Fisher, Williams… 12/31 … transcripts

Rams Head Coach Jeff Fisher – 12/31/15

(On the 49ers’ ability to run the ball despite injuries at running back)
“Oh yeah, they’re going to line up. That’s their bread and butter right now is keep the ball away from opposing offenses. They do a nice job with the conventional run game, with the I-formation type stuff and the extra tight ends. Then (49ers QB) Blaine (Gabbert) does a really good job reading the edge so a lot of zone reads/option type stuff. They get you spread out and they hit creases. We expect them to run it.”

(On 49ers RB DuJuan Harris)
“He made some plays, yeah. Quick through the hole, has got really good vision and hard to get down. They ran the ball well the last couple of weeks, especially. I thought they did a nice job against a good Detroit defense.”

(On if San Francisco is using WR Anquan Boldin more)
“Boldin didn’t play (against the Rams). The first time around, he was hurt. So, the last three or four weeks, whatever he’s been back, he’s catching the football. He’s the go-to guy on third down.”

(On if the 49ers defense has improved throughout the year)
“They have. Coach (Jim Tomsula) has done a really good job plugging people in. He’s always been sound wherever he is. (49ers LB) Navorro (Bowman) is playing really well inside. You guys asked me about him yesterday. I watched a game last night – I don’t remember what it was, but I think he had four consecutive tackles. That’s how he’s playing. They’re playing hard. They’re very disciplined. The plays that they’re giving up are just great plays, a great throw and catch by a quarterback and a receiver. Cincinnati had a couple of them. They’re very disciplined and on third down, they’re diversified, which creates problems for you.”

(On RB Todd Gurley)
“We left him back. He’s getting treatment on the foot right now, so we’ll see how he is tomorrow.”

(On if Gurley must practice Friday in order to play Sunday)
“No, he doesn’t.”

(On if Gurley hurt his foot in Seattle)
“Towards the end of the game, yeah. He was sore after and then he woke up sore.”

(On the three Rams in the concussion protocol)
“(DL) Ethan (Westbrooks) is cleared. (S) Mark (Barron) practiced, felt good. I expect him to get cleared tomorrow. Then we’ll just wait on (DT) Nick (Fairley).”

(On if T Greg Robinson’s season has been a struggle)
“No, it hasn’t. The left tackle position is really hard to play. Early on we put him in too many one-on-one situations. Not every left tackle can handle one-on-one situations against great rushers all the time. He’s done a good job with it as of late. We’ve kind of changed some protection things up and got him some help and once (LG) Garrett (Reynolds) moved over next to him, he settled down. A couple penalties here and there, but we were outstanding. You talk about a tough place to play for a left tackle…any offensive lineman for that matter, in Seattle. We handled it pretty well up there. Greg was a big part of that.”

(On the play of CB Trumaine Johnson this season)
“Tackling very well. Playing very smart. Jumping routes. Understanding route concepts, formations, splits, alignments and things like that. He’s doing a great job with that. The ball security…the hand-eye coordination is extraordinary. He can make plays on the ball. We can go back and look at the interception highlights from this past year and a couple that (CB) Janoris (Jenkins) made and a couple that ‘Tru’ made were outstanding plays.”

(On if the players have curfew Thursday night)
“They have curfew. We have an early morning start and our focus is on the 49ers.”

(On if he will ring in the new year)
“Probably not. Maybe on East Coast time but not Pacific Coast time.”

(On if practice has felt different this week being away from Rams Park)
“It’s a normal week, yeah. The guys were great. They had a blast and they flew around today. We cut the reps down today and we’ll have a normal Friday tomorrow. It’s been a fun week.”

Rams Defensive Coordinator Gregg Williams – 12/31/15

(On what he thinks of the Raiders practice facilities)
“I knew a little bit about it before we got out here because my son was in training camp with the Raiders and so this is where he was practicing. He talked all about the rooms and the set up and he said, ‘Dad, you’re going to like it.’ I do. I think it’s an outstanding little set up here for us to come in. It’s a very ‘business only’ kind of a set up here. We don’t have guys messing around in the locker room too long because it’s old school. Some of them have said archaic, but I don’t think it’s archaic. You can see where Mr. Davis did some things in that era to make it that way, but it’s been nice. Much better today because the weather was better.”

(On if the players get dressed in the locker rooms at the facility)
“They dress in the locker room in there and the training room in there, so they’ll do all that and we just bus them back and forth.”

(On if it’s business as usual for him)
“It is no change for me. There’s no wine country tours for me. I’ve never been to Napa before. I’m not a wine drinker anyway. What I do is this is a business trip. In fact, I haven’t even seen much of the hotel we’ve been in. I’ve been going back and forth from my room to the staff rooms to the classrooms, getting ready for this final game right now in 2016, (2015)-16, whatever it is.”

(On what it would mean to close out the season 4-0)
“I believe it’s important from a confidence standpoint to be doing right at the end of the year. I really do believe in that. One of the things, and you guys can follow up with the players and talk to them a little more about it, but I was pretty hard, pretty stern about this last quarter of the season about being 4-0. We wouldn’t be in a position right now to go do that, to be 4-0 in this last quarter, had we not taken care of business the first three times, the first three games in this last quarter of the season. Our guys have done a great job all week long. I haven’t had to really worry about them in the meetings and how focused they’ve been in the meetings. They’ve really practiced well. You can see the tempo of the practices. You can see the communication of the practices and you also see that these guys like being around each other. That’s the fun part of it because it is a real tight-knit fraternity. It’s not easy what they do. It’s not easy what I do, but we do have fun doing it together because we’re all on the same page.”

(On if he’s had teams where he’s been out of the playoffs and it was hard to keep the team going)
“I never really have. Never really have and with respect to this is that, this business is a tough business. It’s a production business. You’re interviewing every day and that’s one of my sayings is you hear all the guys going around doing that is every day is an interview. Whether you like it or not, people are making assessments about you as a coach, as a player, as an owner, everything, so there is no time off. I laugh when people talk about that in the preseason, too. That’s an interview, too. So, every time and there’s no such thing anymore about film being private. We get every single snap of every single game that’s played for the entire season and it’s broken down, analyzed, evaluated, not only from a scouting perspective but from an analytical perspective, too. From a perspective of tendencies and stuff, so no, this is important. These guys understand that and I’m sure they’re tired of me talking about this being a production business. This is a great game that some of them started playing in Pop Warner, some of them played in junior high, high school and college. This is a production business, and if we have to worry about you not understanding that, you’re not for long in the National Football League. You’re not for long.”

(On what he’s seen from 49ers QB Blaine Gabbert on film)
“I’ve gone against him before at other places. I think (49ers Offensive Coordinator) Geep (Chryst) is doing a really good job, the offensive coordinator, of fitting some of the things to his skill set. But for the most part, they’re still the same 49ers, the same structure, the same play concepts. There’s a few other tendencies that Blaine does better and is able to do some things, but they’ve had some turnover with injuries also and they’ve had to kind of fit things to their best interests. But, it’s the same 49ers team, structure, discipline-wise and we’re going to have to be ready to go. This division is a strong division. They know us. We know them, so it will come down to who’s prepared the best.”

(On the 49ers still liking to pound the football)
“They still do, and they do a great job of that. You take a look at those guys when their offensive linemen get off the bus, you say, ‘Well, there’s some football players there.’ They’re big, strong men and we’ve got to play well in the run game. We’ve got to do a good job of that. We did a pretty good job here this past weekend, and it’s got to carry over into this weekend, too.”

(On the 49ers utilizing WR Anquan Boldin more)
“I have the utmost respect for Anquan. I think I said this before, before we played, the best football player I’ve ever coached is Sean Taylor. He was like a son to me. Sean was extremely violent, extremely intense and extremely aggressive. Anqaun’s one of the few people that Sean, when he played for me, would go up to him after the game and talk to him at the end of the game. That’s the respect of two gladiators, respect of two warriors. He’s still a very, very tough man. They’ve done some really good things. You can see that from a quarterback/receiver synergy, they believe in each other. You can tell that, and he can win. He still does a great job of instinctively playing off your leverage and stuff, and the quarterback’s been right on with him. So, that’s a tough match-up. We’re going to have to do well.”

(On hoping that CBs Trumaine Johnson and Janoris Jenkins are still playing with the Rams next season)
“I love them, and they’ve done a great job. I would love to be able to coach them for as long as I can. I’d love to be able to coach them their whole career, but that’s the nature of our business. We understand that. When free agency came in, I was in this league for a long time and there was no free agency. When that started, it’s like college. You graduate guys and you’ve got to have guys behind them getting ready to roll, but those guys have been really, really fun to coach. They’ve done well, and I think you guys have seen them improve every single year of their careers. So, I’d love to be able to coach them for the rest of their career. Hopefully, we’ll see.”