Cosell, Wagoner, others…on Austin Davis

Keeping perspective on Austin Davis’ hot start
By Nick Wagoner

http://espn.go.com/blog/st-louis-rams/post/_/id/12159/keeping-perspective-on-austin-davis-hot-start

EARTH CITY, Mo. — When the St. Louis Rams travel to Philadelphia to take on the Eagles this Sunday, Austin Davis should be the starter at quarterback.

I wrote as much after Davis’ performance against the Dallas Cowboys, and obviously nothing has happened in the time since that has made me change my mind. Many of you feel the same way. And, for what it’s worth, I still believe coach Jeff Fisher will give Davis another shot against the Eagles. I know he has repeatedly said a healthy Shaun Hill will take the job back when he returns from an injured calf, but Davis has earned the shot.

Either way, it’s important to put what Davis did in starts against Tampa Bay and Dallas in perspective. In Davis’ two starts, he is 52-of-71 for 562 yards with three touchdowns and two interceptions for a passer rating of 98.4 and a QBR of 77.5. His completion percentage of 72.3 is the best in the NFL, and he is eighth in the league in yards per attempt at 8.02.

Against the Cowboys, Davis was 30-of-42 for 327 yards with three touchdowns and two interceptions as the Rams came up short.

Let’s take a look at a couple of former or current Rams who got their first opportunity in circumstances similar to Davis and how they fared in their first two starts and what happened after:

Ryan Fitzpatrick: The Rams used a seventh-round pick on Fitzpatrick in 2005. Like Davis, Fitzpatrick began the season as the third-string quarterback behind Marc Bulger and Jamie Martin. On Nov. 27 against the Houston Texans, Fitzpatrick entered the game in place of Martin and went on to energize the team, completing 19-of-30 for 310 yards, three touchdowns and an interception. The effort was similar to Davis’ work against the Cowboys in that it came against a fledgling defense and the numbers appeared the same. A week later, Fitzpatrick was 21-of-36 for 136 yards with no touchdowns and an interception. Doubts began to creep in about whether he should continue to start, and those doubts came to fruition later when he threw five interceptions in a loss to Minnesota. Fitzpatrick has gone on to a nice career that has seen him bounce from Cincinnati to Buffalo to Houston, where he is currently the starter.

Case Keenum: Like Davis, Keenum entered the league as an undrafted free agent with the Texans. After the Rams destroyed the Texans in Week 6 last season, Houston turned to the hometown favorite to take over for Matt Schaub. Also like Davis, Keenum offered immediate results. In his first two starts, Keenum was 35-of-59 for 621 yards, four touchdowns and no interceptions for a passer rating of 118.0 and a QBR of 74.8. Those numbers even exceeded what Davis has done in his first two starts, but the Texans were unable to win either game. From there, Keenum went on to get six more starts, and though he sprinkled in some strong outings (particularly against New England), the Texans were 0-8 with Keenum starting. Now, Keenum is on the Rams’ roster providing depth behind Davis.

Of course, Fitzpatrick and Keenum are just two examples of backup quarterbacks who made a splash when they first got starting opportunities but then came back to Earth a bit after. Some backups have gone on to greater success, some have gone on to worse. Davis does have the advantage of being in his third NFL season as opposed to Fitzpatrick and Keenum, who were rookies when they got their first opportunities.

Really, what happens with Davis from here is simple. If he keeps producing, he should keep starting. If he doesn’t, the Rams can go back to Hill. Assuming Davis gets the next start, we will learn a lot more about him as the Rams get into the teeth of their schedule.

In the meantime, there is little reason to make a big announcement to declare Davis the starter for the rest of the season. To borrow the cliché from coaches and players all over the league, Davis’ position as starter should be taken one game at a time.

Burwell: Davis’ new status isn’t set in stone
• By BRYAN BURWELL

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/columns/bryan-burwell/burwell-davis-new-status-isn-t-set-in-stone/article_8a3a03a4-33d2-56fb-933c-5183399a51fd.html

On his second day as an official member of pro football’s most exclusive athletic fraternity, the Rams newest starting quarterback Austin Davis was all fun and games after a late-afternoon practice at Rams Park. Inside the locker room, he goofed for the TV cameras with tackle Joe Barksdale as they critiqued a new bobblehead of Robert Quinn.

Davis played the dutiful straight man to Barksdale’s comic routine, deadpanning answers with perfect timing, and of course the camera loved it all. Consider this one of those tiny hidden perks of his new status as one of the 32 starting quarterbacks in the National Football League. There are many others large and small that he will surely discover along the way. Yet every time he walks into that locker room, there are also constant reminders of his not-so-distant past as a member of the NFL transient class.

On the far wall of the room, next to the equipment room window is a small strip of high-end locker-room real estate where the Rams quarterbacks normally take up residence. Sam Bradford is over there. Shaun Hill is over there. Garrett Gilbert is over there. However, Davis’ locker stall is on the other side of the room where his No. 9 sticks out like a sore thumb between the big men with big numbers. Offensive linemen to his left, linebackers to his right.

They gave him that locker stall when he was the fourth-string QB on the depth chart. The world has changed in a whirlwind since then. With two starts under his belt, and enough evidence for Jeff Fisher to officially certify what his actions had been saying for nearly three weeks, the coach told the rest of us on Wednesday that Davis had shown him enough to officially leap over Hill on the depth chart (you know, sort of like what I’ve been telling you for weeks).

“Well Austin’s had a really solid couple of days,” Fisher told a handful of reporters after practice on Thursday. “He’s throwing the ball really well right now. He’s different. He’s got confidence. (I’m) looking forward to watching him play.”

Everything has changed so fast for Davis, but as he blazes forward on his meteoric rise up the Rams depth chart, let’s hope the symbolism of his locker-room real estate is a constant reminder of just how quickly a man’s fate can rise and fall in this demanding performance-related business. The NFL is a coldhearted business that measures your worth by what you put on tape.

Davis’s tape is a mighty fine product so far. Fisher and offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer know that the days of those keep-it-close, low-scoring Sundays are no longer the Rams’ blueprint for success. They do not need to slog it out to win games because they now believe they’re capable of putting 30 points on the scoreboard on any given Sunday.

“I think you have to start with the group as a whole,” said Schottenheimer. “Obviously, the weapons that we’ve added or developed. Bringing Kenny Britt in has helped. He can make a lot of plays for us down the field. Jared Cook in Year Two (there has been) big development. Lance Kendricks has gotten a lot better. Just different guys doing it.”

But an equally significant part of this puzzle has been Austin’s ability to run this offense to a higher degree of efficiency than it operated last year when Bradford went down with a knee injury. He can throw with great accuracy in general, but his deep throws are precise as well. That’s why he earned this job weeks ago and Fisher’s announcement on Wednesday was a mere formality.

“Austin’s played very, very well,” said Schottenheimer. “That’s a big part of it. But the credit goes to these guys for the way they’ve worked more than anything because, again, this is nothing that we haven’t seen. We saw it spring, we saw it all training camp against our defense. We’ve got weapons that have the ability to make plays. Again, I think Austin certainly benefits from that, but again the trigger man is going to be the guy that gets a lot of the credit but also is going to take the blame. From day one like I said, in big moments he’s stepped up. The throw he made to (Brian) Quick last week … that’s just a great throw. The guy was kind of bearing down on him. He stood there and threw it.”

So the job is his and he doesn’t have to look over his shoulder, which is smart. Fisher doesn’t want him to worry about a quick hook if he has a bad game, which he inevitably will, because this is the NFL and everyone has a bad game.

What he has to avoid is stringing together a litany of bad games, because just as quickly as he replaced Hill, the entire thing can be reversed.

Oh yes, and just like it was silly to think anyone really needed Fisher to say Davis was the starting quarterback, he doesn’t have to say that he can change back to Hill if need be. This is the NFL, and no one has to be told that if they don’t play well, they don’t play.