Gordon replaces a top draft pick as Faulk's backup

ST. LOUIS -- St. Louis Rams running back Lamar Gordon, who might have to fill in for Marshall Faulk on Monday night against the Bears, is feeling less and less like a rookie.

Being on the field for the Rams' game-winning drive in last week's 28-24 victory over the Chargers will do that. Gordon caught two passes for 18 yards and ran twice for 11 yards to help set up Marc Bulger's game-winning 7-yard touchdown pass to Isaac Bruce with 1:14 to play.

"It made me feel pretty good, and now I've just got to get used to it," Gordon said Thursday. "I've just got to be ready to be that man if I have to play, and help out the team."

Gordon was coach Mike Martz's choice to start ahead of Trung Canidate, a first-round pick in 2000, if Faulk can't play. Faulk left in the fourth quarter of the Chargers game with a sprained right ankle and a strained tendon in his left foot. Faulk is listed as questionable for Monday's game, but Martz said he could return to practice on Friday, a day sooner than expected.

"That's up to Marshall," Martz said. "He was talking about maybe doing some work. He's the only one that knows how he feels."

Earlier in the week, Martz said Faulk would not work out until Saturday at the earliest. But on Thursday he was able to do toe-raisers and was walking without a limp.

"He's improved dramatically," Martz said. "I'm real encouraged."

Gordon, like many Rams players, expects Faulk to play.

"I think he will, for sure," Gordon said. "I think he'll get rested up and get ready to go."

If Gordon gets the call, he'll join a fellow former third-stringer in the backfield. Quarterback Marc Bulger, who has led the Rams (4-5) to four straight victories with Kurt Warner sidelined by a broken pinkie finger, also began the year far down on the depth chart.

"Bulger, he's proven he can win games," Gordon said. "All I've got to do is what they ask me to do, and the offense should keep moving like it's been moving."

Gordon grew up idolizing Faulk, putting up posters of the running back on his bedroom walls.

"I've learned everything from him," Gordon said. "I could talk about the physical stuff, just reading plays and how he runs and his patience, but there's other little things that he knows so much about. He knows what everyone is doing on the field on every play."

Gordon comes from a small college, North Dakota State, but Martz has been impressed that he hasn't appeared overwhelmed.

"I think he realized that not only does he belong here, he can be a very good player in this league," Martz said. "I think his confidence is up, and the opportunities he's been given he's played very, very well."

Gordon has lost two fumbles, and the Rams are trying to teach him to secure the ball better. He's been working with offensive coordinator Bobby Jackson after practices.

"It's really a punishment thing," Gordon said. "I don't really like doing it, but I have to do it."