Rams vs. Cardinals: Thursday Night Football leaves Steven Jackson little injury recovery time

Steven Jackson injury stages of grief: Denial—after the St. Louis Rams' star running back left Week 2's win, some thought he was benched and not suffering frin an ill-explained groin injury. Acceptance—as Jackson struggled through Weeks 3 and 4, Rams fans began to cling desperately to the idea that he was hurt, and not just struggling. Now, the third stage: Thursday. With Jackson already playing through injury, the Rams will play Week 5's matchup against the Arizona Cardinals on Thursday Night Football.

That leaves Jackson with just three full days between his 18-carry, 55-yard performance against the Seattle Seahawks and another set of bruising visits with defenders who just finished dismantling the Rams' broken-down offensive line. Jackson, who barely practiced last week, would ideally see limited time Thursday, supplemented by rookies Daryl Richardson and (the heretofore invisible) Isaiah Pead.

But that's not how Steven Jackson operates. His typical response to injuries is to play through them and then claim he feels great, despite, say, averaging three yards a carry and struggling to push past his own o-line. Jeff Fisher might be better at corralling him than Steve Spagnuolo was, but with the Cardinals still undefeated I wonder how willing he'll be to do it.