Bruce shows he still can deliver

~ The veteran receiver cracked 100 yards for the 40th time Sunday.

ST. LOUIS -- Isaac Bruce, the longest-tenured St. Louis Rams player, showed Sunday there is plenty of life left in the 33-year-old receiver.

Bruce, the only remaining Rams player who was with the team in Los Angeles, gave Detroit cornerback Jamar Fletcher fits while hauling in seven passes for 100 yards -- the 40th 100-yard receiving game in his career.

Bruce also caught his first touchdown pass of the season, the game-winner in a wild 41-34 victory over the Lions. With 1:56 left to play, he hauled in a 5-yard pass from Marc Bulger to put the Rams ahead 49-34, then caught the two-point conversion pass for a seven-point lead.

"I think it was a good time for the first one," Bruce said of his TD reception. "It was one of those pick, nonpick plays that we've picked up from the Celtics from back in the day."

Bruce moved into ninth place on the NFL's all-time receptions list. He passed Larry Centers and now has 833 catches, while the scoring strike gave him 78 career touchdown catches. Two more will move him past Harold Carmichael and Hall of Famer Charley Taylor.

But numbers don't motivate Bruce, the Rams' all-time leading receiver. He says he doesn't care about his own accomplishments, just wins and losses.

"It was good to be on the winning side," Bruce said.

Others are not so shy about singing his praises.

"He makes those important catches when he has to," Rams quarterback Marc Bulger said. "He's one of those guys who can be quiet and you won't hear from him, and later when the game is on the line or if I tell him to give me a little extra, he's the guy who can step it up. That's why he is a Hall of Fame guy."

Torry Holt, who lines up on the other side of Bruce, typically draws the top cornerback in coverage. Dre Bly matched up with Holt while Jamar Fletcher drew Bruce. The Rams took advantage of that mismatch.

The offense hadn't scored 20 points in any of its first three games, but that changed Sunday. In addition Bruce's performance, Holt caught six passes for 102 yards and a touchdown.

"Eight years now, we showed what we can do," Holt said. "We were rolling and flowing. We feed off each other. Today, they put Dre, their best corner on me, and he caused some problems there in the early part of the game. They had their third-best corner on Isaac.

"Isaac has been terrorizing No. 1 corners for years. We felt that was a matchup that we could exploit. Obviously, Isaac came up with his ability to make plays and with his professionalism, he dominated that game."