Bernie: Another Rams coaching change not a good idea

But did Fisher inherit a mess? The team seems to be exactly what it was when he took it over…..a .500 team with massive injuries and an Ill timed coordinater change with a massively bad impact…..he has built the team to that exact point it was when he took it over.

HighPlainsDrifter wrote:

I didn’t read Bernie’s article, but I tend to agree with the premise that another coaching change is not what this team needs. At least not at the head coaching position. That doesn’t necessarily mean that I am pleased in any way with the state of the team under Fisher. That obviously not the case. But the constant upheaval of hiring all new staffs and bringing in all new philosophies has to end somewhere. A team cannot start over time and time again. All that said, he needs to do a better job of selecting his coordinators. Look, I might be wrong about Williams (I tend to believe his is badly overrated), maybe he’ll get the defense organized and playing some decent football. I’d love for that to be the case. We’ll see. I don’t really think that Shotty has much of a guiding philosophy to his planning and his in-game management of the offense. I wouldn’t mind seeing something done there to bring in someone who has demonstrated a concrete body of work that has brought some success. But I think Fisher is a good coach if not a great coach, and I don’t really see anyone on the horizon who I would want to replace him. I am not a fan of grabbing the latest hot coordinator. I just don’t think that the success rate of that ploy is high enough to make it worth firing an established NFL coach for. I think they need to gut it out with Fisher, painful as it may be. He is the most likely to bring them out of the fog.

I would give Fisher another year.
But if they are mired in last place
at this time next year, I’d say
to hell with continuity.

w
v

zn wrote:

Herzog wrote:
But did Fisher inherit a mess? The team seems to be exactly what it was when he took it over…..a .500 team with massive injuries and an Ill timed coordinater change with a massively bad impact…..he has built the team to that exact point it was when he took it over.

I don’t agree with that. For one, injuries are not the fault of the “builder.” If you mean they are still losing, well yeah. But then, you can have a good team (in terms of overall talent) that has a bad year. Depends on the reasons. In terms of the talent level…Spags inherited nothing. Just plain zip. Fisher inherited what Spags added and then added to that.

I just think this team had its heart taken out when they lost Bradford AGAIN and if you go back to when it happened, everyone was saying they expected a lot from him this year.

To me the big story of 2014 is making huge unbelievable mistakes and then collapsing in their aftermath. To me more than anything, this is the “psych 101 season.” When you watch them you can see them lose momentum.

At the same time, if you cancelled the 2014 Rams and let all their players go, there would be a long list of them who would get picked up by other teams. That’s not as true of the 2011 team.

Jenkins is a good example of this. Jenkins played well this year…but people remember the one big boneheaded, (as it turns out) game-costing error. And. Now he’s hurt.

In terms of the future, look at Robinson and Donald. You know what Greg Cosell said about Robinson? He wasn’t as pro ready as Matthews, but that once he got up to speed as a pro player, he would be in the conversation for the best tackles to ever play the game. Not best in the 2014 draft class, one of the best ever.

So I am frustrated by 2014, but I also see that 2014 is as talented a team as we have seen for years. They’re also massively mistake prone and easily put into a funk by those mistakes. That’s all (to me) a confidence thing.

And I actually agree with some of Miklasz’s points:

I do think Fisher’s program should be further along by now, and I won’t defend him on that. I haven’t hesitated to criticize Fisher. But some reconstruction projects take longer than others. Especially when the roster has been torn up by injuries.

• Stability — and giving Fisher a chance at a fourth season — is preferable to another regime change, and another roster turnover, and another round of chaos. Fisher is the team’s third head coach since 2006

6th, actually, if you go back to 2005 and count Martz plus count 2 interim coaches (Vitt and Haslett).

Well, i dunno. Losing Bradford was big, no doubt, but its the
defense that has been biggest disappointment.

Also, i dunno that I’d agree that JJ played well
before the bonehead mistake. I saw some stats
somewhere that indicated otherwise.

I think one major criticism of Fisher-Snead
that I wonder about is the Free Agent signings:
Wells, J.Long, Finnigan, Cook.

I’m still not sold on Mr Quick either, btw, fwiw.
And Tavon and Brockers and Ogletree are mysteries to me
at this point.

There’s a lot of good and bad
with this regime. I could definitely
see Fisher being here five years
and having a .500 record.

w
v

• This reply was modified 10 years, 1 month ago by wv.

Greg Williams Guinta-fied the defense. That is the single biggest problem this season. I’m not sure we would be seeing articles about Fisher’s future with the Rams had the defense not imploded. If the Rams had hired a coordinator (or just promoted someone on the staff) who would have simply maintained status quo, the defense would be playing pretty well and they would have won a few more games. No one would seriously have playoff hopes due to the rash of injuries, but nobody would be questioning Fisher’s status as HC either.

The offense had been playing pretty well up until they lost 3/5 of the o-line in the Chiefs game. I think Schotty does a good job of play calling overall. I have no issue with the game plan. I think he knows how to get the best use out of the players he has (with one notable exception). I think he’s executing Fisher’s vision of the offense pretty well.

In the 2.5 seasons that Fisher has been the HC, the defense has played at its highest levels only when he had control over it. That was true his first season when B Williams was DCINO (Defensive Coordinator In Name Only) when they sorta took a “coordinate by committee” approach but with Fisher in charge. It was also true in his second season when Walton was DC. The defense improved greatly after Fisher took over, or at least was rumored to do so.

This is a lost season. Might as well see if the defense can begin to master Williams’ complex system for the rest of the year. Assuming that doesn’t happen, Fisher should fire Williams and go back to the DC by committee approach employed in is first season. There are a few good defensive minds on the staff including Dave McGinnis. That’s why the committee approach worked before and it’s why it could work again.

yeah. the defense has been a big disappointment.

i don’t know what happened there. if players have regressed. learning a new system. i don’t know. but then do you change coordinators again? how many changes have they made there?

oddly enough there’s been more stability at the offensive coordinator position. and surprisingly they’ve performed better than expectations?