Fisher, 10/06… transcript & vid

Rams Head Coach Jeff Fisher – October 6, 2014

(On why LB Ray Ray Armstrong was released)
“We released Ray this morning. We’re going to work some guys out over the next couple days to fill his spot, as far as the special teams role. It just wasn’t working out. We’ve moved on.”

(On if LB Denicos Allen could be pulled up from the practice squad)
“Yes, he is. He’s a possibility. We’ll probably work some guys out over the next couple days.”

(On why he was not happy with Armstrong’s performances)
“That’s correct. I was not happy with the production on the field. It’s a production business and when you don’t get the production, then you have to get better. So, that’s what we’re going to do.”

(On if Armstrong’s penalty yesterday contributed to his release)
“No. It was pretty much the whole body of work. He was just having a hard time doing things the way we wanted them done.”

(On if the penalties were included when evaluating Armstrong’s body of work)
“Again, it’s the body of work. It had been addressed with him numerous times and that penalty, ultimately it becomes my fault because when the guy is making mistakes over and over and he’s allowed to play it becomes my fault. So we get someone else in there that understands things a little differently. It’s not the game, this was going to happen win or lose. This is not a scapegoat. You guys know me, I’m not about that. But, we need to make a change and go a different direction.”

(On Sundays game performance)
“As far as the game’s concerned, the things that happened in the ball game on the offensive side of the ball were difficult to overcome. Some of the things that happened on the defensive side of the ball were difficult to overcome. You can overcome them if you get production and plays and break even on special teams. Yesterday we did not, and so we’re disappointed in the special teams production. I think that’s the first time I’ve stood up here and said that. We’re going to get it fixed and corrected and move on. We’ve got too talented of a group. They’re taking responsibility for it. It’s not blame, it’s just take responsibility for it and learn and move on. You know, it started with the punt and there was a number of other things that happened. But, fourth play of the game and you give up a touchdown on the road those things are hard to overcome. Overall, as I said after the game yesterday, very pleased with (QB) Austin (Davis) at this point. What he’s done the last few weeks, he’s continued to get better. We need to do a better job around him. Become more consistent. Eliminate some of the unnecessary penalties. Learn to protect the football and then of course make your plays that you need to make on special teams. We got an extra day this week and we’re going to take advantage of it. We’ll do a little extra work on Wednesday afternoon and correct some of these things.”

“I know you’re curious about the penalties. The penalties between the snap and the whistle are going to happen. Some of which we agree with, some of which we disagree with. That’s the case every week. There were three or four in this game that I disagreed with. It’s the penalties prior to the snap and after the whistle that are completely under our control and those are the ones that we have to get fixed. In the Tampa game we didn’t have an offensive penalties. Three false starts, one of which we overcame, two of which…one took us out of field goal range and the other created a third-and-12 and Austin got 11, so we didn’t overcome that. The defensive offside those types of plays. We’ve got 16 in four games of penalty types that have nothing to do with the play. That’s four per game and we have to knock that down. That’s going to be a focus. It has been and will continue to be a focus of ours.”

(On how he handles addressing penalties to the team whether it’s making them run sprints or another way to communicate the issues)
“No, it’s not. I’ll give you a great example. (DE) Rob’s (Quinn) defensive offsides, the offensive tackle moves his arm, Rob jumps. It’s hard to tell Rob not to move on the movement. It was something that’s not seen because the umpire’s not there, he doesn’t see it. We’re on the road it’s loud, we’ve got people shifting around and (TE) Lance (Kendricks) flinches. Anyway, I’m not talking about penalizing them for penalties. It’s just understand the need that we have to reduce those that have nothing to do with the play.”

(On what happened on the blocked punt)
“Generally we’ve done a really good job communicating and it was a communication breakdown inside. Everybody’s supposed to block out a man, I’m not going into detail about our protection. But, we had a communication breakdown inside. Put (RB) Chase (Reynolds) in a bad position because Chase had one responsibility and then two guys were rushing.”

(On the frustration of giving up easy scores)
“That’s the kind of stuff that we need to do to win games. We need to do those things on defense. We need defensive scores and sack fumbles and things like that. We’re not getting those kinds of things. But yeah, it is, it makes it hard when you go and you make adjustments and you do all of those things and you come out and you’ve got a plan then all of the sudden you get a stop. I really felt like probably the most important drive of the game as we were leaving halftime, is in essence, it’s that first drive for your offense or defensive drive to start the third quarter. So, we knew the defense was going to go on the field first. We knew we had to get the ball back and we did. So, you win that drive and now, ‘OK, alright. Here we go offense.’ We know we’ve got to get points. Then three plays or two plays later, or one play later we’re giving up a defensive score. But, again as I said, they hung in there and they worked and they battled and we made it a ballgame. And we had a chance to win at the end and we didn’t. So, we move on and as I told them we carry that momentum from that 2:15 or whatever left in the third quarter through the fourth quarter, we’ll carry that momentum into this week of preparation for the 49ers.”

(On RB Zac Stacy’s status)
“Nothing as of yet, but, it looks like he may miss some practice time this week. But, I think, preliminary evaluation is it doesn’t look like he’s going to miss the game. But, we’ll see.”

(On RB Benny Cunningham’s performance yesterday)
“Benny was solid. He didn’t get much help from his teammates on kickoff return but he did a nice job of fielding the ball and hitting it up in there. Offensively, I though he played well without the ball, as Zac did. Unfortunately Zac put one on the ground but, I thought both the backs ran fairly well.”

(On what happened on the delay of game penalty on the final drive)
“Well, it was, yeah, their communication system, that’s one thing that you don’t really realize. Sometimes the communication system goes. There was a problem with that. There was a problem with the formation. Again in retrospect, I probably should’ve used the timeout. But, the way we were going and the opportunities that we had just missed with both the balls to (WR) Austin (Pettis) I felt like we were going to convert it and we’re going to need that timeout to try and put that ball in the end zone. But if it comes down to that, that’s hard. We had way too many other mistakes in the ball game.”

(On the thought process on the decision to make WR Chris Givens inactive)
“Yeah, it’s difficult when you have to deactivate healthy players, especially someone like ‘Give’ that’s been productive for us. But (WR) Tavon (Austin) came back. We had the depth at kickoff return. We needed some other players up in other positions just because of our special teams needs. So, it just happened. I don’t know if it’s…we’ll look at the roster this week. It’s ever-changing. It may be a one-time thing. It may have to happen again, I don’t know.”

(On fixing the lack of production on kickoff and punt returns)
“Well again, I addressed that earlier. We did not block well. We played a good special teams unit, we did not block well. We still had decent field position with our kickoff returns. Our punt returns we didn’t get really consistent punts. Then we had the penalty on the one. So, you’ve got to get people in third down and get them off the field on the right side of the field and make them punt. We haven’t done that an awful lot.”

(On if it seemed like Eagles LT Jason Peters moved early on several occasions)
“Yeah it was my opinion as well. So, that’s what it looked like on tape.”

(On if he sees the offense gaining momentum with the challenge of facing the tough defenses of San Francisco and Seattle in the next two weeks)
“Well it’s a big challenge. I mean, both Dallas and Philly are playing…they’ve got difficult defensive schemes and they’re playing good defense and they’re winning games. So, yeah I think we’ve showed signs, we’re improving. The guys are for the most part making plays, getting into position and (QB) Austin’s (Davis) trusting them. He’s trusting the deep ball. He’s putting the ball down the field. We just need to be more consistent. We need to quit turning the football over. It’s hard to win games when you turn the football over like that.”

(On is there anything Davis can fix when he’s sacked to limit turning the football over)
“Well, in this particular case, yeah, I think he knew where his problems were and he should’ve gotten rid of the football. It wasn’t like he didn’t sense that we had an unblocked rusher. So, he could’ve slid a little bit and gotten rid of the football. Sometimes that happens. He’s got a good feel, for the most part, of what he’s doing.”

(On if Davis should’ve slid on the sack fumble in the second quarter when the offense had the ball in the red zone)
“Yes.”

(On what OL Greg Robinson can do to make an impact this season)
“Greg just needs to keep doing what he’s doing. He’s gotten much better over the last couple of weeks. He’s got a good feel for both of the positions. And just keep learning, working. He’s working hard on the practice field.”