Despite knee injury, Jackson expects to play against Jets

ST. LOUIS -- Steven Jackson is looking forward to an encore for his career-best 148-yard game in the St. Louis Rams' regular-season finale, despite a right knee that has a partially torn ligament in addition to a bruise.

"I'm hoping I can do the same thing I did on Monday night," Jackson said Thursday. "Coming off a game like that, kind of hot, you want to get out there and see if you have the same things going for you."

But Rams coach Mike Martz said Marshall Faulk again would start on Sunday against the Jets (10-5) in a game that carries playoff implications for both teams. Faulk and Jackson were together in the backfield on the second play of a 20-7 victory Monday over the Eagles, and the pair combined for 202 yards on 41 carries.

Faulk has 759 yards rushing and a 4.0-yard average. Jackson, the first running back taken in this year's draft, has 644 yards and a 5.2-yard average. Faulk's streak of receptions ended at 158 games in the Eagles game.

"It kind of tickles me in some respect that people were always on me about making sure Marshall got the ball," Martz said. "Now we don't want Marshall to have the ball, we want Steven to have the ball. I understand that, but Marshall is a good player, and he's going to start and continue to do the things we always do."

Jackson was injured in the fourth quarter. An MRI exam the following day showed just a bruise with limited swelling.

When Jackson first injured the knee three weeks ago, a considerable amount of fluid was drained the next day.

"It shocked him," Martz said. "I think it scared him more than anything else because of the way it happened, but it's just a superficial bruise, really."

The slightly torn medial collateral ligament is an injury that will not require surgery, just rest. A complete tear would sideline a player for about a month. That might may be why Jackson did not see any action two weeks ago in a loss at Arizona.

"Who knows?" Jackson said. "Maybe they were trying to look for the betterment of my knee. It's unfortunate I didn't get to play, but it gave me a chance to do my thing on Monday night."

As the game progressed, he said the knee worsened.

"It's one of those things where I was trying to play through it and just have the mind-set to fight through it," Jackson said. "You've got to play through pain at this level. But it's something that as the carries kept coming it became a little overwhelming."