER: STL - TD, ROLAND WILLIAMS 1 YD PASS FROM KURT WARNER
(JEFF WILKINS KICK), 4:01. Drive: 8 plays, 69
yards in 4:18. Key plays: Warner 18-yard pass
to Bruce to Cleveland 28; 5-yard holding
penalty on Browns' Fuller on 3rd-and-6 for
first down at at Cleveland 19; Warner 15-yard
pass Faulk to Cleveland 1. ST LOUIS 21-3
3RD QUARTER: STL - FG, JEFF WILKINS 28 YD, 11:47. Drive: 7 plays, 45
yards in 3:33. Key plays: Warner 14-yard pass
to Bruce to Cleveland 41; Faulk 18-yard run to
Cleveland 15. ST LOUIS 24-3
4TH QUARTER: STL - TD, MARSHALL FAULK 33 YD RUN (JEFF WILKINS KICK),
0:10. Drive: 4 plays, 73 yards in 1:57. Key
plays: Warner 24-yard pass R Williams to
Cleveland 47; Faulk 14-yard run to Cleveland
33. ST LOUIS 31-3
STL - FG, JEFF WILKINS 36 YD, 10:54. Drive: 11 plays, 60
yards in 5:38. Key plays: Justin 11-yard pass
to Proehl to St. Louis 46; Watson 11-yard run
to Cleveland 43; Justin 12-yard pass to Holt on
3rd-and-4 to Cleveland 25. ST LOUIS 34-3

TEAM STATISTICS

CLE STL
-------- --------
FIRST DOWNS 13 27
Rushing 3 11
Passing 10 15
Penalty 0 1
3RD-DOWN EFFICIENCY 4-14 4-9
4TH-DOWN EFFICIENCY 3-3 0-0
TOTAL NET YARDS 272 436
Total plays 56 65
Average gain 4.9 6.7
NET YARDS RUSHING 94 211
Rushes 15 29
Average per rush 6.3 7.3
NET YARDS PASSING 178 225
Completed-attempted 22-40 27-34
Yards per pass 4.3 6.3
Sacked-yards lost 1-7 2-3
Had intercepted 2 0
PUNTS-AVERAGE 5-48.8 3-52.3
RETURN YARDAGE 153 89
Punts-returns 1-13 3-15
Kickoffs-returns 5-140 2-48
Interceptions-returns 0-0 2-26
PENALTIES-YARDS 6-30 4-29
FUMBLES-LOST 1-1 1-0
TIME OF POSSESSION 23:14 36:46


PLAYER STATISTICS

Missed field goals: None.

Cleveland rushing: Tim Couch 2-50, Terry Kirby 6-12, Leslie Shepherd
1-5, Karim Abdul-jabbar 6-27.

St Louis rushing: Marshall Faulk 16-133, Justin Watson 9-69, Isaac
Bruce 1-6, Torry Holt 1-5, Joe Germaine 2-minus 2.

Cleveland passing: Tim Couch 22-40 for 185 yards, 2 INT, 0 TD.

St Louis passing: Kurt Warner 23-29 for 203 yards, 0 INT, 3 TD, Paul
Justin 4-5 for 25 yards, 0 INT, 0 TD.

Cleveland receiving: Leslie Shepherd 6-85, Terry Kirby 6-18, Kevin
Johnson 3-35, Irv Smith 3-31, Marc Edwards 2-8, Karim Abdul-jabbar
2-8.

St Louis receiving: Marshall Faulk 9-67, Roland Williams 5-50, Ricky
Proehl 5-29, Isaac Bruce 4-44, Torry Holt 2-24, James Hodgins 2-14.

Cleveland tackles-assists-sacks (unofficial): Marquez Pope 10-1-0,
Ryan Mcneil 7-0-0, Wali Ranier 6-1-0, Derrick L Alexander 4-0-0,
Daylon Mccutcheon 4-0-0, Lenoy Jones 3-1-0, Corey Fuller 2-2-0,
Arnold Miller 3-0-1, Jamir Miller 3-0-0, John Jurkovic 3-0-0, Darius
Holland 2-1-0, John Thierry 2-1-0, Rahim Abdullah 2-0-0, Antonio
Langham 1-0-0, Marquis Smith 1-0-0, Roy Barker 1-0-1.

St Louis tackles-assists-sacks (unofficial): London Fletcher 7-2-0,
Dexter Mccleon 5-1-0.5, Todd Lyght 5-1-0, Keith Lyle 4-0-0, Todd
Collins 2-1-0, Jeff Zgonina 2-1-0.5, Billy Jenkins Jr. 2-0-0, Charlie
Clemons 2-0-0, Ray Agnew 2-0-0, D'marco Farr 2-0-0, Taje Allen 2-0-0,
Mike Jones 1-1-0, Devin Bush 1-0-0, Mike Morton 0-1-0.

Interceptions: St Louis (Rich Coady 1 for 11 yards, Todd Lyght 1 for
15 yards).

Fumbles lost: Cleveland (Ronnie Powell).

Opponent's fumbles recovered: St Louis (Charlie Clemons).

Officials: Referee-Walt Coleman, Umpire-Jeff Rice, Head linesman-Dale
Hamer, Line judge-Mark Steinkerchner(84), Field judge-Bob Mcgrath,
Side judge-Neely Dunn, Back judge-Bob Lawing.

A: 65,866; T: 2:50.

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