Fisher, 12/22 … transcript

Rams Head Coach Jeff Fisher – December 22, 2014

(Opening Statement)
“Well we got together, looked at it this morning and actually coaches are moving ahead. We created a short week for us because we’re going to give players Thursday off and you as well. Coaches are kind of moving ahead on Seattle. A lot of things I said yesterday after the ball game…the biggest difference in this game was the two turnovers. Basically, if you look at it we were two possessions short, from a standpoint of time of possession, from a standpoint of carries. They had 67 plays, we had 54 plays. Two more opportunities and maybe a third-down conversion then we have a different result. There were great things in the game, great effort, we just didn’t make the plays, we gave up to many big plays. As I said, I’ll credit Eli (Manning) for really playing an outstanding game. He was in control. Didn’t have much difficulty on the line of scrimmage getting in and out things and he made some big time throws yesterday. We had some good things, I mean the blocked field goal and another punt return and some outstanding defensive efforts at times, but too many big plays. I thought offensively, Shaun’s (Hill) numbers were good enough to win. He probably wouldn’t tell you that, missed a couple throws, but we’re moving on. E.J.’s (Gaines) status, he was better this morning. He’ll be required to follow the concussion evaluation protocol this week, so we won’t know until later on in the week. But, most everybody came through it OK.”

(On if he’s OK with RB Benny Cunningham’s decision to make a spin move prior to the fumble on the kickoff)
“Yeah, no it was…you need to secure the ball. We got tangled up and he had an unblocked guy coming and wasn’t anticipating that. He’s pretty good with the ball security, specifically as it relates to kickoff returns. He’s had a productive year for us. Just kind of one of those things that happened.”

(On if the Giants ran illegal pick plays where they had receivers crossing throughout the game)
“Well they were called once. The design on longer down and distances, as a lot of people are doing it now, is to just release and block and get the ball underneath. Sometimes the contact is before the ball is thrown. The rule states it has to be more than a yard or two yards or more for contact. There was a couple times in there where it could’ve been called, but it wasn’t.”

(On if the Giants no-huddle offense caused problems for the defense)
“Not at all. No, we didn’t have any problems with it. We practiced that way every day on the practice field from a defensive standpoint. That wasn’t the issue.”

(On the status of C Scott Wells’ elbow)
“He’s been playing with it all year. Unfortunately, it’s one of those things that happened. They run the same exact play and throw a touchdown pass in the corner of the end zone and they get a good snap. We get (WR) Stedman (Bailey) open in the corner of the end zone in the same exact scheme play, but the ball was snapped high and we had to settle for a field goal. From Scott’s standpoint, it’s just a protective brace. He’s not getting treatment on the elbow, he’s strong. I think it’s more of a scary thing for him. His knot affected it, but something went wrong yesterday.”

(On if he thinks the bad snaps were injury related)
“No.”

(On if he still will go forward with Wells)
“Yeah, I‘m going to go forward with Scott. Scott does a good job inside communicating, identifying things, getting protections called. We’ll go forward. He’s just going to have to not allow that to happen, especially up there this week.”

(On if the players were in today)
“All the players came in today on their own.”

(On if he discussed the brawl)
“I didn’t. I just actually discussed it with (DE) Will (Hayes). He was the only one I discussed it with. The league will handle it. The league will handle the appropriate discipline as far as that’s concerned. I would be very surprised if we had anybody that was fined for that.”

(On what he would be surprised about regarding NFL disciplined)
“If we had someone fined or disciplined.”

(On if he would be surprised if Hayes was fined)
“Yes. I would be surprised. Now I can see what the officials are seeing with respect to Alec (Ogletree) and the late hit out of bounds, but when you look at it really close (WR) Odell (Beckham Jr.) has his face mask and he’s pulling him out of bounds, so it’s hard for him to let up. There were some other things that happened in there that were very disappointing, but I’m confident that the league will handle it. In addition to the discipline of their kicker. People get ejected for kicking people in the game and he was penalized, but there’s some sentiment, I thought he should have been ejected as well. If you buy into all the our ‘friskiness’ or all this stuff that they referred to, I think it would be good if they looked themselves in the mirror. They played really good and they played hard and they played physical. They beat us physically in a number of instances, but I don’t think we had a lot to do with those things on the sideline other than an attempt to break things up.”

(On he thinks Beckham Jr. got in his players’ heads)
“No, we just played hard.”

(On if he was saying that there was a Giants player that kicked someone that wasn’t seen by the officials)
“It was seen. He was penalized. It was their kicker on the kickoff. Typically when that happens they go. Could have been the difference in the game, going on finishing the game without a kicker.”

(On if what frustrated Hayes was having his helmet torn off)
“Yeah, he was head locked, drug out of there, helmet ripped off and then punched.”

(On if Giants K Josh Brown threw himself into the fight)
“Being involved in trying to make a tackle is one thing. A lot of people get involved to make tackles, but just don’t retaliate that way.”

(On if CB Trumaine Johnson’s performance was due to injury)
“He’s working through some things. I don’t know if he’s 100 percent, but I don’t think anybody was a 100 percent yesterday. He needs to play better. His technique was poor at times. He gave up uncharacteristic plays. He gave up plays that you would expect him to make.”

(On if he agrees Johnson has played well since returning from injury)
“Played pretty well. As I said, last night, there’s a reason that Eli (Manning) has two rings.”

(On the third down defense)
“We got them into third down, which was…I don’t know how many times, I didn’t look at it, but it was 16 or 17 times in third-down or something like that, which is good. We have to do a better job. Our goal was to get them into third down and get off. Conversely, our offense only had six. Now, you take the possessions away we’ve got to be better there, we were just one-of-six. When you’re not in third down a lot that means you’re making plays on first-down, second, and getting down and making a lot of first downs. We have to do better there on third down.”

(On DT Aaron Donald having a ‘quiet game’)
“They did a nice job protecting, a lot of doubles. They were, as we say, nudging our ends. Keeping the tight ends in, a lot of seven-man protections, turn-protections, which is hard. He did make some plays however. He played hard.”

(On if on the first touchdown Johnson was supposed to stay with Beckham Jr.)
“Yeah, he’s supposed to sink and have that ball go to the flat.”

(On if Johnson didn’t play it right)
“Correct.”