Shanahan on the Rams and Goff

from 12/26 press conference.

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What do you see from the Rams now versus when you played them the first time in the season?

“Defensively, they’ve added [Los Angeles Rams LB Dante] Fowler so that’s different. [Los Angeles Rams CB] Aqib’s [Talib] back. Offensively, they’ve lost [Los Angeles Rams WR Cooper] Kupp and I expect them to have [Los Angeles Rams RB Todd] Gurley [II] this week, we’ll see. They’re a good team who’s been playing throughout the year. They had a couple of games where they hit a little bit of a lull going against a couple of really good defenses. They bounced back last week, but it’s just like the beginning of the year. You can tell why they’re one of the better teams in the league, why their record is what it is. All three phases, I don’t think they’re there numbers-wise in all three phases, but they have the ability in all three phases to play like a top team.”

What was your impression of Los Angeles Rams QB Jared Goff when he was at Cal and what’s your impression of him now?

“I didn’t watch too much of him at Cal. I watched two games on him and two games on [Philadelphia Eagles QB Carson] Wentz just because I was pretty confident that we weren’t drafting a quarterback. I was at Atlanta so I spent my time on other stuff. But, the two games I watched on both of them, I definitely saw why they were going to be one and two coming out. Then I watched him hard last year and he was very good last year. I watched him the year before last year and it wasn’t just him, but their whole offense struggled, including Gurley and things like that where Gurley wasn’t like that the year before that, his rookie year. They all played at a very high level last year and just getting to watch that tape, you could tell Goff was a special quarterback by the end of last season. He started this season out even better than last year. He’s extremely accurate, reminds me a lot of [Atlanta Falcons QB] Matt Schaub, a guy I used to have. He’s very good in the pocket and if you give that guy time to throw, he can pick you apart because he’s as accurate as it gets.”