Fisher; Bradford; Long; Stacy; Joyner – transcripts & vids, 8/16

Rams Head Coach Jeff Fisher

(Opening Statement)
“Well I think I’m going to start off by addressing the quarterback position. For anybody that had questions about Sam’s (Bradford) condition, his physical condition, I think they were answered today. He could’ve played last week. We said we intentionally held him out. I was very pleased with his performance in the brief amount of time that he played. You can see he has a fastball and it was a great throw to (WR) Brian (Quick) and also to (TE) Lance (Kendricks), so I’m happy with his game. I know he’s excited things are clearly behind him now and we’ll move forward, so that was encouraging. I thought as the game unfolded we anticipated the no huddle out of (Packers Aaron (Rodgers), so we kept things basic. We actually practiced it yesterday, but we kept things very, very basic on defense and I thought it was a really good exercise for our defense in both those drives. Then obviously, we started subbing, I think we had two drives for 20 plays, and that was enough for our starters. Penalties again, penalties were our topic of discussion this morning in the meeting and especially the ones that took place, the numbers of penalties that took place in yesterday’s game, I think that’s an average of 10 per club in yesterday’s game across the board. Then of course we had 10 today and our opponent has 12 and most of them appeared to be the points of emphasis, which are hands to face and defensive holding. So we just have to just keep coaching them and just trying to get them to understand that those things are going to get called. I don’t anticipate anything changing once the regular season starts. From an injury standpoint it appears that we’ve lost Isaiah (Pead) with an ACL. After talking to our doctors, it’s unlikely that he has not torn his ACL, which is very tough for him. He was fighting back. He had a fracture in his finger, had surgery, we pinned it. He was excited about getting an opportunity to return a kick with the ball in his left hand, and it’s unfortunate that that happened. We’ll just hope for the best as far as that’s concerned. Beyond that, we really didn’t have any issue from an injury standpoint.”

(On if RB Isiah Pead had surgery scheduled to repair his finger)
“No, he had already had surgery.”

(On how Pead got injured on the play)
“Yeah he was cutting… Benny (Cunningham) makes a great block and it might have spooked him a little bit because when I got out on the field the doctors told him that he didn’t hit anybody. He wasn’t tackled and he thought he was tackled. So yeah, it’s just kind of one of those non-contact, freak things that happens out there sometimes.”

(On the running game)
“We were hoping for more. Again, they’re very stout up front. We didn’t do a lot of game-planning, so I’m not too concerned about that, but we’ll get that thing going. But it was a little frustrating at times just because of the penetration. There was so much penetration. Again, I think the coaches will take that responsibility just because we just didn’t really do an awful lot of game-planning. We just called things and talked about the adjustments if this happens. So, I would expect everybody to, obviously, improve.

(On if the lack of blitzing on the starting quarterbacks was an indication of how vanilla it was for both teams)
“We had a couple pressures. We had a couple of single pressures with Aaron (Rodgers). Our philosophy was to just line up and play and not rely on the pressure. We pressured a little bit last week and not allowing the pressure, of course. We’re holding a lot of stuff for our regular season as well.”

(On if he was worried about Bradford after LB Julius Peppers’ hit)
“No. He’s taken a lot of hits in his young career in the pocket and he pops up. He pops up and goes. His injury was completely different. He’s out of the pocket, it was on the boundary, it was something weird that happened. No, I wasn’t concerned with that.”

(On the fourth-and-three completion to TE Jared Cook)
“Yeah, we had confidence in him. He knew what to do. He knew what was going to unfold. He liked the look, he had options he read it out and made a good throw.”

(On WR Kenny Britt’s shoulder)
“He just had a stinger. His was fine.”

(On WR Brian Quick catching balls in traffic and if the works paying off)
“It is. Sam anticipated, he put it up in the air and gave Brian a chance to go up and make the play. He comes down and he picks up some additional yards, so it was a good throw. It was all anticipation. Sam trusted he was going to be in that spot where he needed to be, he cut the ball loose and he went up and got it.”

(On Quick’s progress thus far and his improvements)
“Yeah he’s had a good camp. He’s made a lot of those type of plays in camp. I believe that he’s crossed the line now and he’s able to take what he’s doing in practice and carry it over to a game.”

QB Sam Bradford

(On how the first-team offense played)
“I thought it went well today. We wanted to come out and execute, put together two nice drives. Obviously, penalties hurt us and the missed the throw on the first drive, but we came back and put together a nice drive, scored a touchdown. So, I thought it was a good day.”

(On how it felt to get back out there and play in a live game)
“It felt good. It was nothing new, I’ve been here before. I think for everyone else it’s probably a bigger deal for me to get back out on the field. But it was nice to get out there in a live game, feel the pass rush, get the ball out of my hand, and go out there and execute the way that we did, I thought it was good.”

(On WR Brian Quick’s first half performance)
“Big catch. That’s what we’ve seen from him from OTAs, during training camp I mean he’s made plays like that for a long time now and it’s good to finally see it showing up on the field. I expect to see a lot of that from him this year.”

(On how his knee felt tonight)
“It felt great out there today, no surprises. It’s felt really good all camp. It was nice to get out there, live game, but the knee felt great out there.”

(On taking a blind-side hit)
“Yeah, I knew I was going to take a hit or two today, that’s just part of the game. But, it’s always nice to get that first one under your belt, knowing that everything’s going to be OK.”

(On how it felt to play again)
“It was just great to be back on the field with the guys. We try to simulate game speed in practice to the best we can, but it’s really hard to simulate that. So to get out there and get some live snaps today, it was just great to feel the speed of the game again.”

(On the missed throw to WR Kenny Britt)
“Just missed outside a little bit. It was an opportunity for a big play, just got to keep it inbounds. Liked the decision, just have to give him a better ball.”

(On if the missed throw was due to knocking off some rust)
“Absolutely. Obviously that’s a tough one, but to come back and respond the way the offense did the next drive and go down and put points on the board, I think that says a lot about our group.”

(On his touchdown pass to TE Lance Kendricks)
“To be honest, we’ve called that play quite a bit in training camp and I’m not sure the ball has ever gone there. But, it was just a look where their safety was playing outside and Lance did a great job of getting around the ‘backer and inside the safety and he made a great catch because that’s not an easy catch.”

(On if he said ‘I’m back’ after throwing the touchdown pass to Kendricks)
“No, I don’t think those were the words. In the quarterback room we’ve kind of got something we say and I looked over at ‘Schotty’ (Offensive Coordinator Brian Schottenheimer) and gave him one of those. So, it was just kind of a signal to him.”

(On if it was good to see WR Brian Quick make that big catch in the second quarter)
“Absolutely, that was an extremely tough catch and to see him climb the ladder and go get that ball and then come down and get some yards after that catch. I told you guys the other day, we’ve seen a lot of that from him during OTAs and during training camp. I expect to see a lot more out of him this year doing that.”

(On the how significant Quick’s aforementioned catch was considering he later drew a pass interference call)
“Absolutely, I think they saw him make that play and then I don’t know what was going on over there, but obviously that corner knew he was 1-on-1 with ‘Quickie.’ Quickie made a nice release, ended up getting a pass interference penalty and kept our drive alive.”

Rams DE Chris Long

(On the game)
“We did some good things. There’s going to be things we’re going to correct over the next couple of days. We have a really good opportunity to get out there and defend against the no huddle against a premiere quarterback. Played a lot of basic stuff like you would in preseason, the ‘DBs’ did a really good job keeping things in front of them, making tackles. We have a lot to build on. Obviously the result is not as important in preseason, but we want to win these games.”

(On what he wants to see between game two and three)
“Just continue to move in the right direction, you know, tackle well, be in the right gaps, continue to master the schemes. Practice week becomes just as important because we’re going to get to run through all our stuff all week.”

(On how much he has learned from the two preseason games)
“The guys in those locker rooms and in the film room and on the team learn a lot, but often times the people outside the building don’t learn as much because it’s hard to decipher what’s real and what’s not. That’s the way preseason is, it’s not always indicative of how things are going to go on the field. For us it’s just about continuing to work on the little things and the result will become more important in a couple of weeks.”

Rams RB Zac Stacy

(On what the team will do tomorrow)
“We will start looking at some film. I am sure there were we some good things that we did. I am sure there were some bad. Right now we just have to focus on some improvements.”

(On how it felt having QB Sam Bradford back)
“It felt good. It felt good to have him back slinging the ball around. Hopefully, we all will stay consistent.”

(On how Bradford has done coming back from his injury)
“To me, he’s done a heck of a jobprogressing to this point. Like I said, just going back to staying healthy and staying consistent.”

(On how the team can improve from this point)
“You know really just correct all the mistakes that you can, and improve as an individual, improve as a unit. You know, just go from there”.

Rams DB Lamarcus Joyner

(On the experience playing against QB Aaron Rodgers)
“It was a great experience, you had coaches talking about him all week. Then you grow up watching guys like Aaron Rodgers but to go out there and compete it was a pretty good experience going against one of the best NFL quartbacks.”

(On the Packers up tempo and the no-huddle offense)
“It was very tiring, but we already knew what kind of team they are and the capability they have with a guy like Aaron Rodgers running their offense. He’s pretty much the commander and chief of that offense and they go at his pace. So we were expecting it. They came out and they executed and we made plays. It was fun. It was great for me being a rookie out there and getting that exposure.”

(On the touchdown pass that was committed to him)
“I’ve just got to work on the scrambling technique. Quarterback gets out the pocket, you have to plaster your guy, and I had a mental error. That something we can correct Monday. No hard feelings.