Fisher: "I'm proud of Austin and the team" — vid & transcript

Rams Head Coach Jeff Fisher – September 15, 2014

(Opening Remarks)
“I know you’re all curious about our injury update. We did test, did MRIs both on (TE) Cory Harkey and on (WR) Tavon (Austin), I guess you can say we got good news. We’ve got mild sprains, nothing that requires surgery. I wouldn’t rule either one of them out for this weekend. They’re both – as you can imagine – stiff and sore today, but it was good news this morning, and we really didn’t have anything else in the ballgame. Shaun (Hill) wasn’t set back at all during the warm-ups, during his test before pregame warm-ups and so he’s still rehabbing. I don’t know how much he’ll do Wednesday. He’s got a chance to get out there and do some things Thursday. That’s your injury update as far as the game’s concerned.

“I think, as I mentioned postgame, it was a great win for us. There’s still a lot of room for improvement. I’m especially pleased and proud of the way Austin (Davis) handled the game, the way he managed the game. The way he was throwing with timing, extending plays with the legs. The first third down, he did a nice job converting. We ran the football. We had balance in the game. We had 29 pass attempts and 29 rushes, so when you have balance in the game, you know you have a chance. I was pleased with the way Austin handled things in the game.

“Defensively, we have to continue to work. We’re not where we need to be in run defense. We’re going to really be tested this week. We have to get better there. We missed too many tackles. We had some run misfits. We’ve got our work cut out for us this week because it seems like yesterday that mess happened in Dallas last year. We have to get significantly better. Dallas had the ball for over 41 minutes yesterday in Tennessee, so that’s going to be a huge challenge for us. And the defensive penalties are still of a concern. We had five penalties in the game, but we actually had nine if you look at the ones that offset and those that were declined. We’ve got to get that under control. We challenged the defense to do the same thing that the offense did last week. The offense had seven last week, this week they had one. So significant improvement on the offensive side of the ball. I thought ‘Schotty’ (Offensive Coordinator Brian Schottenheimer) did a great job with the game, with Austin calling him. Our last three drives were scoring drives and they were all nine plays or more and that’s good work with a back-up quarterback.”

(On what Harkey showed him for going back out to play after taking a big hit)
“We knew. We knew Cory was a tough guy. He loves the game. That was a rough hit. Now when you saw it, that’s a byproduct of the league and the rule changes. (Bucs S Dashon) Goldson’s a good football player and that’s one that you just don’t like to see. We feared, I feared for the worst on it until he got to the sideline and the docs felt structurally he was going to be okay. We were going to change some personnel groups and Cory said, ‘No, don’t change them. I’m going back in,’ so very impressed with him”.

(On what he learned about Davis as the game progressed)
“He was in complete control. If there’s a timeout here or a timeout there or whatever the situation was, were talking about and he goes, ‘I got it.’ He felt good about what we were doing. He did a real nice job checking out of some things and getting us into some other things. The line of scrimmage was stacked yesterday and their opinion was probably that Austin wasn’t going to beat them with his arm and he did. He made some great plays, made some great throws. He understood exactly what we needed to do. He said, ‘What do I need in this drive?’, from the standpoint of what’s (K) Greg’s (Zuerlein) range here. I told him, ‘I want to keep him off the paint.’ The decal was really thick and hard and Greg had struggled kicking off the paint in the pregame. So he said, ‘Alright, I’ll get us there,’ and he did.”

(On if Davis exceeded expectations)
“No. Like I said last night, there’s a big difference between this week and last week and that difference is the practice reps.”

(On Davis’ third down production)
“Yeah, it’s good. It’s what you expect out of your quarterback. The difference is, he didn’t have to try and convert a third-and-25. We kept our down-and-distance manageable because we were running it. The twos and threes and fours and sixes and even the one 10, I think, he made the throws.”
(On why he wouldn’t consider starting Davis instead of a healthy Hill because of Davis’ play this past week)
“If Shaun is healthy and able to play and not going to subject himself to re-injuring this or making it worse, then Shaun’s our quarterback and Austin’s our backup. That’s just the way it is. Shaun was five-for-five against a good Minnesota defense here to get started.”

(On if there is any wiggle room as to who the starting quarterback is)
“No. I won’t visit with you guys tomorrow, but I will Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, so you can ask me again, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, if you want – you’re going to get the same answer.”

(On if he should sleep on that decision)
“I’m not sleeping on it. I got it. I’m proud of Austin and I’m proud of the way the team rallied around him. It was really exciting in the locker room for him.”

(On if it has been his philosophy throughout his career for players not to lose their spots due to injury)
“This has nothing to do with injury. He played because of the injury but, no. We brought Shaun (Hill) in to be our backup and Shaun now, unfortunately is our starter. Unfortunately, meaning Sam (Bradford) went down. When Shaun comes back he’ll win a lot of games for us.”

(On DE Robert Quinn’s contract extension)
“Talks kind of heated up middle part of the week last week. We got things going Friday and then Saturday morning they got things put together, so I was really happy for Rob. As we said we really appreciate (Rams Owner) Stan’s (Kroenke) support and approval on this. Rob’s got a chance to be an outstanding defensive player for us for a lot of years, so much deserving of it.”

(On the significance of the bye week for the health of the Hill)
“Well it would be a factor. Again, this is not coach speak, it’s day to day. We’re going to see how he is.”

(On Davis’s character and hard work considering he was out of league last year)
“He’s worked very hard. He studies, he understands the challenges that are related to the position and how important preparation is. He did some good things in college mind you, he set some records and he broke a pretty good player’s record down there. He understands the position. Again, a great win for us and for him, it’s great to see him have success.”

(On LB Jo-Lonn Dunbar’s roughing the passer penalty)
“I’ll say this. If it’s our quarterback I’m okay with the call but since it wasn’t I’m not. It’s just one of those things. Like I said last night, the referee’s responsibility as soon as anybody gets near the quarterback is to come off the tackle, the left tackle, the line of scrimmage and go to the quarterback. The issue is that the quarterback is between him and the contact so he can’t see it. So the assumption is that the contact was high, was in the helmet, head/neck area, so he threw the flag.”

(On if it looked like Dunbar hit Bucs QB Josh McCown’s shoulder)
“Yes with his face. He did, but they’re going to protect the quarterback, I understand that. I can disagree with the call but I understand the call. Now, I was a little more frustrated on Josh McCown’s touchdown run, both offensive tackles false started. I’d like to have seen that called. There’s a difference between a scramble for a touchdown on 3rd-and-10, but sometimes those things happen.”

(On if he spoke with DE Eugene Sims about the horse collar penalty)
“We did, we talked after. He apologized. Just leaving the ground on one…it’s effort play. You just can’t grab the collar through.”

(On defense struggling on second and third down)
“We’re working on it. We’ve got to be more consistent on all downs. We’ve got to get better on third down and we’ve got to play run defense better.”

(On RB Zac Stacy’s fumble due to being kicked in the head and if there should have been a penalty)
“No, there were a strange set of sequences that led up to it. We’re supposed to go down and cut off the backer. Instead we cut the backer and the backer flipped over. Zac was not expecting to get kicked and it just caught him by surprise, but there’s not foul there, there’s nothing. Just kind of one of those things that happened. Same is the case with our blocked punt. The line of scrimmage was the 24. They had two yards to gain. That ball was caught right about the line of scrimmage. Now whether it was in front or beyond or on the line, I guess what I’m saying is had they ruled the first down on that play, the ball has to be caught behind the line of scrimmage to be advanced. If it’s caught across the line of scrimmage it comes back to the spot and so that was a potential reviewable play, again it kind of paraphrased the game. This became a game of inches. It became a game where we needed to block a field goal, we needed to block a punt, we needed a play here and there. The good thing about this game is our players, this young group learned how to win a close game.”

(On if he always waits until two seconds left on the play clock to call the timeout)
“I’m going to generally do it at two. You saw the back judge throw the flag for delay of game and they waved it off, and said, ‘No they called timeout.’ So, I’m generally going to use it a two.”

(On if the officially he was standing next to, to call timeout was the side judge)
“It was the side judge, yeah.”

(On if yesterday’s win showed the NFL that the Rams are playing through adversity)
“I think most of the league didn’t even realize we had a game yesterday (laughs.) I saw (K) Greg’s (Zuerlein) winning field goal, that’s all I saw on all the highlights. So that’s OK with us.”

(On if the way the game ending was a teaching moment and if he remembers when Marshall Faulk lifted Az-Zahir Hakim up in 1999 in a game at Tennessee to help the Rams get set and spike the ball)
“I’m not familiar with that. No, we should’ve been in a different defensive deployment, I’ll say. But nonetheless, the reason we won the football game is because Austin Davis made a great throw and catch to (WR) Austin Pettis and got us in field goal range and they had to use all three timeouts. So when, their timeouts expired with 38 seconds or 40 seconds needing a field goal, I liked out chances. We made it close, but I liked our chances.”

(On if he would have changed the defensive alignment on the last play)
“I think yes but we have a number of things that we can do. We should’ve been out of this particular coverage. And I’m taking responsibility for it because I told (Defensive Coordinator) Gregg (Williams) that that’s what we needed. So, that was my discussion with Gregg after the game before I went to talk to (Tampa Bay Buccaneers Head Coach) Lovie (Smith). I was thinking one thing and I said the other. And he called what I said so. That’s behind the scenes.”

(On what he meant to call)
“I’m not going to go into what we were going to do. I wanted something other than what we did.”

(On SS T.J. McDonald’s tackle on the last play of the game)
“It was a big play.”

(On if it’s his philosophy to shorten the game to win these close games)
“I actually told the team before the game that, people are talking about a 13-10 game, and I said, ‘Why not a 35-10 game.’ We wanted to score points. But as the game started to take shape and the flow, you have to manage it that way. You manage, I felt like obviously, that this thing was going to come down to who had the ball last and a play at the end of the game to win it. Particularly because of what they were doing. We didn’t give up any deep balls down the field, they may have thrown one. But they were trying to drive the football. And run the football. And they did it with success. And they were OK with field goals as well. Last year we did have some games, particularly after that bye, at the bye when we came back, I think it was Chicago and we put a lot of points on the board because we were getting turnovers and things like that. Until we start getting turnovers, and we’re not getting them right now, most games are going to be like this.”

(On the play of both McDonald and FS Rodney McLeod through the first two weeks of the season)
“I think both the safeties have played very well, the last two weeks. Now, we missed some tackles but everybody’s going to miss tackles on their running back. But I think considering where we were last year, they’ve come a long, long way. I’m happy for them.”

(On WR Stedman Bailey’s potential reinstatement)
“Don’t have any new information. We’ve been hearing for four or five days that they’re going to vote and that everybody will be reinstated-or they have a list of those that should be reinstated. But, I mean there was some talk about even as late as Friday and Saturday. But I haven’t heard anything. We released (DT) Matt Conrath to clear the roster spot in the event that it does happen over the next couple of days.”

(On the blocked punt and blocked FG were due to film study or game plan)
“It’s a result of both but it’s effort. We’ve focused on it. We’ve spent a lot of time on it. We were very, very good at it last year. We got our hands on a couple balls last year. We’re going to continue to do so. It was a great, great feel by T.J. I was told it was the first time since ’79 that the Rams had both a field goal and a punt block in the same game. We’re going to continue, I think that’s going to help us down the line.”

(On if the blocks we’re due to overloading one side of the field)
“I don’t know what other people do, I don’t know. We’re obviously doing something that’s helping us be productive.”