Fisher, Williams, Gurley … 12/16 … transcripts

Rams Head Coach Jeff Fisher –– 12/16/15

(On if he’s ready for the game)
“We are ready. They had a great day today. Today’s Friday for us in our world and then we have a walk-thru this evening, which becomes Saturday and then we go tomorrow. So yeah, we had a good day. Legs are back and it looked like everybody is doing well.”

(On how CB Janoris Jenkins came out of the concussion protocol)
“He’s been cleared and he was full practice today and he’s probable.”

(On if Jenkins playing will help)
“That’ll help, yeah.”

(On if RB Todd Gurley and T Rob Havenstein were full practice today)
“Yes. Everybody was full and probable. They’re both probable. So we healed up. We’ve got a big challenge. The thing is, from a defensive standpoint, it’s stopping their run. They’re really well-coached up front and they can run the football. The back is a really good back. The young back out of the backfield has got a bunch of catches and they create match-ups for you. Their tight ends are blocking real well. They do a lot of different personnel groupings and it’s a well-coached offense. We’ve got to keep (Tampa Bay QB) Jameis (Winston) in the pocket.”

(On if he was happier with his run defense last week)
“No. We were a little better, but still, we gave up some plays. It’s going to happen. People are going to run the football at times against you. You’ve got to tackle. You’ve got to be gap sound in your fits. This team can run the football. You go back and look at some games, they ran it against some decent defenses.”

(On if he’s heard any news on WR Stedman Bailey)
“He’s progressing. As I mentioned, he’s out of intensive care. He’s in-patient. It appears that within the next week or so, he’ll be released from the hospital, so it’s good news.”

(On if Bailey will make an appearance at Rams Park)
“Don’t know. Eventually he will. But, don’t know whether he’s been cleared to travel right now.”

Rams Defensive Coordinator Gregg Williams – 12/16/15

(On if the team is practicing at the Edward Jones Dome tonight)
“We’ll go through a walk-thru tonight, which is kind of cool. (Head Coach) Jeff’s (Fisher) been doing that for a long time on our Thursday night schedule, so we’ll go down there tonight and simulate some things tonight. We’ll go through our final things. What we do is we cram all of our practices into short week. Tonight’s like our Saturday, like on a true week. This morning was a lot like our Friday practice, which is good. We’ve got all of our reps. I think our guys have done a very good job of adjusting to the schedule. A lot of credit goes to (Director/Sports Medicine & Performance) Reggie (Scott) and (Head Strength & Conditioning Coach) Rock (Gullickson) and their staffs on getting those guys ready to go. From the assistants and everybody on is that they have to handle the information quick. Guys process it quick. We’ve had some good work this week, so I’ll be anxious to see them play tomorrow night.”

(On what he sees from Buccaneers QB Jameis Winston on film)
“Very, very impressed. I think (Buccaneers Offensive Coordinator) Dirk Koetter…I have a lot of respect for him. Dirk and I coached together many years ago. I think he’s done a fantastic job with the kid. You can see why he was the first pick and he and (Titans QB) Marcus (Mariota) both deserved to be up there in the draft. They have played very well. Jameis is really improved as the year’s gone on. He’s not afraid to throw it into tight coverage. You have to be able to do that to play quarterback at our level. You can’t be afraid of small windows of opportunity – he’s not. He’s done a very good job and you can tell from a leadership standpoint, there are those natural leaders and there are those guys that kind of evolve into leadership. You can see he’s a natural leader. You can see those guys respond to him. So, I’m anxious to see him in person. On film, he looks very, very good.”

(On Buccaneers WR Mike Evans)
“Very big. We went against him last year, had a chance to see some of him last year. Our guys in the match-up, there’s still a few guys there from our early game last year on the match-ups. I talk to our guys all the time about making a book and basically, you’re always taking notes. You’re taking notes on guys in practice you’ll practice against. You’re taking notes on guys in the preseason, during the regular season because in our league, you could end up anywhere in free agency, you bounce around. So hopefully, they took some notes from last year, and understand some of the techniques and some of the presence of physical ability on those guys. Mike does a very good job. He’s got a big catch radius. He runs very well for a big guy, too. We went against some this year, some big guys anyway. Last week, we had some big guys. So hopefully, we can transition into this plan, too.”

(On Buccaneers RB Doug Martin averaging almost 100 yards a game)
“I know our guys are sick and tired of me this week of pounding that point in the meeting, but he has had, on film, the most explosive runs that I’ve seen anybody all year long we’ve played. He has really done a great job in the explosive runs. They’ve done a very good job in their run-blocking scheme. (Buccaneers Offensive Line Coach) George Warhop, I’ve known him for a long time, too, their line coach does a really good job. I see his teachings and his fundamental skill sets of what he asks his guys to do is very recognizable to me. Hopefully, it will be recognizable to our guys. But, I think Doug has played very well. He’s healthy this year. He’s played healthy this year and he’s been really explosive. Once he gets out there in the open field, it’s a tough time getting him down.”

(On if Winston is harder to bring down than the average quarterback)
“He’s very strong. He’s a big guy, but there’s a lot of the guys in this league. One of the most dominant guys in the pocket is Ben, whenever you play (Steelers QB Ben) Roethlisberger, but we’ve even kind of said a few things about that similarity in the pocket. He doesn’t go down easy. He’s very strong in the pocket. He’s got decent speed, not great speed, but you have a hard time bringing him down because of his size.”

(On the difference in Tampa Bay’s offensive line this year compared to last year establishing their run game)
“I think they’ve played it with each other a little bit longer. I know last year (Buccaneers G) Logan (Mankins) had just gotten there at the end of the regular season. You can see his leadership also there. They’ve moved some pieces around and it’s just one more time around with the coaching staff there. Don’t discount Dirk Koetter’s ability to get his point across. I really respect him a lot. In coaching, in teaching, in sales, in leadership – whatever it is, you’ve got to get people to listen to you. Dirk has that skill set. Dirk has an ability to get anybody, whether you’re a future Hall of Famer or whether you’re a guy that just barely made the team, he can get you listen to him. He’s done a very good job, in a short amount of time, of getting them all on the same page.”

(On where he coached with Koetter)
“I was at Jacksonville. Yeah, I left the Redskins and then went down there with him and with (Jack) Del Rio and those guys. He did a really good job down there. Mike Tice was there, too, Andy Heck and all those guys. It was a pretty good staff.”

(On when Koetter was at Missouri)
“He was there. I ran into him obviously being from the state and everything, I ran into him, too back in those days, too. I didn’t know him as well until I worked with him.”

(On if he’s trying to emphasize the things he’s seen Winston not do well or is he trying to give him new looks)
“You’d hope… I think he is a very, very study conscious young man. I think the word on the street, we tease about that a little cliché, that he is a study-a-holic. But, you would hope that a young guy hasn’t seen some of the pictures that we can paint and disguise. But, he’s done very well. Dirk does a good job on causing defenses to all of a sudden show their hand on how you pull the defense out of showing your hand. Now, it becomes more of a mono e mono, one on one match-up, can you win your match-up? But, we hope that we can present some pictures to him. We’re based that way, anyway. It’s been kind of…my portfolio is to do that quite a bit. When you’re at this time of the season, you’ve got a lot of snaps on film. There’s no doubt in my mind, he’s studied them all.”

Rams RB Todd Gurley – 12/16/15

(On how he got to know Buccaneers quarterback Jameis Winston)
“We played in a high school All-American game back in high school, so we’ve been cool ever since then.”

(On if they’ve kept in contact over the years)
“Yeah, that’s my boy.”

(On if he’s been exchanging messages with him this week)
“Just texting me. He texted me earlier and told me good game and just asking, ‘How you doing? How you feeling?’ We talk once a week, so we always talk.”

(On how meaningful it will be to get 1,000 rushing yards)
“It’ll be cool. Shout out to my linemen and the whole team for helping me get there. I definitely didn’t do everything on my own.”

(On if his lighter practice schedule this week has helped him get ready for the game)
“This is my first Thursday night game, so there’s definitely a big difference from playing Sunday to Sunday than going Sunday to Thursday. Coach has looked out for me earlier in this week. Just got to be ready to go tomorrow.”

(On what he thinks about the Rookie of the Year race)
“I’m not worried about all of that. Just trying to finish the season off strong.”

(On if it normally takes a few days to get the body back after having 20-25 carries)
“Oh yeah, it definitely takes until about Tuesday or Wednesday to start feeling back right again.”

(On what he sees from the Tampa Bay defense)
“Very physical front. They’ve got the Tampa 2. They’ve got some great players, great linebackers. Definitely got great speed. Just a good awareness to the ball. (DT Gerald) McCoy down there in the tackle position. He’s just a game wrecker. You definitely have got to be aware of him.”

(On if he was excited that coaches wanted to run the ball in the second half of the Detroit game)
“You definitely get excited. I feel like my biggest thing last game was that I had those two plays at the end of the half that I felt like could have went for big yards. I missed the trap and the screen play, so I was definitely eager to get back out there in the second half.”

(On how much he relishes in facing another elite back even though they don’t face off head-to-head)
“It’s always, like you said I’m not playing against him, but when you see a guy over there doing his thing, it definitely motivates you to want to get on the field and put up some yards. So, that’ll definitely be good. He’s a great running back.”

(On if he likes the color rush uniforms)
“Yeah, they’re pretty cool. Something different. It’s pretty cool.”