By Nick Wagoner
Senior Writer

Given his opportunity to go on an Allen Iverson-style rant about how meaningless practice is, Rams running back Steven Jackson respectfully passed.

Nursing a slightly strained quadriceps, Jackson sat out of Wednesday’s practice. But that doesn’t mean he would rather not practice this week in anticipation of this weekend’s game against New England.

“Practice is very important,” Jackson said. “Each defense is different and presents a different threat and as far as New England they are a pretty talented defense and they stay in their gap responsibility so I definitely want to get a feel for what they are going to do and what they are going to try to take away from us.”

As it stands, it remains to be seen whether Jackson will get any opportunities to get practice work this week or even play against the Patriots.

Jackson spent Wednesday indoors working with strength and conditioning coach Dana LeDuc. Jackson went through some leg workouts and got in the pool to test his range of motion.

Coach Jim Haslett said Jackson will likely do some light individual work Thursday and the make or break day could come Friday when they would like to get Jackson some work.

“The game plan was to take the day off, he worked inside with the strength coach,” Haslett said. “He will go out and do walk through tomorrow and then we’ll see where he’s at on Friday. Hopefully he will get a few reps in on Friday based on how he feels. We still have four days and if he’s ready to go, he’s ready to go.”

Jackson suffered the injury on his 25th and final carry of the win against the Cowboys and said he feared the worst at first. Jackson had an MRI on Monday that revealed it was a slight strain and not something worse as feared.

“I thought it may be something serious,” Jackson said. “It got caught kind of funny on the tackle and it kind of overstretched itself. It was definitely something that was a sharp pain right away. I got back to the sideline and the doctors checked it out. We thought the worst first. Once we got a chance to look at the MRI and it confirmed that it wasn’t anything, I guess the mind goes to ease and the body kind of starts to feel its way out. As of today, getting the light workout is really promising. It feels good.”

Jackson refused to put a percentage on how he feels Wednesday though he says there’s no need to be in a hurry to make the decision.

As it stands, it’s safe to call Jackson cautiously optimistic about his chances of playing this week. 

“We are going to take it day to day,” Jackson said. “There’s no need to rush. It’s Wednesday, so we have until Sunday to make a game time decision. But if I could tell anybody, my fans who are concerned, it’s definitely going in the right direction.”

There’s no doubting the Rams’ chances of winning for the third straight time depend heavily on Jackson’s status for the game.

After busting loose for 160 yards and three touchdowns on his way to NFC Offensive Player of the Week honors last week, Jackson would like nothing more than to continue to build on the momentum gained from that performance.

Jackson’s teammates share that feeling as well, hoping that their star back will be ready to go.

“He’s our best player so that maybe changes a little bit,” quarterback Marc Bulger said. “Our offense is going to game plan as if he’s playing so we’d love to have him but at the same time we are not going to change anything. We are all praying that he’s going to play but our offense will be what it is.”

While Jackson’s chances of playing might be trending toward a go, there’s still plenty that needs to happen between now and then.

If Jackson can’t go, Haslett said Wednesday that second-year back Antonio Pittman would get the start in his place.

Pittman played in the first two games before suffering a broken bone in his lower leg that kept him inactive and on the sideline for the past four weeks.

The injury was originally supposed to keep Pittman out for four to six weeks and Monday marked the beginning of the fifth week.

Pittman returned to practice last Wednesday, took Thursday off and returned on Friday though he was inactive against Dallas. He says he’s ready to go if needed though he too would prefer to simply reclaim his role as the top backup if it means Jackson would be in the lineup.

“I am going to be ready regardless,” Pittman said. “Hopefully he can play because that’s a guy out there, that’s a man. There’s nothing better than to relieve a guy like that. I take pride in that.”

Because Pittman hasn’t been healthy until recently, it’s hard to imagine he’d be ready to take a full load on if Jackson can’t play.

In that case, it seems logical that Travis Minor and Kenneth Darby would be ready to play if the situation arose.

Minor and Darby both got some reps with the first team along with Pittman on Wednesday. Pittman took the bulk of those reps but Haslett says both would be ready to play if called.

“If for some reason Steven can’t go then Antonio and Travis and Darby will fill in and be fine,” Haslett said.

Still, there’s no question everyone would like to see Jackson getting the bulk of the work and running at the same level he did against the Cowboys.

And though Jackson wants desperately to play; he also recognizes that it’s not worth risking his long term health to play in one game.

“Anybody can be tough in somebody else’s body,” Jackson said. “If it’s something I can let rest a week and be able to play the rest of the season without injury you would have to take that into consideration. So we are day to day on it.”