Fisher – 10/14, transcript

Rams Head Coach Jeff Fisher – October 14, 2014

(Opening Remarks)
“Everybody gets all excited about Monday night games and so on and so forth, expect for the coaches because it’s a short week. It’s hard. The coaches looked at the game real quickly. I looked at it quickly this morning. We’ve moved on to Seattle. I’ll say this, the same thing I said last night, there were a lot of good things in this game – great effort. We played very physical. There were some really, really outstanding individual efforts on some individual plays, so we have to take those positives and move forward. Disappointed for the players. We got a lead. We just couldn’t make things happen in the second half. We’ll bounce back. We have a big challenge this week with the Seahawks. We’re going to abbreviate things tomorrow and get right back into game plan.

“From an injury standpoint in the game, the only thing that really, I think that is going to be significant will be Tim Barnes. He’s got some things working with his shoulder and rib cage. We may be fortunate – it may time up – if he does miss time that (OL) Barrett (Jones) may be back, so we’ll have that depth there. Barrett Jones could potentially be back this week. That’s pretty much it as far as injuries are concerned.”

(On how difficult it is to bounce back after a physical game on a short week)
“Well, it’s going to make it tough on both teams. My understanding is that I think the 49ers are going home and then going to Denver. That’s highly unusual that you get a road team on Monday night, having to go back home and travel. So, it’s going to be difficult for them as well. We have to bounce back, yeah. That’s the thing. It’s the same approach you take on the Thursday night games. We have a short week, so we’ll make sure they’re recovered and we’ll make sure they’re ready to play. Obviously, we have another division game, which is again going to be very, very physical.”

(On if there should have been safety help for CB Janoris Jenkins on the last play before the half)
“We were in a three-deep concept. It was three-deep concept, so Janoris is supposed to stay on top.”

(On if he thinks about how the game would have been different if TE Jared Cook makes the catch leading into halftime)
“Well, it would have been different. If that penalty’s not called, there’s points. I would assume we were going to get some points. We’re well within field goal range, we got a first down – and those will happen -so it’s three or seven (points) you would assume that the chain of events are probably significantly different at the end of the half as far as they were concerned.”

(On how he can keep Jenkins from biting on those plays)
“As I said, as a staff, we probably could have put him in a better situation. That thing was a little unusual. As the game was winding down, he used a timeout early and then he had a running clock and he was taking his time. It looked like he wanted to take a shot or potentially go in. I considered stopping the clock, I didn’t. I felt 14-3 was going to be good enough going in. And they took their shot. In retrospect, as a staff, yeah, there’s something we could have put them in a different situation, put them in different scenario, made a different call – we didn’t. They made the play, Janoris didn’t.”

(On the decision to play RB Tre Mason)
“He’s doing a really good job on the practice field. Chase (Reynolds) had an issue last week, early in practice – I think it was Wednesday or Thursday – so there was a question mark as to whether Chase would be available. So, we planned ahead, thinking Chase wouldn’t be ready to go and we got Tre in to the offense. We got him involved in a couple things. He’s earned the opportunity. He did a nice job. As you can see, he was very explosive.”

(On if Reynolds is likely to be healthy this week)
“Good chance he’ll be available this week, yes.”

(On the decision to move Greg Robinson into the starting lineup)
“He’s come on. He’s progressed over the last few weeks. We got together as a staff last week and we made the decision to put him in there at guard. Rodg (Rodger Saffold) obviously went to right (guard). We sat Davin (Joseph) down, and he’s a pro. He’s a real pro. He didn’t like it but he understands it. He actually said, ‘How can I help?’ So we appreciate his approach to that. We had a good week of practice and I thought Greg did good for his first start and he’s only going to get better. He played against a really good player yesterday and didn’t have any significant issues.”

(On if San Francisco did things defensively to try to attack Robinson)
“No. They stunted a little bit but they didn’t do anything intentional, anything out of the ordinary as far as that’s concerned. I thought it was a good, really solid first effort first game and he’s only going to get better. And you can make a case that Aaron Donald might have been the best defensive lineman on the field yesterday. He played really well. We flipped his reps. He’s been getting 20-25 snaps. I think he had 58 snaps last night and he was really productive.”

(On if Donald earned more playing time because of his previous production in games)
“Yeah, he deserved an opportunity to play more…play early and play more.”

(On the level of pressure the Rams were able to get on 49ers QB Colin Kaepernick)
“We got pressure. We couldn’t get him down. We were close. He made some really good throws. Moved in the pocket, escaped. The touchdown pass to Anquan (Boldin) where Rob (Quinn) was called for holding, it was a great throw. That’s what he does. That’s what makes them so hard to defend. Anquan wasn’t even the intended receiver. It was a very good call by the officials. I was concerned about it initially. We didn’t hear the announcement but (49ers T Joe) Staley, he reported as eligible. He was actually playing a tight end position so he was eligible, and it was a screen to him. Often times…it’s probably peculiar to hear a defensive hold when you grab an offensive lineman, but he was trying to escape. So it was a designed screen to Joe and Anquan was just running across the field and he (Kaepernick) saw that the screen was aborted and they made a big play.”

(On if he has any explanation as to why the Rams struggled offensively coming out of halftime)
“Austin had a good feel for what we were doing and we got away from the run a little bit. I would have liked to have seen us maybe hand the ball off a little more, but it’s easy to second guess. They made some halftime adjustments and pressured us a little bit and took a few things away. We had some people open. Again, sometimes they’re hard to find. We had two or three plays in those possessions where we had some opportunities.”

(On how he felt about the blocking from the offensive line and tight ends)
“I thought there were some really good efforts yesterday. We did some good things against a good defensive front. Our pass protection needs to improve. We let the pocket collapse at times but they do that to everybody. We can improve overall, but as I said at the beginning, there were some outstanding efforts.”

(On if he felt Davis left the pocket too early on occasion)
“No, I think he felt pressure and he escaped, tried to extend the plays. No, I don’t think he was flushing or getting spooked or anything like that. He has a good feel for that.”

(On the mindset of the players after the loss)
“We’re playing the world champions this week. They’ll be up. I’m not concerned about that.”

(On how Fisher is handling the team’s start)
“The big thing about it, you don’t change what you’re doing. What we’re doing here is right. The players are coming to work. They’re having fun, they’re working hard. We don’t have the production that we’d like. We’ve played three good opponents and we haven’t done well enough to win the game but we’ve been in the game. Things will turn. We’ve got a tough stretch ahead, but as we always say, hey, we’ll focus on this week. We’ll get them back.

(On if it seems like there are always a handful of plays that hurt the team)
“I think that’s the case with any team. You can point to a few plays here and there. That’s what’s happening.”

(On if he would like to see the team show some resiliency after giving up a big play like the 80-yard touchdown pass to 49ers WR Brandon Lloyd near the end of the first half)
“We were talking about this last week, we were down 34-7 and we recovered. We made a good run in Philadelphia. So, they didn’t get down. All you need to do is look at the last extra point after we threw the interception for a touchdown. Just look at that, we almost blocked it. So, they finished the game. They played the game very hard. We just didn’t get any big plays in the second half…any field possession change in plays, turnovers per se, or big plays out of our offense in the second half against a good defense. So, I’m not concerned. I don’t think it was a matter or issue relating to the touchdown pass. We still went in at halftime with the lead. That was the chatter, that was the talk, everything was very positive when we went in there.”

(On if the 49ers did anything special to limit WR Brian Quick)
“They didn’t do anything out of the ordinary. Sometimes that happens. They do a lot of rotation to the weak side, it’s a staple in their defense. So, they force you to go other places with it. It wasn’t something that they game planned to take him away.”

(On if RB Zac Stacy’s health was a factor in the carries being split)
“We were rolling all three of them. There was no physical issue. He had a full week of practice.”

(On if RB Tre Mason continues to produce will he consider going running back by committee)
“I have no problem with it all. Nope. I liked the way he handled his first opportunity and made some explosive plays. We hadn’t had a run for over 20 yards until yesterday. He knocked one off for 24.”

(On if Quick wasn’t in the way of Mason on his 24 yard run would he have scored a touchdown)
“No, that’s a good pursuing defense. I don’t think he goes the distance. He’d probably pick up some more yards, yeah.”

(On QB Austin Davis’ performance against the 49ers)
“It was OK. I don’t think he played as well as he did the first couple weeks. Again, the position’s hard to play. He got off to a fast start and made some good throws. A wide open tight end in the end zone is a scary throw and he didn’t miss that lay-up. He made some other really good throws. They took some things away. He’s improving. He’s got his hands full.”

(On if he like what he saw out of the run defense)
“Yeah, (49ers QB Colin Kaepernick) ‘Kaep’ had the big run but other than that we played the run pretty well. They had a 12-yarder that had a chop block that wasn’t called, which would’ve come back. Yeah, I thought we handled the run well. We can’t give up the big plays. We’ve got to play consistent both in rushing defense and passing defense.”