Fisher, 10/24 … transcript

Rams Head Coach Jeff Fisher – October 24, 2016

(Opening Remarks)

“I’m not going to answer any questions with regard to how much sleep I’ve had. But, let’s get to the game. Disappointing, we had a chance to win. You go up by ten, and you have to make some plays and extend the lead – we didn’t. We gave up the obvious interception return for a touchdown. We battled and we just ran out of time, ran out of plays. Just one of those games, you know, if you look back the last two weeks since we left, at Detroit, offense puts up a lot of points, and defense can’t get the job done. Then, I really think yesterday, the defense played well, and played winning football, from start to finish. Offensively, we just couldn’t get the ball in the end zone. You look at a 17-10 game, and you turn the ball over four times on offense, something’s going well for you, and that was the defensive effort and the special team effort, but we just couldn’t overcome the turnovers.

“Here’s where we are. I have not changed my mindset whatsoever with respect to (QB) Case (Keenum) and (QB) Jared (Goff). As I mentioned last night, Jared’s going to get some reps, which is a byproduct of the bye week. We’re moving forward. We have to get some guys back, which we will. We have a chance to be extremely healthy, if you compare the roster after this bye week to the start of the regular season, so that’s encouraging. We’re going to work hard over the next couple of days, as staff – looking at what’s been good and what’s not, where we need to improve. I think realistically, when the guys come back after the bye week, we’ll have a couple of good days of work and then we’ll get ready for the Panthers.”

(On if there is anything QB Jared Goff can do in the next couple of weeks to show that he’s ready to start)

“Like I said, he’s going to get reps. I don’t feel like (QB) Case (Keenum) needs the reps Wednesday and early next week. So, Jared will get those reps, which is good.”

(On why this isn’t an ideal time to make a change at the quarterback position)

“It’s just what I said yesterday, and what Case has done, we won three-straight games with him. Yes, I understand we’ve lost three-straight, but the quarterback position, in my opinion, is not the reason why we lost the football games, nor was it yesterday. At first glance, if you look – oh, he threw four interceptions. You look at the actual plays, and as you guys know, interceptions – you can place blame wherever you want. (QB) Jared (Goff) is going to be our starter (in the future), but we’re going to continue with Case. Looking forward to a good couple weeks of preparation for Carolina.”

(On the play of the wide receivers and if they’re playing up to their capabilities)

“We’re getting more production out them, which is good. Brian (Quick) is making plays, Kenny (Britt) is making plays, but when you playing close games, you got to do everything exactly right, and we didn’t do that at the wide receiver position; nor did we do that at the offensive line position, or the running back position, for that matter. You have to deflect, or be realistic from that standpoint, when you’re looking at the quarterback position. Because if an offensive lineman gets beat on the snap, and the quarterback gets hit and he’s hurried on the throw, if the throw is incomplete, it’s not the quarterback’s fault, it’s the offensive lineman’s fault. That’s just an example. We just have to get better as a team.”

(On WR Kenny Britt running the wrong route that he referenced in his postgame press conference yesterday)

“It was a deep ball that he didn’t expect – he didn’t expect he was going to be (the) primary (receiver). It was not an interception, it was a potential touchdown. Those are the little things, when you lose a game like we did, little things become big things. And that’s what we do as coaches, we address the little things. You have to do the right things all the time.”

(On if he sees potential for personnel changes at receiver or on the offensive line during the bye week)

“No, we’re going to work some of the younger guys in there. We’ve got a healthy ‘Coop’ (WR Pharoh Cooper) as well as ‘Nels’ (WR Nelson Spruce), so they’re going to get a lot of reps, so we’ll see. (WR) Michael’s (Thomas) doing a good job out there on special teams and (WR) Bradley’s (Marquez) an outstanding special teams player. We just have to get more production out of the whole group.”

(On what the reasons are for sight-checks breaking down at the line of scrimmage)

“Understand the whole play – you have the play clock running down, you’ve got defenses that are stemming and moving and then you have a quarterback that turns out and makes a signal, and at the receiver position, you also have to recognize what’s going on, so you might miss it. It’s just one of those things that happened. Unfortunately, it happened at the wrong time. I was proud of the drive to that point, I thought the guys handled themselves really well. We got down there, we got in the plus-territory, got in position to tie the game up. Our expectation was to tie the game up, because time was running down, then we’re going to go into overtime and find a way to win it in overtime.”

(On how he treats the bye week in terms of getting from a losing streak)

“The losses are behind us, we’ll look forward to the Carolina challenge. Everybody has different needs and I think that’s the most important thing, is you address the needs. We have guys that need to rest, we have guys that need some work. At the same time, we do walk-thrus as we move through it, they need to understand some of the areas we need to improve upon. Again, offensively, given the rankings, which are subjective, our third-down stuff has really improved and I’m pleased with that and I’m pleased with where we are defensively – especially as we look at the possibility of getting some guys back. This week is about resting, it’s about recovering – which we say all the time – it’s also about getting away and coming back recharged, that’s probably the most important thing.”

(On if the fast start in the game was a correlation to being in London for the entire week)

“It’s a good football team we played, a good defense, a Super Bowl-winning quarterback. It’s just what things that happened in the game. There were opportunities there, there were penalties that I disagree with that were drive-changing, drive-interrupting. But if I had to do it all over again, I’d do the same thing because they were prepared, they were fresh and they were ready to play.”