http://mmqb.si.com/2014/12/02/nfl-mike-martz-adam-gase-mike-mccoy-mike-mccarthy-best-offensive-minds/
The MMQB with Peter King
The Best Offensive Minds
December 2, 2014 by Robert Klemko

SAN DIEGO — Football always seemed like war to Mike Martz. Not the carnage and loss—those don’t compare—but the strategy. Calling shots with the big-picture view of a general, he loved the way offensive football felt like moving 18th century battalions into the right position to stun the opposition. Attack and counterattack.

Fitting then, that his favorite book isn’t one of the Lombardi biographies or the spiritual tome My Utmost for His Highest, sitting within arm’s reach on the auburn desk inside the basement office of his San Diego home. It’s 1776, David McCullough’s telling of the bloody birth of the United States. Of particular interest to Martz are the military exploits of the Revolutionary War’s most famous general.

“I kind of thought I knew George Washington and his career,” he says. “But the author wrote this book so personally. Washington never buckled, and if he did, nobody ever knew about it.

“The thing I really admire, he was always a step ahead. Even though it might have hurt him, the emotion of losing New York, you have to find a way to get back in the fight. That’s a lot like football: Take the emotion out of it and fix the problem.”

Three years removed from his last coaching gig as the Bears’ offensive coordinator, Martz, 63, spends most of his days in his three-story home, which sits on a hill in a cul-de-sac neighborhood overlooking the coast. His office is just big enough for a desk and a few dozen mementos that tell the story of a football life.
Mike Martz, best known for overseeing The Greatest Show on Turf, in the basement office of his San Diego home, where he watched game tape with The MMQB. (Robert Klemko)

There’s a framed photo of his grandfather’s 1902 Yankton High School football team, which won South Dakota’s state championship. (Martz keeps a vacation home in South Dakota, where he was born, and has made a hobby of photographing its cascading mountains and snowscapes.) There’s a game ball from a 2002 win over the Raiders, the Rams’ first victory after losing Kurt Warner and five straight games to start the season. There’s a signed bat from Stan Musial, the baseball Hall of Famer who lunched with Martz when he was the head coach in St. Louis. Authentic NFL helmets, gifted by an equipment manager friend in 2000, line the ceiling. There’s a sun-stained Super Bowl XXXIV replica trophy from 1999, Martz’s first season as the Rams’ coordinator.

After 38 years of coaching, Martz’s legacy boils down to the Greatest Show on Turf, the record-setting offense he engineered with head coach Dick Vermeil and quarterback Kurt Warner in St. Louis. They were innovators who introduced the new concepts they dreamed up on napkins and notepads, picking apart defenses with the likes of Marshall Faulk, Isaac Bruce and Torry Holt.

I’m meeting with him in his basement seeking the answer to a broad-sweeping question: Who are the NFL’s new offensive pioneers?

“There was a time in the league when people were really creative, but that’s gone,” says Martz, picking through a pile of game-film DVDs that coaching friends and former protégés have mailed him. “There are a few guys who really know what they’re doing and are trying new things—or just putting a twist on old things.”

Martz entered the NFL in the early 1990’s as Buddy Ryan’s zone blitz or “zone dog” concepts were giving offenses fits. Watch any VHS tape of an NFL game from that decade and you’ll see two receivers releasing on third down, sometimes with tight ends and running backs being held back to block—an unthinkable and downright boring tactic by today’s standards.

“At the time, defense dominated football,” Martz says. “Offense didn’t have an answer for zone dog, so they just brought in more guys to block. It was frustrating. Defense dictated the game. We tried to flop that.”

“Playing defense is about rules,” Martz says. “If you understand their rules, you can put them in bad positions … when you know the defensive rules and you don’t take advantage of them, you ought to be fired.”

Martz’s answer was to vary personnel groups, creating mismatches by running the same play out of five different formations. He and his offensive contemporaries began emphasizing pre-snap motion to identify coverages and defensive plans. Soon enough, offenses began dictating the game. The 2000 Rams set an NFL record with 7,335 yards from scrimmage, surpassing the 1984 Dolphins’ mark by nearly 300 yards. (The Rams’ mark has since been surpassed by the 2013 Broncos and 2011 Saints.)

Using the numbers system for offensive play-calling handed down by Don Coryell, which is still in vogue with a handful of coaches, Martz came into his own as a game-planner and a play-caller just as the Rams accidentally discovered Warner, a former Arena league quarterback who turned out to be one of the greatest passers in a generation.

Twelve years and two Super Bowl appearances later, Martz resigned from his coordinator job in Chicago after the 2011 season, citing philosophical differences. Bears quarterback Jay Cutler later suggested the game had passed him by. Martz, who declined to speak about Cutler, says the opposite. Part of him wants another shot. A larger part of him is happy just watching the occasional game tape.

As he loads up the first DVD, Martz takes one look at the Broncos’ offense and the Colts’ defense and sighs.

“You know what’s funny?” he says. “I just realized I don’t know half these guys’ names anymore.”

What he recognizes these days is great coaching.

The three names Martz wants you to know—Adam Gase, the Bronco’s offensive coordinator; Mike McCoy, the Chargers’ head coach; and Mike McCarthy, the Packers head coach—are the types of game-planners and play-callers that make him long for the action on Sunday afternoons.
Adam Gase — Matchup Nightmares

Martz uses a clicker to skip through Denver’s season-opening win over the Colts. We watch every play two or three times, an old habit for the coach. On Mondays after games he might have watched the tape four times—by himself, with the coaches, with the quarterback, and, finally, with the offense.

We’re on a hunt for the coaching identity of Adam Gase, the Broncos’ 36-year-old coordinator. He began as a scouting assistant in Detroit in 2003 under Steve Marriucci and worked his way up to quarterbacks coach by 2007, the last of Martz’s two years as offensive coordinator with the Lions. After two seasons in Denver, Gase is arguably No. 1 on the unofficial list of head coaching candidates for 2015.

Martz hones in on one particular run. With 9:28 left in the first quarter, Montee Ball runs off tackle for four yards. No big deal, right? Watch again. There’s motion on the bottom of the screen. Gase knows from his film study that it’s de facto policy for the Colts to drop the strongside safety into the box when the offense is in a bunch formation, and to retreat the weakside safety. So he motions a receiver into bunch and Manning immediately calls for the snap.

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Ball takes the handoff with both safeties out of their ideal positions; one is even retreating away from the play. If Ball could have made it beyond the first level, he had nothing but open field.

“This is big,” Martz says. “Playing defense is about rules. If you understand their rules, you can put them in bad positions.”

The Broncos have had problems running the ball, ranking 27th in the NFL in yards per game. Some of that falls on Manning as a play-caller. But Martz also sees it as a symptom of inexperience. Gase only sprinkles in the occasional zone-blocking run. Three years removed from his last coaching gig as the Bears’ offensive coordinator, Martz, 63, spends most of his days in his three-story home, which sits on a hill in a cul-de-sac neighborhood overlooking the coast. His office is just big enough for a desk and a few dozen mementos that tell the story of a football life. Three years removed from his last coaching gig as the Bears’ offensive coordinator, Martz, 63, spends most of his days in his three-story home, which sits on a hill in a cul-de-sac neighborhood overlooking the coast. His office is just big enough for a desk and a few dozen mementos that tell the story of a football life. “If you want to run zone-running plays, you have to do it over and over again. You have to have reps,” Martz says. “Twenty years ago it was difficult to evaluate quarterbacks because they might have thrown 120 times a year. Now it’s 450. You used to be able to evaluate running backs. Now that’s switched.”

Where Gase thrives, though, is in the passing game.

Second quarter, 6:50 remaining. Martz recognizes an old standby: 288 special, so named by Coryell. Two receivers run identical posts on the left side of the field, hence ‘88’.

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On their way to winning Super Bowl XXXIV, Martz ran this exact play on the Rams’ first play of their divisional-round victory over the Vikings in January 2000. Isaac Bruce took the inside post route 78 yards for a touchdown. On the Fox broadcast, John Madden exclaimed, “He did it!” So confident was Dick Vermeil that he told the broadcast crew they’d run 288 on the first play. In the aftermath, Madden drew it up as only he can.

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The Rams got the play from Norv Turner, who at the time “used to run the heck out of it,” Martz says. But Gase runs his own tweaked version of 288, which demonstrates his ability to create mismatches. On this play against Indianapolis, Gase positions his best pass-catching tight end, Julius Thomas, in a three-point stance, and a blocking tight end as the wing. Thomas will cross the field and the face of the defense.

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Consider these contingencies:

A) If the Colts are in man defense, Gase and Manning know the linebacker will cover the tight end on the inside while the better-qualified safety will check the wing, because most offenses position the more agile player as the wing. Julius Thomas would then be covered by linebacker D’Qwell Jackson. No-brainer.

B) If the Colts are in a Cover 2, Manning will try to look off one of the safeties and throw the open post.

C) If it’s Cover 3, Thomas might still be open underneath, and you can always check down to the running back.

The Colts were in man coverage, and Thomas beat Jackson (of course) for a 35-yard touchdown.

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“As a coach,” Martz says, “you have to have an answer for the quarterback so he knows where he’s supposed to go with the ball against every coverage. If Thomas was the wing, the safety would cover him. But by sticking him inside, now that linebacker has him. The safety wants to cover, and it’s logical for the safety to cover him, but he’s told not to.

“That, by design, is outstanding. It’d be easy to put him on the wing, but Adam knows the defense’s rules. All the little details work out really well. Very few people do this.

“They’ve got good players, and he knows what to do with them. He puts guys in position to have success. It would be easy to do the same stuff over and over, but each week he’s going to create.”
Mike McCoy — Deciphering Defenses

My trip to San Diego included a conversation with Mike McCoy on the progress of Philip Rivers. It was McCoy who had impressed upon Rivers in 2013 the value of what some call the dink-and-dunk: As a quarterback, read almost everything in the passing game from low to high, rather than from high to low. Asked how many quarterbacks would be better in that sort of offense, McCoy said, “All 32 of them.”

Martz’s offenses were never so patient, but in the Chargers head coach he sees football’s best offensive mind, saying, “I think right now he might be the best head coach in the league.”

Martz pulls up San Diego’s signature win of the season, a dethroning of sorts of the Seahawks in Week 2.

“Here’s how they won this game, and it wasn’t a fluke,” Martz says. “Real low risk, didn’t ask Rivers to hold the ball long or throw it down the field. Just run downhill on these guys. A team like Seattle that does a lot of stuff on defense, they can stunt themselves right out of the running game.”

During their opening drive, which resulted in a field goal, the Chargers lined up in a left-heavy formation, got set, and then abruptly shifted to the right, sending Seattle’s defense into disarray. The result: a four-yard gain off tackle.

Here’s what the Seahawks’ defense looked like just before the ball was snapped:

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“Whether it’s a good play or a bad play, he’s got them on their heels,” Martz says. “To get three yards on these guys is tough in the running game. No. 93 doesn’t even have his hand on the ground and he’s getting ear-holed at the snap.

“Anytime you can get a defense just a half a step off, you’ve got a leg up on them.”

A testament to Seattle’s defense, the Chargers managed less than 70 rushing yards in their 30-21 win. Most of the offensive production rested on Rivers and the passing game. At the beginning of the next drive, the Chargers’ formation caused Seattle’s linebackers to betray a careful disguise.

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Antonio Gates motioned inside from the right, and nobody on defense moved a muscle. That’s by design: Carroll and Quinn want the passer to think he’s playing against a zone, but it’s really a man defense with rules that say the strongside linebacker covers the slot receiver and the safety covers the second receiver from the sideline.

“Seattle’s whole thing is disguising the coverage and beating you at the line of scrimmage before you recuperate,” Martz says. “That’s how they won the Super Bowl.”

The hope is that a five-man rush can get there before Rivers figures it out.

But the Chargers’ pre-snap alignment gives Rivers a glimpse of Seattle’s scheme. Because the running back is to the right of the quarterback on the three-receiver side, linebacker Malcolm Smith lines up over the center. Though he doesn’t want to betray Seattle’s ruse, Smith also doesn’t want to get beaten on a route to the strongside flats. “Rivers recognizes this,” Martz says, “and you don’t figure that out without being prepared and having a very specific understanding of how the defense will react to your sets.”

Rivers knows it’s man coverage, and he also knows linebacker Bobby Wagner is responsible for Antonio Gates, who catches the ball 15 yards downfield.

“Know the man coverage beater on every play,” Martz says. “The first thing he’s looking at is the linebackers. If they’re out of position, he’s not even looking downfield. He’s checking down. That’s too easy.”
Mike McCarthy — Understanding Tendencies

Great football tickles Mike Martz. Outstanding audibles make him squeal. Well-drawn-up plays send him into man-crush mode.

“You want to talk about a great coach?” he asks. “Check out Mike McCarthy.”

His level of preparation is what stands out the most. We watch only 30 seconds of Green Bay’s Week 5 victory over Minnesota before identifying something special.

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On first-and-10 near midfield, Rodgers recognizes a defensive alignment and checks to a run off the left guard. Eddie Lacy takes the handoff for 29 yards, setting up a Packers touchdown.

“This is a run check. See the two tackles, outside shade on the guards? You never have that unless it’s third-and-long. It’s probably going to be a double plug up the middle by the backers. So you check to this run, and if he gets through there, there’s no scraping linebacker. You’ve got to look at a lot of tape and really understand the defense to know that’s going to happen.”

The ensuing touchdown was an eight-yard flip to Randall Cobb, who has 922 receiving yards and 10 touchdowns through 12 games. Says Martz, “I tried to get Chicago to draft him, but they said, ‘No. Too little, not really a receiver.’ ”

We skip ahead to Rodgers’ 66-yard touchdown bomb to Jordy Nelson, who beats safety Harrison Smith with a double move to the post. The play appears to be a masterful combination of ability, planning and execution. Martz explains the concept of boundary coverage. When the offense is on a particular hash mark, the wider side of the field is known as ‘field.’ Some coordinators will ask one safety to cover the short half, and two other players to split the larger ‘field’ in half.

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“This cracks me up. McCarthy knows that when he’s in a certain personnel, [Vikings head coach Mike] Zimmer will leave the safety on the short side of the field responsible for half the field with the safety and the other cornerback responsible for the other half. His stat guy is telling him that.

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“He runs play-action to give Jordy Nelson time to execute the double-move,” Martz says. “The receiver on the bottom runs a dig, because McCarthy knows the safety will bite on it. That leaves Jordy Nelson and No. 22 [Smith] all alone back there. Any safety back there might not be able to cover that.

“This is what it’s all about. When you know the defensive rules and you don’t take advantage of them, you ought to be fired.”

* * *

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Retired NFL players talk about struggling to find what comes next. After his last coaching gig, Martz got an immediate answer: television. He worked as an analyst for Fox for a year, but found the work impersonal and the workplace fractured by politics.

The idea of getting back into coaching is enticing, and he has no shortage of friends still in the business. Of the 22 players who started during his senior year at Fresno State, 17 went into coaching. (Martz was a tight end.) There are consulting offers to be had, similar to Al Saunders’ role in Oakland. But being the experienced voice that chimes in with advice doesn’t appeal to Martz. Eventually, he’d want to run the show.

“I think about going back all the time,” he says. “But you can’t just kind of go back. You’ve got to go back and do it right.”

For him, that would mean going to a team that values innovation around a traditional drop-back quarterback.

“Personnel guys fall in love with a guy who can make plays with his legs,” Martz says of quarterbacks such as Robert Griffin III and Michael Vick. “You tell a personnel guy, ‘OK, your job depends on whether he can win games for us, and if you’re telling me he’s going to win us games by running the football, you’re nuts.’ Then they start having second thoughts.

“Your quarterback has to be a terrific passer first. See the field, make good decisions, and then throw it straight. That’s where RG3 fails. He wants to hold onto the ball when he should let it loose. You can’t cloud up the fact that this game is still played by passers.”

It’s something that Gase, McCoy and McCarthy know better than anyone else.
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Ray-Ray plays for the Raiders,
you know.

w
v

http://www.contracostatimes.com/raiders/ci_27024468/raiders-prepping-rams-special-special-teams

“…Ray-Ray Armstrong, a Raiders linebacker and special teams player who was cut by the Rams on Oct. 6 and claimed by Oakland the next day, said, “We know if they’ve got the chance they’re going to run a couple of fakes. We’ll be ready.”… see link

====================

[www.sfgate.com]

Raiders’ Murray uncertain for Sunday’s game

Raiders running back Latavius Murray had done his share of waiting patiently this season before his opportunity arose last week, so he is not going to rush back now — even after breaking through with a two-touchdown game.

Murray, who left the Nov. 20 win over the Chiefs with a concussion, was limited again in practice Thursday. He hasn’t passed the league’s battery of concussion tests, and he is questionable for Sunday’s game in St. Louis.

“He still has one step to go, we’re not there yet,” Raiders interim coach Tony Sparano said.

Murray, who has been behind Darren McFadden and Maurice Jones-Drew on the depth chart, had 112 yards and two touchdowns on four carries, but sustained the concussion on a helmet-to-helmet hit on the last one.

Murray said he doesn’t have any lingering effects from the concussion.

“I’ve felt fine, and I’m feeling better each day,” Murray said. “With these kind of things you have to take it one day at a time and follow the right procedures. I’m making sure to do that and listen to what the trainers have me doing.”

Murray tweeted to fans that he was doing well the day after the game, and said he is flattered that he is looked at as a bright spot in a dismal 1-10 season.

“It’s a great feeling for people to want to see you out there,” Murray said. “Obviously I’ve always wanted to be out there and play and be able to get the ball in my hands, so it feels good.”

He fumbled on the play where he was injured, which is something Sparano brought up when asked whether Murray, who had only 10 carries on the season before his big game, moves to the front of the running back line.

“I still have room for improvement,” Murray said. “Again, the ball was on the ground out there, so I have to clean that up. I think I just have to continue to get better and when I’m up, I need to just be ready to go.”

Teammates were surprised at how fast Murray was going on his 90-yard touchdown run. James Jones and Charles Woodson both told the 6-foot-3, 230-pound second-year back that they had no idea he had that in him.

“I think I might confuse a lot of people, just me being so tall and they might not know I have that kind of speed,” Murray said. Woodson “didn’t know I was that fast, but again, I know what I’m capable of, and it was definitely nice to pull a big one off like that.”

Tight end Mychal Rivera keyed the big run with a nice block inside.

“I saw that backside cut and just hit it,” Murray said. “Just took off and didn’t look back until I crossed that goal line.”

Meanwhile, guard Gabe Jackson (knee) practiced for a second straight day, but Sparano sounded skeptical about his chances of playing against the Rams.

• This topic was modified 10 years, 6 months ago by wv.

Bailey finally resurfaces as option in passing game
By Jim Thomas jthomas

[www.stltoday.com]

When the NFL revised it drug policy in September, it meant Stedman Bailey’s four-game league suspension was cut in half.

After sitting out the opener against Minnesota as well as Game 2 against Tampa Bay, Bailey made his season debut two games early — against Dallas in Game 3. Based on how he closed his rookie season in 2013, plus his impressive play during spring practices and training camp, the Rams offense would be the better for it.

It was only natural to expect a brief adjustment period when Bailey returned, maybe a couple of weeks before he really got going. But in one of this season’s bigger mysteries, those couple weeks turned into half a season.

Bailey must’ve been on a milk carton somewhere, because he wasn’t on the field. In his first four games post-suspension, he participated in an average of nine offensive plays.

During that stretch, he was on the field nearly twice as much on special teams (66 plays) than at wide receiver (37). Of course, one of those special teams plays did result in arguably the most exciting play of the Rams’ season — Bailey’s 90-yard punt return for a TD on the “Mountaineer” play, with Tavon Austin serving as a decoy for Seattle’s punt coverage team.

As for wide receiver, almost every week coach Jeff Fisher would say the team wanted to get Bailey more involved. But Bailey was targeted only five times in his first four games, catching two passes for 20 yards.

Offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer pointed out that there was only one football to go around. And as trite as that sounded, there was some truth to it.

Once Bailey’s suspension was lifted — and when Austin returned Oct. 5 against Philly after missing one and a half games with a knee injury — the Rams were trying to work six wide receivers into their rotation.

“I just know that this is a game of patience,” Bailey said. “Sometimes you’ve got to be patient. And whenever your number’s called, make sure you’re there to make the play.”

But the herd was thinned in late October. After being a surprise pre-game inactive against Seattle, Austin Pettis was released Oct. 20. Six days later in Kansas City, the Rams’ most productive wide receiver — Brian Quick — suffered a season-ending shoulder injury.

At that point, the Rams really didn’t have a choice. They had to play Bailey. He was in for 64 percent of the offensive plays Nov. 2 at San Francisco and 74 percent the following week at Arizona, but the ball still wasn’t coming his way. He was thrown to just three times in those two games, with just a seven-yard catch to show for it.

Bailey showed a pulse two Sundays ago in the upset of Denver with three catches for 26 yards. Then — finally — came the breakout game in San Diego. Bailey had a team-high seven catches for 89 yards and a touchdown in the Ram’s 27-24 loss. He was targeted nine times, which tied for the team-high total with tight end Jared Cook.

Those were the kinds of numbers expected from Bailey on a regular basis based on his play last summer.

“Stedman’s been great all camp, all spring,” QB Sam Bradford had said after the team’s Aug. 2 scrimmage at the Edward Jones Dome. “I think he’s gonna be a big part of what we do when he gets back.”

Better late than never.

Why it took until the Sunday before Thanksgiving to see Bailey play a meaningful role in the offense remains a puzzle.

“It’s just games and situations and opportunities,” Fisher said. “We’re settling in right now to a really good group.”

Meaning Kenny Britt, Austin, and Bailey.

When asked if anything had held back Bailey before the San Diego game, Fisher replied: “No, he’s been obviously doing really good things for us on special teams. But it’s Shaun (Hill) throwing the ball where the ball’s supposed to go.

“I was really disappointed in the call that brought back Sted’s big play that got us inside the 10. They called a hold on Greg (Robinson).”

The flag wiped out what would’ve been a 23-yard gain by Bailey to the San Diego 8 late in the first quarter. The Rams settled for a field goal and their first points of the game. Otherwise, Bailey would’ve posted only the second 100-yard game receiving game of the season for the Rams.

As it was, the seven catches and 89 yards were career highs for Bailey, a third-round pick out of West Virginia.

“It was very exciting for me to finally get involved in the game plan, to be able to make some plays out there,” he said. “But overall, we didn’t win the game. We’ve just got to keep fighting and hope for the next one.”

These final five games of 2014 could be very important for Bailey in terms of staking a claim to a starting spot, or at the very least a significant role in the receiver corps in 2015.

“I feel like things will get better from here on out with me being more involved in the offense and being able to catch passes,” Bailey said. “So I look forward to that, and I’m just gonna continue to keep working.”

ROSTER MOVES

The Rams released WR Damian Williams, who has been bothered recently by a hamstring injury, and replaced him with TE Justice Cunningham, who was brought up from their practice squad. Another NFL team was interested in signing Cunningham to its active roster; the Rams liked him enough to promote him to their 53-man roster.

THANKSGIVING

For the 20th consecutive year in St. Louis, Rams players teamed up with the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis to distribute Thanksgiving meals to 2,000 needy families on Tuesday. Rams players contributed $35,000 for the project, with every player on the squad donating

thehammer

Rams need to find their own Phillips Rivers…he won the chess match between himself and Gregg Williams…Rivers has his highest qbr when blitzed 121.9

very tough road game…to me looked like a playoff game between 2 good teams…good teams make plays against each other..real slugfest and fun to watch…IF the rams play as well as they did yesterday they will win their next 4 games

still some things to fix

Rams 12 missed tackles SD 3….3rd worst of the season 18 vs Minn 13 vs KC..miss tackles/lose the game..they go hand in hand

no team plays for tie on the road…running on 1st down to take some time off the clock then passing was the right call…

Robinson had a brutal game…-6 now ranked 70-79 ot’s. His allowing the strip by Luiget was a killer…

Jenkins int was cool but the hustle play he made to strip Allen of the ball running 15+ yards after being beaten was very very cool…

people need to realize Hill is a solid qb with a long resume…he will play to his career numbers 43-26 td/int ratio with solid sack rate/int rate..overhyping him when he does well or going all ape shit when he plays bad is pointless and stupid…

Hill has started 26 games in his career with 1910 snaps…basically 2 full years as a starter…his career passer rating is 85.8..last weeks passer rating was 102.7….anyone ever study stats? Odds are very good he will move to his career stats the longer he plays

Watched him enough at camp to know Davis never should of been starting BUT also know Hill isn’t the most accurate qb in the world either…those slightly misthrown balls were expected…

fun watching a qb throwing deep outs…and actually throwing passes to his wr’s again

Future? Hill and the team will be fine

====

leoram44

Here’s what I posted last week:

I realized earlier this week that I was drunk on Bronco Spiked Kool-Aid so I actually watched some Charger games to see what we can expect.

I don’t like this matchup at all. They have the kind of offense that can negate our pass rush. They are very good at the screen game. Their running game when they use Oliver looks like ours did last year with Stacy. Floyd and Allen are no joke and Rivers is an F’in warrior! Gates still uses his body like Karl Malone did getting entry passes from Stockton. I believe they will be patient and not expose Rivers to much abuse.

They also run a high risk/reward defense and will load up to negate our running game. They frequently use overload blitzes and are smart about how they take away the hot routes on the other side. Other than Weddle, they don’t have any dominant defenders but the sum of their parts is pretty darned solid. They are well coached and don’t have glaring weaknesses.

I’m not saying the Rams won’t win this game but we will need the following to happen:

1) Jenkins needs to keep Allen and Floyd in front of him.
2) Donald needs to blow up their interior line on a regular basis.
3) Alert, play action over and over and over.
4) More mistake free football from Hill.
5) Mason must have at least 80 yards and Cunningham 3 catches.
6) Keep the penalties down. .

Back to today: Hill didn’t play mistake free ball and penalties cost us again. The rest of it happened which is encouraging.

I keep reading around how some fans think with the knee thing, Bradford can’t take a hit.

Means they don’t understand knee injuries.

Now this does not mean he can come back or can’t. It has nothing to do with that. It just has to do with how you can hurt a knee.

Those who know all this, know that hyper-extended knees do not need to be hit.

They come from planting the leg awkwardly with the weight and pressure working the wrong direction.

If that sounds abstract, believe me, it ain’t. I have hyper-extended my knees several times, just fortunately not severely enough to tear an ACL doing it.

One time, I was 17, driving along on a weathery day, and I saw this car had gone off a country road near my house so I stopped to help others who had also stopped. We were going to push him out of a muddy field back on to the road. I was 17. I turned my leg wrong while pushing and the pain was like nothing I had ever gone through (though I have had it again a couple of times since). My knee swole up, I could barely walk. I’ve had kidney stones and if I had to choose between the 2, I would take the stones again, not the knee. If you have never gone through it, you have no idea.

Nothing hit my knee. It didn’t hit anything.

That’s what happened to Bradford. Awkward angle, hyper-extension, a tear, and those who know about knees know, it has nothing to do with being hit. It’s just a freak thing.

This idea that someone who hyper-extends a knee can’t take a hit is a complete crock and is just based on not understanding anything about this.

You bend it a certain way awkwardly and the body twists wrong in relation to it, and zap–your knee goes. And it hurts like you would not believe. The 2nd time the lineman was hanging on him, the leg just bent wrong.

Most recent knee for me was in the spring. I was sawing wood with a chainsaw. I had heavy protective boots on, gloves, goggles, and just turned wrong at one point. My leg turned, the boot was sunk in the mud and didn’t turn. This time it didn’t hurt till later. Doctor said I had a bruised meniscus. I was on a cane for a couple of weeks and had to pick my angles in a choosy way to sleep. It felt bad moving around but this time it was nothing like the times when I was young and twisted it wrong followed immediately by “you don’t want to go there” level pain.

So I get very impatient with the types who say “well he didn’t get hit hard.” Cause. It. Has. Nothing. To. Do. With. Being. Hit.

…

RamView, November 2, 2014
From The Couch
(Report and opinions on the game.)
Game #8: Rams 13, 49ers 10

Sack City has officially opened for business, as the Ram defense dominated with EIGHT sacks and carried the sputtering offense to a huge upset over the 49ers. The Rams may finally be who we thought they were.

Position by position:
* QB: Grace under fire wasn’t always a strength for Austin Davis (13-24-105, 44.6 PR) this week. The 49er rush had him running around like a chicken with its head cut off and he also threw like one at times. In the 1st, he rolled out and tried to feather a pass over Antoine Bethea and to Tavon Austin; rookie mistake, the ball was never getting over Bethea. The INT set up a quick 49er TD. Next possession, Davis made up for that with an even worse throw. Running for his life but spotting Kenny Britt breaking deep for what should have been a long TD, he launched a throw well short and picked off easily by Perrish Cox. Davis had to run around like a madman at times just to be able to throw the ball away, though he preserved a FG by doing so in the 1st. When he got overwhelmed and sacked late in the 2nd, the TV announcers actually started calling for Shaun Hill, but Sack City forced a fumble and Davis rallied a little. He beat a blitz with a screen to Benny Cunningham for 17 and got Britt wide open in the flat for a 21-yard TD to tie the game at 10 at halftime. By avoiding disaster in the 2nd half, Davis allowed the Rams to stay in the game. His main job in the 2nd half was to hand off to Tre Mason and make short, quick passes, but that helped keep the Rams ahead in the field position game. We wish he would have thrown a screen pass away that instead lost the Rams 8 yards in the 3rd. On 3rd-and-1 with about 3:00 to go, we wish he could have seen Lance Kendricks cruising all alone downfield, maybe even tossed the ball out there anyway, since the play was designed to go to him and would have put the game away. But he threw the ball away, saving the chance to pin the 49ers deep, and the Rams needed every inch of that long field over those final minutes. And who knows how big this play was – after the 49ers shanked a punt to put the Rams in gift scoring range in the 4th, on 3rd down, Davis avoided a big rush by Aaron Lynch and hit Cunningham up the left flat for 8 yards. Not a first down, but after Greg Zuerlein barely scraped in a 39-yard FG, it felt like that little screen pass saved the Rams 3 points, and maybe the game to boot. It was by no means pretty. Austin Davis has elevated the Ram offense some weeks and this clearly wasn’t one of them. Once the offense put him in game manager mode, though, he hung in there and got them the W.

* RB: After a weird continuity break last week, the Rams are back to Tre Mason (19-65) as their feature back, at the expense of Zac Stacy (0-0). Mason earns this role as the more complete back. There is more power in his speed game than there is speed in Stacy’s power game. Benny Cunningham (4-10) started, but Mason brought the goods on the Rams’ 1st FG drive. He banged out 4- and 5-yard runs behind Greg Robinson, then made a big blitz pickup. Then another 6-yard run he finished by running OVER Michael Wilhoite, and another 4-yarder he finished by taking on 2 49ers downfield. That’s physical play worthy of any RB. Mason opened the 2nd half with a 22-yard burst off the right side, running through another Wilhoite tackle attempt. He then pounded out a 5-yard run and cut back for another 6. The kid shows a lot toward being a complete runner. He goes hard and does not go down on first contact. He builds up speed quickly and can get outside. Good ball security this week. Where Mason did not succeed was as the back who chews up the clock at the end of the game. He got stuffed going up the middle on most of his late carries, and on a 3rd-and-1 to seal the game, the Rams felt better throwing instead of running. Perhaps a fresh Stacy should have played a role in there somewhere? It was Cunningham who made the big play by a RB anyway, back in the 2nd, beating a blitz on a bubble screen for 17 (he was 3-38 as a receiver) to set up the Rams’ lone TD. The final division of labor at RB is still settling into place, but this game looked pretty close to where it’s going to need to be.

* Receivers: Might as well combine all the receivers, almost no one’s doing anything. This week’s possible exception: Kenny Britt (2-32), who scored the Rams’ only TD and missed out on another when Davis badly underthrew him after he broke open deep in the 1st. Both were simple coverage breakdowns – the TD came because the MLB failed to pick him up over the middle – but Britt at least made a couple of plays. Who else did? Jared Cook (2-12) had his second straight quiet week. I don’t think he was even targeted after the 1st quarter. Lance Kendricks (1-7) contributed well as a run-blocker and could have had a long TD at the end of the game had Davis gotten more than a second to throw. Cory Harkey (0-0) missed a couple of run blitz pickups that helped stall out drives. The small WRs contributed next to nothing: Tavon Austin 2-11, Stedman Bailey 1-7, Chris Givens 0-0. That golden moment where Davis has time to throw AND a receiver gets open just isn’t coming in this passing game these days.

* Offensive line: Neither offensive line won on their side of the trenches this week. The Rams just lost by a lot less. Davis was under so much pressure, it’s hard to believe he was sacked only once. His linemen can thank him for his mobility that it wasn’t at least half a dozen. And the funny thing is, after a hiccup by Joseph Barksdale and Davin Joseph on an opening 3-and-out, they did a good job picking up the stunts they had been helpless against in the first game. Both tackles continue to struggle against edge speed, though. Davis had to run for his life on his 2nd INT in the first place because Barksdale got beaten badly outside. Greg Robinson’s struggles with speed at LT may be the line’s biggest issue. He’s getting knocked off-balance by much-smaller DEs; it has to be technique. Though Joseph “officially” gave up the only sack, to Aaron Lynch, that play broke down when Robinson got bull-rushed by the much smaller Ahmad Brooks. Brooks beat him again in the 3rd to force a wild Davis throwaway. The Rams went nowhere on their final FG drive after Scott Wells, wearing the largest arm brace I’ve ever seen, got beaten off the snap on a 2nd down run and Robinson was beaten by Lynch to blow up the 3rd down play. With a chance to seal the game and Kendricks breaking all alone downfield on 3rd-and-1, Robinson again got beaten badly and Davis never really got to see what had developed. The Rams ran well when they ran to the edge. Mason got a couple of good gains behind Robinson on the 1st FG drive and another behind Joseph. Barksdale helped open the hole for Mason’s long run of 22 in the 3rd. Middle runs were more of a problem, between run blitzes not getting picked up and Wells losing off the snap a couple of times. He also killed a drive with a holding penalty. Robinson’s shown he can maul; he absolutely flattened a guy on the edge on the Britt TD, so not only was Britt wide open, Davis had a nice, wide throwing lane. The whole Ram passing game, though, is hanging quite a lot on Robinson’s learning curve.

* Defensive line: A little NFL Films “voice of God” music, if you please. The Rams laid siege to Colin Kaepernick with the fury of eight weeks of frustration. William Hayes sacked him on the 49ers’ 2nd drive, whipping Anthony Davis on the edge while Aaron Donald beat Alex Boone and kept Kaepernick from running. Hayes and a blitz flushed Kaepernick again on 3rd down to polish off that drive. James Laurinaitis (!) blitzed past Frank Gore to drop Kaepernick early in the 2nd. Sack City picked up Davis after his bad INT later in the 2nd. Hayes, completely unblocked, fired in to take down Kaepernick. Then, after the Rams were gypped out of a fumble return TD, Laurinaitis fired up the middle and blew a sack, but Robert Quinn cleaned up on the play. Four sacks before halftime? Sack City wasn’t done, either. With just 3 down linemen, but two LBs blitzing, Eugene Sims pushed Boone into Kaepernick, and Quinn hammered him from behind for a sack/fumble. Sims recovered that, and it set up the Rams’ only TD. And the halftime show could still wait. 0:19 left, on just a 4-man rush, Donald trucked the hapless Boone into Kaepernick, flushing him to Sims for the Rams’ SIXTH sack of the half. The 49ers tried to adjust to this onslaught in the 2nd half but crumbled instead. They made it to FG range in the 3rd before Donald burned the center and tripped Kaepernick up for sack number SEVEN. If that didn’t put the 49ers out of FG range, the dropped shotgun snap between the shaky QB and his shaky backup center surely did, with Michael Brockers getting a tackle-for-loss. (Not a SACK? Darn.) Backed up at their goal line in the 4th and the Rams looming over them like an Imperial Star Destroyer, the 49ers got twitchier than a Wookiee with a bad case of sand fleas. Mike Iupati jumped. Frank Gore jumped. On 3rd down, as he’d been doing all day, Quinn whipped Joe Staley, forcing Kaepernick to step up… into Brockers, who dropped him just past the goal line for the Rams’ EIGHTH sack. That and a shanked punt set up the game-winning FG. The Rams couldn’t quite run out the clock and let the 49ers get down to the 1-yard line with time running out. But Sims, who played out of his mind this week, pressured Kaepernick into throwing a pass away on 2nd-and-goal, and the nervous Niners couldn’t push across on 3rd-and-goal without messing up the snap and losing the ball. This is the pass rush dominance we’ve waited for all season. This is what won the game for the Rams this week almost single-handedly. This is how we do things in Sack City.

* Linebackers: Big bounceback week for all three Rams LBs, though there was an early Gore run where they all stunk – Alec Ogletree got wiped out by the RT Davis, Laurinaitis got cleared aside by fullback Bruce Miller and Jo-Lonn Dunbar made an embarrassing whiff – but that did not last long. The three were blitzing forces unlike anything they’d been all year. Laurinaitis got home for a sack early in the 2nd and just missed on Quinn’s first sack later in the quarter. Pressure by Laurinaitis and Ogletree set the table for Quinn’s sack/fumble after that. The two also combined for a strip (Ogletree) of Gore and a fumble return TD (Laurinaitis) that SHOULD have counted. Ogletree was everywhere, in easily his best game of the year. He stuffed Gore a couple of times, nearly picked off a pass intended for Vernon Davis, and blew up a screen on a blitz in addition to all those other plays he made. Laurinaitis made the play of the game, though. With the 49ers at the 1 with 0:10 left, Kaepernick and his center essentially pulled off Butt Fumble II. Kaepernick completely lost control of the ball trying to lunge across the goal line, and who better to win a game-deciding battle royale than the son of a Road Warrior? Laurinaitis came out of the pile holding the ball high, sealing a hard-earned victory for the Rams in what’s been a hard first half to the season.

* Secondary: The Rams looked determined from the outset to make this game much different from the timid soft zone coverage of the first meeting. On the opening drive, with a 3rd down blitz on the way, Lamarcus Joyner jumped Anquan Boldin’s slant route and broke up the pass. Three weeks ago that would have been a big gain because Joyner would still have been ten yards away. Marcus Roberson jumped Vernon Davis’ 3rd down route the next drive but missed out on a pick-six when Ogletree broke up the pass in front of him. The Rams didn’t let themselves get burned deep. E.J. Gaines nicely broke up a bomb for Michael Crabtree before halftime. Unfortunately, the Rams had already given up a TD to the dreaded Boldin by then, as Roberson got sucked into Kaepernick’s gravitational pull when he scrambled, letting Boldin sneak behind everyone. Boldin’s stats (6-93) were similar to the first game but the Rams made Kaepernick work much harder to find open receivers when they blitzed. The final drive was still a real roller coaster ride. Back after a long injury break, Trumaine Johnson blew a tackle and let Steve Johnson get away for 25. But Joyner blanketed S. Johnson the next play and Rodney McLeod made a big open-field tackle to hold Boldin to 8. But then Joyner got called for holding and McLeod blew a tackle to give S.Johnson another 20. But then Gaines broke up a long pass, saved the game, with a diving play. But then TruJo interfered with Crabtree to set the 49ers up inside the 5, then held him again to set them up at the 3. But the D hung on, and this time around, the Rams won in part because the Ram secondary got aggressive. The attitude looks good on them.

* Special teams: Johnny Hekker (46.8 avg) was very much part of the reason the Rams won. Tavon Austin was not. Hekker pinned the 49ers around their 10 twice in the 4th. The first time it set up the game winning FG (which Greg Zuerlein BARELY squeezed through) after a shanked punt by Andy Lee. The second helped keep the 49ers out of FG position until there was 1:00 left, though I’m probably overblowing that. Austin averaged over 8 yards a return and had what should have been a TD called back, but he’s regressed into way too much of an adventure back there. He’s back to stupidly standing around and waiting for coverage to get to him. When has that EVER worked, Tavon? Pee wee ball? It came within inches of costing the Rams a safety before halftime, as he goofed around in the end zone with a caught field goal for about half an hour and then IDIOTICALLY tried to bring it out, avoiding one of the season’s most boneheaded plays by mere inches. Quit dancing. Quit goofing around. Catch the ball and run FORWARD with it. What Austin’s thinking is as hard to explain as what Daren Bates was thinking when he jumped approximately five yards offsides on the 49ers’ first FG attempt.

* Strategery: Alert the media! Brian Schottenheimer’s adjustments helped save the game for the Rams. And he didn’t wait until halftime, either. With the Rams still in the game but coping poorly with the 49er rush, he called some plays to help Davis get his confidence back. He dialed the passing game back and put a lot of the offensive burden on Mason’s shoulders. He got the ball out of Davis’ hand faster and beat 49er blitzes several times with screens to Cunningham, including one that may have saved the Rams the winning points. Two second-half calls looked very wrong without a second look. 3rd-and-10 in the 3rd, a goofy pitch play to Cunningham loses 4 more, but if he’d followed Robinson around end like he should have, the 49er D looked caught flat-footed. 3rd-and-1 with just over 3:00 to play and a chance to burn the last 49er timeout, the decision to pass just looked foolhardy, especially after Davis killed the clock with a throwaway, but as they showed on TV, the rest of the play worked – Kendricks was all alone downfield for a TD had Davis seen it. Eh, that still should have been a run. Schottenheimer still earns credit for tweaking the offense enough during the game to keep the Rams from going under.

I think I’ve spent every week this season complaining about Gregg Williams’ game plans; he can complain about me this week. I don’t have a great idea what was so different from the game in St. Louis to snap this pass rush to life. John Lynch said on the broadcast that the Rams disguised their blitzes too well for Kaepernick to figure them out. That makes two of us, I guess, so credit to Williams there. It looked like the Rams blitzed DBs off the edge more than they have this season, which had the side benefit of keeping Kaepernick in the pocket, which they did very well this time around. It looked like coverage behind the blitz was much more man instead of soft zones that left Boldin open by 10 yards every time the Rams blitzed the first game. That’s my guess for the key adjustment. Otherwise, Williams still took big blitz gambles on 3rd-and-longs he didn’t need to. But they worked. He still blitzed Laurinaitis. But it worked. He brought the house a couple of times with the 49ers driving at the end of the game and put a DB who hadn’t played since August out on an island. Well, it worked out. I’m not even sure it was Williams this week as much as it was players like Quinn, Hayes, Sims and Laurinaitis just playing better, or the 49ers really struggling to make up for the loss of Daniel Kilgore at center. But if this week represents the game plan and the players finally meshing, look out, league, and who gives a flip if I can figure it out or not.

And, sometimes it’s what you don’t do that works. About 3:00 left, 4th-and-1 near midfield, it was easy to think Jeff Fisher would consider going for it or deploying some Seattle-style special teams trickery. Instead, the very safe move to pin the 49ers deep with the punt. But unlike the Seattle game, the Rams had some success stopping the 49er offense, and they only had one timeout left to drive 55-60 yards. A failure on 4th down would have left them one completion from tying the game and in very good shape to take the lead at the end. The fact that they almost did made the decision to punt very much the right move. Coaching win for the Rams this week all the way around.

* Upon further review: Must referees constantly use Rams games to compete with one another to see who can be the NFL’s worst? Jerome Boger has always been in the running for that dishonor and made an especially powerful argument this week. Was Boger hung over, or still drunk? Two of the first three Ram penalties, he didn’t even call the right number. Boger made a call in the 2nd that smacked of the game being rigged. Ogletree stripped Gore at midfield, and Laurinaitis scooped and scored, but Boger said the play was blown dead because Gore’s forward progress had stopped. For one, no one whistles a play dead that quickly. For another, no whistle can be heard on TV until Laurinaitis has the ball! All Boger did was was blow the play dead so the Rams couldn’t score! And though it would have been called back by penalty, they called Austin out of bounds on a punt return in the 4th when replay showed he was in, it wasn’t even that close and should have been ruled a TD. Mason got bodyslammed by Chris Borland on a 4th quarter tackle, a move that is now a personal foul. No call. Boger and crew butchered basic procedures, basic rules interpretations, simple visual judgments and player safety calls. Their saving graces: they called penalties pretty evenly on both sides and didn’t blow the call on Kaepernick’s goal-line fumble. That’s all that kept Boger out of the Don Denkinger wing of the St. Louis Hall of Hated Sports Officials. For now. Grade: F-plus

* Cheers: Kevin Burkhardt and John Lynch were such 49er homers when they did this game last year, it did not look promising that they got the call again this week. Instead, this was the best game I’ve heard Lynch call. He made solid observations about the shifting strategies of both teams. He recommended changes the Rams actually adopted. They broke plays down well; Burkhardt saw Britt would have had a TD on Davis’ 2nd INT, and Lynch pointed out the TD Kendricks could have had on 3rd-and-1 of the Rams’ final drive. Lynch’s analysis made that play call look a lot less questionable. Speaking of questionable, they did both call for Shaun Hill to take over as starter, but they stayed on Rams Nation’s good side by being all over the awful officiating, from the denied fumble return TD to the bodyslam tackle personal foul that wasn’t called. There wasn’t a lot of thinking time at the end of the game. In the excitement, they said the clock stopped after Crabtree’s catch inside the 1 when it actually correctly kept running, and there was no mention of when or whether Harbaugh should have considered kicking the FG. I imagine he probably never would have. It was still the strongest broadcast we’ve seen from a Fox “B” team in a while.

* Who’s next?: You know you’re in an insanely difficult stretch of your schedule when the Seahawks and 49ers were the soft spots. Up next on the Rams’ Schedule From Hell: the 7-1 Cardinals. The Rams have, surprisingly, won three of the last four in this series, but the desert has been the setting for many a Rams horror show, such as last year’s uninspired 30-10 loss in which Carson Palmer completed 84% of his passes, 12 to Larry Fitzgerald.

Slowing down either of those two would be a start toward a much more competitive game than the Rams have tended to play in Arizona in recent seasons. They say teams that blitz hate to be blitzed, which showed some in Arizona’s 28-17 win at Dallas, but Palmer’s numbers have been strong: 11 TDs vs. 2 INTs. And the 34-year-old has been surprisingly nimble in the pocket this season. He’s climbing and sliding in the pocket well and it often gives him time to hit something big downfield. The Cardinals are a distinctly downfield passing game, but they’re also still predominantly Fitzgerald. You have to be able to stop and prevent plays like screens and quick slants that let him get a dangerous head of steam. Their best big-play threat is blazing rookie John Brown, but I’d be willing to do whatever’s necessary to take Fitzgerald out of play and make someone else beat me. Palmer spreads the ball around, but their tight ends are not reliable receivers, and along with Michael Floyd, who’s been maybe half as productive as Fitzgerald this season on the same number of targets, have been drop machines. LT Jared Veldheer anchors an offensive line that has improved but is attackable. LG Ted Larsen will be very vulnerable to Aaron Donald’s quickness. RT Bobby Massie is improving but still doesn’t read defenses well and will get fooled by blitzes and switches. Where they’ve really gotten better is run-blocking; you rarely see Andre Ellington without a hole to hit or taking a loss. He’s a tough little back, a smart, patient runner. He runs plays where they’re supposed to go and is a constant threat to break one. Bruce Arians’ team is very good fundamentally. They average less than a turnover a game, and rookie free agent (ahem) Chandler Catanzaro hasn’t missed a kick all season. Unlike their great tradition as the Big Dead in St. Louis, this Cardinal team doesn’t beat itself.

Two of the blitz-happiest DCs in the league, Gregg Williams and Todd Bowles, will square off in this week’s coaching main event. Bowles has the Cardinals blitzing more than any team in the league, a little over half the time, but funny thing: they’ve only averaged a sack a game, and they’re last in the league in pass defense. The Rams’ eight sacks this week matched Arizona’s season total. The Arizona front doesn’t have a lot to apologize for, though. Led by 6’8” Calais Campbell, who will be very hard for Austin Davis to see over, they get good enough pressure when they rush straight up that it looks like they’re blitzing. The Rams will be better off getting the ball out quickly on 1st down, Bowles’ favorite blitz down. It’s time to get a couple of guys going in the passing game. Jared Cook should be able to get open. The Eagles got their TEs matched up on LBs a lot last week. It’s also Tavon Time if it’s ever going to be. Or Central Stedman Time, whatever works, but Jeremy Maclin (11 catches, 2 TDs) killed the Cardinals out of the slot. As the #3 run D in the league (which has to be part of the reason for the low pass D ranking), they’re not going to be easy to move against on the ground. The Rams will want to use Arizona’s aggression against them. They’ll be better off attacking the edges than the middle. This isn’t the first time RamView has insisted the Rams run at Sam Acho. The Cardinals do get great run support from safeties Tony Jefferson and rookie Deone Bucannon, so cool them off with some play action. Davis shouldn’t come into to the Cactus Dome like he’s flying blind. How Jefferson’s lined up has been a tipoff to whether Bowles is blitzing. Patrick Peterson, for all his hype, has been pretty beatable at corner because he’ll often get caught peeking into the backfield trying to play for flashy interceptions. Eye discipline will be a key for Davis; so will finding his checkdowns be. The Eagles beat the Cardinal blitz repeatedly late in last week’s game with play-action dumpoffs. The flat opposite the blitz was always open. The 49ers left that open this week and Davis pounced on it a couple of times, so it should already be on his mind. No chance it’ll be easy, but the Ram offense can adjust to the Arizona attack. They won’t win if they can’t.

Last week, the Rams looked like Napoleon’s army marching back from Moscow. Fortunately, they made a stopover in Sack City and found themselves. The Rams will need Sack City and a smart game from Davis to hang against the best-coached, most fundamentally sound team in the NFC.

— Mike
Game stats from espn.com

Rams Head Coach Jeff Fisher – November 03, 2014

(Opening remarks)
“I’ll kind of follow up with the things I talked about after the ball game. It was just a great effort. It was a bounce-back effort all week long. We could have played better in the game than we did, but we found a way to win it and that speaks volumes of these guys. Things didn’t look good early in the week. We got their legs back, we get them back. We got them on the field. We told them, ‘You’re not going to be thinking about Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday at Sunday at 1 o’clock, at kickoff. So, go play hard.’ And that’s what they did.

“Pleased with the defensive line, the defense as a whole. The defense played well. We tackled. We got the turnovers. We improved on third down – we needed to improve in that area – I think, the third down stops were key in this game. Special teams-wise, we bounced back. I’m disappointed in the result on the punt return, but the overall effort was outstanding as far as the ‘teams’ was concerned. Offensively, we had a rough day and you’re going to have a rough day. In the last three weeks we’ve played the fifth ranked and second-ranked defense in the National Football League. The 49ers have an outstanding defensive scheme and they’re hard to attack, but we were patient. We had a couple turnovers. The first one was…he should have gone to the crossing route. The second one, he was trying to make a big play and under threw it. But, as I said, he bounced back. (QB) Austin (Davis) bounces back. He shakes it off and he keeps playing and that gives us a chance offensively. I thought (T) Greg (Robinson) did a nice job out there at left tackle. We struggled at times with some pass-rush games, but most of those things took place on the other side. But, Greg for the most part was what we expected out of him against that defense and he’s shown that he’s an outstanding open field tackler now unfortunately for two weeks in a row. I may put him on kickoff cover team.

“Injury-wise, we came out OK. We’re looking at (CB) Marcus Roberson’s ankle. We have some normal bumps and bruises. We’re going to have to rest some guys like we did last week, but we should be fine. Optimistic about (CB) Janoris Jenkins’ return.”

(On what happened when Austin Davis came out of the game)
“We require a brace on the front leg, the left leg of right-handed passers for our quarterbacks. As he slid, the brace got caught in the grass and the brace twisted, so he had the brace re-adjusted.”

(On if he had a feeling that the team energy level was up during pregame warm-up or early in the game)
“We had that sense on Thursday. Thursday here at practice, they were fine. They came back. I didn’t have any concern about them being focused and ready to play. We had a good week and great warm-ups and they were ready to come out and play. We had been talking about the importance of playing three hours and 10 minutes, as opposed to a first half of a football game. Fortunately, we won the toss. I talked about, if we win the toss we’ll defer. We’ll try to finish up with a possession at the end of the first half, but we’ll take possession – we know we’ll take possession the second half and try to make some plays. The mindset was just to keep playing and keep playing and keep playing.”

(On why the ‘finish’ message seemed to click this week)
“It’s been something we try to do every game. It just happened. It was a combination of their play selection, their game plan. We forced some drops. We put some pressure on their center. He had some bad snaps. Then we got rolling as far as our front four.”

(On why he gave game balls to the offensive line Sunday to reward their performance)
“Just because of what they endured last week. With the changes that took place in the Kansas City game, the fact that we weren’t quite sure as to who was going to be able to come back because there was a question mark with respect to (C) Scott (Wells) and (G) Rodger (Saffold) and (G) Davin (Joseph) going back in. (C) Barrett (Jones) came in and played and I just thought they all bounced back from last week. I just thought it was a great effort during the week. For Rodger to come back after subluxing the shoulder and playing the way he played and then going from whatever number sack total we had at Kansas City to just one yesterday, I thought it was a great effort.”

(On the decision to throw the ball on the team’s final offensive third down)
“There was 3:30 left and they had two timeouts left and the two-minute warning and I needed a first down. That’s a good defense. I’d do it again. (TE) Lance (Kendricks) was wide open. Austin couldn’t see him. Complete the pass, we kneel on it. The game is over. So, I was trying to win the game.”

(On if Wells and Saffold were game-time decisions)
“Had a pretty good sense on Friday after practice that Rodger was going to be okay. Scott didn’t even snap in the walk-thru on Wednesday. The first day he snapped was Friday. I think by Friday we had a pretty good sense. Then when we traveled and we got treatments at the hotel done, we had a pretty good sense that they were going to be able to go.”

(On the play of CB Trumaine Johnson in his first action of the season)
“We expect him to play. He wanted to play. I thought he did a nice job. He also had some special teams reps, which were good. He’s back. The injury’s behind him now. He’ll most likely start this week. We may have to move some people around. I also was pleased to see (S) Mark (Barron). I went to Mark before the game as we were trying to sort out the inactives. The way it went, I talked to Mark about playing some special teams and I think he told someone he hadn’t played special teams since peewee football. He did a really nice job on our kickoff return and kickoff coverage. We’re going to work, like we said, to see if we can get him into some packages on defense to get him on the field.”

(On why the whistle was blown on Tavon Austin’s fourth-quarter punt return)
“They thought he stepped out of bounds. I didn’t see it. It doesn’t appear that he stepped out. He was close, but he didn’t. So at that point…there were a couple of other blocks in the game, I think (49ers S) Craig Dahl had one on (LB) Will Herring that was identical to (LB Darren Bates) Batesy’s block and was not called. This is a side block in my opinion. It was just unusual because it came from the sideline into the field and that’s unfortunate that it took points off the board. My option at that point, because of offsetting, was to take the ball, they enforce our penalty and I get the ball, and still it was good field position. But I figured with Tavon, his big-play potential, the re-kick was a good decision. It ended up being a good decision because he shanked it.”

(On if DT Aaron Donald was key to the stop on the final play)
“Both (DT) Kendall (Langford) and Aaron were involved in that play, yeah. It’s designed when you anticipate a sneak.”

(On if it’s a timing issue on that play)
“No, it’s not a timing thing. It’s just disruptive. If you can lift the center, his seat goes down and it affects the snap. That’s what we were trying to do.”

(On if RB Tre Mason has been named the starting running back)
“­­No, we’re going to continue with the same thing. I can’t tell you who’s starting this week. (RB) Zac (Stacy) has handled things professionally. Unfortunately, he didn’t get to play. He will get to play. He will get his reps. We’ve not lost faith or confidence in him, but it’s hard to spread the ball around. We felt going into this game that Tre, some of the things he was doing and some of the ways that we were trying to attack the defense, gave us the best chance.”

(On Mason’s performance yesterday)
“He missed a couple holes but he ran real hard. He overcame some things. His ball security’s good, pass protection is good. He needed get out in the routes. I thought he played pretty well.”

(On if the starting running back will be decided on a week-to-week basis)
“Yeah. You guys come out to Arizona and watch the first play to figure out who’s going to start.”

(On if the decision to start a certain back depends on how they practice)
“It’s not based on practice. It’s based on scheme and approach and those kinds of things. We’ve got good backs, just can’t play them all.”

(On how the receiving core performed without WR Brian Quick)
“We got production out of (WR) Kenny (Britt). I think seven or eight guys caught passes. They’re there. (WR Stedman Bailey) ‘Sted’ had a good week of practice. We just didn’t have a lot of opportunities. The guys will step up. (WR) Tavon’s (Austin) involved, had some opportunities. (WR) Chris Givens understands what he’s doing. He even covered kicks yesterday. It was good to get him involved on the teams’ side.”

(On what DT Aaron Donald has brought to the team)
“I think his statistics reflect the season that he’s having. The tackles for losses, the consistency, the big plays. We’re just going to have to watch him because the season’s getting longer and longer. First year players have difficulty with the length of the season. We’ll watch his reps, but he’s playing good football right now. He made a pretty good offensive guard there miss a couple times, which is hard to do in the National Football League.”

(On if he saw anything on the coach’s film to explain the play where RB Frank Gore’s forward progressed was deemed stopped and prevented a defensive touchdown)
“I feel the same way. I’ll just say this it’s nice to have won this game because that is a game-changing call. That’s a defensive touchdown and it’s the wrong call, the incorrect call. It was not progress. The ball was out. He should’ve thrown the bean bag, ruled it a fumble. Then you go back to replay and replay shows it’s fumble. It’s a defensive touchdown. In essence they took a defensive touchdown away from us because he blew the whistle. The forward progress…there were a number of other instances in that game where you could say, ‘OK.’ When they picked up Tre and dropped him on his head, that’s forward progress. Whistles didn’t blow there. I was disappointed in the call and I will be. It’s the incorrect call, the wrong call.”

(On if they should’ve called an unnecessary roughness penalty when they dropped Mason on his head)
“Unnecessary roughness, yes.”

(On if he agrees that referees normally have let the plays go on and if yesterday they were quick to blow the whistle)
“I think they’re fairly consistent as far as when they’re blowing the play dead. This was highly inconsistent, however. This play was not dead. The ball came out. They made a mistake. Again, glad we won this game because that would be the major topic of discussion right now because that was a defensive score.”

(On how close Austin’s return of the field goal was to a safety)
“Well I saw it extensively yesterday before we went into the locker room at halftime and saw it again. It was ruled a touchback. It was a touchback.”

(On what he would have Austin do in a punt return situation like yesterdays)
“I think when he catches the ball and he sees there’s opposing players that close to him, that he just needs to stay in. We talked about that. What we have going, in that instance, which most teams do is they’re going to put a return man under the goal post. You got a little wind, you got a real long kick-bring it out. You’ve seen it. (S) Ed Reed’s done it, everybody’s done it. This wasn’t as long a kick but I had a sense that it was going to be low, that we may get a hand on it and there was wind. I had a sense that it might be short, we might have a chance to return it, so we called that play. In Tavon’s defense, when we work it, we have not discussed staying in the end zone. Its always bring it out because you have a group of offensive linemen on the field that aren’t necessarily cover guys. So, bringing it out’s not a problem. That’s something that we just didn’t completely cover, but glad it came up and it didn’t hurt us.”

(On his thoughts on Levi’s Stadium)
“It was great. It’s a great stadium. I was very, very impressed with the manner in which this organization was treated there by everybody. From the guards outside the gate, to the employees, the people that helped in the locker room and everything. It was just an outstanding environment.”

(On if a part of him misses Candlestick Park)
“There’s great tradition there. I had some of my better memories being on the home side at Candlestick, as opposed to on the visiting side. It’s a hard place to work on Sundays at Candlestick with the visiting side.”

Rams notebook: Fisher opts for shortened workout for battered squad
• By Joe Lyons

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/football/professional/rams-notebook-fisher-opts-for-shortened-workout-for-battered-squad/article_650025d8-8065-585d-8d3a-7b816277f5c1.html

In what has already been an unusual week, the Rams had a one-hour walk-through in place of their regular practice Wednesday afternoon.

That’s what happens when you spend a couple of days reworking the 53-man roster and 10-man practice squad while dealing with multiple injuries.

“I had 13 people on the injury report and I felt like we needed to back down,’’ Rams coach Jeff Fisher said, adding that the Rams are facing a familiar foe this week in the NFC West rival San Francisco. “Our focus is having them ready (for) Sunday.’’

When the Rams (2-5) take on the 49ers (4-3) Sunday at 3:05 p.m. in their first trip to new Levi’s Stadium, they will definitely be without starting left tackle Jake Long (knee) and No. 1 wide receiver Brian Quick (shoulder).

On Wednesday, the Rams made it official as Quick joined Long on injured reserve.

Chosen by the Rams with the initial pick of the second round in 2012, Quick was in the midst of a breakout season with career bests in starts (seven), catches (25), receiving yards (375) and touchdowns (three).

He was replaced on the 53-man roster by offensive lineman Brandon Washington, a 6-2, 318-pounder from the University of Miami who was promoted from the practice squad. A sixth-round draft pick by the Philadelphia Eagles in 2012, Washington was signed by the Rams shortly after being cut that fall and has spent almost all of the last two-plus seasons on the practice squad. He made his NFL debut in last season’s finale at Seattle.

Veteran receiver and kick returner Damian Williams was also added to the active roster Wednesday. Williams, 26, played in college at Arkansas and Southern California and was drafted in the third round of the 2010 draft by Fisher’s Tennessee Titans. He spent the next four seasons there, enjoying a career year in 2011 with 45 catches for 592 yards and five touchdowns in 13 starts. In one game this season with the Miami Dolphins, the 6-foot-1, 200-pound Williams had one 14-yard reception.

“I was surprised he was available; (Miami) released him on Saturday,’’ Fisher said. “Losing Brian, it feels like Damian is a perfect fit for us as a back-up returner and as a fifth receiver right now. He’s smart. He’ll learn real quickly and obviously has a chance to be active this week.’’

To open a spot, the Rams cut defensive back Jemea Thomas, a rookie from Georgia Tech who made his Rams debut Sunday.

In moves involving the practice squad Wednesday, the Rams released wide receiver Kadron Boone and added tackle Steven Baker, wide receiver Emory Blake, tight end Justice Cunningham and offensive lineman Travis Bond.

Baker, a 6-foot-8, 310-pounder from East Carolina, signed as an undrafted free agent with Indianapolis in 2012 and has also been with Arizona, Kansas City, the New York Giants and Miami.

Blake, Bond and Cunningham have all been with the Rams during the last couple of seasons.

Quarterback Case Keenum cleared waivers and will be added to the practice squad.

“Just took a day off,’’ he kidded.

INJURY REPORT

Because Wednesday was just a walk-through and not a full practice, Fisher had to estimate player participation. Eight of the 13 players on the injury report — defensive end William Hayes (foot), guard Rodger Saffold (shoulder), cornerback Janoris Jenkins (knee), defensive tackle Aaron Donald (shoulder), safety Rodney McLeod (knee), linebacker Jo-Lonn Dunbar (toe), center Scott Wells (elbow) and safety Cody Davis (concussion) — were listed as not practicing.

In addition, cornerback Trumaine Johnson (knee), center Tim Barnes (shoulder), wide receiver Kenny Britt (hip), cornerback Marcus Roberson (ankle) and defensive back Lamarcus Joyner (hip) were limited.

“We’ll get some players back tomorrow and then more and more players back on Friday,’’ said Fisher, whose team fell 31-17 to the visiting 49ers on Oct. 13.

Coming off its bye week, San Francisco had just four players on its Wednesday injury list. Cornerback Chris Culliver (hamstring) was a full participant, with linebacker Patrick Willis (toe), cornerback Tramaine Brock (toe) and safety Jimmie Ward (quadriceps) limited.

EARLY HALLOWEEN

On Tuesday, safety Rodney McLeod hosted a “Halloween Huddle’’ for a group of patients from Shriners Hospital for Children at Kokomo Joe’s in St. Peters.

“We had probably 10 kids, plus their brothers and sisters, and I think everybody really enjoyed themselves. Including me,’’ he said. “We played laser tag, bowled, played a bunch of different arcade games. Those kids are so brave, so courageous. I’m just glad to be able to help out and try to put a smile on their faces.’’

McLeod said he was introduced to Shriners in the week before playing in the 2012 East-West Shrine Game following his senior season at the University of Virginia.

“It was kind of a life-changing experience,’’ the third-year pro explained. “Once I realized the hospital was here, I decided to reach out to them and I thought we did a great job of putting the event together. The kids were excited and they enjoyed themselves a lot.’’

from off the net…

===

alyoshamucci

Got a bunch of ornery Rams fans . . including me. If you want to be argumentative or negative, you’re not going to find that here, and I would ask that if that’s your thing, do it on another thread.
This DOES NOT mean don’t disagree with me, I value everyone’s opinion. But if right now, you’re thinking to yourself “I bet he’s gonna say this and I can’t wait to tell him where he’s wrong” . . I’ll get it out of the way now.
I SUPPORT FISHER. I SUPPORT OUR PLAYERS. I SUPPORT THE COLORS. I HATE THE REFS. WE ARE DIGGING OURSELVES OUT OF A HOLE AS A FRANCHISE, AND IM REALLLLY PATIENT. We are rehabilitating a destroyed franchise. Go ahead and disagree in your heads right now if you’re going to, and we can get on with the analysis of the actual game, as my patience has about another 5 years on it.

The Good

1) Quinn showed his physical superiority. I’m betting the Eric Fisher hate in KC is palpable.

2) Our run Defense was solid most of the game.

3) Gaines and Roberson and Joyner. I don’t know that any team, EVER has played a game with 3 rookies at CB, much less with a UDFA and 6th rounder manning the outside. Roberson was tackling pretty well (my worry with him coming out of college). Joyner seems to be getting more under control every game.

4) Aaron Donald.

5) The TALENT of our RBs (NOT their usage)

6) Loved seeing G Rob on the edge.

That’s all I got there.

Places where we flat out lost.

7) Barksdale vs Houston. Just an above average player vs. a beast. We needed to prepare ourselves better for that.

8) We had no #1 WR behind Quick. There was a drastic change in our offensive abilities immediately. I am getting back on the “draft a WR” boat until Stedman or Britt shows up.

9) Injuries. We signed two injury prone players on the O line and filled the spots behind them. That’s fine. Its time to NOT DO THAT ANYMORE.

The Bad

10) Gaines . . fall on the fumble.

11) 4 player Committee at RB. I’m guessing they’re trying this because they don’t have the necessary resources to find out how people, in general, work best. I am really frustrated here, because as coaches I expect them to have access to Google.
Every person has a rhythm. This is not something imaginary . . it is testable through their mental state. For a player to have access to a “certain type of speed” of cognition, he needs to have had a certain amount of experience of that . . recently. 1 minute is processing. 17 minutes is habit. Coscious focus is 45 minutes (hence average class length) 66 minutes is when it leaves the system. 2 weeks is recall memory. these are rough estimates and the descriptions go by many names, but this info is out there.
If you have a player that hasn’t played in two weeks, they have rust. If you have a player who hasn’t played in 66 minutes, you have a player who has to relearn the entire speed of the game. If you have a player who hasn’t played in 45 minutes . . you have a player who has to struggle to consciously pick up where he left off. 17 minutes, and rhythm is lost . . this is why long drives by the opposing teams are so bad. The minute between plays allows players the opportunity to forget their recent mistakes, if they are smooth about it.
4 players at RB doesn’t work unless they are on the field sooner than 45 minutes, and definitely not longer than an hour. If you want to ride the hot hand boys, you better figure out who that is faster, and keep them in longer. Once you put a guy in, its best to keep him in for a bit until he gets fatigued.

12) Missed tackles. Missed assignments. Gah.

13) Run blocking. Gah.

14) The deep ball to Britt . . . why did he throw that? And not throwing the ball away and taking a sack before the missed FG? Again, why?

15) GZ missing . . ummmm . . what’s the deal dude?

16) KO return?

the Ugly . .

17) Triplett’s staff leads my list for “Most likely to be paid by Vegas” . . . all it takes is a few calls going the wrong way at the wrong time to completely change a game. Football is a game of inches, and those inches can easily be influenced by morale. Morale can be easily swayed by unjust calls because ALL LIVING THINGS ARE EMOTIONALLY AFFECTED BY INJUSTICE. Professional athletes or not, these guys are still human, and bad calls affect them. we can argue about whether it should or shouldn’t be the case, and it doesn’t matter, it won’t change anything. It matters. We have seen it matter a lot this year.

POSTGAME QUOTES: Rams vs. Seahawks
Head Coach Jeff Fisher

(Opening Statement)
“Well as we say from time to time, it’s hard to win in the National Football League. Just really, really grateful for the effort. An entire team effort, coaching staff effort this week after coming out on a short week. That’s a really good football team, that’s an understatement. The mark of a good team, I’m talking about the Seahawks, is when you declare eight starters, six starters, or five starters out before the game and then lose a couple more players and bring people in off practice squads and play them, and play the way they did, that’s pretty impressive. And by the way, their quarterback is an outstanding player. We have to play better defense and it’s got to happen this week. We give up way too many big plays. We did get some pressure, got some sacks, but this guy (QB Russell Wilson), he’s hard to get down. And Russell all by himself made this quite a game. I think he is to be congratulated, but has every right to be disappointed. As you guys realize, I have a great deal of respect and confidence in our special teams. I was disappointed in the production at Philadelphia. They worked hard, they pushed through it. What can you say about the execution on both those plays? It was outstanding.”

(On who came up with the football on the fumble)
“The Rams. No, an offensive player.”

(On the special teams trick play in the fourth quarter)
“I gave him a heads up after first down. I gave (Special Teams Coordinator) Coach (John) Fassel a heads up after first down and communicated in case we didn’t convert. You guys saw the flow of the game, we were having a hard time stopping Russell. There was too much time left on the clock right there and I didn’t want to give the ball back to him and I thought that was our best chance to get a first down.”

(On if he would have faked the punt if QB Austin Davis did not complete the shovel pass)
“Yes, to me that was going to be a decent gain based on the field position. This is the last thing anybody expected, that’s why sometimes those things work.”

(On the punt return for a touchdown)
“We installed it…I discussed it with Coach Fassel on Wednesday night…we installed it and worked on it Thursday and Friday and then walked it again yesterday. It was just one of those things that was executed. Something that we saw on tape, we took advantage of it.”

(On if he knew they would kick it to the left)
“We knew that we had a 90 percent chance that it was going to go there.”

(On WR Stedman Bailey catching the ball over his shoulder)
“He did it. We executed it in practice. Johnny (Hekker) gave him a really good look. And the key is that (WR) Tavon (Austin) and (S) Cody (Davis) really oversell that the ball is going…the team is expecting the ball to come down to their left, our right. And so when they saw Tavon running over, they probably thought it was miss-hit. The downside was he doesn’t catch it, the ball goes in the end zone, it’s a touch back or it’s downed. The upside was we felt like if he was able to field it, then we had a chance to probably put points on the board. This is something, it’s a copycat league okay. The Bears did this with (Devin) Hester against the Packers six or seven years ago and scored, but it was called back for holding. But we just felt, based on the information that we had and everything, we felt like…I had enough…it was an automatic based on field position as well. I told Coach Fassel to go ahead and run it if we had the right field position and we did. So it worked. Special teams obviously played a big factor in this one.”

(On no turnovers by QB Austin Davis)
“And no sacks. And we got three of those “s” words today, which was good. Those were hard to find there for a while.”

(On if the combination of no turnovers and penalties led to the win)
“Well yeah, as long as were not hurting ourselves and creating negative field position and things like that, we’re okay. Now that’s an outstanding defense. Credit Austin (Davis) for the job he did. Our last scoring drive was outstanding. Those throws he converted, he kept the drive alive. I thought that was the difference in the ballgame was our last scoring drive.”

(On being efficient)
“We wanted to attack the defense, but it’s a good defense and at times you’re going to stall a little bit. But I said to (Offensive Coordinator Brian Schottenheimer) Schotty let’s just be aggressive, let’s just go. Let’s go win this game, not put someone in position where they can’t make a play.”

(On if winning this game will help their confidence)
“I think so. A young team, you talk about needs to learn how to finish. Well they learn by finishing and that’s kind of what we did today. That’s what we talked about and I just told them, ‘just find a way.’ I don’t mean to be coach speak but it is, we found a way to win this game. And we’ll just take it and move from here. I’m looking forward to correcting this thing because it’s certainly much easier to correct after a win.”

(On RB Tre Mason)
“We’re going to play all three backs. I have great respect for all three of them and Trey Watts for that matter. They are very unselfish, they root each other on. Tre got a hot hand and it was just kind of a different thing. We felt that we may have a chance to crease their defense at times with him. Now he learned a very valuable lesson, and also we continue to learn more and more about (TE) Cory Harkey, what a pro he is.”

(On if he would rather have Mason just fall down in that situation)
“Get the first down and then kneel down. But young backs like that aren’t wired that way.”

(On adjustments from the defense to stop the run in the second half)
“We did some things but they got away from that. Russell’s run was nearly back breaking. They chipped (DE) Rob (Quinn) and we couldn’t wrap him and contain him. Then we actually had, we were prepared for a couple… with his bootleg for a touchdown we put (LB Alec Ogletree) Tree in position just to play the bootleg and get him down, and that just kind of shows you what kind of athlete he is. We couldn’t do it.”

(On injuries)
“I was told that they thought that (OL) Rodger (Saffold) probably could have gone back in that last series, so that’s encouraging. Courageous…(CB Janoris Jenkins) Jenks was banged up and Jenks shook it off and so did (WR) Kenny Britt early in the game and he shook it off. So I don’t think we have any issues as far as they’re concerned.”

(On the late fumble)
“When the ball went out and there was a pile I was on the headset, with respect to time left on the clock talking to (Defensive Coordinator) Coach (Gregg) Williams about what we needed to do. When they gave us the ball, obviously, I was somewhat relieved.”

Rams QB Austin Davis

(On walking off the field with a win)
“It’s the only thing we cared about. We wanted to finish the game in an offensive victory formation. We did that, and you have to tip your hat to Seattle. They’re a really good football team and you saw what it took to beat them. It took multiple great plays, it took a pretty flawless game as far as turnovers and penalties and all those things. We knew that coming in. It’s just a credit to our guys and the way we fought and we found a way to win.”

(On the long completion to WR Chris Givens on the Rams’ final scoring drive)
“It was a really good call by Coach (Brian) Schottenheimer. We thought we’d get man-to-man coverage. When they need a play, they trust their guys to cover man-to-man. Chris, with his speed, just ran across the field. I trusted it and obviously, we worked the play all week, and when we needed it, he made a big play. That’s how you win games. You’ve got to make big plays when the game is on the line. You’re going to have a chance to go down and win the game at the end or not. Today, we did it.”

(On P Johnny Hekker’s completion on a fake punt in the fourth quarter)
“I don’t know how many completions I had, but it wasn’t even close to being the most important one of the ballgame. You give Johnny a lot of credit, and obviously, Coach Fisher. He knew how big this game was for us. For him to call that, in that moment—a call that if it doesn’t go right, he gets slammed, he gets questioned—he knew what it took to win the game. We executed it, and he said he trusted us. He trusted Johnny to make the throw and he trusted the execution of the play. Sometimes, you’ve got to go get one.”

(On the contributions of the special teams)
“It was a complete win, in all three phases. (They) stepped up when they needed to. There was the return, and obviously the fake. Special, special win.”

(On the lack of turnovers and penalties)
“I think that’s how you win games in the NFL. I think it’s something that we need to watch and figure out how to repeat week to week. The turnovers and the penalties and some of those things have been what’s holding us back. We feel like we’re a good team and keep progressing, but those things have really plagued us. We found a way to play a clean game tonight, and it gave us a chance to win and we ultimately pulled it out.”

(On if the blown leads in recent weeks came to mind during this game)
“No, I was just thinking about what I could do to help the team win. There’s so much to think about situationally that you can’t think about the past. You just try to execute one play at a time and look at the scoreboard when the game is over.”

(On his preparation for this week)
“We talked all week, they’re really good in the secondary. I think this is where Coach (Brian) Schottenheimer’s experience, Shaun’s (Hill) experience and even Sam’s (Bradford) experience came into play for me heading into this game. We knew we had to be patient. We threw a lot of balls underneath, just completion plays. We probably had 50-something passing yards, but the object is to win the game. The object isn’t to throw for 300 yards, the object is to win. So I thought the play-calling and the way we managed, ‘Hey, when do we take our shots and when do we throw completions,’ was excellent and well-timed.”

(On his range of emotions through the final possession)
“First of all, I had no idea that we called the fake. I’m walking off the field, and I look back and I see Johnny with his arm reared back. I see it on the screen and I thought something has gone really wrong. Then he threw it and it was completed. The thing that happens there—the first time it’s ever happened to me—we just converted a first down, so the play clock is rolling, the game clock is rolling and the offense is walking off the field. We’ve got to get back in and we still need another first down. The game wasn’t over. It was a transition there that had to get locked back in and finished. The last play, where we lost the football, I wasn’t so sure who got the football when the play began, but I know Cory Harkey had it when it was all over. He’s a special player and he’s one of the leaders of our football team. It couldn’t happen to a better guy and I’m really happy for him.”

(On picking up the first home win of the season)
“It’s great. It’s the world champs. Until someone takes it from them, that’s what they are. They’re just a really good team and we put it all together today, and it was awesome.”

(On the performance of the offensive line)
“They did an excellent job. I think no sacks, right? You can’t do any better than that. They played an excellent football game. Across the board, I’m sure when we see the film, it’s a collective effort—guys making plays when they needed to—and that’s how you win. There’s no other way to do it.”

RB Tre Mason

(On how good a feeling it was to walk off with a win)
“Great feeling. I didn’t care how it was done, what we had to do to get it done. As long as we ended with a win, I was happy.”

(On how he felt about his performance)
“I feel like I had a great day. There’s always room to get better and you know we’re going upward from here.”

(On P Johnny Hekker completing the pass for the first down)
“When I first came here I knew he could throw the ball. I was like, ‘Well, does he play quarterback or not?’ And it showed, that man has a nice arm.”

(On the final play when the ball came loose and what was going through his mind)
“Right now there’s no excuse for a fumble. At that time I knew that I was getting excited. It’s been the first win in kind of a long time. I had the nail and I was trying to put the nail in the coffin.”

(On how he felt running the football after they were up 14-0)
“I felt great. Running behind that line, they did great today. I couldn’t do this without the rest of my team, offense and defense. It was great to win.”

(On his first career touchdown)
“I was excited. I told myself I needed to pick up where I left off and that was cool, continue scoring touchdowns. That has to be the first of many more to come.”

(On what he was thinking about during the fake punt play)
“I have faith in my team. I kind of knew. Once I heard the call, we’ve practiced it so many times in the beginning. Yeah, it’s like second nature to these guys.”

Rams DE Robert Quinn

(On the defense tallying three sacks in the game)
“It felt good to finally to get back there and get them down. Like I said, all it takes a little snowflake to start to an avalanche. The guys kept working their craft. We finally were able to get them down.

(On the fake punt)
“That was a gutsy call. Especially on the side of the field we were at. They executed it to a tee and was able to keep the clock going for our offense, for our team, helped us close out the game.”

(On beating the defending champions)
“Like I said, they’re the defending champs, they have near everybody back on their team. To beat a great ball club like that is a heck of a job. Guys put in great work day-in and day out. To play such a tough game against a team like these. We all know it’s a great feeling so we’ve just got to take this momentum and go build on it from here.”

Rams DT Aaron Donald

(On how it felt to win today)
“We just kept playing our game. We knew it would come as far as the sacks, but we just played as a good unit, as a good defense and we came away with a big win. We needed that, too.”

(On if he is feeling more comfortable with the speed of the NFL game)
“Yeah, a lot more comfortable. Things are starting to slow down to me. I’m starting see a lot more things and it’s showing. So, that’s good.”

(On if this performance by the defense is what we should expect out of them the rest of the season)
“Yeah, that’s the type of defense I’ve seen coming into the Rams. That’s the type of defense I’ve seen, playmakers, everybody making plays in the backfield it’s a fun defense when you’re doing that. We’ve got to keep building off of what we did today and you’re going to see a lot more of that.”

Seattle Seahawks Head Coach Pete Carroll

(Opening Statement)
“We got started way too late in this game. We failed to start and they jumped out on us and did a nice job to get that done. Some unbelievable cool things that they were able to do on special teams and it made a big difference in this game. Once we got going we were back in the football game, but just didn’t get it finished. We have work to do. We have work to do to get consistent; we have work to do clean up some stuff the really basic things that broke down on us. There is so much room for improvement. It is unfortunate, but they got a very, very good win today. We have to give them all of the credit. They did a great job.”

(On the attempted fumble recovery by CB Richard Sherman)
“He was on top of the ball, but he was on his knees and he couldn’t get flat on the ground. He was right there on it, he was crunched there in the situation and he couldn’t get flat to secure it. Then the ball got moved around a little bit. They could have said he had it. They could have looked in and saw it and given him the football, but as time wore on in the pile the ball got moved around.”

(On the offense)
“We ran the ball really well. Marshawn Lynch was running the ball great, the guys were blocking well. Everything just got cranked up. We have seen this in the past, the teams start slow, the Niners did it last week and we did it here. But once we got going, we were fine. We moved the ball like crazy. we were stopping them and doing all kinds of things. They had enough special plays that they got the game.”

(On the Rams special teams success against the Seahawks)
“We have an old history here, with the hide out play, but this was great execution by them on a couple of different situations. They made a huge difference. The kickoff return was huge. That was a ball that was kind of a miss kicked ball that generally doesn’t happen like that. The punt return was a great play by them, they played to our discipline. The last play, if they didn’t catch the ball we would have kicked a field goal and go home. Very gutsy play by Jeff (Fisher), the kind of stuff he has done in the past and the way we anticipate him being and we prepared for it. They came up with a couple of defenses against us.”

(On the fake punt)
“We didn’t think they would do it in this situation. They just went with it and returned like crazy. “

(On his argument about the fake punt)
“We thought that (WR) Tavon Austin may have given a fair catch signal. We thought that maybe one of our guys saw that. I think it was when he was falling down he kind of threw his hands up.”

(On if the Punter kicked the ball where he was supposed to)
“Yes.”

(On special teams unit following the ball vs. the player)
“They did a great job, it pushed everybody that way. We chased all of our blocks in that direction. Unfortunately, on that play (WR) Ricardo Lockette was just getting lined up and checking with the official and missed the snap. I think Stedman (Bailey) was there with him and he makes the catch on it and Lock may have seen it differently had he got off right. He would have to track it.”

(On being discouraged by the teams play)
“Actually I am encouraged by the way we found it, and by the way we came back and did all of the things that you have to do to come back in a football game. We rallied in every way. We ran the football, we were throwing and catching it. We protected the quarterback after a while. We stopped them on third downs, we did all of the things you have to do try and patiently get back into the game and it happened just like that. Unfortunately it wasn’t enough.”

(On the play of Wilson during the third and fourth quarter)
“I don’t know how his numbers jumped, but I know it was very difficult early. We hung with and the coaches stayed with the plan and we thought we could execute and they were right because it worked and we got back on track. He did a phenomenal job of carrying out the game plan.”

(On injuries and players stepping up)
“Unfortunately, Derrick Coleman broke his foot during pregame. He took a faulty step or something and that is why you saw Robert Turbin out there. He found out as we were running out on the field that he could play. A number of guys including, (TE) Cooper Helfet did a great job of jumping in and playing all of that tight end. A lot of guys really elevated and helped us. Again, it just wasn’t enough.”

(On the trade of WR Percy Harvin)
“It was a move we made for our team. We are always trying to get better and get things right wherever we can. We thought that was the best thing for the club and it will help us down the road. We love our guys at that position. We have a lot of depth at receiver. I don’t know if you ever replace a special player like that totally but it was the right thing for our team.”

Seattle Seahawks QB Russell Wilson

(On the offense’s early struggles)
“We struggled a little bit in the first half. They made some plays on us. They did some good things. I think the best part about today despite the loss is just our resilience. When you’re playing a good football team, they’ve lost a lot of close games and they have a very, very good defense. They fly around and make a lot of plays. Our resilience definitely showed up. Backs up a little against the wall, and that’s how you have to play. Some games aren’t going to be blowouts, some games you’re going to have to come back, some games are going to be close. We gave ourselves a chance there all the way to the end.”

(On having to come back from behind)
“I think we just didn’t make some of the plays early. I think I could have played a little bit better. I think everybody could have played a little bit better, but the game is potentially in our hands there at the end. We weren’t able to capitalize for whatever reason, and so I think that we have a team that’s full of fighters, guys that put on the boxing gloves and go round and round day-in and day-out. There’s nothing better than having your backs against the wall, and that’s where we’re at right now. You just play 1-0 and try to focus on what you can control, and what we can control is the way we practice, the way we keep our mindset, still that championship mindset. The situation is the situation, but I know for our team and what we’re about, we’re going to keep fighting and keep swinging.”

(On Seahawks WR Doug Baldwin’s performance)
“I thought Doug Baldwin played a tremendous game. His leadership really showed today, his abilities to make big time plays. I thought his quickness, his hands, everything that he does so well definitely was evident tonight. I also thought (Seahawks WR) Jermaine Kearse played well. I thought all the guys who stepped in – you talk about (Seahwks WR) Paul Richardson who steps in, plays a tremendous game, shows what he can really do, has great hands. (Seahawks WR) Kevin Norwood got in there, some of the other guys as well. You think about (Seahwks Robert Turbin having to step in and play fullback. That’s what it takes to really give yourselves a chance. That togetherness, that attitude that we’ll do whatever it takes. We were a minute short, and that’s an unfortunate situation.”

(On if he decided he was going to run more in the second half)
“I never really decide just to take off. It’s never like that for me. I really don’t want to run, to be honest with you. I’m trying to throw it all the time and keep my eyes downfield, and if it’s there I’ll take it at the last second and just try to get as many positive yards as I can. I thought the offensive line did a tremendous job protecting me for the most part today. We had a few miscues here and there, but they’re a great defensive line and a great front seven so they got to me a few times. But, I thought that we showed the ability to make plays when we needed to.”

(On his 52-yard run)
“I was looking downfield and kind of saw (Seahawks Marshawn (Lynch) and saw somebody coming deep across the field and I didn’t want to force it, I just kept my eyes downfield. I didn’t want to throw it behind myself. I didn’t want to make any bad decisions there. I was able to take off and got away from (Rams DE Robert) Quinn, who’s a fast player. He almost got me there and I was able to run down the sideline and get some positive yards.”

(On Seahawks TE Cooper Helfet)
“Cooper Helfet, for his ability to step in. We’re down (Seahawks TE) Zach Miller, we’re down (Seahawks TE) Luke Willson. He steps in and plays a tremendous football game. It shows the depth that we have at all positions for the most part, and that’s the exciting part. I think the best part of the game for our offense and just our team in general was the 80-yard drive, the, I think, 91-yard drive and the 82-yard drive three consecutive times in a row. Like I said, that shows our resiliency and you have to look forward to the next opportunity you get. It shows what we can do and it shows that we have the ability to be special.”

(On becoming the first QB to throw for 300 yards and rush for 100 yards in a single game)
“In terms of the milestone of throwing for 300 (yards) and rushing for 100 (yards), it doesn’t mean anything. It doesn’t mean anything unless you win, so I’m not about stats, I’m far away from stats. The only thing I really care about is winning. I’ve got to figure out a way to help our team win, whatever it takes. I’ve got to find ways to play better, I’ve got to find ways to step up for our team and that’s my ultimate goal.”

(On WR Percy Harvin being traded to the New York Jets)
“In terms of Percy, I wish him nothing but the best. He’s a good football player, a great football player. For whatever reason, it didn’t work here but I pray for him. I pray that he finds peace, I pray that it works for him in New York or wherever else it is. For our football team now, we just have to focus on us and what we can do together and how we can improve as a football team. I know we have great guys, guys that can really make plays and you saw that definitely today. So that’s what we have to look forward to. Like I said, I wish nothing but the best for Percy. He’s a guy from Virginia who I respect.”

(On if losing Harvin made it difficult to adjust the offense in the short-term)
“No, I don’t think it makes it tougher. I think you saw today that you have guys step up. You have Paul Richardson step up, a second round draft pick. You have Kevin Norwood, a guy who played at Alabama, SEC Conference, played a lot of great football. You look forward to those guys having an opportunity. I know I got an opportunity at a very young age, and I was able to make some plays here and there and just continued to build that confidence. Hopefully the leaders on our team continue to help them build and what they’ve done as young players against our defense in practice is pretty special to watch. You look forward to those opportunities for those guys. You know that they’re going to make the plays.”

(On if Harvin did not fit in in the locker room)
“There’s so many different things that you have to not worry about. That’s nobody’s business. The locker room is our locker room. We keep everything in-house. He fought hard for us. He played great football in terms of just battling every day. Like I said, I wish nothing but the best for Percy. He’s a tremendous football player and I just pray that it works out for him wherever he goes. Like I said, it comes back to us and what we can do right now and how we can continue to move on and focus on one game at a time.”

(On gaining momentum late in the game and carrying it into next week)
“I feel a lot of success coming around the corner. That’s what I hope for. That’s what I believe it. I believe in our football team, I believe in the guys that we have. I believe in the coaching staff that we have. We played a great football team today in terms of how hard they played. They always give us a tough game. Ever since I’ve been here at least, I know they’ve always given us a tough game. You’ve got to give their coaching staff a round of applause for what they were able to do today and their players, too. I thought their defense played a great game. I thought (RamsAustin Davis played a great game. He’s a very good quarterback, shows a lot of poise, so you have a lot of respect for what he does as a young guy, too. If we were able to get the ball back, there’s no doubt in my mind we would’ve won the game. They got us on the fake punt, and so we trusted our call and they just made a play. And the fumble, I though

Rams Head Coach Jeff Fisher – October 11, 2014

(On RB Zac Stacy’s progress)
“He was full practice. He’s listed as probable.”

(On WR Chris Givens and how he can get back on the field after being inactive last game)
“We just told him just to be patient. We didn’t know if it was a one time thing, because unfortunately your inactives they change from week to week based on things that have happened on the practice field, based on needs, and positional needs and so on. He understands it. Obviously, nobody likes being a healthy scratch on Sunday considering the fact that he’s been very productive for us. So he’ll be patient with that.”

(On how he feels about the Greatest Shown on Turf celebrations)
“I’m actually thinking about the 49ers on Monday night. No, I’ve been here for a few years now. I’m reminded on a daily basis inside the building, so I’m used to it now.”

(On if he plans to attend any of the Greatest Shown on Turf festivities this weekend)
“No, we’ll be busy, but, we’ll get a chance to visit with some of them in pregame warmups and such. I look forward to seeing Coach (former Rams Head Coach Dick Vermeil).”

(On if Stacy has responded well during practice this week considering he has practiced in full the past two practices)
“Yeah. Usually, if there’s any doubt in our minds, we will list them as limited and questionable, but he will be listed as full practice, probable.”

Rams Defensive Coordinator Gregg Williams – October 11, 2014

(On the challenge that 49ers RB Frank Gore presents)
“I’ve had a lot of respect for him for a long time. Even back when he was a high school football player, college football player, I had a lot of kids from that program I’ve had a chance to coach. He does a tremendous job running in the style that they want him to run in. We’re going to have to play very good run defense. It’s going to be a good test. We’re improving each and every week but this will be a good test.”

(On what challenges the defense will face)
“Well we’ve got to get them in passing situations. I think their quarterback’s playing very well. I like the style of their offense, it’s a tough offense. When I say physical, very tough, brings a physical attitude to the entire team. It spreads throughout their special teams. It spreads throughout their defense. It’s a real hard-coached team, you can tell that. So, we’re going to have our work cut out for us. I’m looking forward for our guys to have a chance to play. I think we’re improving. I like our guys a lot. I think they’ve made a steady improvement each and every week. This will be a good test.”

(On how DT Aaron Donald has been progressing)
“His acclimation to the pro game, he’s done a tremendous job. He would be a guy that I hope you guys have a chance to take a good look at this week. He’s had a really, really good week of practice. Looking forward for him to get a chance to have opportunities to play the way we want him to play. It’s the same way he played in college. He’s a very quick, instinctive player. He feels very comfortable in what we’re doing. This week for whatever reason, it felt like the light came on a little bit more for him, even a little bit more. When I was watching him practice, watching him prepare…it’s fun to be around him and you guys don’t get a chance to see it as much as I do, is that he’s the first one here in the morning. He’s the first one in the meeting room. He’s out here on the practice field before the guys set the practice up. He takes this thing seriously and it’s fun to be around that kind of a guy. Hopefully success wise, he gets a little bit of success and he’ll only prosper.”

(On the 49ers addition of WR Stevie Johnson and WR Brandon Lloyd)
“I was with Brandon at the Redskins so I know him very well. He’s a Blue Springs, MO kid. So, I’ve known Brandon for a long time. He’s very talented and he made some really athletic, acrobatic plays last week. I’ve always had a lot of respect for him because he comes to play every single time. He makes you be honest in covering him. Then Stevie Johnson coming from Buffalo, they’ve added good to their personnel. It’s as good as a wide receiver group as whole. You can’t let your guard down on any one of them. So, we’ve got again, defensively all the way around, as you were alluding to in the run game but also in the pass game, they’re a talented group with good concepts that they want to exploit. We’re going to have some good match-up problems to try to solve. Our guys, they’ve practiced well, they’ve recognized things pretty well this week so we’ll see come Monday night.”

(On if it’s hard to concentrate on just one weapon because the 49ers have so many on the offensive side of the ball)
“It’s tough and they’ve done a great job of adding to their talent base. I was with (49ers GM) Trent Baalke too, Trent was at the Redskins with me when I was there. I think he’s done a very, very good job of bringing people in, in the style of play that they want to compliment what they already have. I think this set of lineman up front is as good as any tough group of offensive lineman that we’ve seen so far. We’ve some great individuals but as a whole, this is a good group. This is a good match-up this week. We need to come to play. It’s time to play. It’s time to do that. We’ve had an extra-long week, just keeping them corralled in practice every day. They’re ready to play. About one more day of being around them I can’t wait to watch them play.”

(On what makes 49ers QB Colin Kaepernick so hard to defend)
“He’s got good speed. Not only is it just from an athletic standpoint-size-weight-speed-guy-he’s got good instincts as a runner. You can see he’s a multi-sport player in how he plays the game. The fact that he’s got a baseball background in low he winds up and ‘hummbabes” it at times and throws it. He has very good velocity on the football. But his escapability is rare for someone that size, that height. He’s a powerful man and we’ve got to do a good job keeping him in the pocket. Once we get to him in the pocket we’ve got to get him down in the pocket. We’ve got to get some more negative plays that way.”

(On the addition of LB Will Herring)

“Know him well. It’s been awhile since I’ve been with him, but fits in very well from a leadership, locker room guy. Fits in very well with the special teams play and the style of play that we do here. But a good addition. I was happy to see that he was available and I think you guys will enjoy watching him fit in very quickly here.”