Super Bowl 51: Matt Ryan’s Falcons vs. Tom Brady’s Pats

The Big Game in Houston is set, after Atlanta throttled Green Bay and New England dismissed Pittsburgh. Here’s a look at the Atlanta quarterback’s breakthrough and his counterpart’s continued brilliance. .e
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Peter King

http://mmqb.si.com/mmqb/2017/01/23/super-bowl-51-matt-ryan-falcons-tom-brady-patriots-nfl-peter-king

ATLANTA — To appreciate the magnitude of what we saw Sunday in the last football game ever at the Georgia Dome, we must consider what was happening in this city the April day Matt Ryan was drafted in 2008.

I was in Atlanta that weekend. Michael Vick was not. He was in federal prison in Kansas, serving nearly two years for dogfighting and animal cruelty. But the city not only hadn’t forgotten him; many in the city were keeping his seat warm and wanted him as their quarterback when he finished doing his time.

I remember the day before the draft walking through a mall and thinking, All these people with Vick jerseys or T-shirts supporting him … amazing. So when Ryan got picked third overall by new GM Thomas Dimitroff, it was a new start. But some locals seemed unmoved.

An Atlanta TV sports anchor, Gil Tyree, told me on draft day 2008 that Vick “is a messiah here. … No matter what Matt Ryan will do, he’ll never be accepted.”

Yikes.

Now to Sunday, and the 44-21 beatdown of the Packers in the NFC Championship Game, leading to the second Super Bowl appearance for the Falcons in their history. As Ryan compiled a four-touchdown, 392-yard game in the biggest game of his nine-year career, three times the crowd in the Dome rained down chants of “M-V-P! M-V-P! M-V-P!”

Six straight games without an interception … Heavy favorite to win the NFL MVP on Feb. 4 … Crowd screaming for him as he left the field like New York screamed for the Beatles in 1964.

The screams and chants sounded a lot like acceptance to me. This seemed a cruel time to remind Ryan of that day and the words of the sports anchor in 2008, but in a quiet moment at his locker after the game, I did.

This is not a topic Ryan wants to revisit. In his nine years at the helm of this team, nobody’s ever seen Ryan sweat. He says the right things, does the right things, works the right way. But he understood the gravity of this day, and what he’d accomplished under such initial pressure. Vick thrilled this town like few athletes have, but Ryan has taken the franchise further than Vick ever did.

No matter what Matt Ryan will do, he’ll never be accepted.

Ryan said quietly: “Some things you don’t forget.”

That was it. But others took up Ryan’s cause. “Matt’s created great memories in this dome,” said Dimitroff, who made Ryan the first pick of his tenure. “Back then, when Matt was drafted, the doubts were there. But he’s evolved and stayed above it all.”

“That’s a long time ago,’’ said receiver and returned Eric Weems, who was a Falcon when Ryan was drafted and who knew the tenor in the city. “If people are still holding grudges, and I doubt there are, it’s on them. I can tell you Matt’s my quarterback. Matt’s our quarterback. I love him.”

The best teams are often forged through difficult times. Ryan was drafted the year after Bobby Petrino pulled one of the all-time classless coaching moves, quitting with two games left in the 2007 season to take a college job. Ryan had some shaky playoff games, but Dimitroff and Blank were unwavering in their support.

Blank, wisely, held onto Dimitroff—a strong scout—when he fired Mike Smith two years ago and hired Dan Quinn as coach. Ryan has gotten excellent coaching from offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan over the past two years, and Quinn’s definitive demands for every position on the field allowed Dimitroff and key personnel men Scott Pioli and Steve Sabo to know exactly what to scout.

Two excellent drafts and good free-agent finds (Alex Mack, Mohamed Sanu), and here we are—an Atlanta-New England Super Bowl.

Two things I notice about Ryan’s game under Shanahan: He’s more comfortable as an athlete—that 14-yard touchdown run against Green Bay, his first TD carry since 2012, showed he’s not a lumberjng runner, but a competent one. “There was nobody to account for the quarterback,” Ryan said. “And everybody’s backs are turned playing coverage, playing man‐to‐man coverage. Just saw a lane open up.” In the past, Ryan likely would have stuck in the pocket, looking at his third and fourth targets.

“Matt’s been a grinder, getting his mental right,” is how Weems put it.

Ryan is better at play-action and run fakes, a more complete player who doesn’t think being a pocket quarterback means you actually have to be in the pocket all the time, surveying the field seven steps behind center. I loved his first touchdown pass Sunday, which was a combination of Steve Young and Brett Favre.

On Atlanta’s first drive of the game, from the Green Bay two-yard line, Ryan took off to his left near the goal line, and it looked like he’d run it in. But then he threw a flip pass to Sanu for a touchdown. I just don’t think that’s the kind of thing he’d have been comfortable doing pre-Shanahan.

Against New England, the more multiple a quarterback can be, the better. You saw how Bill Belichick and defensive boss Matt Patricia began to neutralize Le’Veon Bell even before he got hurt in the AFC game by taking away those creases in the defensive front that Bell uses so wisely.

The Patriots take what you do well and find a couple of ways to combat it. No doubt that Shanahan today and tomorrow will be all over New England tape trying to play Spy Vs. Spy, figuring what the Patriots will do if the Falcons do such-and-such.

The last player you’d compare Ryan to is Vick. But in the next two weeks he’d better get ready for it. During the run-ups to Super Bowls, long perspective stories are the order of the day. Vick, 2001: thrills and chills, a roller coaster, but didn’t work overall. Ryan, 2008: by the book, outworking everyone, in the Super Bowl. The Falcons, and Ryan, have been rewarded, and a date with Tom Brady is the result.

* * *

COACH OF THE WEEK

Dan Quinn, head coach, Atlanta. All coaches coming from great programs get pegged as so-and-so’s “guy.” Quinn was Pete Carroll’s “guy.” High energy from day one, like Carroll. And, like Carroll, he was teamed with a personnel guy (Thomas Dimitroff) he really didn’t know. But from the start, Quinn was clear he wanted this team not to be “Seattle East” but rather “Atlanta Now.”

And there are some striking differences. But the important thing is Quinn has the Falcons in the Super Bowl in his second season—a great achievement considering he took over a 6-10 team that was comatose on defense and needed an injection of life. Quinn did that, and he built a very good defense in two years.

* * *

We Could Use a Great Game in No. 267

After 256 regular-season games and 10 in the playoffs, the NFL season comes down to game number 267 in Houston, Super Bowl LI between Atlanta and New England. I love the game, because there’s so much new and interesting about Atlanta (particularly on defense, where seven of the 12 “starters,” including third corner Brian Poole, are first or second-year players), and because there’s so much history on the line for New England.

Tom Brady and Bill Belichick could become the first QB-coach duo in history to win five Super Bowls. Brady could be the first quarterback in history to win five Super Bowls. It could be a momentous night in Houston 13 days from now.

And it’s new for the teams too. Of Atlanta’s 53-man roster, 37 players weren’t Falcons the last time these two teams met, a 30-23 win for New England at the Georgia Dome in 2013. It’s fresh for them, fresh for the players and coaches.

I loved Kyle Shanahan’s reaction when, just before I recorded a podcast conversation with him Sunday night in the Falcons’ equipment office at the Georgia Dome, I told the Falcons’ offensive coordinator it looked like the Super Bowl foe would be New England.

“Good,” he said. Not because he’s a cocky glutton for punishment, but because he wants to play the best. That sounds nuts, but what coach who considers himself really good at his job wouldn’t want to match wits with Bill Belichick and his staff in the game of the year?

By the way: I sure hope it’s the game of the year. We could use one. Average margin of victory in the 10 playoff games: 15.7. Games decided by 13 points or more in the 10 playoff games: eight.

New England (16-2, AFC top seed) versus Atlanta (13-5, NFC second seed), Feb. 5, 6:30 p.m. ET, NRG Stadium, Houston (retractable roof). New England will play in its ninth Super Bowl (a record), Atlanta its second. Tom Brady plays in his seventh, Matt Ryan his first. So clearly, the Patriots have cornered the market on experience. But Atlanta hasn’t shown many signs of being intimidated by the bright lights this postseason, putting up 80 points on Seattle and Green Bay, teams far more playoff-experienced than the Falcons; defensively Atlanta held the Aaron Rodgers-led Packer offense scoreless for the first 35 minutes Sunday.

It’ll be fascinating to see the game plan Josh McDaniels weaves after studying players he’s never faced—rangy and instinctive Falcons rookie middle ’backer Deion Jones, for instance—this week. The bigger New England secondary could be a matchup problem for Atlanta, even thought Julio Jones laughs at matchup problems. One Falcon told me Sunday night, “Julio’s playing with half a toe, and it doesn’t matter,” referring to a nagging turf toe injury that won’t get better until he gets four or five months of rest and rehab.

But if you saw his 73-yard catch-and-run and breaking of two tackles against Green Bay, you’ve got to figure the Patriots are going to try to eliminate him and let someone else beat them. That someone else might be Mohamed Sanu. I was disappointed in Devonta Freeman and Tevin Coleman (25 carries, 71 yards, long of 14) against Green Bay, and New England’s run defense is better. So that means it’s up to Matt Ryan to justify his MVP-ness and have a big day if Atlanta hopes to keep New England from its fifth Super Bowl win.

* * *

Marveling at Brady

You are living through a remarkable time if you’re a football fan. You’re seeing one of the great athletic careers in history play out, apparently with no sign of diminution.

Tom Brady won his 24th NFL playoff game Sunday. To put that in some perspective—though, obviously, there are more playoff games today than there were for much of the NFL’s history—the Chicago Bears as a franchise have won 17, according to Pro Football Reference.

Considering that the Bears played their first playoff game in 1932 and are a flagship franchise of the league, and considering Brady was born in 1977, that’s quite a feat for the Patriots QB.

One more gem: New England’s total of 24 playoff wins with Brady under center surpasses the all-time postseason win totals of 25 of the remaining 31 NFL franchises.

Rightfully, having Bill Belichick coaching (with Josh McDaniels constructing the offense and Matt Patricia taking on increasing importance as a defensive brain and presence) and Tom Brady playing is just about the perfect formula for success. Brady, as our Jenny Vrentas wrote so smartly last week, is a perfect leader of the franchise because he likes to be coached, and he can take being coached hard, and Belichick has always believed in coaching hard.

I found it interesting last week that the Patriots put pads on before the 18th game of the season, at a time when most teams have put the practice pads away for the year. New England practiced in pads Wednesday. Nobody bitched. If Brady’s not bothered by it, no other player would dare be bothered by it.

The game against Pittsburgh was a good illustration of the Patriots’ intelligence and patience. Against a zone team like Pittsburgh, an offense has to be patient. It’s not likely to yield many over-the-top big plays; the Steelers challenge you to take yards and eventually make a turnover or get greedy and throw risky or incomplete passes downfield.

Now, I didn’t watch a lot of this game, but I did think the mid-second-quarter flea-flicker touchdown from Brady to Chris Hogan was very interesting. On a play like that, with Brady handing it to Dion Lewis, and Lewis shoveling it back to Brady, and Brady looking deep, a young secondary like Pittsburgh’s might be tempted to bite on the run. Well, Brady did catch the Steelers looking run, and slipping past the secondary was Hogan, who caught an easy touchdown from Brady.

One other thing, not to go all hagiography on the Patriots: After the game, the little-used Lewis was near tears in the locker room. Why? Because he finished with 11 yards rushing and was angry at the game plan? No. It’s because he’s going to his first Super Bowl. He never thought his meandering and previously unproductive career would take him this far.

But when you’re with the Patriots, you get the team concept. It’s the way they do business. If you don’t like it, you won’t be around long. If you’re okay with it, the Super Bowl is often at the end of the rainbow. Such as this season.

“Bill [Belichick] showed this pass that was probably the worst pass I’ve ever seen Brady throw. The ball just completely missed the wide receiver and ended up skipping to the ground and falling out of bounds. Bill was saying, ‘What kind of throw is this? I can get Johnny Foxborough from down the street to make a better throw than this.’ … If Brady is getting it, no one is safe. I just immediately fell in line.”

—Former Patriots receiver Donte’ Stallworth, recalling his first New England team meeting to Jenny Vrentas of The MMQB in her excellent story about the hard coaching that Tom Brady takes.

* * *

The Times They Have a-Changed Dept.:

I don’t believe I’ve ever seen a playoff weekend as run-pass unbalanced as this one.

• No running back had a 20-yard run in either championship game.
• Sunday’s four rushing leaders by team gained 46, 42, 34 and 47 yards.
• Sunday’s four passing leaders by team threw for 392, 287, 384 and 314 yards.

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Mark Twain on India: The Indian Crow
link:http://learningindia.in/mark-twain-on-india-the-indian-crow/

Continuing this series with an excerpt from Mark Twain’s Following the Equator. This humorous passage looks at the under-celebrated and under-demonized Indian crow. Judging by this account, the crow hasn’t changed much in the last 100 years.

This passage picks up after Twain recounts a tumultuous night’s sleep only to be awoken by the crows.

[Taken from The Complete Works of Mark Twain: Following the Equator, Volume 2, Harper and Brothers: New York, 1925.]

“…it all broke loose again. And who re-started it? The Bird of Birds the Indian crow. I came to know him well, by and by, and be infatuated with him. I suppose he is the hardest lot that wears feathers. Yes, and the cheerfulest, and the best satisfied with himself. He never arrived at what he is by any careless process, or any sudden one; he is a work of art, and “art is long”; he is the product of immemorial ages, and of deep calculation; one can’t make a bird like that in a day. He has been reincarnated more times than Shiva; and he has kept a sample of each incarnation, and fused it into his constitution. In the course of his evolutionary promotions, his sublime march toward ultimate perfection, he has been a gambler, a low comedian, a dissolute priest, a fussy woman, a blackguard, a scoffer, a liar, a thief, a spy, an informer, a trading politician, a swindler, a professional hypocrite, a patriot for cash, a reformer, a lecturer, a lawyer, a conspirator, a rebel, a royalist, a democrat, a practicer and propagator of irreverence, a meddler, an intruder, a busybody, an infidel, and a wallower in sin for the mere love of it. The strange result, the incredible result, of this patient accumulation of all damnable traits is, that he does not know what care is, he does not know what sorrow is, he does not know what remorse is, his life is one long thundering ecstasy of happiness, and he will go to his death untroubled, knowing that he will soon turn up again as an author or something, and be even more intolerably capable and comfortable than ever he was before.

In his straddling wide forward-step, and his springy side-wise series of hops, and his impudent air, and his cunning way of canting his head to one side upon occasion, he reminds one of the American blackbird. But the sharp resemblances stop there. He is much bigger than the blackbird; and he lacks the blackbird’s trim and slender and beautiful build and shapely beak; and of course his sober garb of gray and rusty black is a poor and humble thing compared with the splendid lustre of the blackbird’s metallic sables and shifting and flashing bronze glories. The blackbird is a perfect gentleman, in deportment and attire, and is not noisy, I believe, except when holding religious services and political conventions in a tree; but this Indian sham Quaker is just a rowdy, and is always noisy when awake–always chaffing, scolding, scoffing, laughing, ripping, and cursing, and carrying on about something or other. I never saw such a bird for delivering opinions. Nothing escapes him; he notices everything that happens, and brings out his opinion about it, particularly if it is a matter that is none of his business. And it is never a mild opinion, but always violent–violent and profane–the presence of ladies does not affect him. His opinions are not the outcome of reflection, for he never thinks about anything, but heaves out the opinion that is on top in his mind, and which is often an opinion about some quite different thing and does not fit the case. But that is his way; his main idea is to get out an opinion, and if he stopped to think he would lose chances.

I suppose he has no enemies among men. The whites and Mohammedans never seemed to molest him; and the Hindoos, because of their religion, never take the life of any creature, but spare even the snakes and tigers and fleas and rats. If I sat on one end of the balcony, the crows would gather on the railing at the other end and talk about me; and edge closer, little by little, till I could almost reach them; and they would sit there, in the most unabashed way, and talk about my clothes, and my hair, and my complexion, and probable character and vocation and politics, and how I came to be in India, and what I had been doing, and how many days I had got for it, and how I had happened to go unhanged so long, and when would it probably come off, and might there be more of my sort where I came from, and when would they be hanged,–and so on, and so on, until I could not longer endure the embarrassment of it; then I would shoo them away, and they would circle around in the air a little while, laughing and deriding and mocking, and presently settle on the rail and do it all over again.

They were very sociable when there was anything to eat–oppressively so. With a little encouragement they would come in and light on the table and help me eat my breakfast; and once when I was in the other room and they found themselves alone, they carried off everything they could lift; and they were particular to choose things which they could make no use of after they got them. In India their number is beyond estimate, and their noise is in proportion. I suppose they cost the country more than the government does; yet that is not a light matter. Still, they pay; their company pays; it would sadden the land to take their cheerful voice out of it.”

The Rise And Fall Of Rams RB Todd Gurley

As a rookie in 2015, Todd Gurley took the NFL by storm in his first four starts. However, there’s been quite the drought since. Here’s why…
by misone Jan 9, 2017, 12:35pm CST

http://www.turfshowtimes.com/2017/1/9/14170656/la-rams-todd-gurley-jeff-fisher

Los Angeles Rams Running Back Todd Gurley was pegged by former Rams Head Coach Jeff Fisher, as the next big thing. No one can forget Fisher’s excitement about landing Gurley at number 10 overall in the 2015 NFL draft. Watching him sit at the press conference and gush over him with every word when he opened his mouth to talk about him.

In the beginning, it looked like Fisher may have been right about the young polarizing running back. Gurley began his career as a starter by rushing for over 125 yards in four straight weeks. But over his next 25 games, he would only eclipse 100 rushing yards one time.

The question now is; Why?

In going back and watching all of the games from the 2015 season and watching the games from 2016, there are a lot of things that remain the same, and then there are things that are completely different. The issue is, those things that are the same, aren’t necessarily good things. However, let’s began with the things that are different.

It starts with coaching, which is the case in most situations. The Rams had former OC Frank Cignetti employed at the time of Todd Gurley’s rise to stardom. Cignetti installed a zone run scheme that allowed the Rams to attack in different ways, and covered up a lot of flaws in Gurley’s game initially, and the Rams run game took off averaging a staggering 170+ yards a game in Gurley’s first four starts. The Source, was the involvement of Rams WR Tavon Austin…

Over at Battle Red Blog, Brett Kollmann put together an excellent breakdown of what made the Rams offense click.

Austin’s ability to break loose forces defenses to account for him. But for some strange reason, the Rams got away from the successful zone scheme, and even worst the usage of Austin as a threat. Of course the firing of Cignetti — who by all accounts has been the only person to prove he understands how to use Tavon Austin (with the exception of going deep) — and hiring Rob Boras was a big issue. Boras chose to run more power, which is what Jeff Fisher preferred to run. As a result, Austin saw a vast drop in carries in 2016 (28) from 2015 (52), and Gurley suffered the most.

The Rams only used the Austin affect one time in 2016. Now what does it mean to use the Austin affect? It’s when you give the same look twice in a row, but run two different plays. This occurred about 6-10 times a game before Cignetti was fired. The one time the Rams used the Austin affect in 2016, was in the finale against the Cardinals.

It is clear to see here the result of using Austin to free up Gurley. First you have Austin getting the ball and getting around the edge for a few yards. Then directly to follow you have Austin appearing to get the ball again, only for Gurley to slip out for a catch in the flat and a huge gain. The play probably should have gone all the way, but he was tripped up down the field, which brings up the next point.

Another big difference between Todd Gurley of last year and Todd Gurley of this year; he gets tackled way to easy. Not that it was the smartest career move ever or anything, but I didn’t see a single hurdle at all in 2016. Last year, there were 5 of them. Also last year, Gurley didn’t go down from shoe lace tackles. He evaded them, and weaved his way around diving tacklers all season long. This year it was quite the opposite. Gurley often found himself stumbling and falling. The balance was not the same as last year. And that’s part of what drew him the hype and praise coming into this year. The little things are the differences between good players and great ones. Look at the top backs over the last five seasons. Adrian Peterson, Marshawn Lynch, Lesean McCoy, Jamaal Charles, etc… None of them was going down the way Gurley did in the example above. It was a half-ass, sliding, shoe lace tackle, effort from the defender and it worked.

Derrik Klassen

This is another example of Gurley going down easier this year than he did last year. Yes, he lost weight in the off-season, but it was only 10 lbs. Backs lose this much weight all the time in the off-season in an attempt to gain more speed and and quickness. Steelers RB Le’Veon Bell lost 24 lbs upon enter the NFL, and he’s still one of the hardest backs in the NFL to bring down. Let’s remember, Gurley did not lose 10 lbs and drop below 200. He is still a 220 lb back out there. The effort just isn’t the same.

The one other issue that is different between last year and this year, is the line did not open up as many holes as they did last year. Although in watching the games between the two years, the line didn’t really open up a massive amount of holes last year either. As mentioned before, a lot of the success for the run game was because of the Austin affect, which created designed cutback lanes, and wide open holes on the play side. And when teams decided they were going to stop Gurley, Austin had a field day running. Just watch the tape from 2015 on the Rams vs Bengals and the Rams vs Ravens, and you will see how if you focused on one, the other would go crazy. However, overall on a snap to snap basis, the lines play did take a step back.

So what’s the same about Gurley? Well as mentioned before, there’s nothing good in the things that remained the same.

Gurley has never shown me three key things to being a great back. All of the great backs has had these things, but Gurley has never demonstrated any of them consistently. Those three traits are;

Vision
Patience
Elusiveness

Gurley’s vision and patience are two things I have harped on all year. I’ve taken a lot kickback from people who have not agreed with my stern, but honest, analysis of Gurley’s running. Even the great Hall of Famer and former Los Angeles Rams RB Eric Dickerson himself disagreed with me when I asked him personally if he saw Gurley missing holes and running with less patience.

The question about Gurley’s vision and patience takes place at the 13 min mark.

My critique of Gurley hit an all time high after week four this season. During a weekly recap of the game I previously had pointed out Gurley’s issues and was asked for proof. Here’s what I had to say..

“Rams RB Todd Gurley is becoming his own worst enemy. You can see him in every post-game interview pouting and looking all sad — whether the team wins or loses — because he is not getting the big time gains he wants. However, I mentioned in last weeks recap he was not seeing the holes, and he is running without patience to set up the blocks. This was the case again against the Cardinals. By my count he missed four gaping holes that had he seen and hit surely at the very least all would have gotten him 10-20 yard gains. There is one play that stood out more then the others to me. It’s because the Cardinals ran the exact same play, to the exact same side, with the exact same looks, and had different results.

I received a message from one TST reader that asked me to show what I meant about his lack of vision and patience, so here you go…

Derrik Klassen

As you can see in the footage above, the Rams run a stretch to the right of the formation against another stacked box with eight defenders. The play is blocked unbelievably well. The offensive line moves the entire front side of the defensive line 3-4 yards off the ball. On the backside, C Tim Barnes and LG Rodger Saffold chop down the defenders. As you can see it creates a hole that is about five yards wide. If Gurley slows down (patience) and looks about a yard to his left (vision), there is a good chance he’s still running today. Instead he just barrels into the back of his linemen for no reason whatsoever.

Derrick Klassen

Here we see the Cardinals run the exact same play and get the exact same hole, but the result is much different. RB Chris Johnson slows down as he presses the hole, looks to his left about a yard, sees the opening hits it and falls into the end zone. It is literally the exact same. And the Cardinals ran it again two drives later with David Johnson. The result was a 31-yard gain, his longest of the day.

I get it. Gurley is a helluva talent and a damn good back, but without patience and vision you’re only average at best. Add a stacked box, and you’re mediocre. Rams fans, try not to forget that for nine seasons straight, no running back in the NFL saw more stacked boxes than RB Steven Jackson. But due to his vision and patience — coupled with his superstar talents — he ran for over 1,000 yards in each of those seasons regardless.”

Here we have another example of Gurley simply running into the backs of his linemen, when in fact they are doing their jobs, and have opened a massive crease, but Gurley missed it from lack of vision and patience.

Derrik Klassen

(My apologies, the sideline view — unavailable at the time — shows a more clear shot of the hole and open field, here you can see only the hole)

Here Gurley takes the ball up the gut and picks up two yards. But he fails to see the OLB cheating in and crashing inside. This opens up a massive cutback lane to the outside. There is no one in the vicinity and it’s highly likely if he sees it and bounces to the left of the center, he hits his head on the goal post.

This season there has been a lot of running with his head down, not even attempting to see what is taking place in front of him.

Interim HC John Fassel is on record saying the following about Gurley in his post game press conference after week 17.

““I think he started pressing a little bit. Because there wasn’t success that came at any point, especially early. And it was human nature to become frustrated. Whether he pressed or wasn’t patient, whatever it is, I’d have to go back and look at the whole seasons tape. But frustation set in and confidence dropped””

Rams Guard Jamon Brown went on to say this,

Alden Gonzalez, ESPN Staff Writer

One thing is for sure, I was alone in my criticism of Gurley in the beginning but as time has gone on, the rumblings of running without patience, vision, and less authority started to be talked about more and more. I even began hearing commentators talk about it during games over the final four weeks.

We can all sit here and point the finger at the line and play-callers all day. And they are without question at fault in some instances. But Gurley’s biggest issues lie within himself. They are all correctable, but he has to stop moping around and realize, that as an NFL running back, you are going to be tasked with creating your own lanes more times than not (unless you play for the Cowboys). All of the best to ever do it, have been good at creating space and getting yards. They can set up blocks, as well as read the ones that lie before them.

I mentioned before that Rams fans have forgotten about former Rams RB Steven Jackson already. For so many years during his 10 year career with the team, he had no pass game, and a horrible offensive line. Teams stacked the box weekly, and he didn’t have a Tavon Austin to distract anyone. He had guys like Laurant Robinson, Danny Amendola, Mike Sims-Walker, etc.. But he still found a way to eclipse 1000 yards every year, using great patience, vision, a sick jump cut, and effort.

It’s time to hold Todd Gurley accountable…

Source: 49ers are Josh McDaniels’ preferred team

Eric Branch

http://www.sfgate.com/49ers/article/Source-49ers-are-Josh-McDaniels-preferred-team-10841023.php

Josh McDaniels’ preferred team is the 49ers if the Patriots’ offensive coordinator decides to leave New England to become a head coach, a source said.
McDaniels, 40, will interview with the 49ers, Rams and Jaguars on Saturday near the Patriots’ facility.

The 49ers, who are the only team with a general-manager opening, are appealing to McDaniels because of their clean-slate situation and CEO Jed York’s stated commitment to patiently rebuilding. It’s believed the 49ers’ status as a marquee franchise, despite their recent free-fall, also makes them more attractive than Los Angeles and Jacksonville.

It’s possible, of course, McDaniels’ preference could change after meeting with each team Saturday. McDaniels, who has served as New England’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach since 2012, is probably ready to take his second head-coaching position, the source said.

On Monday, York discussed having a long-term vision with the new regime, which will inherit the NFL’s second-most salary-cap space and 11 expected 2017 draft picks, including No. 2 overall. The 49ers are coming off a 2-14 season and have lost 29 of their past 37 games, dating to 2014.

“The decisions that we’re going to make are not going to be to have a quick fix, PR turnaround,” York said. “Go from a two-win team to an 8-8 team, but that’s going to falter and not get to where we need to go.”

McDaniels declined an interview with the 49ers in 2011, about a month after he was fired as Denver’s head coach with an 11-17 record. He spoke with the 49ers in 2015 before they hired Jim Tomsula.

Of the 49ers’ seven known head-coaching candidates, only McDaniels and Seattle offensive line coach Tom Cable have served as NFL head coaches on a non-interim basis.

The 49ers obviously are seeking a head coach and general manager who will form a collaborative partnership. They reportedly have requested an interview with New England director of player personnel Nick Caserio, although it’s not known if a meeting will occur. McDaniels and Caserio, who has been with the Patriots since 2001, were teammates at John Carroll University.

ESPN analyst and former NFL executive Louis Riddick, who reportedly will interview with the 49ers next week, has been an avid fan of McDaniels on social media. Riddick and McDaniels also have strong ties to New England head coach Bill Belichick. Riddick, 47, played for Belichick for three seasons during his six-year NFL playing career. McDaniels has spent 13 of his 16 seasons in the NFL with Belichick.

Riddick said Monday on air that York’s stated approach to rebuilding makes the 49ers an attractive destination and that he would take the job.
“He will give whoever is given that position the support and the time to get that done,” Riddick said.

The 49ers interviewed Vikings assistant general manager George Paton and Atlanta offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan on Friday

Rams Interim Head Coach John Fassel –– January 1, 2017

(Opening remarks)
“Our goal was to start out 2017 with a win and a little bit better vibe – clearly that didn’t happen. I really don’t have much more to add because what I would say is probably what I would’ve said the last couple weeks – as far as the actual offense, defense and special teams – just didn’t get it done. What I told the guys after the game here in the locker room was that I was proud of them and everything we’ve been through is tough. Definitely not any excuse because we’re pros – we’re expected to overcome adversity, perform at the highest level and win – we just didn’t do that. Wish I probably had more for you to just kind of start out, but at this point I think I’ve run out of words.”

(On how much the loss hurts)
“It hurts bad. It hurts. I was expecting to win. Anytime you lose hurts, but it hurts to lose in the fashion that we did because people are going to ask ‘did the team quit, did they not prepare, did they not care?’ Before you ask that, I will just say, in my opinion, whether its correct or whether it’s naïve, preparation this week was great. We had a good Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday practice – we did. There wasn’t any lack of energy, there wasn’t anybody that was late and obviously, today, we just weren’t good enough. Offensively, again, we just couldn’t get anything going. That just puts us in a hole and it’s hard for us to come back, when we don’t have a lead. It hurts. Sorry for a long answer to a simple question”

(On whether it would be fair to judge QB Jared Goff on the 2016 season and whether people even know what kind of quarterback he is going to be yet)
“I don’t think so. I think the only thing you can judge about Jared is that he’s tough. You can say that he didn’t win a game as a starter, but we also weren’t very good in, really, any of the positions on offense to give him a chance. He’ll take responsibility for himself too. I think he’s a building is a building block and I think Todd Gurley is – we made (WR) Tavon (Austin) last year with the contract part of that. Then our offensive line has really got to step up to protect a building block who we’re building around Jared. I admire his toughness. I think you can judge whatever you want. But I just think he needs more opportunities and more help to really judge him. I love the kid. I think he’s what you want – he’s tough”

(On how he would evaluate RB Todd Gurley this season and whether it’s the same sort of thing as Goff)
“I would say the same sort of thing. You have two building blocks. I think you have a quarterback and running back – a rookie and a second-year guy. Clearly, they need to perform better, but they need help”

(On if there was anything specifically regarding Gurley that he saw that was different than last year)
“Yeah. I think two things. I think he started pressing a little bit because there just wasn’t success that came, really, at any point, especially early. It was probably human nature to become a little bit frustrated. Whether he pressed and wasn’t patient or whatever it is – I’ll have to go back and look at the whole season worth of tape. But frustration set in and confidence maybe dropped, whether it was in himself or just the whole package. I think you have a really good running back. Last year, he really was pretty spectacular in the last 12 games of the season and it just didn’t work out this game. But I would go to battle with those guys on offense moving forward. There has to be some help”

(On if there was a scuffle outside the locker room at halftime between players)
“There was, I didn’t see it, and I haven’t got a full report. From what I heard, (DT Dominique) Easley one of the Cardinals guys started some kind of banter back and forth. I’m not sure what provoked it, and really how it finished because I didn’t see it, but I heard about it and I think whoever it was did a good job at breaking it up and it didn’t carry over in the second half, which was good”

(On if the scuffle was between the Rams and the Cardinals)
“Correct. It was a Ram and a Cardinal. Then, once two guys, a Ram and a Cardinal went at it, then a few more Rams and a few more Cardinals went at it. But to follow up on that, there hasn’t been any internal clashes of hate or fighting, and sometimes, maybe as poorly as our offense performed, let’s face it. You know a lot of teams might have the defense start pointing fingers, and screaming and shouting, and, you know, a hoedown goes on in the locker room. None of that happened. That was my understanding of what happened”

(On what the most positive thing is that he can take from this season)
“That’s a really good question. That’s a really good question. It’s hard to think of one right now. The only thing I would say is, you know, in the full year of moving out here and being in different places and not having really any sustained success except for maybe that three-game winning streak early in the season, is I think the positive thing you take from it is, there are some pros in the locker room that, as bad as things got, prepared, practiced, and gave it their all to perform, although I can see how some people might question that. But, that’s not at all what I saw. So maybe, intangibles, I think there’s some positives to take, but as far as the measurables, with offensive numbers, wins and losses, it’s tough maybe to see the positives in any form or fashion from that, other than, there is fighters in the locker room, and there’s guys who I think believe in the ‘stonecutter credo.’”

(On what he thinks the problems with the offensive line are)
“Yeah. Two years ago in Todd’s (Gurley) class I think we drafted five O-lineman, and then a supplemental sixth. So, I believe it’s a solid group. Weather it’s finding the right lineup, or building an identity – that’s the biggest thing. Just from observation the past three weeks, when a unit has an identity that they believe in, then they have an expectation of how they need to perform. In my evaluation, I didn’t sense an identity on the offensive line, you know, are we great pass protectors, are we smash-mouth drive blockers, are we going to communicate. I know from a special teams perspective, the better special teams groups in the league, there’s an identity. Whether they’re fast, or they’re tough, or they’re relentless, or they can return the football. And I think that would be the biggest thing. Maybe that’s a bad answer because it’s not something that you can measure, but identity is a big thing, especially, I think, on offensive line”

(On what the explanation was for the Goff motion penalty)
“I asked a couple of times. They said that because he’s a quarterback, it’s different as a guy in motion if he doesn’t get set because it falls under the rules of deceit. That’s what I was told because he can still be making calls and making signals. The one ref who didn’t make the call – I kept asking him for an answer – because a guy can go in motion as long as everybody is set before he goes in motion, and that’s what happened. And he said ‘there was motion by the quarterback, penalty because of the rules of deceit.’”

(On if he is going to read the rule-book and look up the rules of “deceit”)
“Yeah I got to read the rules on that one. Obviously, the category of deceit is pretty subjective. That was a strange one that just – I’ll get an explanation so I’ll know better than next time because that was a unique one”

(On QB Jared Goff seeming upset on the fake-punt with P Johnny Hekker)
“I didn’t even see it. He obviously didn’t know we were going to run a fake punt. I’m sure he wanted to go for it. And the crowd was booing, and I’m just listening to the crowd, saying, well, you’ll find out in a few seconds what’s going to happen. I’m glad he was mad – I didn’t see him. I wasn’t concerned. I figured we’d get the first. The other one too that I got to find the film, because all I saw was live – I was standing right there – was the personal foul at the end of the half. In my opinion, the referees gave him the opportunity to get the three points. I saw our guy get blocked in the back, which ricocheted him into their guy. So, I could be wrong, that’s just what I saw live, and it’s unfortunate when you give up three points at the end of the half. If that wasn’t the call, then they wouldn’t have had an opportunity for that. But, that wasn’t a factor in the game. That was just two things that I’ll have to look at and learn from on why those were called”

(On what’s next for him)
“Well, I’m going to go home tonight and spend some time with my wife and kids and go back to the office in the morning, but, I told the guys in the locker room after the game that I’m very proud to be a Ram. I’ve been a Ram for five years – longest I’ve been as a coach in any place in my career – college or pro. I feel like I’m a Ram. I’m proud to be a Ram. Obviously, the changes that are going to happen – my fate is really up to other people. Whether it’s the new head coach wants to keep me or not, that’s kind of the way it goes. Thanks for asking, I haven’t, really, actually thought about it. But I’m sure tomorrow I’ll have to start working on thinking about it”

(On how he would summarize his three-game stint as interim head coach)
“Unsuccessful, because we didn’t get a win. But on a personal level, it was probably the best coaching experience of my life. It’s definitely something that I’ll never forget. I think it will be an experience that has made me a lot better coach, and has given me a little bit different perspective on things to be able to do that in this situation. I can’t imagine ever being thrust into a more unique situation. It quite possibly could happen, just because it’s football. I would have to summarize it as probably the best coaching experience of my life.”

***

Rams QB Jared Goff

(On the positives he takes out of this season moving forward)

“I think there’s a lot of things. I think you can learn a lot about yourself, a lot about your teammates, a lot about how not to do things and that sometimes can be the best stuff. You can learn from the bad things. In life and in football and everything you do it’s not always going to be up, up, up, up, up all positive. There’s going to be down years, down games, down times in your life and the way you get better from them is you learn from them. That’s what we need to do. If you don’t learn from them then it’s going to keep getting worse and if you learn from them it’s probably going to get a lot better. I’ve experienced that in football and life and everything and I know that you guys have, too. It’s a pretty simple concept. If it’s not going very well learn from it.”

(On whether or not he compares this season with the Rams to his experience in college)

“Yeah, absolutely. That was a hard time and this feels just about the same. It’s pretty identical and I think the best part about it was that we weeded out the people we needed to weed out. We changed the culture in the building, and then we won in the coming years with the same guys that were 1-11 the year before and that’s kind of what I expect to happen here as well. Four and twelve with some more talent than we looked like in that room. We need to do some things and get the culture changed and with that comes higher standards and better players and more talent and it just rolls. It just keeps going. It’s momentum and I expect that to happen here.”

(On if he thinks it’s fair for the fans to judge him as a quarterback after this season)

“I’d hope not. It’s only been seven games and I know it’s my rookie year. I came in midway through the season, but I’m not trying to make any excuses. I’ve got to be better and everyone’s got to be better, but I think I’ve got a lot of football ahead of me and I expect to continue to improve and expect the guys in there to rally around me and get things done around here.

(On how banged up he feels)

“I’m fine.”

(On where he feels he’s made the biggest strides and what areas need improvement)

“There’s a million things. I don’t know if I can pinpoint it, but I feel like I’ve made great strides all the way from April until now. Just understanding everything and seeing everything and letting it slow down a little bit and being able to not think so much and just react and play. In these last few games that became more and more apparent as it did when I first started playing against Miami into the coming weeks. It just became slower and it became easier to see. I was seeing things better. I think it’s kind of a natural progression for guys. Like I said, it’s only seven games, but it’s enough to know what I did well and what I didn’t do well and what I need to work on.”

(On his excitement to play a new system and what he plans to do in between the coaching change)

“Very. Going back to what I just said I know what I need to work on. I know what I need to get better at. I know what I have to do well, so as far as that goes I probably won’t focus on this year as much. As soon as the new coach is hired we will be diving into the new playbook and giving it everything I’ve got and learn as quickly as I can, picking it up and getting ready for OTAs. I’m very excited. I think everyone there is very excited. We know this year didn’t go the way we liked it to and we know that there are greener pastures ahead especially with what should be coming in the future. We’re excited.”

(On if he hopes the new playbook lets him take more chances)

“Of course, I mean sure as a quarterback you always want to throw it, but with what we had I think we did the best job at that with what we did have and what we were able to do. Of course you like to be able to throw the ball around and get some guys running around, making plays, and having big long passes and big long runs. At the same time, whoever it is it will be a good hire and I’m excited for it.”

(On the message he had to the other players as the leader of the team)

“I told all the guys, especially the young guys that I know are going to be here for a while, ‘Just remember what this feels like. It’s going to drive you through the offseason. It’s going to drive you into next year. It’s going to maybe even carry with you for the rest of your life.’ I tried to let them know that this isn’t the end of anything. It’s really the beginning. This feeling should linger with us and it should stick with us all the way through next year.”

(On the Cardinals defensive performance)

“They were doing a good job up front. They were bringing it. Obviously, they had nothing to lose just like us, so they were going to bring a lot of pressure. We kind of expected that and we wanted to pick it up better than we did. That group up front, I don’t care what anyone says about them. I appreciate their effort and everything they gave me and Case (Keenum). Those guys up front gave me everything they had. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out, but I’m very appreciative and very happy for those guys.”

(On what he will do different this offseason)

“It’ll be a little different. I’ll have my first kind of real offseason in a long time and not have school or anything like that. I’ve talked to some receivers already and most of us will be down here, so we’ll train and whenever we get that new playbook start digging into it, getting ahead of it and get ready for OTAs. I think the guys are hungrier than ever now. I understand that this is not what we want to do. It’s not what anyone wants to do. We need to just hold ourselves to a higher standard and it starts as soon as we start working out.”

(On his opinion of RB Todd Gurley)

“Todd’s (Gurley) great. Todd’s going to be fine. I don’t know what he ended up with. He probably ended up with 900 yards, and sure you know what people probably expected him to do more than that, but Todd’s a great player, great teammate, great leader. He’s going to be just fine. I expect him to have a big year.”

(On his sense of ownership going forward)

“It’s huge. As a quarterback of this team and a leader of the team it’s big, especially going through a little bit of a change and a shift, but I know I won’t have to do it all on my own. I know there’s guys in there that think the same way I do and understand that things need to be changed and the culture needs to be changed and a million other things have to be changed and I don’t have to do it by myself because those guys are in there. A bunch of great guys, and a bunch that is going to be as resilient as anybody else.”

(On what he thinks the silver lining of the season is)

“I’m not sure there is much. Maybe that we have a change coming that is going to be positive and is going to bring a lot of positive energy and something we’re all excited for and something we’re excited to get going with. We want to put this behind us as quickly as possible and want people to understand that this is not what we’re about and the standard will be set higher.”

***

Rams G Rodger Saffold

(On what he took away from this season from a team standpoint)

“It just seems like it’s just a bunch of missed opportunities. We had two touchdowns, and we missed those huge plays, huge turns of momentum, the turnovers – it just constantly happened. Wherever these guys go, they have to workout, and get in the film room, and be like, ‘No more,’ wherever you end up, because this isn’t the culture that you want to live in. I’ve been here seven years and still haven’t had a winning season. I know I’ve worked hard enough to deserve better.”

(On why the team lost by so many points today)

“That’s pretty easy to understand – we had all of those turnovers. We had, I think it was, I don’t know how many straight three-and-outs, you’d probably know better than I know. But, then your defense gets tired. They probably ran 90 plays today – anytime that you do that towards the end of the game, they’re going to be really tired from running all around. The other offense from the other side is going to be really amped to continue to score.”

(On if seven sacks allowed stings a little as an offensive lineman)

“Yeah, especially when it’s sacks in the back of your legs. For me, I just kind of look at it as what do you want to leave on tape? Obviously, guys got to take a hard look at themselves and challenge themselves to be better.”

***

Rams WR Tavon Austin

(On how the season unfolded the way it did after starting the year 3-1)

“It kind of goes back to ourselves. You can’t blame on the coaches, you can’t blame on nobody else. We’re the guys out there playing. Like I said, we continue to shoot ourselves in the foot with the type of things that happened. This is the NFL. There’s not going to be way too many blowout games going to be like this in the NFL. A lot of our games that we lost was one point, one yard too short – things in that nature. We just got to correct little things. If we can convert on those, it’s a different type of ball game right now. But, we didn’t. I think that’s one thing we got to work hard on.”

(On if his conversation with QB Jared Goff in the locker room after the game was in regards
to the future)

“Yeah, definitely. Just about when we’re going start getting started, and who it’s really going to run through, as far as the both of us. We got elevate our game to a whole other level next year. Everybody is going to be held accountable. Whatever coaches are in here, everybody is going to be held accountable, and we’re going to go from there.”

(On what he offers to the fans at this point)

“I want to say from my heart, I apologize for the things that happened this year. We thought it was going to be a better year, but it wasn’t. Like I said, the tables will be turned around, and we will be on top one day.”

***

Rams RB Todd Gurley

(On the progress of QB Jared Goff)

“I felt like he did good. Obviously, it was a lot of struggles with protection. He probably got hit more than me, actually. Just got to protect him. It’s hard trying to – I mean, I’m not a quarterback – but, I’d imagine if you get hit in the first play of the game, and it’s a two or three-man rush, that’s going to affect you. He’s a young quarterback. He’s going to be great. He’s definitely going to get better.”

(On if a change between personnel from an offensive standpoint will affect the team)

“I’m not going to get into all of that. It’s just kind of is what it is at this point. Just going to try to enjoy this offseason a little bit, and get back to work.”

(On what he learned about the team’s character this season)

“No matter what, everybody’s sad. We knew things weren’t going our way. We just stuck together. It wasn’t an, ‘Awe man, offense – you need to do this. Defense, you need to do that.’ Obviously, as an offense, we know what we needed to do. But, we just stuck together as a family, and that’s what we break it down on. At the end of the day, we might not have had the season we wanted, but I love every single one of these guys in here, and they bring it every week.”

***

Rams LB Alec Ogletree

(On the disappointment of ending the season on this note)

“It sucks to lose like this, definitely don’t want to go out the way we did. It’s what happened today. We have to get some things fixed around here and get ready for the next season. The end of this season is over with, there’s nothing we can do about it. Now it’s time to get started for the next season.”

(On what he is expecting to see this offseason)

“I just would like to see some consistency as far as the whole team goes. When they bring in a new coach, they’re going to bring in who they want to bring in, but we definitely need a guy that’s going to demand consistency and bring a winning culture. We’re out here to win games and that’s our goal.”

(On what happened after the 3-1 start)

“We just kind of lost, I guess you could say, our mojo. I felt like we kept trying to play each week – I wouldn’t say we lost our mojo, I think it’s just more so we didn’t learn how to finish games. We played a lot of close games and we didn’t finish a lot of them. But that’s the biggest thing, just not finishing.”

***

Rams CB Trumaine Johnson

(On if this is the way he pictured the season ending)

“Never, not at all. It was a tough loss. It’s been a rough season.”

(On the most positive thing to come from the season)

“Building chemistry with my teammates. Like I said, I’ve been with guys for four or five years. Going to work every day, there’s still laughter in the building. Building chemistry with my teammates and just being around them.”

***

Rams S T.J. McDonald

(On what needs to happen this offseason)

“Something has to change, something has to change – a lot. A lot has to change.”

(On the most positive thing to come from this season)

“Camaraderie with my teammates. Going through a lot of different things, I don’t think we’ll ever have a season as challenging as far as the move from St. Louis and all that. Us coming together and all that, so that’s the most positive.”

(On if you forget a season like this as quickly as possible or if you use it for motivation)

“Yeah. In this business, you want to move on, but at this point, where we are right now, we just want to move on, flush it and get to this organization to where it needs to be.”

***

Rams DE Will Hayes

(On where the improvements need to be made on the team)

That’s above my pay scale. The only thing I know is, individually, everybody just needs to work their craft and when the new coach comes in here, make sure we don’t do anything to get him fired (laughter). That’s the reality of it. Guys just have to step their games up and be a little bit more productive. It’s just unfortunate, the season we had, I felt pretty good coming into the season. When we start off 3-1, I thought that was going to be the thing to help us transcend and be a playoff team. It just didn’t work out that way.”

Smog linked to third of deaths in China, study finds
Research puts air pollution on a par with smoking as threat to human health

http://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2056553/smog-linked-third-deaths-china-more-deadly-smoking-study-finds?utm_medium=partner&utm_campaign=contentexchange&utm_source=biv

Smog is related to nearly one-third of deaths in China, putting it on a par with smoking as a threat to health, according to an academic paper based on the study of air pollution and mortality data in 74 cities and published in an international journal.
The findings by Nanjing University’s School of the Environment, which were published in the November edition of the journal the Science of the Total Environment, provides the latest scientific estimates of the health cost of China’s notorious smog.

The latest bout of smog began last Friday, affecting about half a billion people on the mainland, with the severest impact in the last three days.

Previous research work have found equally alarming results about the country’s toxic air. The International Energy Agency published its first study on air pollution in June and estimated that severe air pollution has shortened life expectancy in China by an average 25 months.
An academic paper co-authored by researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the US, Tsinghua University and Peking University in China, plus the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 2013 concluded that bad air has cut life expectancy by an average of 5.5 years in the north of the country.
China’s smog knocks 2 years off life expectancy: International Energy Agency

There are so far no concrete or widely agreed estimates on the impact of air pollution on health in China partly because it is scientifically complicated to measure and also because there is little historical precedent for prolonged exposure to such high levels of air pollution.
The six researchers from Nanjing University said they conducted the study because air pollution was the “most severe and worrisome environmental problem in China”, but knowledge of its health effects was insufficient.

When they looked into 3.03 million deaths in 2013 in 74 cities in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and the Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta, they found 31.8 per cent could be linked to PM 2.5 pollution – the tiny smog particles most hazardous to health.
Baoding, Shijiazhuang and Handan in Hebei province, the cities with the worst air pollution, each reported more than 30,000 deaths in 2013 related to smog.
How scientists cracked the puzzle of Beijing’s wintertime smog

By comparison, smoking-related illnesses cause about one million deaths in the country each year.
An improvement in air quality would have an “outstanding” impact on the reduction of mortalities linked to smog, the report said.
If Beijing can deliver its promise of reducing PM2.5 concentrations in the air by 25 per cent in 2017 compared with 2012 levels in areas around Hebei, mortality related to smog would be reduced significantly, it said.
Over the past week, hundreds of flights were grounded, schools suspended classes, private cars were banned in northern China from city roads, highways were closed and hospitals were jammed with patients suffering from a level of air pollution that, in many places, exceeded the limit of air quality monitoring devices.
The National Energy Administration said on Thursday that they will strictly limit the construction of petroleum coke-fired power plants to help preventing air pollution, and limit emissions of high-pollution fuels.
The nation also launched a satellite to monitor carbon dioxide levels on Thursday.
Analysts have warned that the air pollution problem would become a public policy outcry if Beijing fails to clean up the air. Leaders have vowed to make tackling air pollution a war.
Even though the government pledged to scale down production, factories are still stepping up their operation and local authorities are worried that production suspension may lead to economic downturn.
Some lawyers have filed suits against the governments of Beijing, Hebei and Tianjin.

Rams Interim Head Coach John Fassel – – December 30, 2016

(Opening remarks)

“I guess the only thing on my mind now is I’m going to miss football practice. It’s great to always be able to come out here on the grass, huddle the guys up, and pick some dirt and grass up, and said this is pretty sacred stuff – this green grass and dirt that’s between the lines. Just never take it for granted. Practice is fun, man, and it’s a long time before we get to do it again. I’m going to miss it.”

(On if this season has gone by fast for him)

“Right now looking back, it seems like it’s gone by fast. But, you know when you’re in it, and it’s Week 4, and Week 8, and Week 12, it kind of goes about how you think. I wish we had more, I wish we had more. It’s too bad.”

(On if he’s ever had a season similar to this year in all of his years around the game of football)

“No. You hit me with that – if I had to look back, I don’t think. Especially if you count relocation, and then all the different places we’ve been, and then obviously what’s happened in the past three weeks. I think this has to be up there with one of the most unique seasons I’ve definitely been a part of, and it just kind of shows you that the only thing that’s constant is change. That’s pro football and we adapt, and that’s just the way it is.”

(On what it would mean to him for RB Todd Gurley to have the best game of his season in the finale)

“It would be great. I’d imagine from Todd’s perspective, it would almost be like a big sigh of relief. But, finally – we talked about the stone cutter. That would be the epitome of the stone cutter, where for 15 weeks or 16 weeks, you just keep chipping away. Then, Week 17 would be that 101st blow for him where, finally, I got it. I think he needs 155 or something like that, to get his 1,000 yards, which would special for a season where maybe he didn’t get everything he wanted. But, to still say I got 1,000 yards, that would be a pretty spectacular feat. That would be one of the cool things to see guys achieve – a goal that, obviously, has been a real struggle to get.”

(On if as a coach, will he make sure those players reach certain milestones going into the last game of the season)

“Yeah, that would figure into feeding him the ball a little bit more, or (P) Johnny (Hekker) trying to get in another punt, or for any position. If you need another sack, or – (LB Alec Ogletree) ‘Tree’ needs, I think, five more tackles to get his career best, or something like that. That would be a factor. Week 17 at this point in the season, you try to get guys to achieve their goals, whether if you have to manufacture a play-call, or something like that.”

(On what strikes him the most about Gurley’s personality and how he handles adversity)

“I think he’s been – it’s been tough for him, for sure – but kind of like (QB) Jared (Goff). They’re young guys that have had a lot of accolades coming into the NFL. Then Todd, obviously, last year had accolades with the Pro Bowl and all of that. But I think, in a real twisted way, it’s really good for a coach or a player that’s been successful to have to go through a tough time, and kind of see really what they’re made of and see how they respond to either the critique, or lack of production from what they’re used to. I think if we just look at it that way – like how do we respond to the tough time and can we bounce back. I think he’s handled it really well, and I think it’ll be good for him going forward to go into the offseason with a little bit of a chip on his shoulder and a little extra hunger, rather than coming off a lot of accolades.”

(On what his message will be to the team before the last game on Sunday)

“I’m actually kind of still thinking about it. I can’t say that I know right now exactly what I want to say for Saturday night. It won’t be long. It won’t be much. But, I want to make sure my last message is short and sweet, with a little extra emphasis on sweet. I’m still kind of building up in my head of what I want to say, it’s my last shot, so, I got to make it great.”

(On if his father will be on the sideline)

“Yes, yeah he’ll be there. He’ll be there just like he was the past two games. That’s been a really cool part of these last three weeks – have him be a little bit more involved with just what I’m doing, which has been cool.”

(On what it will mean to him to get a win as an interim head coach)

“I don’t know, other than after the season, one day look back and say when the Rams relocated, I was given a unique opportunity to lead the team for three games. I think it would be cool to say, as a head coach, I won a game. So, I don’t know what it would mean. I don’t know. I think it’s been very meaningful to be in this position to be a leader with the situation that we’re in. I think that’s super meaningful. What does a win mean? Maybe ask me after that game. I don’t know. That’s a good question. I haven’t really thought about it to be honest with you.”

Rams Defensive Coordinator Gregg Williams – – December 30, 2016

(On if he has ever been through a season like this)

“It’s pretty tough, there’s a lot of different things. As a professional, inside the white lines, you have to get ready to go. I think one of the more comforting things for these guys, and I’m very proud of a lot of the things that they’ve been through this year, is that there’s more peace and more calmness when they’re in the meetings and when they’re inside the white lines doing what they’re supposed to be doing. Those are excuses, we’re pros, we’re supposed to be able to do what we’re supposed to do. A good, young team defensively, I’m really proud of how far they came. We had a lot of moving parts at the start of the season, guys having to step up and move in to some new roles for us. They’ve done very good. I think (LB) Alec (Ogletree) has done an outstanding job this year defensively. We’ve got another one to play, play it our way, and do a better job finishing at the end.”

(On if anybody surprised him this season)

“There’s really, in all honesty, not a lot of surprises when you go through them. I think back in the old days when all we had was two, three day mini-camps when I started back in the ‘80’s in the league, and early ‘90’s – you didn’t have offseason training, you didn’t even have weightlifting and that kind of stuff because you didn’t have the facilities back then. When I’ve got them for nine straight weeks, they need a break from me and I need a break from them, there’s no surprises (laughter). I treat them all like my own sons, anyway – I’m just very hard on my own sons. They responded very well. I’m very proud of and again, I’ve told you guys this before, of guys that maybe other teams gave up on, they come here and we’re able to get things out of them. Undrafted free agents, all of the sudden they play very well for us – why is that? I’m okay with changing the style or the scheme of play to fit their strengths, hide their weaknesses. As long as they’re tough, as long as they’re smart, we’ll find a place for them. A lot of those guys have stepped up this year – especially in the secondary. I’ve been really proud of the secondary coaches, both (defensive backs coaches) Brandon (Fisher) and Dennard (Wilson) have done a very good job of taking some inexperienced guys and doing pretty well in our league, because the league has turned into a passing league. They’ve done very well.”

(On if he would be open to staying with the Rams following this season)

“It’d be one of those things. I love coaching. I don’t have hobbies. I’m happiest at practice, I’m happiest in games. The coaches and players get fed up with me in the meetings, so we like to get out here. But, yeah, sure. I’m going to coach for as long as I can. People say, ‘When will you know it’s time to stop doing this?’ It’s when they stop paying attention to me – it can’t be that simple. Can you step in the room, that’s when you know you belong in this league, especially from a coaching standpoint, is when they tone you out or they don’t listen to you, then maybe you better take a look at something else. I don’t have any problems of getting people to listen to me, I don’t have any problems with that. This is a good group, it’s a good profession. We’ll see, it’ll be an interesting offseason, but I’ve been through a bunch of those kinds before.”

(On what he has thought of his time with the organization)

“It’s been tough in some ways. But the thing that I promised when I came back to help Jeff (Fisher) was that I’m not going to complain about anything to do with the people that coach – I’ll coach them. Now, get out of the way and don’t get upset with the way I coach them because it’s not always, maybe, a human resource kind of coaching because I’m going to make sure that they understand exactly what I’m saying. And they’ve done that, Jeff did that, so I enjoyed that part of it.”

(On how going against Cardinals QB Carson Palmer and WR Larry Fitzgerald alter the game plan)

“I never had a chance to be on the same team with them, but I have admired them from afar for a long time. They’re very, very, very tough, veteran players, both of those guys. There’s not a lot of things that you can do to trick them anymore, it just comes down to a battle of wills, a battle of discipline. They’re both outstanding players. The fact that we’re playing in the same division – they know us, we know them. They’re two of the very top guys in our league.”

(On the final minutes of last week’s game)

“You don’t take a look at there’s no explosive plays and that’s outstanding in that respect. Our guys have done a very good job on not letting the ball get over the top of them. But then you have to be able to make the key little tight plays at the end and a couple times they haven’t done that. We did a great job last week of minimizing the scrambles until the very end and that wasn’t a part of our game plan. Our game plan was dominate in the rushing attack and then making sure that he (49ers QB Colin Kaepernick) couldn’t scramble. I’ll be doggoned, the last two drives, he didn’t put the ball in his own hand and we didn’t play very well on those couple of plays – we make those couple of scramble plays, then it’s a different world, a different game. The guys have done a good job all year long. People focus on that game there or one other game like that, but there’s been about four or five of them where we’ve done very well in the two-minute where we’ve made the play, we’ve knocked the ball out, we’ve created the fumble or the interception at the Jets like Ogletree did. Our guys have a short memory, hopefully, and they’ll be able to come back this week and play hard. But we want to be in those situations, you want to be in those situations where you’re leading at the end and have to make those plays, we just didn’t.”

(On what some of the younger players learn from the adversity this year)

“I would hope that they’d understand the resiliency and the toughness and the discipline part of it. There’s two words that I preach constantly to the guys on the defensive side of the ball that they have to own these two words that begin with the letter ‘A’ – and that’s accountability and availability. From an accountability standpoint, they all of the sudden see that they’re no longer on full-ride, they’re no longer on scholarship. This is a production business, there’s so many people waiting to sit in their chairs or waiting to sit in my chair. People want to be in the National Football League, so they have seen and gotten an opportunity to show whether they belong or not. So it’s been a good audition for some of these guys and it’s a good resume-builder for some of these guys. I’m proud of several of these guys that nobody else liked, but we gave them a chance and they stood out.”

(On taking a lot of snaps on defense)

“It’s just part of it. I look back at my early years when I was with the run-and-shoot (offense) – they scored a ton of points, but how fast the game was going and we had to play a lot of snaps back in those days, too. In this situation, it does pile on you, it does from a fatigue standpoint. We do a good job here, (Director of Sports Medicine and Performance) Reggie (Scott) and everybody does a good job with recovery here. That hasn’t been a problem, I don’t think, with any of our guys. And it also shows you, when you have a young team, they can last a little bit longer. If it was an older team in some of the positions, it would be tough, it would be very physically demanding on them. But, we don’t complain, we enjoy playing every single snap we get out there. You’ll see how we take the field, you can read their body language, they’re ready to go. And I’m anxious to watch them play this week, I’m anxious to watch them finish, because they’ve had a very good week of preparation.”

Rams RB Todd Gurley – – December 30, 2016

(On this week’s practice and preparing for Arizona)

“I felt like it was a great week. It wasn’t a short week, but we came out here with some energy. Last game of the season, so we’re going to try and get a win.”

(On whether the season has gone by quickly)

“Yeah. It always goes by quick. It feels like you just started a month ago, instead, it’s the end of the season.”

(On what stands out to him about this year)

“I haven’t really got there yet – can’t really tell you.”

(On whether there was anything he thought he could have done differently to provide more production in the running game and how he can improve for next year)

“Obviously, looking at every game you make mistakes in the game – that’s just part of it. Just looking back and correcting the mistakes that I had in the games. But other than that, not really. I felt like I’ve prepared myself every week and tried to play as hard as possible.”

(On the Georgia win over TCU in the Liberty Bowl and whether he’ll be talking smack to teammate RB Aaron Green)

“Oh, we won? Okay, cool. That’s all I need to know. I knew we were losing when we came out here. He’ll probably be gone by the time I get back in there, but it’s about to be on now (laughter).”

(On what it would mean to finish the season finale with a big game personally)

“Most definitely. I’ve been waiting for that one game every game. But like I said, you just have to trust in the process. Even if something’s not going your way, you still have to work hard at it and just hope that it happens the next week. My mindset is still the same, just to go out there this weekend and try to give it my all. If we could make something happen this weekend, it would definitely be a good feeling.”

(On whether it’s been easy or difficult to remain patient)

“It’s been fine. I found myself a couple of times, the last couple of games getting a little frustrated. But if you’re not getting frustrated then I don’t think you have the passion for the game. Just me not being content with myself and just knowing that I feel like I can do better as a player. As a team, I know we can do better.”

(On whether he’s gotten any advice from other running backs in the league on how to handle struggles in the running game)

“You get some pretty good advice. It’s kind of all the same, you know, just control what you can control, just stay patient. Everybody’s not going to have eight good years in a row, unless you’re – I don’t know I can’t name anybody – (Patriots QB) Tom Brady (laughter). But every year is not going to be the year. I can’t judge myself off what I did last year because that was last year and this is a new year – a whole different team. You just have to be patient and just work hard. Like I said, just control what you can control and hope that you can just progress every game.”

(On whether that’s something he learned this year – not to judge himself on what he accomplished last year and whether he ever found himself chasing)

“Yeah, as a player you find yourself doing that. It’s just growing up from high school to college. You’re like ‘Oh, I had 800 yards my freshman year, I should have 1,200 yards.’ So, you can never get stuck in the past and just worry about the future – what happened last year, happened last year or what happened last game, happened last game and you just kind of go from there.”

(On whether he’s looking forward to being in a new scheme or a new situation given the big changes to come during the offseason)

“I really haven’t even thought about. Honestly, just trying to finish these last couple games off and make sure I end this last ‘Week 17’ on a good note. Get a win and just try to do as good as possible.”

Rams Interim Head Coach John Fassel – – December 16, 2016

(Opening Remarks)

“Gosh last night, this morning, and right now has come pretty fast again. Leading up to the game yesterday, it was a tough couple of days – we’ve got some really tough guys and we came out of the game with a couple bumps and bruises. The tough guys are going to have to continue to be tough for a couple of weeks. Obviously, there was probably – same old story – some missed opportunities, whether it’s throwing the ball, catching the ball, faking the punt, getting the goal-line stop, the interception where we just missed it – the review – I think that had a big factor on the game, that was unfortunate.

Here’s a couple of injury updates: (DB) Marqui Christian, we’ll put on IR (injured reserve) with an ankle injury from last night. Ninety-four, (DE) Robert Quinn – I think we discussed this – we put on IR with a concussion. Just basically a conservative decision with a couple weeks left and not really feeling like he’d be prepared to play within the next couple of weeks – he’ll be on IR. (RB) Benny Cunningham will be on IR – suffered a neck sprain and it’s a couple week injury, but with two weeks left in the season, we figured we’d put him on the IR. All three guys are expected to make full recoveries. Our decisions were based on the health of the players and what’s best for them at this point.

Jared Goff, quarterback, is in the concussion protocol. A medical timeout was initiated last night, from upstairs, by the NFL. They got him out of the game. He was assessed and he is currently in the concussion protocol. We saw him today and he seems sharp, but he’ll go through the protocol over the next nine days.

(S) T.J. McDonald has a wrist sprain – he’s day-to-day. (CB) Mike Jordan is also in the concussion protocol from last night. (WR) Bradley Marquez suffered a knee sprain on the first punt of the game last night – he’ll be day-to-day. (WR) Kenny Britt, another stinger or two and he’s day-to-day – he continues to tough it out. Much respect for a lot of those guys.”

(On if he spoke to Jared Goff today)

“I did. I went in this morning and I saw him in the training room when he was getting treatment. He was getting a back massage and a neck massage. Obviously, he’s a little bit banged up. But, like I said last night, just a really tough kid. I think he was going for the touchdown. Without the experience of being a real runner, the defender got on him a lot faster than he anticipated. From a special teams perspective, we prefer brawns, maybe, over brains. I told Jared, from a quarterback perspective, brains got to trump the brawns. As a rookie quarterback, he’ll learn to know when to maximize his yardage, but then protect his body. A lot of respect for a really, really tough, competitive kid. It’ll be a good learning experience for him.”

(On how will the concussion protocol affect his ability to practice this week)

“I think it depends on how he’s assessed during the concussion protocol, of when he’s allowed to return to practice.”

(On if he’s confident Goff will be able to play against the 49ers)

“I guess I’d say this – I probably should’ve said this earlier. But, our schedule for the week is the players will he off Saturday and Sunday. There will be treatments Saturday and Sunday morning. Then when we come back Monday, we’re going to treat it like our normal week Tuesday. So, he’ll get three more days to get treated and become assessed, and we’ll probably make a decision from there where he’s at, how much he’ll be able to do in practice. By then, we’ll probably have a better idea of how close he’ll be to playing in the game.”

(On how was the experience of being the head coach)

“It was great. I got on the airplane last night flying home, and I kind of just said, ‘Did all of this really just happen over the course of four days?’ Being thrown into the situation, and got to figure it out. Then, all of a sudden, game day came just like that. Being on the sideline was really special, kind of taking on a little bit different role and responsibility. Having my dad (Jim Fassel) there was really cool. From being on the sideline with him for so many years, and learning so much without even maybe even knowing it. It was an experience that I’ll definitely never, never forget. Unfortunately, we lost, winning is the ultimate goal. But, I still think I’ll look back on it and have a pretty special memory.”

(On if his father shared any words with him prior to, during, or after the game)

“Not really. I don’t think any conversations were different than I’ve always had with him. Be yourself. If you’re not really sure what to do, go for it. You’ve got nothing to lose man. Just kind of the, rah, rah…go get them boy. I’m proud of you no matter what. He’s always been very supportive.”

(On if he spoke with Seahawks Head Coach Pete Carroll on the field before the game)

“I did, yeah. I talked to him for just a minute. He came up when I was helping the punt returners. I still wanted to perform my duties in pregame with the punter and kicker and punt returner. He came over and just said, ‘Congrats. But, under circumstances that are not ideal. We feel for Coach (Jeff) Fisher.’ He said just congrats and we got a good young team. He said he knows that the Rams will play hard tonight, and I think that our Rams’ players did. I’m certainly proud of how they prepared, and really how they performed. It just kind of got away from us. We missed some opportunities, but Coach Carroll has always been pretty good.”

(On advice he gives WR Michael Thomas after his struggles in the last two games)

“I’m glad you asked that. Michael Thomas – a kid from Chicago, junior college, a little bit of success at Southern Mississippi. And he’s just kind of a guy that I’ve really enjoyed coaching and developing and watching him go through some really good plays. Whether it’s been a couple of good kick returns early in the season and some great gunner play on punt, to some misses, with the fumbled kick return and the missed opportunity on the long catch. And I really think Michael Thomas is a guy that we have to be patient with and he’s going to blossom into a really, really good football player – not only on special teams, but also on offense. He works so hard, he does everything he’s asked, he’s tough, he’s mentally strong. He’s crushed that he dropped the pass, and that he dropped the kickoff the return. But I really believe in the kid and I think he’s got great potential and hopefully he keeps his morale up and knows that I love him.”

(On if he had much interaction with QB Jared Goff during the game after saying he would stay out of the quarterback’s room)

“Yeah, I did. Before the game we shared a good little conversation. And then during the game, I didn’t feel like I should offer any input, as far as performance, but I just said, ‘Hang, tough man. Great throw. Come on, move the chains,’ just kind of encouragement more than coaching, I guess you could say. Before, I didn’t want to say that I wanted to steer clear of the quarterback room, it was just something, based on my role before, that I didn’t have the opportunity to do. I’m excited to be involved just a little bit more and learn about the quarterback room just a little bit more, because I think we have a really good quarterback. He’s tough, he’s talented, he moves in the pocket. So it’ll be fun for me to witness him over the next two weeks, get better.”

(On if he feels he can grow in to this role more now with the two days where the players are off)

“Yeah, I think so. I think what’s really helped me out is being a special teams coach, where every day I have the opportunity to coach different groups of guys every day, including offensive linemen, defensive linemen, and then, of course, all of the more skilled positions. All it really is, is just a few more people in the room, but I don’t my message is different. I think it all comes down to instead of 35 bodies in there, there’s 53 bodies in there. I think special teams has really helped me out, I think across the league, I think special teams coaches are pretty special in their ability to talk to the whole team and be around all that.”

(On preparing for the 49ers now as opposed to the season opener)

“I definitely remember the first game, it’s one we haven’t forgotten. But when we look at both rosters right now, the rosters are totally different. San Fran has had a huge share of injuries, as well as we have the last couple of weeks, so I think that’s the biggest thing. I think going in to the game, it’s a division game, they’ll be excited. We’ll have some new guys likely promoted from our practice squad that will hopefully give us a little bit of juice, because they know that they’re going to be evaluated for future employment – as well as myself and everybody else. There’s a lot to play for. I’m excited about some of the young guys getting an opportunity to perform. There won’t be any problems with emotion and energy I know that.”

Rams Executive Vice President of Football Operations/Chief Operating Officer Kevin Demoff – December 12, 2016

(Opening remarks)
“I appreciate you all coming on short notice. Obviously, a very difficult day here for the organization in relieving Jeff (Fisher) of his head coaching duties. It’s not a decision that you ever want to make and it’s a day you never want to come, as a group. I think, collectively, we all felt that this was the best chance to move forward, to finish the season with some direction and hope, and begin the process of building for 2017.

I want to thank Jeff for five years of unwavering leadership, we put him in some tough circumstances over the past few years. Never expected a day like this this to become, never wanted a day like this to happen and always wanted to make sure that we could find a way to fight through some of the difficult challenges and he was absolutely the right person when we hired him in 2012 and the right person to help bring this club back. And, for whatever reason, this year we didn’t have the kind of success over the past few weeks that I think we all expected and wanted. It’s unfortunate for him today because this is an organizational failure. I think when you stand up here, anytime you let a head coach go, we all have to take a look in the mirror. This is not just about the head coach or the coaching staff, we have to improve across the board – personnel to operations to everything – and it’s what we told the staff today. Unfortunately, today this is being discussed as Jeff Fisher, but collectively as the Rams, we need to get better moving forward – and that process really begins today.

I think one of the things that we’ll reflect on over the past few months is really how good Jeff was to the players, to his coaches, how he led them with conviction, how hard they fought for him and what it meant to him to be the Head Coach of the Rams and we’ll be forever grateful. This is a tough day for him and his family, I think we can respect that. It’s a tough day for everybody in the organization who loved coming to work for Jeff. But, hopefully, we’ll find the right path forward, I believe we will. And that challenge begins today.”

(On if the performance in Sunday’s game against Atlanta was the deciding factor in taking this action and if he agrees with RB Todd Gurley, who said certain team members had given up)
“I think the question about Todd is a better question for Todd. I think when you look at our team, having lost eight of the past nine, some of the performances the past few weeks have been a little bit more lopsided – and I think that’s what really tipped it. I think if you look at our team over the past few years, we had some close losses – even when you look at the stretch after the 49ers game, we come back, we win three in a row. We had nine games really from Week 2 through Week 11 that were decided on the final drive or in the final two minutes. The team was competitive and playing well – and some of those breaks went our way and some of those breaks didn’t go our way. But I think when you look at the past few games, for whatever reason, it got out of reach in the second half. I think that was really the deciding factor. This was solely a performance-related issue. And when you look at the team and where it is and how we get better moving forward, I think for the fans, for the players, for the coaches, for the organization, we wanted to make sure games like yesterday didn’t happen again.”

(On why they made the decision to do this now with a game in three days)
“There’s never a good time to do this. I think as we looked at it from an organizational perspective, on a short week, we have three games left against the NFC West – Seattle, San Francisco, Arizona. We’re 2-1 in the division, this is a chance to finish strong in the NFC West, have a chance to have the best record in the NFC West. You wanted to see the players come out on Thursday with energy. This is a short week and we really felt that (Interim Head Coach) John Fassel would be the right person in our organization to go lead this team for the last few weeks. I think the other thing, when you look at it with three weeks left, this is never a good decision or an easy decision to make, no matter what the time. It’s especially harder as you get into making an in-season decision. But the players have put a lot of effort over the past few years and this year into this season, and with them still in the building, you want to give them a chance to talk with them, to debrief, to understand how we move better to how we can make this a better organization. Again, this is not just about coaching, this is top-to-bottom, how we can get better. This is not a coaching staff is 4-9, we’re all 4-9. And so I think, when we look at that, with a chance to finish with energy and to make a difference over the (final) three games. I don’t think going in to a game, even because it’s a short week – you look at this week’s schedule, we have two walk-thrus and then we fly to Seattle – this is one of those where I understand the challenges of the short week. We’ve played Seattle before, they’re a division opponent, we know them, you’re not installing a whole new game plan. So, really, this gives Coach Fassel a chance to walk in, make his impression on the team in a short time, get them through two quick walk-thrus and try to get their energy back ahead of a big, prime time game against Seattle.”

(On how this impacts General Manager Les Snead’s standing)
“I think, starting today, we’ll have a complete review of the entire organization. We sat down with Les and, again, this team is not where it needs to be and we need to own up to that from a coaching perspective, from a personnel perspective, from an administration perspective. I think all of us need to get better and I think Les will be the first person to tell you that his department can get better as well. And I think we need to analyze that department, the decisions that have been made, collectively, how we improve the roster and see where it goes. I’m sure when we bring in our prospective head coaching candidates, they’ll discuss the roster and the changes that need to be made there. Today, unfortunately, Coach Fisher was the only decision that we made, but I think, collectively, we all need to figure out ways to improve. And I think as the analysis goes on as we get towards the end of the season and the beginning of the offseason, we’ll take a look, collectively, at the football operation and make sure that we make the changes to make this successful. I think it’s always a little bit easy to say that this is just the coach’s fault, I think that that’s always a mistake. I think you have to look at this and say the coach is a representation of the entire organization and we can all be better and we can all find a way forward. I would never want to scapegoat Jeff, he’s worked too hard, he’s been too loyal to all of us to do that. Unfortunately, I would never want today to come across as this, this is just a timing thing as you move forward. But, to me, this is, as you look at Les, as you look at the entire organization, we need to make sure that 4-9 doesn’t happen again in the collective wrong. We need to find a way to get over .500, to get into the playoffs and deliver a Super Bowl trophy back to Los Angeles.”

(On why fans should get excited about a special teams coordinator becoming the interim head coach)
“You get into a three-day week, you’re not going to be able to install a new offense, whether it’s this week or in the last two weeks. Obviously, I think, the systems that we’ve put in place in OTAs and training camp or the systems that we’re going to have for the final three weeks. I think there were a couple of factors in choosing Coach Fassel. First, the players love him, they have tremendous energy, they play hard for him. I think if you look at our team, our special teams units have been among the best performing. I think for those of you who watch Hard Knocks, the energy, the excitement that the players have for Coach Fassel that he brings is evident. I also think that one of the things you look at when you make a change like this is how do you make it as least interruptive as possible. Everybody on the offensive and defensive side can go game plan this week the same way they would, they all have the same responsibilities on game day that they had. And Coach Fassel is someone who’s stood up in front of the entire team. I think when you look at the history of special teams coordinators and why they’re becoming more popular as head coaching choices or head coaching candidates is they have experience standing in front of everybody in the room – it’s not just standing in front of a position group or the offense or the defense – but they have a chance to go talk to everybody on the roster, player one through 53. I think Coach Fassel carries tremendous respect from our players, he carries tremendous respect from our coaches, he’ll bring tremendous energy. And this is about getting the most out of our group for the last few games. If there was a magical cure that would allow us to win games, to score 40 points a game or to shut people out, I think we would be searching for it today. But this is really about getting the most out of the talent we have, out of the coaches we have, and what we can do over the last three weeks to provide some excitement and then go from there. Coach Fassel is a tremendous coach, I think universally respected by peers and throughout the league and this is a great platform for him. When I chatted with him earlier, I said, ‘Take these three games as, not only an audition for us, but for everybody else in the league and coach this team to the best of your ability.’ And I think he’ll take that challenge to heart and he’ll get the best out of our players.”

(On Fisher’s reaction to the news after reports last week that he had signed a contract extension earlier in the year and his timeframe on finding a new head coach)
“Jeff was obviously disappointed. And I don’t want to speak for Jeff here, we had a good conversation this morning, I think he was obviously disappointed, he was looking forward to finishing the season strong and coming back and having the chance to get this team in a better place. I think we all shared the optimism from the beginning of this year of where we could be. I think, in terms of the extension, you have to go back in time to, really, when we look at it – which was moving this team to Los Angeles. I don’t think, (Owner/Chairman) Stan (Kroenke) or myself or anybody else in the organization thought it was fair for Jeff or Les to walk into a relocation year as a lame duck coach. And so I think our viewpoint was always that for the staff, for everybody, if you’re going to pick up your family and move, that you should have some security that went with it. I think we all wanted Jeff to have tremendous success. I think when you looked at how we finished last year, we were 3-1 to finish the end the year – we started this year 3-1 – I think we all felt good about the direction of our football team. But it was the right thing to do to give them the security to go beyond this year, to make the right decisions, to think long-term and to believe that they were going to be part of this moving forward, which is exactly what we all wanted, and what we all had hoped and I think we wanted that success. I think the one thing, as you said, this is a performance-oriented business, unfortunately the results weren’t there. And I’ve said time and time again, that you can’t just look at this year through the prism of the won-loss record, there are going to be some challenges that came with the relocation year and I think that was always our mindset going in. I think when you look at this now, this is somewhat about wins and losses, but this is more about direction and hope and where we feel we’re headed. I think had we finished the year 8-8, 7-9, in that range, I think we all would have understood some of the challenges that went with that. I think, unfortunately, just where we’ve been the past few weeks, didn’t really speak to where we were headed as a franchise and I think where we wanted to be or where we think the fans’ expectations or our expectations should be. I think the question on the coaching search moving forward – obviously today has been a tough day for everybody in the organization and I’m sure starting tomorrow, we’ll begin to gather as a group and go through all of this. But I think the most important thing, before we start our coaching search, is to identify, make sure we get our building right, make sure we get what we need right. The obvious thing people are going to say is, ‘Well, you’re going to hire an offensive coach because you’ve had a defensive or the way the offense has been.’ I think we need to find the best head for the Los Angeles Rams – whether that’s an offensive coach, a defensive coach, a special teams coach, the interim coach, a college coach – I think we have to be willing to look under every possible avenue to find the right fit to go lead this football team. I think too often, when we go through these processes, we look for the opposite of what we had as if that’s going to be the fix. I think, quite frankly, we need to make sure to find the right coach to lead these 53 players and to put together a coaching staff and to represent this organization in the best possible way. That process will start tomorrow. Obviously, we have a little bit of an advantage now with three weeks to go before the end of the season, you can’t go talk to anybody in the NFL. We’ll meet with everybody in the building from the trainers to the equipment room to the football operations staff, to the personnel side to make sure that, collectively, we all are on the same page about the qualities of what we’re looking for in a head coach. Stan will have some clear viewpoints on where we’re headed as well and set the direction and the tone. We will find the right leader for this football team moving forward. I think the worst thing you can do is set any kind of criteria or timetable for a search, you have to make sure that you go out and find the best head football coach for the Los Angeles Rams.”

(On if he can ensure that Snead will be back next season)
“It’s the same point as the head coach – I think, collectively, we need to take a look at this entire organization, and that includes personnel. I think it would be a mistake right now to say we’re satisfied with where we’re at on a personnel side and to ensure that Les would be back. I think Les would be the first person to stand up here and say the same thing – I think he told you guys that on Friday. I think the one thing, Jeff was always fantastic about standing up after games and saying, ‘I take full responsibility for the wins and losses for this organization.’ But I think we all need to do that. And I think Les will take responsibility for the won-loss record, I’ll take responsibility for the won-loss record, Jeff, obviously and hopefully Coach Fassel will moving forward. I think the most important thing for Les – our group’s in draft meetings now. They need to get that board ready, they need to carry out their duties. And we begin the organizational look, I think that’ll be the first place we’ll start. I think it would be a mistake to say that anybody in the building is guaranteed to come back next year, because now you’re starting to set criteria for where we’re at.”

(On how much the off the field noise played into this decision)
“I think it’ll be easy to say that that played into it. I think what that overlooks is the fact that all that is generated off the won-loss record. When you look at the fans, when you look at anything that’s happened the last few weeks, everybody’s been frustrated about losing eight out of nine and having some tough losses. It all comes back down to how you’re performing on the field. There were none of these issues when we started the year 3-1 or when we were back in August hosting the Cowboys. This team has had some really high highs this year and some low lows, but this is purely from a football perspective – are we headed in the right direction, do we have the necessary hope that we need and I think the answer to that right now is we’re not sure and we thought it was time to make a change. This is solely about on-field performance, the rest of it comes and goes with wins and losses. We understand that being in a major market and we understand that that goes through a season, you’re going to have years where you start well and slide at the end and people get frustrated. You’re going to have years where you start slowly and get on a run – I think you’ve seen that with a number of teams this year. If you take a snapshot of any team through four games, eight games in a season, it looks a lot different than it does towards the end of the season.”

(On going on the record a couple weeks ago about looking beyond the wins and losses when evaluating the head coaching change)
“I think, absolutely on record, I would be the first to say we’ve always been on the record about Jeff saying there is more than win-loss here. But, I think that should never be construed as the win-loss doesn’t matter. I think we always look at it as they’re going to be ups and downs this year, and it was not just about win-loss. When I said that, we were sitting there at 4-5. (QB) Jared (Goff) goes and plays, and then we had a tough couple of weeks. I think when you look at this team, it’s not just always about win-loss, it’s about where we sit. I think there were comments the same week talking about making sure there was appropriate direction and hope and how we finished the season. I think when you look at the past few years, last year we were 4-8. We went on a great run, we won three straight games. We played very tough and in Week 17, you felt a lot different about the team at the end. But I think when you look at yesterday’s performance, the Saints’ game, the Patriots’ game, I think there’s just been a tough run. When you really look through the prism, it’s did we feel we were really headed in the right direction over the past few weeks. Those things are fluid. Had this just been a team that finished 7-9, 6-10, and had some close calls the way we did at certain points, I think we may have looked at it differently. But, I think it was the way we played the past few weeks that really changed the barometer from that point.”

(On the importance of hiring someone who can foster Goff’s development and maturation in this league)
“I don’t look at this just at Jared Goff, I look at it as the entire offense. We, obviously, traded for Jared Goff, believe in him, and have seen great flashes over the past few weeks. Todd Gurley, 2015 Rookie of the Year. We have invested significant picks in the offensive line – expect them to improve. I think we’ve invested a lot of picks in the offense, and we want to see them all get better. But, I think it goes back to the question – they’re lots of ways to improve the offense and support your investment in Jared, and in Todd, and the offensive line, and the other positions. But, that doesn’t necessarily mean hiring an offensive head coach. It can mean hiring the best head coach who brings a great offensive coordinator with them, or a great quarterbacks coach with them. I think as we look at it collectively, wherever we sit right now, we’re just not functioning on offense the way we should. But, I don’t know if that’s just a function of not supporting Jared or the coaches. I think right now, we have to collectively look and say, we’re 32nd on offense. How do we get better, how do we improve? But, you may find an unbelievable head coaching candidate who you meet with, who you believe is absolutely perfect for the Los Angeles Rams, who has a defensive background. I think what’s most important, is they have a plan for how you maximize the offense, and how you improve the offense. I think it’ll be easy when you walk to some offensive coordinator candidates, obviously, you’re going to understand there, and you have a pretty good defense, and how they may view that. I think the harder challenge when you sit down with some defensive-minded candidates, is what’s your plan, not only for the defensive side of the ball, but for improving the offense. I think one of the things you look at historically, if you look at top offenses right now, a lot of them, the head coach is not the play caller. So, I think there are great ways to build a franchise utilizing all of your coaches. I think that’s really where our focus has to be. It’s going to be the right head coach. The investment in Jared is important, but so is our investment in the defensive line, the linebackers, the defensive backs, and every member of this team.”

(On if the offense is a priority)
“I think improving our record is a priority. I think if you look at Denver last year, for better or worse, was 31st in offense and won the Super Bowl title. So, if you look at us, we were 3-1 and playing close games. What’s a priority is winning football games. What’s a priority is making sure we put our best foot forward. I think it’s easy to say, this is Los Angeles, you want to be entertaining, you want to be show time, you want to fix the offense – you want to do all of that. But, what’s most important to our fans and our organization is wins and losses, and we need to make sure we get that right and find a person whose sole job is to make sure we win more games than we lose.”

(On how much trust the team has lost with the L.A. fans, and how quickly can that be regained)
“We’ll find out. I don’t think this move is designed to appease the fans in a short moment. I think this move is looking at a period of time over five years, that we think as an organization we need to move better. Obviously, the hire we make and the direction we take as football team is going to go a long way to saying whether we got this right or not. I would say it’s easy to stand up here and say you’re going to make a change. The hard part is getting the change right. I don’t want to have this be a tough day for the organization just to say we’re trying to win the fans trust back. We obviously want to win the fans trust back. Winning games and building a great organization is what brings your fans back. I think that’s a long-term commitment and everything we’ve done – Stan’s vision for what we’re trying to build here in Los Angeles is a long-term vision. We have a terrific stadium going up, a terrific project, bold move to get here, and to be a part of this franchise. We want to be here for long-term and we want to get it right. I think if you only play this in the short-term, you’re probably making a mistake. For us, this is not about knee-jerk reactions. This is about getting this right, and having the opportunity to prove to our fans that we prioritize winning above all else. I think when you look at this decision, I think that’s the message we have to send. But, that’s the message today. But, the only way fans will believe that message is if we get it right moving forward, and that’s where we need to make sure we get it right.”

(On if he will make changes to the front office before addressing the head coaching situation)
“I think as we take a look at the organization over the next few weeks, you’ll start to get an idea of where you think you’re headed with the personnel staff. When we had the opening in 2012, we hired the head coach before the general manager. We had a great selection of general manager candidates, and that worked. This time, if you decide to make a move at general manager, you may choose a general manager first and a head coaching candidate second. I think it all depends on, as you go through the process over the next few weeks, the head coaching candidates you identify. If you decide to make a change at general manager, the general manager candidates that you identify and what you think the right order is. You can win lots of games under either formula. I think if you look, there are great examples of coaches who have been paired with GM’s and had success, and GM’s who hired coaches who had success. Both the good parts and the bad parts of going through this process in the NFL is there is no proven way to get it done. You can hire first-time head coaches, you can hire college coaches, you can hire coaches who have been fired before. You can point to any examples of ones who have had great success, or ones who have struggled. I think what’s most important is finding the right fit for this organization. If we decide that we’re going to move forward with the personnel department, you have to make sure you have a head coach and GM pairing that can work, and they’re on the same page. I think you’ll find out, as I said, a lot about our team and the way people view our organization when you go through the head coaching search, and how people view our personnel. I think we have always felt, collectively, that we’re pretty close as a football team. We haven’t gotten over the hump the past few years. We have to find a way to do that. Maybe we’re not as close as we think we are, and that’s what this next few weeks are designed to tackle. Maybe we are close, and the candidates will reflect that. I think what’s important is, when we come back and we present our football leadership overall that people believe that we’re headed in the right direction, and we’ve made the right choices.”

(On the possibility of hiring a young-minded head coach the team can build around for years to come)
“I think that’s where it goes to what we said. We have a tendency to hire the opposite of what we have. I think we sometimes get cause and effect backwards. For whatever reason, we’re not performing as an organization. I don’t think that’s because we hired a veteran-minded, defensive head coach. I think that’s a mistake to look at it that way. I think whatever short-comings we have as an organization are because of our short-comings as an organization. Not because we hired a defensive-minded head coach. I think the knee-jerk reaction is to say, ‘We’re going to go hire a young offensive-minded head coach.’ I don’t know if that pendulum swing is necessary. I think what we need to do is find the right person for this organization. A person who believes in Stan’s vision, who has the tools and resources to help us win, and someone we can build long-term around. I think that’s where we have to get it right.”

(On what he’s looking to see from the team in these last few weeks of the season)
“I think it starts, you want to see Jared’s continued progression. Obviously, Jared had some really good flashes, and some tough moments over the past few weeks. I think you want to see Jared continue to progress. I think you want to see the players play hard and play with energy. For whatever reason, I think we were a little bit flat the past few weeks; whether that’s just a long season wearing on them. I think you can sit there and say this year has taken its toll – whether it’s the air travel miles or moving facilities or all of those things. Can you get a bounce-back step, can we go play? But, I also think it’s our chance – losing 8-of-9 is tough. But, that stretch has been out of the division. I think what you want to look at over the next three weeks, is how do we line up within our own division. We’ve faired pretty well against the Seahawks recently. Can we continue to do that? We had a tough outing against the 49ers Week 1. Have we improved since Week 1 to this point when we face them at home again. Obviously, we had a tough, hard-fought win over Arizona earlier this year. Where do we stand against them in Week 17? I think the closest path to making the playoffs is winning your division. You only have to be better than three teams. How we stack up against those teams, I think we want to see, from that perspective, if you can go evaluate, if we can play with the energy and passion I think Coach Fassel will bring, from that standpoint, we can try to evaluate our talent and see where we stack up, and get to a more honest assessment. But, I don’t think you want to say, hey – we’d obviously love to win the last three, and if not that, then 2-1, then 1-2. I think we want to see if we can evaluate this group, the young players, and really build some momentum into the offseason.”

(On if he has a list of candidates for the head coaching job)
“This is not been something we’ve been laying it, at night thinking about for the past few weeks. So obviously, we’re going to get together as an organization. Stan and I talked last night. We started talking this morning. Again, about the criteria that he wants for the next leader. Then, you meet with the building and establish that criteria. Then, I think you start to evaluate the potential candidates against that. You try to find where you’re going to go. I’m sure that we’ll get a number of inbound calls over the next few weeks about people who are interested. This is going to be a very attractive opening. When you look at an opportunity to play for a really good owner, and a great market, and what will be a world-class stadium, with a young QB, and back-to-back Defensive Rookie and Offensive Rookie of the Year in (DT) Aaron Donald and (RB) Todd Gurley. There is talent on this roster. This will be an attractive job. I think what’s most important is not coming up with just the setup criteria, but being flexible and being open-minded. For better or for worse, that’s what having the next few weeks gives you the chance to do. When you get to the end of the season and you start to submit the permission forms for the coordinator candidates or the candidates throughout the NFL, that you’re going to be prepared, and hopefully that you can have a plan for how that first week goes. We’ve studied the history of hiring dates and when people get hired. When you look at it, usually there’s a wave that goes January 10-12, and then the dominoes start to fall. You’d love to be in the January 10-12 group, so that you can start to build a staff. But, they’re going to be other considerations. You may find a candidate whose headed to the Super Bowl, and you may need to wait until later in the year. I think you have to be open-minded as you go and look into this process. We need to find the right fit to the Los Angeles Rams, and that starts with identifying our own short-comings, and who we think can fill those. Not just looking at whose had success, and then trying to apply that to our team.”

(On if the decision was made last night or this morning)
“I think we talked about it at length last night. These are never the kinds of decisions you want to make easier, and I think he really wanted to sleep on it and discuss it again this morning. So, we chatted again this morning. I think you have to look at how hard this is. Jeff Fisher has meant a lot to this organization; still does. He took us from a period in St. Louis where instability through a number of first-time head coaches and through some ups and down. While we didn’t get to where we needed to be, he provided stability and credibility to the organization. He brought in an excellent coaching staff. Players wanted to play for him. This was the team that, perpetually, was on the cusp. Jeff has been through a lot. We put him in a difficult situation. He gets hired a week before our stadium arbitration essentially begins. When you go through that process, you go through those years in St. Louis, then you come through the transition here. This was, as I’ve said, a day you never wanted to have happened. You wanted to see him succeed. It’s why you wanted to give him the security of the new contract, so he can go operate this year not feeling as if he was walking a tight-rope. These are not decisions that you can make lightly. I think you never want to be emotional after a game and make that decision. I think that’s why it was important to discuss it last night, to sleep on it, to reconvene this morning, and have the discussion. But, I think at the end of the day, we felt this was the right direction for our football team, which is why we made the ultimate decision we did this morning. I think as you move forward, this isn’t just about today. This is about starting a quest to bring a Lombardi (Trophy) to Los Angeles. If you don’t struggle with these decisions, then you don’t understand the lives that are impacted throughout the organization.”

(On owner E. Stanley Kroenke’s reaction to having a near empty stadium prior to the fourth quarter during Sunday’s game against the Falcons)

“I think you hate to see that under any circumstance. I think we all feel frustrations – we’re all fans. We all carry that and you want to see the crowd excited. When you juxtapose the fourth quarter of yesterday with what you saw against Dallas and Seattle – that was really a hard juxtaposition. I think it gets back to making sure that we maintain momentum in this market and this is a decision, I think, you have to make in any market, but especially as you get into a new market. I think Stan’s (Kroenke) is a competitor. You never want to see a game end the way yesterday did – whether the fans had stayed throughout the fourth quarter or not – didn’t change that we need to be better. Yesterday was not our organization’s best foot forward and we have to find a way to do that.”

(On whether he’s had a chance to speak with any of the players and what their reaction has been)

“I had a chance to talk to the team briefly. I think the way we looked at today – what was most important was that Jeff had the ability to address the coaches and the players before the news broke of this decision. I’m glad had the chance to do that and being able to inform them. After that I met with the players quickly. I asked them for their best efforts over the next three weeks and to support Coach Fassel in any way that they can. I had a chance to talk to a couple of players briefly – this is hard for them. They love Coach Fisher, and rightfully so. I think one of the things when you looked at this team – the hallmark – this team has always played hard for Jeff Fisher. This is a tough day for them. Some of these players, whether they’ve been with us for five years, for 2012, some who have been with Jeff dating back before the Rams, and even those who have come this year and rookies, who have come to love and appreciate everything he is. This is a hard day. I think it’s also a hard day when you are a player… I think we all look in the mirror and realize we’re culpable for today’s event. I think that that’s a part of what the players have to realize as well and it’s hard with three weeks left. But, we asked them for their best efforts I think there is an element of them that they want to go out and make sure they go out and present themselves. We have national primetime game on Thursday against Seattle – that’s always been a place that gets our players up to play. Then we have two home games and I think they want to go out on the best possible foot forward and be professionals. But we’re a young team and I think as they develop, this is going to be a maturation day for them. Hopefully, this will spark an improved performance over the next three weeks.”

(On the hiring process and the time frame he has in mind)

“I think the timeline is finding the best possible coach. When you look at that – just like there is no perfect formula – I think when you look at the numbers on coaching studies that no one bucket seemingly outperforms another bucket. None of the timeline hires seemingly outperform the other. If you look at the team we played yesterday with (Falcons Head Coach) Dan Quinn, who has done a nice job in Atlanta – the Falcons waited until after he was done with the Super Bowl in Seattle to go hire him. You can find great coaches at any different time. If you want to wait for someone who is playing in the Super Bowl and you think that’s what is best for your organization, then we’ll do that. If we find someone in the first interview, who we absolutely believe is the right candidate for the Los Angeles Rams, I think we’ll do that. Again, I think the biggest mistake we can make, is narrowing our search before it even starts. The timeline, I think gives you a glimpse historically when coaches have been hired. Usually it starts right around January 10-12 you get kind of that next wave – usually there is that first domino that falls in the coaching cycle. Then from there, you typically see January 15th, 16th. Then you see some, you know, maybe the coach is in the first two rounds gets an interview process in late January. But what’s most important is being able to build a staff, being able to develop a working relationship with the personnel department. Obviously, going through the entire viewpoint of how you get this correct. But this is not about getting the coaching hire right in January, this is December 12th next year and of the following year – saying we got this coaching hire right for our organization and for the fans. That’s where our focus is going to be.”

(On whether there was any concern that the players had “quit” on Fisher in terms of the way they were playing on the field)

“No. I think one of the hallmarks of a Jeff Fisher team is the teams never quit on Coach Fisher. If you look back over the history of our teams, we’ve had some tough stretches in 2012 through this year. We’ve had some series where we have won a few in a row and lost a few in a row – our players never quit on Jeff. I do not believe that at all. I think that would be unfair. For whatever reason, we didn’t perform up to our capabilities the past few weeks. As I said, maybe it’s the long year. Maybe it’s been the travel – we had two road games back-to-back – midwest, east coast, and coming home – for whatever reason we weren’t at our best. But I think it would be very unfair to say that this team quit on Jeff fisher. These players are tremendous professionals – they play hard for our coach. The fact that we may not have played at our best may be an indication of other factors, but I don’t believe this team quit.”

(On how he thought Fisher took the news and if he got the impression Fisher was surprised)

“Again, I think Jeff’s the best person to describe his emotions and going through how he took the news. He was professional. He handled it well. I don’t think any coach ever wants to hear this news. Our goal was always that Jeff would be our coach here for a very long time. I can’t tell you whether he took it by surprise or not – I don’t want to speculate on how he took it. We had a good conversation, it was short. I don’t think he was certainly expecting it. But what’s most important is that we had a conversation that will stay between us and we will move forward from there.”

(On whether Kroenke has voiced concern about the way the team has been performing and if Kroenke thinks it will affect the development of the new stadium)

“No. I think we look at this, again, through the prism of wins and losses. The project at Hollywood Park is going to be an unbelievable project and people are excited about it. The football team needs to improve. Collectively, as an organization, our discussions were about how that happens. I know Stan’s background and his expertise will make Hollywood Park and the stadium an unbelievable project. It’s the reason the other owners put faith in him to move forward and do that. Our fans don’t want to sit here and talk just about the project – they want to see the progress on the field. When you’re in the heat of the game, you’re looking at making sure that we play better. I think that’s where our focus has to be, right now, is making sure we improve. I have no doubt that the project will be a success. But I think the one thing you never want to take for granted, that the expertise in a great project can overcome people’s disappointment in the football team. Right now, it’s easy to conflate the two, but we have to attack with them separately. We have to make sure that we deliver the best possible project for Los Angeles, the city, and for the NFL at Hollywood Park. We have to make sure that we deliver the best possible football team for our fans and the organization. Ultimately they’ll come together. We want this team to be playing well – not just in 2019, not just as we go sell the building – we want to make sure we go play well against Seattle, San Francisco, and Arizona – this is the first step towards that.”

(On whether the decision to part ways with Fisher was impacted by the desire to market the new stadium)

“I think it always comes down to the point is, the best marketing is winning. We can all say that and you’re naïve to think that that doesn’t play a factor in this. Again, there has been tremendous warmth in the reception back from the community. When you look at 82,000 tickets sold yesterday – people are going to put up with ups and downs. What they want to make sure is that we’re committed to winning and we’re committed to getting it right. I think they’ll handle the good days with the bad days, as long as they see the passion from ownership that wins and losses elicit. I think you see that and feel that and see that form Stan today.”

(On why the organization never publically acknowledged the contract extensions of Fisher and General Manager Les Snead)

“Both Jeff and Les understood all that went into moving this franchise this year – from January into March, into April, into the summer. Both were selfless enough that they wanted to put others first – they wanted to get the team setup in Oxnard, they wanted to get us setup at training camp, and they wanted to make sure this building was up and running. I think they were patient and they didn’t want to push their issues. We were able to flush out some of the remaining issues and get it done towards the summer, but these things take a while to get papered and detailed, and get approved by the league office. When you go through that and then it got into the season – we didn’t want the contracts to be a distraction. Maybe that was a mistake on my part and I can certainly sit here and say that. But the goal was always that they understood that they had our full support. When you get into the season, I don’t think organizations typically should be announcing contract extensions in season – I think it’s just a distraction. If unfortunately, it became a distraction the other way, then the organization has to accept that for where it became. But I think what was most important, I think Jeff always said this, and Les as well – they always knew that Stan had the confidence in both of them. The sentiment was we wanted them to know how much we supported them in this move and we wanted to make sure we took care of them and we wanted to get it right. They knew that. Unfortunately, it dragged on longer than it did. I don’t think that ever played into the decision of where we sit today. But it was an understanding that they always knew that they would have Stan’s support throughout this year and throughout the challenges of the season.”

(On whether Fisher tried to convince him to postpone the decision until the end of the season)

“I said I’d leave our conversation to ourselves. His concern was not about him, it was about his coaches and his players and we really moved forward on that. I think that’s where we should leave the conversation.”

***

Rams Interim Head Coach John Fassel – December 12, 2016 – December 12, 2016

(Opening remarks)
“It’s been a long night, it’s been a long day. A lot has happened in a little amount of time – emotional, and we’ve got a couple of days before our next game. It’ll be an interesting couple of days. I love Coach Fisher, I respect the heck out of Coach Fisher. He gave me a great opportunity to come coach on his staff, and I’m going to try to do my best to make him proud over the next three weeks. I had a great chance to talk with him, spent about an hour with him. He told me, ‘I’m going to help you with whatever you need so you guys can have the opportunity to win these next three games. Go out and do it.’ It happened fast. I found out just about an hour before my special teams meeting. I talked to (Chief Operating Officer) Mr. (Kevin) Demoff, Coach Fisher, and they let me know that this was going to happen. I talked to Coach Fisher and basically asked what he thought, asked for his blessing. (I said), ‘Coach me up, Coach Fish on what the next couple of hours are going to be like.’ He told me everything that I needed to know. But, I know there’s a lot more that is going to be in to it than I’m prepared for. I’ll do my best to be great.”

(On if he’s in awe of all that has happened to him in a matter of hours)
“I wouldn’t say I’m in awe of it. I grew up a coach’s son, so I understand hiring and firing, and the emotions of it. But, the awe part may be that it happened so fast, and it was something that you weren’t necessarily prepared for – we didn’t go to sleep last night, so I can’t say when I woke up this morning – but, it did happen fast. I guess football, you’ve got to be able to adapt and react, and that’s kind of one of these situations that you can’t really ever prepare for it. But, I have a great staff, (Assistant Head) Coach ‘Mac,’ (Dave McGinnis) and (Defensive Coordinator) Coach (Gregg) Williams have been head coaches before, so they’ll be a great support staff to help me make good decisions.”

(On if he is surprised that they came to him)
“Yeah.”

(On why he is surprised they came to him)
“I’m in the dungeon working on special teams day and night, that’s all I do. I don’t make the decisions that Coach Fisher or even sometimes the (offensive and defensive) coordinators have to make. My special teams, I got a great group of young, scrappy, tough guys that play hard. Whether they play well or not, that’s for people to determine, but they work their butt off. They gave me the opportunity, I was surprised, grateful for it – although the situation isn’t something that you want to be in, but they asked me to do it. Coach Fisher gave me his blessing, and I’ll do it.”

(On the players criticizing teammates’ lack of effort following the games yesterday and how he gets the message to the entire to the entire team to pick up the energy and the effort)
“I think after a game, everybody probably, based on emotions, said some things that maybe they regret or that aren’t necessarily the truth. But I told the guys, just real quick after practice I said, ‘If you love ball, if you love Coach Fisher, that’s got to be enough to get us through these next three weeks. We’ve got a job, all of our jobs are on the line. If you love ball and you love Coach Fisher, that’s got to get us through. If that’s not good enough, then you shouldn’t be out here.’”

(On if he addressed the team in the team meeting)
“That’s a good question. Coach Fisher addressed the team, then Kevin Demoff came in and addressed the team, and then he told the team that I would be the interim. I just told them before I make any speeches or have anything to say, I’d like to talk to Coach Fisher, because at that point, I hadn’t really had a chance to talk to Coach Fisher. I have so much respect and love for that man and that coach, that I wanted to talk to him and get his advice, get his blessing. So, that’s kind of how it went down.”

(On if he feels like he is up for the interim head coach position)
“Yeah.”

(On the ways in which he is up for the position)
“I don’t know if this matters, but I’ve been fortunate, like I said earlier, to be on the sidelines since I was five-years old, and witnessed the elations of the greatest games, and be on the sideline when the Giants are kicking a game-winning field goal in the playoffs and the snapper drops it, and then holder drops it, and you throw an incomplete pass, and it ends just like that. And then, the next year you get fired and you have got to move. So, I kind of grew up knowing that that’s part of the game even though it’s probably the worst part of the game. Special teams, every time that ball gets punted or kicked, you’re there by yourself and you’re saying, ‘Let’s go boys, go get it,’ and you’re always kind of on the front lines. Whether I’m ready for it or not, I’m going to kick ass, and do what I have to do to help the team.”

(On if he has talked to the offensive coordinator and will open the offense up and the attitude going forward on offense)
“Good question, and I haven’t really had a lot of time to speak with (Offensive Coordinator) Rob (Boras) yet, or Coach Williams. We had a good discussion about some players right now, but I haven’t had a chance to even talk to them about that. We went from the team meeting where we announced it, to the special teams meeting, to offensive and defensive breakdowns, to the practice field. So, like I said, everything is happening fast.”

(On how confident he is that he can save the team)
“To save the team – I don’t think the team needs to be saved. The team needs to just rise up, take some responsibility for what happened, because none of us think that it’s Coach Fisher’s fault, we all just take some responsibility. We got to do better, we got to win. That’s what happened, is we just didn’t win enough games – and I’m part of that, so I have a responsibility to be better.”

(On he gets QB Jared Goff ready to play in a tough environment in Seattle on Thursday)
“It’s a great question. It’s a great place to play. I think the biggest thing for a young quarterback is going to be the crowd noise. It’s awesome how loud that place can get. I think where we’re at now is as many opportunities as we can put our young guys in position to deal with playoff atmosphere, the better it’ll be down the road. I haven’t been in one quarterback meeting all season, I probably won’t be the rest of the next three weeks. But, I always talk to Jared about, ‘Come on, come to some special teams meetings.’ I think it’ll be great for him, for everybody. We won in Seattle last year as a team, kind of as underdogs. It was raining, it was cold – probably about the same time of the year. It’s an opportunity to prepare for the playoffs, even though, obviously, we’re not in it – but we look at it kind of as that type of atmosphere and that type of opportunity.”

(On if he had aspirations of being an NFL Head Coach prior to today)
“I can’t say, honestly, that the last five, six, eight years as a special teams coordinator, I was coordinating special teams to become the head coach. So I can’t say that that was an aspiration. I wanted to be a great special teams coach and if that’s all I did for the rest of my career, I’d be super happy doing that.”

(On if, after talking to management, he feels like there is anything he can show over the last three games that would put him in consideration for the permanent position)
“You know, no. Kevin Demoff just mentioned, just go kick ass, bring some energy, be yourself. But as far as after these next three games, no.”

(On the key to keeping emotions in check and uniting everyone in time for the game on Thursday)
“That’s a good question, too. I think the emotions are good. Sometimes maybe you say something you regret or it gets a little bit combative, but I always thought, just from a special teams perspective, that emotions are great and you have to find a way to corral them. And I think, in this situation, every player on the team has the utmost respect for Coach Fisher and it has to be a little bit of a rallying cry. Obviously we’re not going to go to the playoffs, so what are we playing for – we’re playing because we love ball and we’re playing because we love Coach Fisher. To me, the emotions are a great thing. As long as we have that, we’ll find a way to use them to our advantage.”

(On what his father has told him once he accepted the position)
“I actually haven’t talked to him. I know, it’s horrible – I’ll call you in a little bit, dad, I promise. I called my wife real quick. Again, like you said, it happened so fast and I’ve been trying to get caught up with Kevin and (General Manager) Les (Snead) and our trainer and everybody that, unfortunately, I’ve neglected to call the people most important to me. But that’ll happen tonight, I’m sure that they’ve heard and they know I have business to take care of.”

(On how he plans to turnaround the somber energy that’s in the facility)
“It was quiet today. It was. It was quiet today. I don’t think I can manufacture energy for the team. It’s going to be something that will probably have to be built here over the next couple days, as we get back to gameday. I don’t ever try to manufacture energy. I’ve had some advice from some people so far, like (Assistant Head Coach Dave McGinnis) Coach ‘Mac’, you know, just be yourself – if myself helps create some energy, that’s great – but I can’t fake it. There’s so much that I got to learn. It’s already a couple hours – I got a lot of studying to do. Hopefully, all of the emotions create some positive energy, so we can go out on Thursday night and perform. We got the cool old school Rams helmets. I think kickoff is actually, in exactly 72 hours. It’s going to happen fast and I’ll be ready. I’ll make some mistakes. I’ll lean on Coach ‘Fish’, Coach ‘Mac’, my dad (Jim Fassel), and some people in this building that I think are fantastic coaches, and kick some ass – I don’t know if I’m allowed to say that (laughs) – I say it in the meetings. I don’t curse, but I think that’s one I can probably get away with.”

(On how he communicates and motivates as a coach and how that’s different from what Coach Fisher does)
“That would probably be a great question for some of the players. I try to be the same every day. I try to be consistent with my presentations. I don’t make one day more important than the other and I don’t one opponent more important than the other. Every day is kind of the same and I try to be myself every day, be the same energy – if people think I have energy every day. That’s what I have to do, I got to be myself. You know, I’m a special teams coach – I’m in there with a couple guys, just grinding every day, trying to figure out how to cover some punts and all of a sudden there is a hundred cameras here – it’s kind of tripping me out. But it’ll be fun to have the opportunity to be in front of a group of men who are emotionally low and figure out a way to bring them emotionally high so they can perform because we have to, it’s pro football, it’s tough. We have to perform and we can’t let our emotions diminish our production, because we have to win.”
Rams Quarterback Jared Goff – Post Practice – December 12, 2016

(On his reaction to an emotional day)
“I think you hit it on the head, it’s pretty emotional. He’s a guy that, I think I speak for the whole team when I say, was very well liked, very giving, and he treated us the right way – he treated us the way we’re supposed to be treated and in return we didn’t do enough for him. That’s really what it comes down to – is we didn’t get it done and unfortunately it falls on him – us in the locker room blame ourselves and we need to be better.”

(On what Fisher said when he addressed the team this morning following the decision)
“Yeah, he came into the meeting and addressed the whole team, let us know the deal. Again, it’s very emotional. It sucks, it’s not fun. I think we let him down. I think it was our job to play better and be better and we let him down. That’s the bottom line. I’d like to say I’m extremely thankful for the opportunity that he gave me and them doing what they did to get up to (No.) one (overall in the 2016 NFL Draft) and draft me. I’m sure I speak for a lot of guys on the team when I say I’m thankful for the opportunity that he gave them. Again, would have loved to do more with it, and would have loved for him to still be here, but unfortunately it’s above our paygrade. Unfortunately it happened the way it did.”

(On if this will stunt his growth at all as a rookie quarterback)
“I don’t think so, no. I think I’m a pretty confident guy and confident in my abilities. Whoever the coach may be, I think I’ll be alright.”

(On if there is anything that he’s looking for in a new coach)
“Yeah, I’m going to let them make that decision.”

(On the difficulty of preparing for Seattle on a short week with the news today)
“This is just a little bit of a distraction, of course, that we’re going to have to deal with. It’s going to be hard on a short week already, and now this is another thing that we’re going to have to deal with. Like I said, today was hard, it wasn’t easy. It was a tough day – it was weird – it was a tough feeling around the facility. But, we know that we have to play Seattle in a couple of days. We have to be ready to play them – they’re a tough team, obviously. We’ve got to go up there and come away with a W, do what we can. I think (Interim Head) Coach (John) Fassel, said it best at the end of practice, he said, ‘If you love football and you love Coach Fisher, you’ll find a way to get it done the next three weeks,’ and that’s what we need to do.”

(On if he talked to Fisher personally and what he told him)
“I told him that I’m very appreciative and thankful, that I wouldn’t be here without him.”

(On what Fisher told him)
“A lot of stuff, it’s between us.”

(On how working with various position groups as the special teams coordinator will benefit Fassel as the interim head coach)
“It’ll be good. I think, more than anything, is his attitude and his approach to everything. He’s going to be really helpful. He understands what we’re going through right now is not easy and he understands that we do need some support and we do need him to be there for us during this time.”

(On if he would say that some of the players in the locker room feel responsibility for the coaching change)
“Yeah, I think that’s the first feeling you feel, especially with how Coach Fish is, and how much he loves each and every one of us. He really had a personal relationship with everybody on the team, so everybody has the same type of feeling towards him. In the short time I’ve experienced here, I haven’t had a coach like that where it’s just so personal with everybody. So, yeah, there is a little bit of a guilt and a little bit of, ‘it’s on us.’ From top to bottom, honestly, from everybody – every position group, 1 thru (53), every coach, we all feel responsible and understand that we need to be better.”

(On RB Todd Gurley’s comments on the offense following the loss to the Falcons and if that was the straw that broke the camel’s back with regards to Fisher’s fate)
“I don’t think that had anything to do with Coach Fisher. I think Todd was emotional. We all are. We’re all frustrated. He just made some comments. I don’t have a comment on that.”

(On if the coaching change adds to his frustration with the team’s performance)
“It’s completely different. I think when you’re frustrated about football, and this is completely different. This is somebody who has cared for us and who has given every one of us in this building an opportunity that’s now gone, mainly because of us. So, it’s a completely different feeling and, again, I can’t stress enough how much it hurts, but we need to find a way to move on and find a way to beat Seattle. I know there will be no one rooting for us more than Coach Fish.”

(On how he can move forward from this situation)
“Come out every day and try to get better and continue to improve. That’s all we can do. Every day, just continue to work on the game plan, continue to work in practice, work hard and come out on Thursday and put a good win together. We need to. It’s about time and there would be no better time to do it than this week.”

(On what life lesson he’s learned as a result of this experience)
“I think the No. 1 thing is, in this league, things can go away really quickly. One day you’re here and one day you’re not. We learned that today, unfortunately, the hard way, but I think it’ll allow some guys to kind of see that and me being one of them.”