Fisher, 12/1 … transcript

Rams Head Coach Jeff Fisher – December 1, 2014

(Opening Statement)
“One of the many responsibilities as a head coach in the National Football League, which I’ve been nearly 20 years now, is to address the media on the day immediately following the game. And discuss the outcome – win, loss, I’ll throw a tie in there – and what happened and why. It’s my personal opinion, and I firmly believe, that it’s important that I keep sports and politics separate. I’m a head coach. I’m not a politician, an activist or an expert on societal issues. I’m going to answer questions about the game. I’m going to highlight a couple things, however, before I start. It’s been brought to my attention that (Chief Operating Officer/Executive Vice President of Football Operations) Kevin (Demoff) has had discussions with the police department and law enforcement and any questions with respect to that should be directed to him. For that matter, any questions outside of football should be directed to the organization. I have not talked to the five players that made the choice to exercise their free speech yesterday. I have not talked to them as of yet, I will. Those conversations will most likely remain confidential. With that being said, any questions on the game yesterday?”

(On if he is not going to comment on it all)
“I’m a football coach. As I said, I’m not an expert. You guys asked me last Wednesday for the first time, ‘Have you talked to your team about Ferguson?’ And I said, ‘Yes.’ And my response was I discussed numerous issues. One, I wanted to address the rumor that was out there about us potentially not playing here. What I told you and what I told them, is that it was a rumor and we’re not going to leave. This is our town. This is our city. We’re going to play here. We owe it to our fans and to the communities. That was discussed. Also discussed with the players, our intentions on what we were going to do and how we’re going to go about feeding 2,000 families Thanksgiving dinner last week. And our expectations of how things were going to go when we invited the small business owners from Ferguson as our guests to the game. Then, also our intention of locking arms and showing unity during the national anthem. As far as the choice that the players made, no, they were exercising their right to free speech. They will not be disciplined by the club, nor will they be disciplined by the National Football League, as it was released today. That’s all I’m going to say. I’ll talk about football now.”

(On if he is being put in an awkward position because of his past support of military and first responders)
“Again, I think that’s a question you need to direct to Kevin. Again, I’m going to stand behind discussing football right now.”

(On the game)
“It’s as good a four quarters we’ve played in all three phases, I think, since we’ve been here. The turnovers, the sacks, the big plays, five touchdowns on the first five drives or the first five possessions of the game. We played very, very well. I’m just really pleased for them. Again, as we said the difficulty that we dealt with in San Diego, surely was proved that this young football team can overcome those things.”

(On the injury status on OL Rodger Saffold)
“He’ll be day-to-day. I think I mentioned, it’s really similar to what happened three or four weeks ago. Fortunately, he was able to come back in a short period of time.”

(On if yesterday’s game showed him what this team is capable of)
“Yeah, everything was working. We got bounces, we got just what we needed. The plans were outstanding. It’s tough for the Raiders, especially to fall behind on the road as fast as they did, to hang in there, but we just didn’t let up. That was a good sign.”

(On if CB Janoris Jenkins didn’t get as many snaps compared CBs Trumain Johnson and E.J. Gaines because there is something going on)
“No. Our plan was to rest him a little bit because he’s still pretty sore off the MCL. We alternated him, Trumaine was feeling better. No. If we were going start the game tomorrow, we’d start with E.J and Janoris.”

(On if he is going to stress to the players the importance of having consecutive wins or just leave it alone)
“We’re going to go out and try to win this game. We’ve got to go on the road again. We’re going to go out and do whatever it takes to try to win this game. If we’re fortunate enough to do that, I guess I can stand up with a smile on my face and say, we won two in a row.”

(On how QB Shaun Hill maneuvered out of some plays to get the ball out quick and how much freedom and structure he has with getting the ball out quicker)
“Well I think in most situations, with the exceptions of third down stuff. First and second down stuff quarterbacks have options, whether they’re run-run options or whether they’re run-pass options. That’s all built in. He took advantage of the built in options, but he also completely changed some things that actually worked out pretty well for us. As I said, our plan was to run the football and it wasn’t there so we had that little quick pass game option. Which in essence, in that case, is still a part of the running game, but it worked for us. It tended to soften some things up for us.”

(On if part of the game plan was to attack the Raiders perimeter defense)
“Yeah, I mean because of what we’d seen on tape and the way they played inside. They’re pretty stout. They’re good run defenders. We’ll give our offense credit for Tre’s (Mason) big run, but you take that big run away and we had a hard time running the football against them. As I said, they’re fifth in the league going in at 3.8 (yards) a carry and we found out the hard way there.”

(On how DE Chris Long felt today)
“He’s a little sore. Probably rest him Wednesday, but he was really excited. He’ll be the first to tell you he’s not 100 percent yet, but he really had a blast playing. Was great to get him back.”

(On if the team is hard for him to figure out)
“I know we know what to expect. I mean, we’re going to get a maximum effort out of them Wednesday through Sunday. We’re going to get that out of them. That’s all you can ask of them. Sometimes there’s tipped balls and sometimes guys make mistakes, but they’re going to make it going full speed. That’s all you can ask of them. We’ve got to learn. I think we can use this as a learning experience, ‘Hey, we had a great one against Denver. Came back, couldn’t find a way. Big win here. We’ve got to go find a way.’”

(On if he has anything he can critique the team on after this win)
“Oh yeah. I’m going to start with Tre Mason going to the ground. That’s a great place to start, a 15-yard penalty. That’s where I’ll start and then we’ll move from there.”

(On having a celebration penalty in back-to-back games)
“Two weeks in a row and three out of four weeks. What part of that don’t they understand? It was discussed Wednesday. The rule was discussed and made very, very clear. Apparently Tre wasn’t paying attention. So, I’ll get his attention tomorrow.”

(On WR Stedman Bailey’s one-handed catch)
“Well it’s just, for him to elevate the way he did and one hand that ball. He saw the defender, if he doesn’t the defender’s going to make a play on the ball. I mean, that’s where the practice has paid off and the practice reps between Shaun (Hill) and he have paid off. He’s trusting him. He’s putting the ball up and Sted’s going up to get it. He did that earlier on the boundary and he just trusts him. If they’re in the right place when they’re supposed to be then be prepared. The ball’s going to be there.”