Fisher & team post Bills game press conferences – 1 vid, & transcripts

Rams Head Coach Jeff Fisher

(Opening remarks)

“Alright, well that was a tough one. I think it shows, in close games against good opponents, the need for turnovers or protecting the football and we didn’t get them defensively. It took points off the board in the first fumble and then we allowed them to put points on the board. In close ball games, those are going to be the difference makers there, so it’s disappointing. That’s a good football team. They’re on a roll, but we have every reason to be okay with where we are right now. I know there’s a lot of teams that would like to be 3-2, but we still have work to do. I thought you saw flashes of some good things. You saw some improvement out of the offense against a good defensive unit. We got the ball in our playmakers’ hands, and it seemed like either Todd (Gurley), or (WR) Kenny (Britt), or (WR) Tavon (Austin) or somebody was making plays offensively, we just didn’t get in the end zone. We have quite a challenge on our hands over the next couple of weeks, and the players know that. We’re going to get them back and have a great week of practice and then go on the road for a couple of weeks.”

(On the calling the fake punt)

“I wouldn’t have called it if I didn’t think it was going to work. That’s how those things are. We practiced it all week, we had the look, and it didn’t work. I’ll take that. They executed it in practice, but they didn’t execute it there. I thought if that thing works it’s good stuff, really good stuff – but it didn’t. They don’t always work, but that type of approach in special teams has taken us a long ways.”

(On making the decision to call a fake punt because of defensive positioning and weather conditions)

“Everything went into it. I like the look. I like the play. We got the look and they made the play. I think their outside guy made the play. He stopped coverage when he heard the crowd roar, so he came back and made the play.”

(On the defensive performance compared to earlier this season)

“Well, it’s a combination. We don’t make excuses, but three of our starting four defensive linemen were watching the game today. What those guys do is they pressure the quarterback and (DE Robert Quinn) Rob’s always making a chase play from behind, and we just didn’t get that today. Still not acceptable run defense, but they’ve been doing this for the last couple of weeks against a number of teams. He’s (LeSean McCoy) an outstanding back and they’re managing the game well with Tyrod (Taylor). That second series or first series, the ball was snapped past him and we had a second-and-25 and a third-and-18 and we allowed him to convert with his legs. At that point you’re in for a ball game with him, so they’ve done an outstanding coaching job with him.”

(On considerations when going for it on a fourth down)

“Yeah, there’s always that consideration. It’s a decision you need to make, but we had the ball on the eight and then we had the holding penalty. The reason for the points was I was playing to win. We had plenty of time and had three timeouts left. So take the points, get a kick off, get a drive stop on defense, go down and a touchdown wins the game for you.”

(On the fake punt call being from the sidelines or a read on the field)

“Well, now you’re going into competitive things. That particular play was called, and there are some checks, but we didn’t need to check out based on the look we had.”

(On RB Todd Gurley scoring the Rams’ first touchdown since being back in Los Angeles in 1979)

“I forgot we hadn’t scored a touchdown here, and preseason doesn’t count. Thanks for bringing it up. Yeah, it does. He’s our back of the future, so I guess it’s only appropriate that he got the ball in the end zone there. His yards were tough today. That’s an outstanding defense and his yards were tough, but he made some outstanding plays. You could see the flashes, so we’re coming there.”

(On the pick-six off QB Case Keenum)

“I’ve got to see it. Someone told me that there was a hold on the play and the receiver was restricted, so I don’t know I have to look at the play. He made some good decisions today. Quick decisions and good throws.”

(On the health of CB Trumaine Johnson)

“I don’t know. We’ll have more information for you tomorrow. From the defensive line standpoint, Rob, they couldn’t do it. Nor could (DE) Will (Hayes) or (DT Michael Brockers) ‘Brock’, he had a setback in practice. They’re all willing, but we’re looking at the long haul right now and they wouldn’t have been productive. They wouldn’t have been able to protect themselves. That’s why you have young players. That’s why we brought (DE Morgan Fox) ‘Foxy’ up. So we’ll look at the tape and see how they played.”

(On the decisions to name certain players inactive)

“They were weekend decisions, over the last 24-48 hours.”

***

Rams QB Case Keenum

(On his first interception of the game)

“Yeah, we had ‘Coop’ (WR Pharoh Cooper) on a deeper, little out route there. When I thought he crossed his face, he did a good job. When I threw it out there and the guy made a heck of a play, but it was a bad decision, I think looking back, I have to watch the film and I have to see what exactly happened. But, I can’t do that, I can’t do that— especially in this league, across the board there’s guys who will make that play. I can’t put my team in that situation, obviously. But, the game came down to one or two plays and that was one play that I want back.”

(On the last field goal of the game)

“I just didn’t know what (Head) Coach (Jeff Fisher) was going to do on that play. I was going to be ready if he wanted it to. This is a tough deal— we love to punch that in on first, second and third down. We had a penalty that killed us on that drive. I think it was a 15-play drive and to come up with a field goal was tough.”

(On WR Tavon Austin and RB Todd Gurley’s performance)

“Yeah, we did a lot of really good things today. I thought offensively, I think we had a 15-play drive, overcoming some penalties, the opening drive – we just got to punch it in, we hurt ourselves in the red zone, again. But, yeah, there were a lot of positive things from Tavon, (WR) Kenny (Britt), Todd. I think Todd had some really big plays today, just not enough.”

(On if this week’s practice focused on getting the ball to WR Tavon Austin and RB Todd Gurley)

“You want to put the ball in the playmakers’ hands. We want to do that every week. We had some guys make some plays down the field quick. You know, (WR) Brian Quick made a few big plays again. He even got behind on one of the third downs early, that I overthrew him, another play I want back. It’s just the difference in this league – people are too good. You can’t have missed opportunities and you can’t turn it over, you can’t give guys extra possessions and we did that. I think that was of the big things of the game.”

(On the margin of error of the offense)

“I wouldn’t say we focus on that, but you look at it across the league and every game has one or two plays that decide the game and obviously, turnovers are huge. Yeah, there is a small margin of error – not something we dwell on but that’s why coach and we want to be perfect, every snap because you never know what snap is going to be crucial point of the game.”

(On making big plays in fourth quarter situations)

“I feel like we are very equipped. We’ve had a few ‘have-to’ plays or drives. Before, I would say that Arizona was a ‘have-to.’ Obviously, we were put in a really good situation with our return but, we had a couple of ‘have-tos’ and it’s going to happen in this league and a couple of ‘must convert third downs’ and we didn’t on a few. You can point to a lot of different things, but we just didn’t do enough today.”

(On the missed, deep pass to WR Brian Quick)

“It hurt, it hurt a lot, but you’ve got to move on. Obviously, those are plays that you learn from. Seeing him make those plays, I’ve got to give him a chance. It was tough one.”

(On their preparedness in the upcoming games in Detroit and London)

“I think we did good things today, I think we are progressing. Crucial situations – you have to move on and have a short memory in this league because we’ve got a lot of football left ahead of us and we are in a good spot – there are a lot of teams that would love to be where we are. So, we are going to keep fighting and we are going to take it a week at a time and we’ve got another great opponent on the road this week, then going even further on the road for a home game, never done that before, so not looking to that but we’ve got tests ahead of us. I think, like our team in general, we are fighters and we are going to fight. We are going to claw and fight and for everything we can get.”

***

Rams WR Tavon Austin

(On why the team wasn’t able to capitalize on offensive possessions)

“For the most part, we had a couple turnovers that kind of hurt us, but we still could’ve won the game. It’s about all of us just pulling together as one at the end. We did it before, we did it several times. This time, we didn’t come out with the win. But next week, we’ll definitely will have to practice this week hard, and try to go to Detroit and get a win.”

(On what he needs to work on)

“Basically, the offense. We got to score in that red zone. We keep getting down there, but not scoring in the red zone. Three points is good, but three points is not going to win too many big games, and that’s what it showed today. The receivers and the offense, we got to take a big role and step it up next week. We got to help them guys out and get in the box.”

(On if he felt like he was open on the play in which QB Case Keenum threw an interception, and the Bills returned it for a touchdown)

“No, that was just a scramble play. Case was just trying to make something happen. He just threw it up, and the guy was right there at the right place at the right time, that’s all.”

(On if he was surprised the team went for it on fourth down towards the end of the game)

“No, no, I trust Coach Fisher and whatever he wants to do. If he wanted to go for it three or four times, I’m okay with it. That’s our Coach, we love him, we believe in him, and if he wants to do it again next week, we’ll do it again.”

***

Rams RB Todd Gurley

(On why he wasn’t able to get the running game going)

“I felt like we did a pretty good job. I don’t know what you’re talking about, but I felt like we did pretty good overall as an offense. We just got to not turn the ball over.”

(On scoring field goals rather than touchdowns in the red zone, and why he wasn’t able to find the end zone on red zone drives)

“It’s just a part of the game. You get field goals, you get touchdowns, sometimes you don’t get neither.”

(On if he felt like he moved well between the 20-yard lines)

“Oh yeah, for sure. Like I said, it’s just all executing. Trying to get first downs, trying to get touchdowns, check-downs, and field goals. Just trying to put point on the board.”

(On his thoughts about the failed fake punt attempt)

“It’s all apart of the game. As an offense, we had three tries to get a first down. So, that’s on us.”

(On if he felt like he played well enough to win the game)

“No, not at all. I put the ball on the ground twice, they got it back once, and they scored off of it. You can’t win games off turnovers.”

(On if he feels as if he’s improving every game)

“Oh yeah, most definitely. They really didn’t have too many in the box. O-line did a great job for me all game. Those guys played their tails off all game. Blocking, passing, touches, I got to pick it up for them.”

***

Rams LB Alec Ogletree

(On why it was so tough to contain Bills RB LeSean McCoy)

“It was especially on us, we just didn’t get in our gaps. We just kind of made up some stuff and they took advantage of our miscues. I thought we did a good job when we did get around him, we were able to stop him a little bit. He’s one of the better backs in the league, if you make a mistake, he can definitely find a hole.”

(On if he felt that the defense simply didn’t play well enough to win)

“No, we definitely didn’t play well enough to win this game. We beat ourselves on a lot of stuff, I felt like we really just lost the game ourselves.”

(On how tough it was for the defense with three injuries along the defensive line)

“It wasn’t tough at all, we just didn’t – not necessarily didn’t get aligned, we were just out of gaps sometimes and they were able to find a hole and hit us for a couple of big runs.”

(On what the defense needs to work on moving forward)

“Just being technically sound in a lot of our stuff that we’re doing. Like I said, today I felt like we beat ourselves on a lot of stuff – just not in the right gap, sometimes I might not get the call or something like that. It’s all up to us to just hone in our skills and come back next week and play technically sound football.”

***

Rams DT Aaron Donald

(On if he could sense how thin the defensive line rotation was)

“We still had a good rotation.”

(On what he thought of Bills RB LeSean McCoy)

“We let him break us, we let him run all over us. Not happy about that at all. Like I said, we’ve just got to watch the film and correct it so stuff like that won’t happen again.”

(On what it was that made McCoy so effective)

“He just made plays. We just didn’t bottle him up, we didn’t get to him, we didn’t hit him enough and it showed.”

(On if he feels pretty good about where the team is at 3-2 if he were to take a step back)

“You’re not in a good mood anytime you lose. It’s a long season, we have time to bounce back, we just have a lot of things we have to correct on defense.”

***

Rams DL Dominique Easley

(On how difficult the workload was since the defensive line was shorthanded)

“It wasn’t that much different, we just rotated, like how we always do – just take care of our rotation and play with each other.”

(On if there was anything in particular that the Bills were doing in the run game)

“No, we knew everything they were going to do, we just have to play.”