Coordinator passes credit along

By Peter May, Globe Staff, 2/1/2002

EW ORLEANS - The coordinator of the No. 1 offense in professional football would like to set the record straight: He's not the one responsible for this scoring machine.

''I'm the offensive coordinator by title only,'' said the Rams' Bobby Jackson.

He is, indeed, listed as the offensive coordinator of the prolific Rams. He's also listed as the associate head coach and running backs coach.

But the man who really runs the Rams' offense is coach Mike Martz. In Jackson's eyes, Martz is the real offensive coordinator and Jackson is there to help in any way he can. It's kind of like being Oprah Winfrey's nutritionist.

There have been plenty of similar relationships over the years in the NFL because the head coach invariably is a specialist in either offense or defense. Bill Belichick is a defensive guy. Mike Martz is an offensive guy.

''My job is to help make Mike's job easier,'' Jackson said. ''I help with the game planning but Mike calls the plays and it's really his offense. He's the chief. What I do is round up the guys, do some of the walkthrough stuff. Anything that can help Mike.

''I've got a good job in that we have so many good players and Mike is such an offensive mind that it is really exciting.''

Jackson is a veteran NFL assistant. This is his 19th year, and the Rams are his fifth professional team. In his other four NFL stops, he coached running backs. He also has extensive coaching experience on the other side of the ball at the college level. He was defensive coordinator at the University of Tennessee from 1980-82 as well as for two years each at Kansas State and Louisville in the 1970s.

He and Martz coached together with the Redskins for two years, 1997 and 1998. The following year, Martz moved to St. Louis to take over as Dick Vermeil's offensive coordinator and the Rams won the Super Bowl. Martz was promoted to head coach in 2000 and he called Jackson to take over his old role.

''Mike had come out of this offense in Washington with Norv Turner and us,'' Jackson said. ''He brought me in and it was an easy fit for me because I was sliding into the offense Mike had just slid out of.''

They are all Ernie Zampese disciples. Jackson said in every one of his pro stops - Atlanta, Washington, San Diego, Arizona, and St. Louis - there has been one constant: the Zampese-designed offense.

''Mike has taken it to another level with the passing game in particular and with the four receivers,'' Jackson said. ''But it's the basic Zampese system. The running game is basically the same everywhere I've been over the last 19 years.''

This year St. Louis led the NFL in points, first downs, third-down conversion percentage, total offense, yards per play, and basically anything else that involves moving the chains. Since Martz arrived in 1999, the Rams have scored 30 or more points in 35 games, winning 30 of them.

''Our offense? There's nothing I don't like about our offense,'' Jackson said. ''We've got an outstanding offensive line, and what we try to do is take whatever you give us. If you want to try to cover the pass and drop a lot of people off, we'll run it like we did last week with Marshall [Faulk] getting 159 yards. If you want to stop the run, then we feel like if we execute, we can throw the ball and we will take that.''

He's not bragging. He's just stating the obvious.

''We have the ability and the physical talent to do it either way.''