Fisher, Foles, Quinn, Austin 9/13 – transcripts – & Long vid

Rams Head Coach Jeff Fisher

(Opening Remarks)
“I don’t know what to say. That was great. Really, I think it was a tremendous effort. Number one, contribution from all three phases against a real good football team. We didn’t play particularly well. We did the things that cost you games: the penalties, the turnovers, those kinds of things. But we overcame them, which is pretty good considering we’re the youngest team in the league again. This win should take us a ways, particularly if we learn from our mistakes, and there were some. But we’ll grade the tape and go on. Just some of the things that took place, great plays, (WR) Tavon (Austin’s) return and great efforts on defense. CB (Trumaine Johnson) Tru’s interception was a great play. We got to (QB) Russell (Wilson) at times, but you could see him start to take the game over, and that’s what he’s really good at, in that third quarter. We’re up by 11 and all of a sudden we’re trailing, and that’s Russell and company. Just a huge play there at the end on the fourth down stop.”

(On the team responding with a touchdown after a bad play before the drive)
“You could hear (the team) talk and they’re talking, ‘Let’s go answer. Let’s go. Let’s put the ball down the field and get points.’ So that’s kind of been their attitude. We go back to preseason and show you we’re doing a little bit more on the offensive than we did in the preseason and (QB) Nick (Foles) has a good feel for it.”

(On Foles’ play against the Seahawks)
“I thought he played well. I don’t know what happened between him and (C) Tim (Barnes) on the fumble. We’ll get to the bottom of it and learn from that, make sure it doesn’t happen again. That’s a new relationship that’s developing right now and so we’ll get those things fixed.”

(On if the Seahawks running a run play out of the shotgun limits what the team can do on defense in short yardage situations)
“There’s different options and they’re really good at 3rd-and-short, 4th-and-short. By the way they use different formations and then they’ve got Russell’s legs as well, and that’s always a concern. You’ve got to edge them, but you have to be firm inside and if you edge them and firm them inside, then you’re putting everyone else in 1-on-1 situations.”

(On the strangeness of the beginning of overtime)
“I wouldn’t call it strange. I think it shocked people, and I’m sure Pete (Carroll) would tell you, everybody gets an opportunity to possess. If you get the onside kick and go down and score a touchdown, the game’s over. If you get a defensive stop and kick a field goal, then they get an opportunity to possess. It was his choice. I don’t think it’s that unusual.”

(On WR Bradley Marquez’s play to recover the short kickoff)
“I’ve been talking about him, he’s a very mature player right now as a rookie. We trust him. We trust him to play personal protector, we trust him to play offense. He’s just a real heads up kid. It’s a great effort.”

(On the play call to go deep on the game-tying touchdown by TE Lance Kendricks)
“I think the defender fell down and Lance was wide open, so (Foles) threw him the touchdown pass. You’re not going to turn that stuff over. I was managing the game with the hope I wouldn’t have to give them the ball back, as Russell had two timeouts and 53 seconds left. Fortunately, we played good defense, because a shot down the field with a timeout and a field goal, we wouldn’t have a chance to go to overtime.”

(On if Seattle would have recovered the onside kick and kicked a field goal, would the Seahawks have won the game)
“I don’t believe so, no. And I don’t know what (referee) Jeff (Triplette) was getting at on the onside kick that we recovered. Bradley waived fair catch and clearly fielded the ball, and then he was hit. So he should get fair catch protection on the play. It should have been a penalty that put us in better field position.”

(On what it says about talent level of the team to win despite making many mistakes)
“I believe we’ve improved. Our younger players are showing now what they can do. But we can’t play with those kind of mistakes and win consistently.”

(On if this team can overcome mistakes better than teams past)
“We’re going to take it one game at a time, but we’re going to enjoy this win, look at it and get ready for next week.”

(On the conversation with officials about the onside kick)
“I wanted to get an explanation and I was a little confused when they initially said they had to re-kick. That didn’t make any sense to me. Defense jumps offside, yes. You recover the ball and the returner on the receiving team is offside prior to the recovery, then you re-kick. But we clearly fielded the ball, so I wasn’t sure as to what was going on.”

(On Austin’s play against the Seahawks)
“We’ve been trying to get Tavon some touches so he got some and it clearly shows what he can do. That’s a good defense. That’s a really good defense and it’s hard to find creases and find holes. But, it was a great run and it caught them off guard. It was a great run, touchdown run.”

(On if kicking the ball into the ground on the onside kick was reviewable)
“No. It might be next year.”

(On if Seattle’s choice not to run at end the Super Bowl made the Rams think they were going to run on the final fourth down)
“No. Did you see the way RB (Marshawn Lynch) was running today? He’s a good back. It was 4th-and-1, we’re expecting the run.”

(On the decision to have RB Tre Mason out against the Seahawks)
“He was close. He had a really good pre-game warm-up. And that was also the case with (LB) Daren Bates. There are a few things we’ll know better tomorrow. Trumaine (Johnson) didn’t pass the concussion protocol and (DE) Eugene (Sims) got a little knee thing we’ve got to look at, but that doesn’t look too awfully bad. (RB) Chase Reynolds I think has something wrong, too.”

Rams QB Nick Foles

(On if he’s always been one to encourage his teammates)
“Yeah, if there’s time on the clock, the game’s never over no matter what the score is. That’s been my mentality as a little kid, something my parents instilled in me…my dad…just to fight to the end no matter what because you want to leave it all on the field. You don’t want to go back in the locker room and say, ‘I wish I coulda.’ You want to say, ‘I gave it everything I had.’ Our guys gave it everything they had tonight. Seattle came out and played a great game. They gave it everything they had. We just finished. We needed to finish. The fans were tremendous. Our fans were causing havoc. I could tell there was times where they had to burn timeouts, delay of games, communication…I recognize that stuff watching their offense and that’s huge. Our fans had a huge impact in this game. I’m thanking everybody that came out to support us. We heard them loud and clear and it really helped us get this victory.”

(On if he thought the Rams are better than he thought they would be since being traded from Philadelphia)
“I always had a lot of respect for the Rams. I remember when I played them when I was in Philadelphia, I had the utmost respect. They played with a lot of heart and they fought til the end. Everything I had heard about (Head) Coach (Jeff) Fisher was always positive. Then now I get to be a player for him and I can see why. He’s a guy you want to go out there and you want to play hard for. You want to give it everything you have and that’s for our coaching staff. They do a tremendous job during the week of preparing us. Our guys go out there and we stick together. We did a great job when adversity hit because it did. Several times throughout the night, we stuck together, leaned on each other and that’s what it takes to win. That’s what it takes to win in the NFL. To me, that’s Ram football right there.”

(On his view of the touchdown pass to TE Lance Kendricks)
“I’m very fortunate to have some tremendous tight ends. They make a lot of plays. So to me, I had a matchup. It’s a matchup I took and Lance gave him a little move and ran right by him. He tripped up a little bit. Lance and ‘Cookie’ (TE Jared Cook), those guys, (TE) (Corey) Harkey, they do a great a job of really creating a lot of diversity in our offense. They made some big plays today.”

(On if the win is an indication of how good this team can be)
“I think that’s what’s in your heart. That’s what’s in your mind. That’s caring about one another. That’s playing with your brothers right there. That no matter what, if something does happen like that, the game’s not over. You have to lean on each other and have each others’ backs to win the game and that’s what the guys did tonight. That’s what we have to continue to do. Of course, you want to play cleaner. You don’t want to have turnovers. You don’t want to do that, but to me, the character of the team right there when you don’t play clean football the whole 60 or however many minutes we played, 72 or whatever it was, that shows a lot of character of the team, the guys we have. So I was really proud of each and every one of my teammates tonight.”

(On what he thinks the three touchdown drives says about the offense)
“We have to get that rhythm. We can do a lot of different things and I think it’s just one play at a time and mentality, executing that play. Not all the plays were positive, but we were able to convert third downs. We were able to convert third and long. Running backs did a tremendous job on check downs, really cutting it up and getting those first downs. That’s a big part of our game and we just have to continue to work on that…eliminate the mistakes. That’s a big thing. We can’t have those mistakes and expect to win every week, but it felt good to come out on top today.”

(On what he thinks about the Rams’ ability to rush against Seattle)
“You have to have a diverse offense. It’s important to spread the ball around. That way it’s difficult for them to defend, but that’s a tremendous defense. That’s a great team. It’s very well coached. That’s why the game went like it did. It was back and forth, a hard fought battle as it should’ve been. Hats off to them for fighting.”

(On how he thinks his ‘young’ offensive line performed today)
“They’re resilient. Those guys come to work every day…they hear people. They know what the media says. I don’t…those guys are tremendous. Those guys fought their butt off for me tonight and I will continue to fight for them. I can’t say enough. Every single one of them did a great job tonight. Really, that’s the heart and soul of our offense. It starts with them and it always does. We have a great offensive line with depth. Great offensive line coach who does a tremendous job. We have to continue to improve, but I was really proud of the young guys. I was really proud of our O-Line tonight for how they played.”

(On the offense’s success today and if that speaks to the depth of his offense)
“Absolutely. The guys know when they’re out there I count on them, no matter who’s over them, to make plays because we do have depth. We do have guys that believe they can play. They showed it tonight and we just have to continue to work and improve. This was the first game. We have another game coming up. That’s just the beauty of it all, so we’ll learn. We had a lot of mistakes in this game that we’ll go back and learn from. We’ll go and assess it this week throughout practice and get ready for the next one.”

(On if the fumble caused during the center exchange was a result of a delayed blitz and him not being able to get the ball off)
“It’s something that I’ll asses and look at in film. The game was going, so I was just trying to get back out there and make sure everything was good. I’ll look at it and have more details later.”

Rams DE Robert Quinn

(On his first thoughts after the win today)
“As a team, I think we just finished the game. We started off hot. Seattle made great plays on both sides of the ball to get themselves back into the game. They made plays, like I said, to keep themselves alive. The guys just finished the game. We’ve preached that the past few years – finish, finish, finish. We were able to finish. It wasn’t pretty, but at the end of the day, we got the ‘W’ and that’s what we look for. We know we can always get better at things. As long as we keep winning and we still improve, the sky is the limit. It’s a great way to start a season. That’s a great Seahawks team and we’ll take it from here.”

(On the defense’s six sacks today)
“Of course we want to start fast. We’re definitely far from last year. We don’t want to start like that. The guys got on a roll, we kind of got our energy and the guys are feeling great. So once we started getting back there, we just try to stay consistent. ‘A.D.’ (Rams DT Aaron Donald) started it off and after that, guys just tried to follow him. We’ve got a special guy in (No.) 99 so I guess we just need to follow his lead.”

(On what he saw on Donald’s game saving stop on 4th down in overtime)
“(No.) 99 in the backfield. Like I said, if you put one guy on him, you’re asking for trouble. (No.) 99 is a special player. There’s no limit for him if he realizes the true potential he has to be a great player.”

(On the team pulling it together and overcoming adversity in the 4th quarter)
“The game wasn’t pretty. They made a huge comeback, getting themselves back in the lead and they could’ve taken the game away. But, (QB) Nick (Foles) made a great throw to (TE) Lance (Kendricks) to tie the game up, and give us an opportunity to go out there and try to win the game. I’m excited about this season. These guys just don’t quit. It’s never going to be the way you want it, but as long as you can finish the right way and get the ‘W’, nothing else really matters.”

Rams WR Tavon Austin

(On his getting more touches)
“That’s what it’s all about…just opportunities. Coach (Jeff) Fisher believes in me, my team believes in me. I’m just thankful for the opportunity that I had. I’m just glad I made the play for us. It was multiple plays made out there, not just by me. I’m just thankful right now that we got the win.”
(On QB Nick Foles performance)
“Oh man, that’s big bro. He comes in the huddle, he takes charge of the huddle, lets us know what he wants. You know, he always tells us that adversity is going to come. It’s all how we’re going to fight back and that’s what we did.”

(On Foles responding after the strip sack)
“We were on the sideline just screaming ‘It’s definitely not over.’ We believe in him and he believes in us. On the field, him and (TE) Lance (Kendricks) hooked up on a good go route. And that’s how it was.”

(On lining up in the backfield so much)
“I really don’t know what Coach (Fisher) said…got in store for us. Right now we are down in depth, so you know, they called my name and I’m just glad I was able to make a play for us.”

(On if he likes taking handoffs from the RB position)
“You know running back is my first love, always, but my size and stuff had me back off of it a little bit. But, anytime I need to get back there, I’ll get back there.”

(On his punt return for a touchdown)
“It just wasn’t me. I caught the ball and it was a straight lane. I just took it and had some great blocks by Stedman (Bailey) and those guys and I’m just thankful that we start the season with that first touchdown. You know they usually get called back on me.”

(On looking for a flag on the punt return)
“It was a flag down there too, but they picked it up. I didn’t know who it was on. I was pretty worried, but I’m just thankful it turned out our way.”

(On getting a chance to show what he can do in different positions)
“I just said it before…it’s all about opportunities. The previous two years, I’m not going to say it’s my fault, not saying it was anybody’s fault, it just wasn’t the right time. I believe my time is now and any opportunity I get, I’m going to take advantage of it.”