How Elite Were They? #57- Marc Bulger’s 12-win 2003 Season

Photo Credit: Getty Images

By Zane Miller

After being selected in the sixth round of the 2000 NFL Draft by the New Orleans Saints, quarterback Marc Bulger would have his work cut out for him in terms of working his way up the depth chart. Aside from veteran starting quarterback Jeff Blake, the Saints also had promising rookie Aaron Brooks, the most recent backup in Billy Joe Tolliver, as well as NFL Europe standout and previous How Elite Were They? subject Jake Delhomme making up the quarterback room. Of course, this leads to the head-scratcher of why the Saints felt the need to use a draft pick on a new quarterback to begin with, but nonetheless Bulger had arrived on the NFL circuit.

To the surprise of no one, Bulger did not appear in any regular season contests for the Saints in 2000. In fact, he wasn’t even on the team by the end of the season, as he was waived late in the going. However, Bulger wasn’t off of a roster for long, interestingly being claimed by the Saints’ division rivals in the Atlanta Falcons. While the Saints and Falcons were going in opposite directions as New Orleans had a fairly successful playoff run and Atlanta was in the midst of a 4-12 train wreck, Bulger still didn’t crack the gameday roster as he was limited to a practice squad role for the final two weeks of the year 2000. Before the season could come to an end, though, Bulger was cut by the Falcons and left on the outside once again. Fortunately for him, he would find what would become his more permanent home that offseason.

After the St. Louis (now Los Angeles) Rams suffered a stunning first-round exit at the hands of the Saints, granting New Orleans their first-ever postseason victory, the Rams opted to bring in one of their former prospects in Bulger for the 2001 season. Despite the letdown of 2000, the team was not at all far removed from their exceptional 1999 season in which they posted a 13-3 record and let the league in offense on the way to a Super Bowl title, eventually earning the nickname “The Greatest Show on Turf”. The starting quarterback spot was still headed by 1999 MVP Kurt Warner, with veteran career backups Jamie Martin and Paul Justin also on the team. During the 2001 preseason, Justin sustained a season-ending ACL tear, thus moving Bulger into the third-string role going forward.

While Bulger didn’t take the field in 2001, he still got to see an amazing season from his team as they amassed a 14-2 record, which remains the franchise record for single-season wins. Taking a first-round bye as the #1 seed in the NFC, the Rams rolled past the Green Bay Packers in the second round and survived the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC championship game, meaning that Bulger was headed back to New Orleans. This time, however, he would be on the sideline for Super Bowl XXXVI against the New England Patriots. In said Super Bowl, the Rams fought back from a 14-point halftime deficit, tying it up at 17-all with less than two minutes to go, but unfortunately for Bulger, his fellow sixth-round pick from the 2000 draft class in Tom Brady orchestrated the game-winning drive, setting up kicker Adam Vinatieri for the 48-yard field goal which gave the Patriots their first championship in franchise history.

The Super Bowl loss seemingly lingered into the 2002 season, with St. Louis stumbling out of the gate with five straight losses to open the year. Not helping matters, Warner (who won his second MVP in 2001) was sidelined with a broken finger in week 4. Martin was set to fill in in his absence, but he too went down after a knee injury just one game later. After two years of sitting on the sideline, Bulger finally had his opportunity to prove that he was starter material.

Bulger made an impact starting with his first game, throwing for three touchdowns and 186 yards as the Rams beat the Oakland (now Las Vegas) Raiders 28-13. A few weeks later, Bulger what would be the best game of his NFL career, getting four touchdowns on 453 passing yards in a 28-24 comeback win against the San Diego (now Los Angeles) Chargers. The Rams rattled off five straight victories to get back into playoff contention, and it seemed Bulger’s potential was higher than the Gateway Arch. However, like the other two QBs before him, he also missed significant time with an injury, this time with a sprained finger. The Rams fell in their next three games and although Bulger was able to make a return later on, it wasn’t enough to salvage the season as they went 7-9 and missed the playoffs. However, the promise that Bulger showed in his mid-season play would end up being a preview of things to come in 2003.

While Bulger wasn’t technically the starter to begin the 2003 season, it would work out that way as Warner suffered a season-ending hand injury in week one. This gave Bulger the reins the rest of the year, which proved to be a wise decision on September 28^th against the Arizona Cardinals. That afternoon, he threw for two touchdowns and 272 passing yards as St. Louis cruised to a 37-13 win. The Rams’ domination continued into their next game on October 13^th as they faced the Atlanta Falcons, with Bulger getting another pair of touchdown passes with 352 yards. The Rams easily took care of business in the Monday night contest, nabbing a 36-0 shutout. Their next game on October 19^th versus the Green Bay Packers wouldn’t be nearly as much of a runaway, but Bulger still had another strong game, scoring three touchdown passes and 247 passing yards in the team’s 34-24 win.

Bulger’s hot streak continued as he returned to his hometown of Pittsburgh to face the Steelers on October 26^th. He quickly linked up with wide receiver Torry Holt for a 36-yard touchdown pass on the opening drive and opted to stick with Holt for most of the game, as he ended the day with an astounding 174 receiving yards. In all, Bulger threw for 375 yards and a touchdown in the Rams’ 33-21 win to improve to 5-2 on the campaign. While the team’s winning run came to an end on November 2^nd against the San Francisco 49ers with a 30-10 loss, Bulger wasn’t the main problem as he collected a season-high 378 passing yards along with a touchdown (with Holt getting 200 receiving yards on the dot).

While Bulger’s stats didn’t reach this same level in the second half of the season, this was due to the return of future Hall of Fame running back Marshall Faulk, who missed the bulk of the first half with both hand and knee injuries. However, he didn’t skip a beat upon his return, rushing for over 100 yards in four straight games to finish off the month of November and begin December. This of course meant that Bulger wasn’t required to throw it as much, as Faulk’s strong play helped the team to a seven-game winning streak. The regular season wrapped up neatly with a 12-4 record, with Bulger being credited with all 12 of those wins. The Rams held off the 10-6 Seattle Seahawks to win the NFC West crown, which happened to come with a first-round bye in the playoffs. Their first opponent would be the NFC South-winning Carolina Panthers, who made the trip over to St. Louis for the January 10th, 2004 matchup.

The Rams made their way into the red zone on all three of their complete first-half possessions, but were unable to capitalize as they were forced to settle for three short field goals, enabling Carolina to have a slim 10-9 lead at halftime. In the third quarter, neither side was able to get into the end zone, though the Panthers one-upped the Rams to go up 16-12 going into the final frame of regulation. To open up the fourth, however, Bulger threw a crucial interception, turning it over to longtime Panthers safety Mike Minter. After a 36-yard pass from former teammate Delhomme to should-be Hall of Famer Steve Smith, fullback Brad Hoover punched it in for what might have been the dagger with 8:50 left to play.

Facing a 23-12 deficit, the Rams were forced to put their fortunes on the right arm of Bulger, though the comeback attempt initially went off to a horrible start as he immediately threw his second interception of the day. Luckily for St. Louis, the Panthers went three-and-out and actually lost seven yards in the process, prompting a 53-yard field goal attempt which doinked harmlessly off of the left upright. With a second life, Bulger and the Rams got down to business, moving into Carolina territory once again. The biggest play of the drive came in a fourth-and-two situation, where Bulger hit Faulk out of the backfield for a 22-yard gain. Even though they were in the red zone, they were far from out of the woods as they faced a third-and-10. Using an empty backfield formation, Bulger found Faulk, this time lined up as a slot receiver, down the middle with Faulk doing the rest to pick up another first down. The Rams eventually worked it all the way to the one-yard line, with Faulk appropriately finishing off the drive with a touchdown run. With just over two minutes left, though, the Rams would need to pull off a two-point conversion to cut it to a three-point lead. Bulger faked the handoff to Faulk, before finding rookie wide receiver Dane Looker to put St. Louis just a field goal behind.

With just one timeout remaining, Rams head coach Mike Martz opted to go with an onside kick try. Kicker Jeff Wilkins floated the ball towards the Panthers’ hands team after making a hard right turn, where it bounced off the chest of a sliding Jermaine Wiggins. This sent the ball on another high bounce, allowing Wilkins to recover his own onside kick just past the Rams 40-yard line. An exhausted Panthers defense was forced to head back onto the field, and were unable to stop a pair of lengthy completions from Bulger to another future Hall of Famer in receiver Isaac Bruce. Although the offense was already in the red zone and still firing on all cylinders with quite a bit of time still left on the clock, Martz made the controversial decision to let the clock run down and settle for the tying field goal, which Wilkins put through from 33 yards out to send the game into overtime.

In the days before both teams were entitled to at least one possession in overtime, both sides had golden opportunities for walk-off field goals on their opening drives. However, Panthers kicker John Kasay missed a 45-yarder before Wilkins missed from 53, but the Rams’ chance to end it would come again after a Carolina punt. From inside Panthers territory, Bulger again connected with Faulk out of the backfield, turning it into a 25-yard catch and run to put it just outside of field goal range. However, the atmosphere inside the Edward Jones Dome would make a 180 just one play later. Trying to find Holt on the first-down play, Bulger’s pass was intercepted by rookie cornerback Ricky Manning, bring the scoring threat to an abrupt halt. The Rams’ fate was sealed on the first play of double overtime, as Delhomme completed a pass to Smith just past midfield, who dodged a pair of potential St. Louis tacklers on the way to the game-winning 69-yard touchdown. Bulger ended the wild afternoon with 332 passing yards despite giving up three interceptions, while Delhomme grabbed the 29-23 OT victory with one touchdown pass, 290 yards and one interception.

Bulger remained the Rams primary starter throughout the rest of the 2000s, though he was never quite able to recapture the success of his first year and a half with the club. He would help St. Louis to another playoff appearance in 2004 in spite of the team’s 8-8 regular season record, and picked up a 27-20 victory in the first round over the Seahawks before a blowout against Atlanta ended the postseason run. Unfortunately, the end of the 2000s were not kind to the Rams, as the team could only muster a total of six wins in the final three years of the decade. Bulger retired after a brief stop with the Baltimore Ravens in 2010, finishing with 41 career victories. After hanging up the cleats, Bulger opted to get involved in a different sport, though likely not the one you’re thinking of. In 2016, Bulger joined up with other retired NFL stars to form a team on the World Curling Tour (appropriately enough with the Winter Olympics coming up as I’m writing this), which eventually led to him opening a new curling training center in Nashville in 2021.