Throughout the 2006 NFL season nfluk.com is asking fans in the United Kingdom to nominate their Players of the Week.
At the conclusion of each week's games, tell us who should be named nfluk.com's Offensive, Defensive and Special Teams Players of the Week. You can pick from any player in the league who you feel deserves the award. You can also go to the Forum and cast your votes there and then nfluk.com will announce the results each week.
When the 2006 season draws to a close, fans in the United Kingdom will have the opportunity to vote for their NFL Offensive, Defensive and Special Teams Players of the Year. The winning players will then be presented with prizes on behalf of fans in the United Kingdom.
The votes have been counted for the final time in the regular season and nfluk.com has selected the Players of Week 17.
The offensive star you thought most worthy of the prize was St Louis’ running back Steven Jackson for his performance in the Rams’ 41-21 win over Minnesota in Week 17. Jackson rushed for 142 yards and three touchdowns as he passed 1,500 yards on the season in the game.
In rushing for 143 yards Jackson became the first running back to go over 100 yards on the ground against the Vikings in 28 games.
The third-year back finished with 1,528 yards on the year – fifth in the NFL and third in the NFC behind Frank Gore and Tiki Barber. Jackson totaled 2,334 yards from scrimmage – 11 yards more than MVP candidate LaDainian Tomlinson managed in his outstanding campaign.
“It shows that with a young back like myself, there's more to come,” Jackson said. “I've set the bar pretty high for myself but next season is a challenge I'm looking forward to.”
On defense it was yet another win for Dallas’ DeMarcus Ware, who was exceptional in the teams’ surprising 39-31 loss to Detroit in the finale.
Ware contributed a career-high three sacks and eight tackles in the game, and looks to be in fine form as the Cowboys head for a Wild Card weekend meeting with the Seahawks in Seattle.
As the Cowboys defense has been crumpling around him while allowing an average of 491.2 yards in the past five games, Ware set a franchise record for sacks by a linebacker (11 1/2) this season and became the first Cowboy since Tony Tolbert to register a double-digit sack haul.
"We've just got to get that mojo back," Ware said. "It's something that we had at the beginning of the season that carried us this far. We've got to get it back and we've got to get it back fast going into the playoffs."