Rams move off day to Thursday

Rams move off day to Thursday

Jim Thomas

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/football/professional/rams-move-off-day-to-thursday/article_491e0d42-20fe-5fd5-b256-e2675786969f.html

Just three days before the team’s big Week 2 matchup with Washington, Thursday came and went at Rams Park and the team did absolutely … nothing.

OK, that’s not entirely true. The coaching staff met and continued to work on the game plan. Players came in on their own to get a lift in or watch film.

But there was no practice. That’s right, the team did not practice Thursday.

In the tradition-bound NFL, routine and regimen is the order of the day. For about as long as there has been a players’ association, Tuesday always has been the mandated players’ day off during the regular season. About the only exception comes on weeks when there’s a Thursday night game.

But this season, Fisher has decided to practice Tuesday and give the players Thursday off. For an old dog like Fisher, who’s in his 30th year as an NFL coach and 20th full season as a head coach, this is quite the new trick.

Fisher has never done this with any of his teams.

“All of the research is showing us that it might make more sense to take some time off and rest and recover closer to the game as opposed to Monday, Tuesday,” Fisher said. “I don’t know what everybody else is doing in the league. This is just an in-house study that we’ve done.”

Fisher hasn’t quite fully committed to it yet for this season. But all signs are pointing in that direction.

“We’re always trying to do things differently,” Fisher said. “I considered it last year, and it just didn’t really fit with the staff. So I gave them the heads up during the offseason that this is probably the direction we’re going to go.”

Conventional wisdom has always been that players needed a couple of days off to recover physically from a Sunday game. So that meant Monday was a day for meetings and film review by the players, with perhaps a “corrections” walk-through to go over mistakes made the previous day.

That was followed by a Tuesday off, with Wednesday and Thursday being the heavy practice days of the week. The Friday practice was a little bit shorter, and then Saturday was basically a much briefer walk-through session.

Under the new setup, Tuesday is a light practice, perhaps half-speed and with an introduction to that week’s game plan.

“I don’t ask them to get to full speed two days after (a game), unless we’ve got a Thursday game,” Fisher said. “So we kind of re-charged (Tuesday) and we installed.”

Wednesday remains a normal practice day under the new setup, followed by Thursday off, with Friday a little heavier than in the past, and Saturday more “jog-through” than the traditional walk-through.

The Rams operated under a version of the new schedule last week, and it’s hard to argue with the results given the team’s 34-31 overtime victory over Seattle.

“Players are good with it,” Fisher said. “They loved the schedule last week. They felt fresh going into the game. Had a lot of energy at the end, so we hope it carries over.”

Perhaps the biggest adjustment is for the coaches early in the week. Under the old setup on Monday and Tuesday, when the players weren’t really around much and there was no practice, coaches used that time to formulate that week’s game plan, working from early morning until late night.

That has to be adjusted now to a degree under the Tuesday practice format.

“We’re gonna stay with it this week and then we’ll go from there,” Fisher said. “I think it’s gonna work. I don’t want to put anybody in a difficult position from a workload standpoint. … But I definitely know that I feel confident that a day off on Thursday is really going to help to bring the players back as we near kickoff.”

The early reviews from the players have been favorable.

“I think it’s gonna be good for us,” linebacker Alec Oglteree said. “Guys get to get their legs back up under ’em after going hard on Wednesday.”

“I love it,” defensive tackle Michael Brockers said. “Off on Thursdays, I think it makes more sense. Close to the game, you get to get off your legs. … It kinda showed Sunday. We were really fresh going into overtime.”

If it weren’t football season, Ogletree would’ve been out fishing somewhere on a Thursday off.

“I’m a country boy,” he said. “Bass. Catfish.”

But in-season, a day off means coming to Rams Park anyway for a couple of hours, maybe getting a lift or cardio work in, or watching film with teammates. But again, no practice. No organized team meetings with coaches.

“We’re mature enough now that on Thursdays, even though it is our day off, I can text the guys, and Chris (Long) can text ’em, and we can all get together,” linebacker James Laurinaitis said. “People are realizing we can get in here together, watch film as players for an hour, hour and a half, and really get some things done.”

Defensive coordinator Gregg Williams has asked his players to be more accountable, to take more ownership of what’s going on on that side of the ball. The informal Thursday film sessions is one example of doing just that.

“People are having a lot of input on the game plan,” Laurinaitis said. “They’re asking the right questions, and it allows you to get your legs back two days closer to the game. It makes a lot of sense. If it keeps bringing results like we had Sunday, I’m all for it.”