Fisher – Hill's the starter

Fisher: QB Hill still the starter if healthy
• By Jim Thomas

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/football/professional/fisher-qb-hill-still-the-starter-if-healthy/article_f673c505-951e-5a74-8551-69128410c7c0.html

TAMPA, FLA. • Injured quarterback Shaun Hill tested his strained thigh more than 2½ hours before game time Sunday at Raymond James Stadium.

But coach Jeff Fisher said after the Rams’ 19-17 victory that there was never a chance Hill was going to start against Tampa Bay.

“At no point was there a chance for Shaun to start,” Fisher said.

Why then, was Hill on the game-day roster and in uniform?

“We kept him up in case we had a problem and he needed to finish the game in shotgun,” Fisher said. “It couldn’t have worked out better for us. It’ll be day-to-day this week (for Hill). This week really helped him and another week will help him and hopefully put this thing behind him.”

So Hill dressed but didn’t play, as was the case with No. 3 QB Case Keenum, whom the team claimed off waivers from Houston two weeks ago.

Given Austin Davis’ 22-of-29, no-turnover performance against the Buccaneers, Fisher was asked if Davis now supplants Hill as the starter.

“No,” Fisher replied. “When Shaun comes back, he’s our starter. I’m really proud of Austin, but Shaun’s our starter when he can play.”

TAVON AUSTIN INJURED

Wide receiver and punt returner Tavon Austin suffered a knee injury on the last play before the lightning delay. He was hit hard from behind by Tampa safety Mark Barron trying to catch a pass from Austin Davis. The ball fell incomplete after a jarring hit.

Fisher said that he did not know the severity of the injury.

Austin warmed up with his teammates following the weather delay but couldn’t go. He had a wrap on his right knee and his helmet off when play resumed and did not return.

“It stiffened up on me,” Austin said, adding that he will have an MRI exam today in St. Louis.

HOT LOCKER

During the 50-minute lightning delay midway through the second quarter, the Rams spent about 40 minutes in the locker room under what left guard Rodger Saffold described as sauna-like conditions.

“We just tried to stay hydrated,” Saffold said. “Some guys were stretching out. Lots of people were just resting.

“Which was crazy, because there wasn’t even air conditioning on, so it was kind of muggy in here. It was actually cooler outside than in here.”

Which is saying something, since the temperature reached 94 degrees Sunday in Tampa.

As to what went on during that time, Fisher said it was basically a very long halftime.

“The coaches come in, just rally and make some adjustments. And figure out what we’re going to do on that third-down play,” Fisher said.

It was third-and-13 when the lightning delay began. The Rams gained 11 on a run by Benny Cunningham and then punted once the game resumed.

SITTING IT OUT

Inactives were: RBs Tre Mason and Trey Watts, DB Lamarcus Joyner (back), CB Trumaine Johnson (knee), C/G Barrett Jones (back), DL Matt Conrath, and TE Alex Bayer.

That meant rookies S Maurice Alexander (of Eureka High) and DL Ethan Westbrooks saw their first NFL action. Both were inactive last week against Minnesota. Alexander saw action on special teams; Westbrooks played some on defense.

With Joyner down, Brandon McGee was the Rams’ third cornerback. He came in against three-wide receiver sets and played outside. When that happened, rookie E.J. Gaines of Missouri slid inside and covered the Bucs’ slot receiver.

RB Doug Martin (knee) was among the Tampa Bay inactives. The Bucs didn’t miss him because replacement Bobby Rainey gained 144 yards on 22 carries against a struggling Rams run defense.

Tampa lost its best defensive player, tackle Gerald McCoy, and starting middle linebacker Mason Foster to injury during the game.

Burwell: Fisher is wise to avoid drama
• By BRYAN BURWELL

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/columns/bryan-burwell/burwell-fisher-is-wise-to-avoid-drama/article_04629054-525e-5f87-a783-03c0d67b2e9e.html

Through his entire 20-year career as a pro football head coach, Jeff Fisher has never committed the folly of being led into the nasty riptide of a full-fledged NFL quarterback controversy. From Houston to Nashville, from struggling teams on the rebuild to gifted teams on the championship prowl, there was no circumstance that would draw him into that divisive swirl that every coach abhors and wants to avoid.

So now, just two games into this rather unusual 2014 season, the Rams’ coach isn’t about to let the swelling popular support for young Austin Davis suck him into the turbulence.

The Rams have no quarterback controversy because Fisher says they don’t.

“You can ask me again, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, if you want,” Fisher told a gathering of reporters Monday evening. “You’re going to get the same answer.”

That answer is this: When healthy, Shaun Hill is his starting QB.

Let me make this a little easier for you to decipher.

When healthy, Shaun Hill is his starting QB.

But Hill isn’t healthy and probably won’t be for another two weeks or so.

So of course what the coach won’t admit is that there really is no QB controversy because of an obvious technicality.

So it’s easy to publicly stick by the 13-year veteran Hill with 26 career NFL starts over the neophyte Davis, with one NFL start under his belt. But none of that matters right now, because Hill’s still too gimpy to play and contribute at full speed and Davis has proven that, with the right preparation, he can manage his way through an NFL game with some noticeable skill and competence.

So even as the public clamors for Fisher to make some declaration that the new kid on the block has leapfrogged Hill on the depth chart, the coach won’t do it, and I don’t blame him.

There’s really no decision to make, so why bother making one that will only stir things up unnecessarily?

This is one of those moments that Tony La Russa, the baseball Cardinals’ old Hall of Fame manager, used to love. Reporters would crowd into his office with these wonderful hypothetical questions that asked La Russa to suspend the present and delve into the future … of course (wink, wink) just for the sake of conversation.

The manager would grin, shrug his shoulders and tell anyone within earshot that he wouldn’t answer the question because he didn’t need to. If and when the hypothetical situation became a reality, then and only then would La Russa ponder it publicly.

This is pretty much what Fisher is doing regarding his quarterbacks. It might make for delicious fodder for sports talk show chatter and maybe a few clashing columns or two, but the coach isn’t going to bite on this hypothetical because he doesn’t have to. You don’t create a mess if there is no need to create one. You don’t stir up trouble when there is no need. You don’t generate a false competition when none exists. Hill isn’t likely to be ready to play this weekend against Dallas, which means the starting job is in Davis’ hands for at least another game.

So this week, Fisher will play it coy for all the obvious competitive reasons, listing Hill on the injury report as questionable, maybe giving him a few reps during practice and telling us once again it will be a game-time decision.

But he probably already knows that it makes no sense to rush Hill back when the best thing for him and the team is to allow Hill to patiently rehab and return only when he is 100 percent healthy. Fisher isn’t blowing smoke when he offers Hill those reassuring words that the No. 1 job is his, based on the glaring fact that Hill’s body of work (34 total NFL games and 959 career pass attempts) is far more conclusive than the small sample size of Davis, who now has thrown a grand total of 52 NFL passes.

The reluctance to proclaim Davis No.1 is simple. We don’t have enough information to know if Davis is a flash in the pan or a rising star, and one game isn’t enough to get an NFL wise guy like Fisher all giddy with the sort of puppy love that is afflicting most Rams loyalists.

But Fisher has seen enough to know that maybe, just maybe, they could be on to something with Davis, and it’s worth exploring what the kid’s ultimate ability could be for a bit longer. While the starter’s job may ultimately return to Hill’s hands the moment he is healthy, there is still an element of competition that can’t — and probably won’t — be ignored by Fisher.

Davis has been in the NFL long enough to know that every time you are on the field you are putting something on tape for the entire league to observe. This is the NFL equivalent of a flash-mob audition. He has been thrown into the starting lineup and for as long as it lasts, he has the opportunity to change Jeff Fisher’s mind.

Even as Fisher steadfastly sticks to his “there is no controversy” mantra, he understands that talent is always capable of trumping experience. Davis needs to keep improving, keep showing that the things he did against Tampa Bay were not a fluke. He needs to get out on that practice field this week and in the meeting rooms all week and make a lasting impression on everyone at Rams Park.

Sunday was a mighty fine start, but that is all it was: a start.

What comes next will determine if he’s a lot closer to being the next Kurt Warner or the next Scott Covington.

It was hard not to notice how much better and more confident Davis grew as the game went on. Fisher saw it when he was on the field and on the sidelines, and he loved what he saw.

“He was in complete control,” said the coach. “If there’s a timeout here or a timeout there or whatever the situation was, we’re talking (to him) 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 (Tampa’s) 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.”

The best thing Davis can do now is keep winning. You know what they say about winning, right? It solves everything, including any real or imagined QB controversy that might be percolating.