Fisher, 9/8 … transcript

Rams Head Coach Jeff Fisher –– 9/8/15

(On how he thought the team looked today)
“Everything was good. Yeah, they came back…we had the United Way luncheon today and took the whole team down there. It was a great event, and then came back and had some meeting time and just came out and got some exercise.”

(On if he wants to name the starting center today)
“Did I say Wednesday? I might change my mind. So may have to come Wednesday. It might be later than that.”

(On if he’s worried about the attendance on Sunday)
“You know what? Not concerned about it at all. It’s going to be really exciting for those that come. They’re going to see some really good football. Those that elect not to, that’s their option, but we hope that they’ll eventually come because we’re a much better team.”

(On if he knows about any tickets that are available)
“I haven’t paid attention to it, I don’t know. I have not more important things to worry about, but we’re focused on Seattle right now.”

(On how much he thinks a home field advantage will help)
“It’s clearly an advantage up there because you can’t hear. It’s really difficult on our offense. Very, very difficult. It’s especially difficult on their defense too because it’s so loud. But it certainly helps if you can get a false start, somewhere along the lines, especially with this offense. It can help you to get off the field and that’s what you do against this offense is get off the field.”

(On if he thinks RB Todd Gurley is progressing by getting rid of the yellow hat)
“Yeah, he’s doing everything right now. He’s doing fine. I took it off…I personally took it off his helmet. Told him, ‘You’re done with that.’ He’s right on course right now. He’s working hard and had some good runs here today. As a matter of fact, I asked around, ‘Where’d you guys find this guy? He looks pretty good out there.’”

(On when he took the yellow hat off of Gurley)
“Last week. You guys must have not been paying attention because I think it was at an open practice I took it off his helmet.”

(On how he feels about opening the season against Seattle)
“Need I remind you that we finished with these guys? So we’re coming right back here. And that’s okay. It’s a familiar team. It’s a great challenge for us. They’re improved. They’ve added a quality back and (QB) Russell’s (Wilson) very, very difficult to defend. Their defense is very, very solid. We have to play good solid football. We can’t go into a Seattle game expecting to win the game on a fake punt or a special team’s play. We’ve got to play better offense and defense against them.”

(On what element Seahawks TE Jimmy Graham brings that they didn’t have before)
“Well, he’s a big target. He runs really well, he’s blocking well, you see him blocking in the preseason in their run game which is impressive to see the job they’ve done with him. We suspect they have a lot of things in for him because you didn’t really see much of him in the passing game in the preseason.”

(On how much better DT Aaron Donald can be this season)
“Going back and watching our first Seattle game last year and watching him play; he was very, very disruptive. Obviously, we’ve watched a lot of Seattle and he really stood out. We expect that he can play better and that’s hard to match. He’s hard to block if you can create the one-on-one situations.”

(On why he thinks they’ve played Seattle so tough at home in the recent past)
“We try to play everybody tough at home, it just so happens that we matched-up against them well. We kept the games close and we found a way to win in the end. That’s not necessarily the formula for success against them, because I don’t think anybody has one right now, but you just play.”

(On if we’ve seen all of his special teams tricks)
“We always will have something to draw upon. Whether we dial them up or not that remains to be seen. You need the perfect situation for it. I think, not only for Seattle, but the rest of the league understands that we’re one of those teams that’s going to, not take chances, but try to steal possessions with our special teams.”

(On how to get off to a quicker start this season in comparison to recent years)
“You win more early. Right? We didn’t start off that way on purpose. You go out there and try to win every game. Once again, we have a young team and a new offense, a new quarterback and we just have to go out and play smart and not beat ourselves and just see what happens.”

(On how much of an advantage experienced youth can be)
“It’s important. Our second and third and fourth year guys – that class, they’ve played a lot of ball. Even though they’re young, they’ve played a lot of ball. We don’t face the prospects of getting old for a long time. Hopefully, we’ll have success and we’ll keep this group together.”

(On the timetable for RB Todd Gurley now that he’s been cleared for contact)
“We’re just going to build his reps on the practice field and we’ll just see. We’re going to probably pad up tomorrow, so he’ll get a lot of reps tomorrow and then we’ll back down Thursday and then go out there and have a fast Friday and he’ll get a lot of reps. That’s what we’re looking for for him and we’ll see how he is at the end of the week.”