The 1999 St. Louis Rams: The greatest offense in NFL history
Why the ‘99 St. Louis Rams is considered to have had the best offense of all time
They were known as the “Greatest Show on Turf” and their offense is considered the greatest in National Football League history.
Of course, we’re talking about the 1999 St. Louis Rams. They were electric and fun and marched their way to Super Bowl 34 in one of the greatest games ever played.
The 1999 St. Louis Rams were led by Pro Football Hall of Famers Kurt Warner, Isaac Bruce and Marshall Faulk. They also had Hall of Famer Orlando Pace and College Hall of Famer Torry Holt entering his rookie year.
The offense was set up to come together at the perfect time. Just the season before, they finished fourth in the NFC West and had only four wins.
They had a top draft pick and were considered massive underachievers. Let’s examine how all these pieces came together at just the right time.
The ‘99 Rams Key Players
Kurt Warner
After Warner dropped out of the NFL after a stint with the Green Bay Packers, he became a standout star with the Iowa Barnstormers of the IFL.
He was the league’s biggest success and turned heads in the NFL. In 1997, Warner signed a futures contract with the Rams and was allocated to NFL Europe.
Warner jumped onto the NFL scene in impressive fashion, throwing three touchdowns in his first three starts.
He went on to win the NFL’s MVP award that season and won Super Bowl MVP.
Marshall Faulk
Marshall Faulk was an NFL Rookie of the Year winner and a Pro Bowler with the Indianapolis Colts.
After Faulk was considering holding out on a new contract, the Colts traded him to the Rams in what is one of the best trades in NFL History. He’d go on to win an MVP award, three Offensive Player of the Year awards and three First-Team All-Pro honours.
It was in the ‘99 season in which he had 1,000 yards each both rushing and receiving.
Isaac Bruce
Isaac Bruce was the Rams best offensive player in the late-90’s and was rewarded with a nice extension in 1997.
He was one of the Rams that moved with the team from Los Angeles. Bruce broke into his Pro Bowl form in ‘99 earning himself Pro Bowl honours and All-Pro Second Team honours.
He had over 1,100 receiving yards and 12 touchdowns and ended up winning the Super Bowl-winning touchdown pass.
Torry Holt
Torry Holt was a standout at North Carolina State University. In his junior and senior season, he caught for over 1000 yards and over ten touchdowns.
The Rams took Holt sixth overall in the ‘99 NFL Draft. Holt went on to be a 7x Pro Bowler, led the league in receiving yards twice and was on the NFL’s All-Decade 2000’s team.
Orlando Pace
Orlando Pace was the number one overall pick in the 1997 NFL Draft and it was one of the greatest picks in NFL history.
Pace played 896 of 994 snaps that the Rams played. Pace was an NFL Pro Bowler and was selected to the First-Team All-Pro honors.
Why was the 1999 Rams offense SO good?
What made the Rams so great is that they scored points at an unstoppable clip. From 1999 to 2001, the Rams scored more than 500 points every single season.
The Ram’s greatest strength was their home record, where they played on, you guessed it, turf.
They had an undefeated record in their own building which is something they hadn’t done since 1973.
They went an impressive 13-3 on their way to their first postseason appearance since 1989.
In the ‘99 season, the Rams scored 30 points or more 12 separate times.
In three different games, they put up more than 40 points.
Their most impressive game was against the New Orleans Saints at home when they scored 43 points. They scored 21 points in the fourth quarter.
The '99 Rams were only the fourth team since the adoption of the 16-game schedule, and sixth since 1950, to outscore their opponents by at least 250 points in a season.
Their +17.8 per-game point differential was the third-best since 1950.
Despite Kurt Warner getting injured midway through the season, the Rams couldn’t be stopped.
Trent Green, Warner’s backup, was the perfect replacement. They had a dangerous two-man quarterback system that was hard for any NFL defense to stop.
Together, the two QBs combined for 5,492 yards in the air.
"The Rams created a mystique last year with how explosive they were," said Panthers safety Eugene Robinson late in the season. "Their defense could give up 35 points, and they'd put up 50 points.
Everybody was like, 'Oh, man, they're the greatest thing since sliced bread.' Rightfully so. Now, all you need to do is have a very good defense, play sound ball, keep things in front, and don't give up the big play."
The Rams especially came into their own during the postseason. In order to get to the Super Bowl, the Rams had to get through the Vikings, Buccaneers and Titans.
The 1999 Play-offs
In the NFC Divisional Round, the Rams were in an all-out offensive duel against the Minnesota Vikings.
It was a matchup against the two top-ranked offenses that most of the league and all of its fans wanted to see.
The two teams combined for over 80 points with the Rams winning 49-37. Warner threw for five touchdowns, battling out Jeff George, the Vikings QB who had the great Randy Moss on his side.
"It's a matchup that everybody wanted to see, mainly because of the offenses," quarterback Jeff George said.
"But we give most of our credit to our defense, these last four or five weeks, creating the turnovers that they have and giving us the chance to score in the red area, getting huge turnovers at good times. Our defense has been playing well.”
In the NFC Championship game, the Rams took on the Tony Dungy-led Buccaneers. It was a completely different story against the Bucs.
With one of the best defenses in NFL history, the Rams were held to fewer points than in any game of the regular season.
They were able to step up on defense themselves though and grind out an 11-6 win. It took a touchdown pass with just over 4 minutes left to propel them to the victory.
"We brought them into our zone, we brought them into our misery," said Warren Sapp, the Defensive Player of the Year, "and we had them down 6-5 and just kept battling ... and it came down to one play."
Superbowl XXXIV - Rams Vs Titans
Finally, the Rams were in the Super Bowl, something that no one had predicted in the offseason.
A team who had won just four games the season before was now a win away from the Lombardi Trophy. They were facing the Tennessee Titans.
The Titans were 13-3 and 8-0 at home, just like the Rams. They were led by Steve McNair and Eddie George.
The Rams and Titans came down to the very last second in what is considered one of the most infamous plays in Super Bowl history.
The Titans needed 88 yards on the final drive but could only come up with 87, coming up just one yard short of a Superbowl Victory. They lost the game 23-16.
“I knew I was about at the three or two yard line and when he caught the ball I knew he was short of the end zone a couple of yards,” Mike Jones, who made the tackle, said.
“I was right on top of him. I knew that all I had to do was get him down and that’s what I did."
The 1999 Rams may not have the most prolific stats amongst other great NFL offenses but they did something that most others could not, they finished their season off with a Lombardi Trophy.
