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znModeratorGoff v. Patz — 14 of 32 for 161 yards, 1 TD, 2 INTs, and a qb rating of 43.9
Goff v. Saints — 20 of 32 for 214 yards, 3TDs, 1 INT, and a qb rating og 100.3
znModeratorBut, the USA can attack North Korea. What can/should THEY do?
The perfect definition of a “dodge”.
No, I meant it as a sincere statement. Maybe a bit too pithy and flippant the way I put it but I thought it was also clear (maybe not?). The longer version–a lot of times threats are mutually confirming illusions that can escalate. The North Koreans aren’t out to establish world domination…it’s a number of things, including the fact that it’s easier to maintain authoritarian power if you focus on an external threat. That, mixed in with the genuine if but at the same time heavily paranoid idea that they ARE under threat. It’s like that great moment in the film Thirteen Days, which is about the Cuban missile crisis. At one point, Kennedy (played by one of my favorite actors, Bruce Greenwood), reflects about how World War I started from nothing. I was thinking of moments like this, which is perfectly captured in the film.
Here’s the clip, followed by the transcript.
President Kennedy: You know, last summer I read a book, The Guns of August. I wish every man on that blockade line had read that book. It’s World War One; there’s thirteen million killed; it was all because the militaries of both alliances believed they were so highly attuned to one another’s movements and dispositions, they could predict one another’s intentions, but all their theories were based on the last war. And the world and technology had changed, and those lessons were no longer valid, but it was all they knew, so the orders went out, couldn’t be rescinded. And your man in the field, his family at home, they couldn’t even tell you the reasons why their lives were being destroyed.
[pause]
But why couldn’t they stop it? What could they have done? Here we are, fifty years later. Think if one of their ships resists the inspection, and we shoot out its rudder, and board. They shoot down one of our planes, in response, so we bomb their anti-aircraft sites in response to that, and they attack Berlin, so we invade Cuba. And they fire their missiles… And we fire ours.znModeratorNFL Films explains omission of Jeff Fisher’s firing from All or Nothing
Mike Florio
NFL Films explains omission of Jeff Fisher’s firing from All or Nothing
When it comes to the firing of Rams coach Jeff Fisher and its aftermath, the second season of All or Nothing was closer to all than nothing. Still, as to the actual firing of Fisher, we got nothing.
NFL Films coordinating producer Keith Cossrow recently explained the omission of the actual Fisher firing from the eight-hour extravaganza.
“I think anyone who understands the nature of documentary filmmaking knows that it’s impossible to capture everything,” Cossrow told Sam Farmer of the Los Angeles Times. “You can have 10 cameras rolling 24/7 and you would still miss a thousand important moments. That’s just the nature of the beast. So I think the fact that [director] Shannon [Furman] and the crew were able to capture so much of what happened the day Coach Fisher was fired, and that no one ever told us to turn off the cameras once they were rolling, is an extraordinary achievement and a testament to the job they did in the field building trust with the team.”
It would have been obvious, however, if the cameras had turned off during the various meetings that happened as Fisher revealed his fate to coaches and players, and after Fisher made his exit. And people like me would now be pointing out that the Rams/NFL had restricted the process of capturing the tense, emotional, and chaotic moments that occur as a coach makes an unexpected exit.
So it’s hard to give the Rams and the league credit for not avoiding one of the obvious potential consequences of having cameras and microphones present for a full football season. And it’s even harder to simply shrug at the failure of the show to catch the defining moment of the season by saying “it’s impossible to capture everything.”
Indeed, inherent limitations to the filming process made it impossible to capture the firing of Fisher.
“We don’t have cameras in the coach’s office at all, and that’s one difference between Hard Knocks and All or Nothing,” Furman told Farmer. “After the Falcons game, Coach Fisher and [assistant head coach Dave McGinnis] were together on Monday morning, prepping for the Seattle game. They were in Coach Fisher’s office. I touched base with Coach Fisher, and then left to grab a smoothie for breakfast. I got a phone call from my production assistant who works the robotics cameras, and he asked, ‘How far away are you?’ I said, ‘I can be there in three minutes.’ He said, ‘Coach just told the staff he was fired.’”
In other words, if they’d had cameras in the coach’s office during All or Nothing — cameras that routinely document the firing of players during Hard Knocks — we may have seen the Fisher firing or, at a minimum, the moment when he got word to go to someone else’s office to get the news. And if the trust built with the Rams was truly significant, Kevin Demoff or someone else in upper management would have tipped someone off to the looming termination, allowing them to plan for covering it properly, up to and including lobbying to have a camera in the room where the firing took place.
As a result, the moment wasn’t expressly censored during or after the fact. The infrastructure of the show essentially pre-censored it.
Of course, that explanation doesn’t account for the failure of the show to mention that Fisher’s contract extension, which apparently had been signed months earlier and deliberately concealed from the public, was leaked and then announced not long before he was fired. Likewise, Cossrow’s explanation doesn’t address for the absence of any mention of the reports of internal dysfunction that emerged days before Fisher was fired or his subsequent vow to find the leaker.
None of this changes the fact that All or Nothing was, all in all, entertaining most of the time and flat-out compelling in certain key spots. But it could have been better. If enough people point that out this time around, maybe the next time they do the show it will be.
znModeratorHey WV. I’ve been silent editing a lot of your links recently. Turning this:
Into this:
It pays to look back after hitting “post” and seeing what happened. It’s hard to predict in advance whether a link will be the Good Kind, or the Bad Kind.
It’s like the draft, that way.
.
znModeratorfrom Elvis
Joe Curley, @vcsjoecurley , was cool enough to do a Q&A with RFU about what it’s like to cover the Rams. And Joe did it while on vacation. Joe went above and beyond and it’s much appreciated: Thanks Joe!
Hi Joe, thanks for doing this. We at RFU really appreciate your coverage of the Rams. You‘re usually first when live tweeting Rams events and your local coverage of Rams goings on from the Conejo Valley to Oxnard/Ventura is a great resource for us too.
So, questions:
1. Tell us about your background, what were you covering before you got the Rams gig? Were you an NFL fan? Did you have a team? Any personal Rams history?
I grew up back east, but I’ve basically been in Southern California since the mid-1990s, when I arrived at Pomona College as an undergrad. I grew up in a family split between the Patriots and Raiders. I had a cousin who was a linebacker with the great Raiders teams of the 1970s. One of the rites of fall was hearing my grandfather complain that that Cowboys (rather than the Raiders) were being televised in the late Sunday window. My family comes from Springfield, Mass., the same place as the Rams’ great offensive lineman Joe Scibelli, so there are some longtime Rams fans there. I still remember watching my dad play in the local touch football league for a team called the Rams, which was sponsored by a local bar. I’m sure that’s because of the affinity people had for Scibelli and his team.
2. How strong is the Rams fan base in the Conejo Valley and VC? Is there a lot of competition from Raiders and Cowboys for NFL fandom?
We do have a couple diehard Rams fans on staff who I like to bounce ideas off of. But I’d have to admit it was pretty invisible before the move, at least since the GSOT days. The outpouring of support when the Rams came to Oxnard to practice the Cowboys in 2015 was very impressive – it set the stage for the move – although it wasn’t just local fans who came out. The Cowboys and Raiders, as well as the Rams, historically have big followings here. The Cowboys tradition of holding training camp here, first in Thousand Oaks and now in Oxnard, has formed a bond. But you can now see the results of having the Rams here over the past year. It feels like I see someone wearing Rams gear every time I leave the house. They’re coming out of the woodwork now. I’ve interviewed locals who held season tickets when the team was first at the Coliseum, locals who flew to St. Louis to support the team, locals who love having the Rams as next door neighbors. There’s a local youth football team which has changed its name to the Rams. There’s a lot of interest in seeing the Rams facility at Cal Lutheran. People loved it recently when the team opened up the facility for a high school passing tournament. There’s coaches I’ve known for years, who had never talked NFL with me, now sharing they are long-time Rams fans. So you can see how just having the Rams in the community can make a difference.
3. I know this is a broad question but what’s it like to cover the Rams? Do you spend a lot of time at CLU? What do you do when you’re not physically covering the Rams? Do you spend all your time as a reporter on the Rams and Rams related stories?
I have a lot of responsibilities at the Star, including social media and video roles on top of the daily reporting. I’ve covered colleges and soccer there for 17 years. I’ve covered everything from the World Cup to USC and UCLA football and basketball to the high school sports. When I covered last year’s Rams preseason opener, it meant I had finally covered a game in all major US sports leagues. So that was a cool. Although, honestly, I love covering all levels of sports. We do a ton with high school football, which is very popular. We’re now part of the new USA Today Network, which means we can contribute to their coverage and properties. I’m currently working on the Rams preview magazine for USA Today Sports Weekly. It’s a lot, but I really enjoy my job and where I do it. Ventura County is a special place, as many with the Rams are discovering over the past year. I split my days between the office, the Rams facility and other events. The general flow of an NFL week is different than other sports. Last year began with a Monday night press conference with coach Fisher. From there, I always tried to make it over for his Monday night coach’s show at the Westlake Village Inn, since it was nearby and the Conejo Valley Rams fan group was always in attendance. Practice was on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays, although that seems likely to change this fall. The players’ day off is expected to shift from Thursday to Tuesday under coach McVay, so my schedule will change as well. I make sure to be at every practice unless there’s a news event breaking elsewhere where I’m needed. You’ll know I’m absent if my twitter feed (@vcsjoecurley) is silent. I really try to use that as my connection to Rams fans around the country, whereas my work for the paper is geared towards our readers.
4. What kind of access do you have? Is there generally stuff you see/know that you’re not allowed to report or do the Rams pretty much only show you what they want you to report on?
Well, the dynamic may be shifting because of the new staff, but there was an understanding under coach Fisher that the media was allowed to observe practice as long as it didn’t report on details that would put the team at a strategic disadvantage on game day. That was a bit of a learning curve. Of course, you’re not going to report on the trick play you saw in practice. But it can be a little bit of a gray area when you’re talking about injuries, like how a banged up player moved during practice. So there is a bit of a push and pull with the team regarding information. But the media relations staff are also very helpful and professional. I consider myself a link between Rams fans and the team, so I try to ask myself what I would want to know today, if I was a Rams fan and that’s the information I try to report. Sometimes I’ll even use my Twitter account to ask my followers what they would like to know that day.
5. Any word on the Rams search for a permanent training facility?
Kevin Demoff has had a lot on his plate over the past 12 months. The search for a permanent facility appears to have been put on the back burner while the team has dealt with the move, the season, the coaching change, ect. Although that may be changing now that the team appears to be in good hands, from a football perspective. I know the team met with officials from the City of Thousand Oaks late last year, when the city wanted to present some options. The city has announced the Rams finding a permanent home locally as its primary priority going forward. We’ll see where it goes. If you look at what the Cowboys have done with their new facility in Frisco, which includes a stadium that local high schools can use, it’s hard not to get excited about what the facility might be, if a suitable location can be put together That’s certainly a story we’re interested in tracking.
6. By all accounts things are going great with McVay so far: Players are buying into their new very young head coach. Snead and McVay love each other. Everyone is saying all the right things. Is that hype? Is it real? Can you tell?
As coach McVay has said several times, he’s still undefeated. The real challenge will come when the season arrives. The offseason is laying a foundation that, the Rams hope, can withstand the trials and tribulations of an NFL season. We’ll only know if the McVay-Snead bromance is real if and when it withstands a real disagreement on a player. Certainly, the players have been impressed with McVay. Several players, including Aaron Donald, have said the new head coach has a grasp of the game they’ve never seen before in their careers. That’s promising. Personally, what I think made the McVay hire possible was the availability of Wade Phillips. The gamble on the youngest head coach in modern NFL history is significantly reduced when you’re also bringing in one of the more experienced coaches in the NFL to run the other side of the ball. McVay is definitely an expert in communicating the game to the media, to his players, to team officials. Whether that translates to wins, as most everyone expects, won’t be revealed until the fall.
7. Does anyone really know what kind of team they have, what kind of season it will be? Can you tell as a reporter covering the Rams what kind of season they’re likely to have? Do you think the players, coaches and organization can? For example: Was last year’s disaster apparent early on or did it genuinely play out in real time?
That’s a great question. I think the NFL, moreso than any other major American sport, can go either way for nearly any team entering a season. The league is designed to be so competitive, and health is so important and yet so volatile, that there are a wide range of potential outcomes for most teams. One of our traditional roles as reporters is to canvas the fans and the team and set the expectations for a coming season. This time last year, there was a lot of optimism entering training camp. My personal expectations for last season was somewhere south of 8-8, primarily because of history. No team, barring strike-shortened seasons, had made the playoffs off a move in more than half a century. I was on record as saying an 8-8 season would have been a significant achievement. And we all know how it played out. The offensive failures really kept the team from capitalizing on strong defensive and special teams units. You saw the results devolve from the tight wins of September to the tight losses of October to the ugliness of November and December. Taking last year as an example, I don’t think you can really look at an upcoming season in simple terms. So much happens, and much of it is unexpected, that it really does play out in real time. That’s why we love sports. It’s unpredictable. We can use recent history to set expectations, but if we really knew what was going to happen we could all quit our jobs and go to Vegas.
8. What’s your take on the upcoming All or Nothing from Amazon? Are you in it?
Naturally, like so many others, I was pessimistic, considering NFL Films had already done Hard Knocks and the season didn’t seem worthy of another look. From a Rams perspective, so much of the last six months has been about putting the past behind the team and looking forward. I enjoyed the first season of the show, but I assumed the second season was going to be a waste. Wow, was I wrong. Showrunner Keith Cossrow, director Shannon Furman and the whole team did a tremendous job of capturing the humanity of an NFL team, during such a trying season. I think it’s a significant improvement over the first season and the best parts came later in the season as the team struggled. It may be a tough watch at times for Rams fans, but it’s definitely worth the six-hour time investment. Yes, I provide some of the background for the show. Although that may be a reason to skip the series.
9. Is Toppers as good as everyone says it is?
Do you trust your All-Pro punter or not? If it’s good enough for the Hekker family, isn’t it good enough for yours? Seriously, though. I don’t want to build it up so high that people will trek from south Orange County. I’m not saying it’s “sit your family in traffic for three hours” pizza. But if you are hungry and in Ventura County (locations in Ventura, Oxnard, Camarillo and Thousand Oaks), Toppers does the trick and does it well. As does Tony’s Pizza in Newbury Park, another of my favorites. I’ve also turned the All-Pro punter on to Establos, which is a small family-owned Mexican carniceria in Thousand Oaks and Camarillo that is a hidden gem locally. If you have any more questions about the food up here, follow my Ventura County Star colleague Lisa McKinnon on Twitter (@805foodie). She’s the best.
znModeratorBut, the USA can attack North Korea. What can/should THEY do?
znModeratorThe only thing really to note is the way the DL is listed.
Of course it’s NOT this: DE NT DE
Rather it’s THIS: DT NT DE
Cause of Donald.
znModeratorPFF: BEST OFFENSIVE LINE UNITS BY RUN CONCEPT FROM 2016
PFF examines the NFL’s best offensive lines based on run concept from the 2016 season.https://www.profootballfocus.com/news/pro-best-offensive-line-units-by-run-concept-from-2016
Note: Kromer’s Buffalo OL is the only one that ranks top 5 in all 3 categories they use, and it’s 1st in 2 and 2nd in 1.
The goal in football is to gain yards, and while many run plays may look different, they can be broadly categorized into different schemes or run concepts based on what the blocking is designed to do in front of the ball carrier.
While one run concept may work for one team it does not necessarily mean that it will be successful for the other teams too, and some teams lean far more heavily on a specific run concept than others. We have categorized last season’s running plays into three groups – outside zone, inside zone, and gap scheme – and examined how each team performed on these run concepts.
Here’s a look at the most interesting takeaways from this research.
Outside Zone
Out of the three categories of run concepts, outside zone was without a doubt the one that gave offensive lines the most problems. As a matter of fact, teams averaged just 3.84 yards on these plays leaguewide, which is the lowest out of the three examined categories. Furthermore, running backs averaged just 1.16 yards before contact on these runs, which is significantly lower than that of inside zone runs and gap scheme runs.
The success of an outside zone play can largely depend on how the center executes a reach block. As a result, it comes as no surprise that Atlanta and Denver, which ran the most and third-most outside zone plays, respectively, had two of the best centers in the NFL last season. Denver’s Matt Paradis had the highest run-blocking grade (90.6) last season, while Atlanta’s Alex Mack ranked third at 89.3.
Ball carriers of five teams (Carolina, Oakland, San Diego, San Francisco, and the New York Giants) averaged negative yards before contact on outside zone runs. The lowest figure belonged to the Giants, whose running backs averaged -1.0 yards before contact on these type of plays. None of these five teams are what you would consider “zone blocking” teams, and none used outside zone plays more than 50 times.
There were four teams that were extremely successful on outside zone plays — Chicago, Atlanta, New Orleans and Buffalo all averaged more than 5.0 yards on outside zone runs and were in fact the only teams that allowed their running backs to gain more than 2.0 yards per carry on these plays, albeit on a low sample size of just 30 carries in Buffalo’s case.
While outside zone runs paid dividends to most teams that used it frequently, there were four teams that ran more than 100 outside zone plays and their running backs still averaged less than 1.0 yard before contact on these runs. In fact, Cincinnati’s, Green Bay’s, Washington’s and New England’s ball carriers ranked 18th, 19th, 20th, and 23rd in this category, respectively.
Inside Zone
Although there was only a slight difference, inside zone was the most successful run concept in 2016 out of the three categories examined. Teams averaged 4.09 yards per run on these plays while running backs averaged 1.68 yards before contact, both ranked first among the three categories.
While precisely half of the league – 16 teams – averaged less than 1.0 yard before contact on outside zone plays, there were only three teams whose running backs did not gain an average of one yard before being contacted by a defender when running inside zone. Minnesota’s running backs faced the biggest challenge as they averaged just 0.76 yards before contact on inside zone, while Carolina and Kansas City ranked 31st and 30th with 0.90 and 0.96 yards, respectively.
Oakland ranked third in the league with 5.08 yards per attempt on inside zone plays, but this was also due to their running backs gaining significant yards after contact – a trend that should continue with the addition of Marshawn Lynch – as they ranked only eighth with 1.99 yards before contact on inside zone runs.
There were three teams that were able to create an average of 2.5 yards or more before contact for their running backs on inside zone runs and two of them – Tennessee and Dallas – were the top two offensive line units in last season. However, Buffalo’s running backs – anchored by LeSean McCoy – led the NFL in yards before contact on inside zones at 2.71 yards. They were followed by the Cowboys and the Titans whose running backs averaged 2.55 and 2.53 yards, respectively.
San Francisco ran the most inside zone plays last season with 246 while only one other team ran more than 140 inside zone runs; the Seattle Seahawks. The 49ers were in the top half of the league in yards per attempt on these plays, ranking 11th with 4.17 yards, this was largely due to their running backs gaining yards after contact, proven by the fact that their 1.32 yards before contact on these plays ranked only 23rd in the league.
Gap Scheme
Since this category includes multiple run concepts, unlike outside zone and inside zone; it comes as no surprise that this was the most featured run concept in the NFL last season with 3,969 attempts, including playoffs. While it was only San Francisco that ran either inside or outside zone more than 200 times; New England, Pittsburgh and Arizona all ran more than 200 gap scheme plays over the season with the Patriots leading all teams with 247 such plays, including the playoffs.
The five most successful teams on this play were Atlanta, Buffalo, Washington, New Orleans, and Houston as all of these teams’ running backs averaged more than 2.0 yards before contact on gap scheme runs. In fact, Atlanta was not far from an average of 3.0 yards before contact as they led all teams at 2.83 on their 77 gap scheme runs thanks to speedy backs that could take advantage of big holes opened up by the blocking.
Cleveland’s running backs excelled at creating yards after contact on gap scheme runs as the Browns ranked third in the league with 5.09 yards per attempt on these plays, but just 18th with 1.50 yards before contact. As a result, their running backs led the league with 3.58 yards after contact on gap scheme runs.
Even though Tampa Bay ran the 13th-most gap scheme runs with 133 such plays, they struggled the most on these runs. There were only two teams that averaged less than a yard before contact on gap scheme runs and while Baltimore ranked 31st with 0.97 yards, the Buccaneers were dead last with 0.78 yards before contact on these plays.
Although the Texans ranked fifth in the league with 2.02 yards before contact on gap scheme runs, their running backs were mostly unable to take advantage of what the offensive line created for them. In fact, Houston ball carriers averaged just 1.95 yards after contact on gap scheme runs, which ranked 29th in the league. Consequently, the Texans ranked just 16th in the league with 3.97 yards per attempt on these plays.
znModeratorfrom Buffalo Bills lead league in yards before contact per attempt by offensive line
December 22, 2016
…
Just how good has the Bills’ offensive line been this season? Through 15 weeks, Buffalo’s offensive line leads the NFL in rushing yards before contact per attempt.
On average, Buffalo’s runners are getting 2.88 yards per attempt before contact. The Bills have been at their best when running to the left (3.10 YPA before contact). Cordy Glenn and Richie Incognito are considered to be Buffalo’s top offensive linemen so it’s no surprise to see the Bills having the most success when running to the left.
Up the middle, the Bills are averaging 3.00 yards per attempt before contact. Buffalo’s starting guards and the combination of Eric Wood and Ryan Groy have fared well this season in run blocking.
Buffalo’s yards before contact number drops on the right side of their line (2.68 YPA). This makes sense considering that the weakest part of Buffalo’s offensive line is at right tackle. Despite the drop off in yards per attempt, the 2.68 yards is still first in the league on the right side. The Bills were first in the league on the left side and up the middle as well.
znModeratorfrom ANALYZING 2016’S BEST QUARTERBACK AT EVERY PFF SIGNATURE STAT
PFF takes an in-depth look at the 2016 season’s top quarterbacks based upon PFF’s exclusive signature statshttps://www.profootballfocus.com/pro-analyzing-2016s-best-quarterback-at-every-pff-signature-stat/
PFF’s Signature Stats are unique metrics tailored to each position group that go far beyond the traditional box score statistics. In the case of the quarterback position, signature stats determine things like which quarterback was the best throwing the deep ball, who performed at a high level when under pressure, and a number of other situational statistics you can’t find anywhere else.
With that data at our disposal, we take a look back at the 2016 season and highlight which quarterback excelled in each area, according to PFF’s Signature Stats.
Adjusted Completion Percentage
A quarterback’s completion percentage rarely tells the whole story, and that’s why PFF has developed a method that gives a true representation of how accurate a QB’s passes are.
The PFF Adjusted Completion Percentage accounts for dropped passes, throw aways, spiked balls, batted passes and passes where the quarterback was hit while they threw the ball – factors that hurt the quarterback’s completion percentage but don’t help show how truly accurate they are.
With that in mind, who was the NFL’s most accurate passer last season? That title belongs to Minnesota’s Sam Bradford at an 80.9 percent adjusted completion rate. Bradford was the only quarterback in the league to break the 80 percent threshold, narrowly edging out the likes of Drew Brees (79.8), Tom Brady (78.5) and Matt Ryan (78.4).
znModeratorW/o any studies to show this I also think that there many Clinton “voters” whose beliefs were closer to Sanders but were concerned he had no chance at all to win an election against the Republican front runner (Trump) and thus voted for Hillary as a way to stop Trump in the general. I know more than a few who fall w/i that category.
Interesting though cause most polls I have seen show that Sanders would have beaten Trump.
.
znModeratorRemember, wv, it;s not evidence on these things.
It’s how one interprets the evidence.
And when it comes to that, until history is history (and often not even then), it;s open. ‘
I think the question really gets down to how one chooses to live.
For example, there is even such a thing as being defiant in the face of seemingly stacked odds.
Which is how I assume you choose to live, given how you generally conduct yourself.
znModeratorSometimes when life creeps up on me and throws another curve, it’s nice to know I can come here and read some interesting, soulful conversations.
Well you’re part of what makes here HERE. So thanks for that.
.
znModeratorAmazon’s ‘All Or Nothing’ chronicles drama of Rams’ 4-12 season, fall of Jeff Fisher
RICH HAMMOND
All or Nothing? How could there be much of anything worth watching about a season in which the Rams went 4-12 and got progressively worse?
Give it a try.
A camera crew from NFL Films followed the Rams throughout 2016, from their relocation from St. Louis to their dreadful season-ending loss to Arizona, and the product is “All or Nothing,” an eight-part documentary released online by Amazon.
The show, in essence a sequel of HBO’s “Hard Knocks,” which followed the Rams during training camp, is exceedingly compelling and, for the most part, a fair and accurate telling of a season full of drama.
“Hard Knocks” suffered at time because, perhaps in an attempt to attract non-football fans, it attempted to create drama. Would the undrafted receiver who essentially was eighth on the depth chart make the roster? No, of course he would not.
“All or Nothing” didn’t need to play up any drama. Plenty of it already existed.
From the relocation to the draft, from a 3-1 start to a circle-the-drain finish, from Jared Goff’s ascension to Jeff Fisher’s firing and Sean McVay’s hiring, every story line is well covered, with narration from actor Jon Hamm and some well-placed game calls from the Rams’ J.B. Long.
NFL Films received behind-the-scenes access to the Rams’ locker room, meeting rooms and practice field, and also conducted personal interviews with players, coaches and General Manager Les Snead.
Sometimes the action moves too fast, but that’s expected. Each episode essentially includes three weeks of the season. Really, it could have been a 16-part series, but perhaps nobody wants to relive that much of the Rams’ season.
“All or Nothing” hits the correct tone from the beginning, as it begins with the compelling scene of Fisher informing the players, on Dec. 12, that he had been fired. It’s excellent production, which essentially tells the viewers, “This is where you’re going, and now we’ll show you how you got here.”
The contrast is almost immediate. The first episode includes a training-camp meeting in which Fisher, with some hubris, tells his players, “I know what I’m doing.”
From there, it’s a slow descent. Even Fisher knows it. After a Week 4 victory over Arizona, which improbably raised the Rams’ record to 3-1, Fisher told his coaches that if the Rams didn’t improve, they wouldn’t win another game. They went 1-11 from there.
What did the show get right?
• The team did hang together. Those of us who followed the team on a daily basis looked for signs of discord in the locker room, but they were never there. Perhaps, in a way, it should have been, and more players should have been angered about losing, but the players really were as close to each other as the show portrays.
• Goff’s situation was handled well. It showed what many suspected, that the reason Goff didn’t play until the 10th game of the season had nothing to do with his arm or his feet or his physical abilities. Episodes showed Goff struggling (mildly) with the playbook, leading a huddle and that sort of thing. The issue always was about Goff’s ability to run an offense, not throw the ball.
Incidentally, the two moments of the series that might be recorded for posterity both involve Goff (and owner Stan Kroenke). On draft night, Kroenke makes the comment that the Rams “knew who (they) were going to pick before the trade” with Tennessee to acquire the No. 1 pick. The Rams had been adamant, throughout the process, that they would evaluate Goff and Carson Wentz equally.
The other moment is on the field before the Rams-Jets game, when Fisher tells Kroenke that the Rams will start Goff the following week. So the Rams made the decision well in advance, and told their owner right before quarterback Case Keenum led the team to what turned out to be their final victory of the season.
• The players’ and coaches’ personalities were represented well. The cameras seemed to gravitate toward Keenum, at least until the switch to Goff was made — this also happened with the local media — and outgoing guys such as William Hayes. For anyone who might wonder, “Is this how these guys really are?” the answer is yes. The series accurately portrays Jim Fassel as a kind, good-natured man who got thrust into a difficult situation and tried to do right by the team.
What did the show get wrong?
• There are some mild liberties when it comes to the editing. Fisher’s infamous “7-9” speech was not the first team meeting, but actually was an early-camp response to a couple off-field incidents that irritated him. Fisher did not actually wave his hands to quiet the crowd while it cheered “We want Goff” during a game at the Coliseum. Some of the B-roll footage jumps around a little, but nothing significantly changes the story.
• Some of the in-season controversies seemed to get downplayed. The Eric Dickerson fiasco was mentioned, but not in great detail, and this was a story (even if overblown) that dominated media coverage for multiple days.
Fisher’s contract extension, news of which got leaked before the New England game, was never mentioned. That’s odd, given that it was a big story and Fisher got fired a couple weeks later. Also left unmentioned was the possible rift between Fisher and Snead, although both denied one existed.
It’s impossible, though, to fit every story line into a cohesive narrative, and in general the show did a fantastic job of showing how things went wrong for the Rams in 2016.
The show ends with the rise of Coach Sean McVay, and leaves viewers wishing the cameras would keep rolling for a bit longer.
znModeratorI get it when I post and no one replies; I know most of you look and just say “eh”. Totally OK. Never bothers me.
T, I don’t think that’s true. That the response is “enh.” The board could use a like button, so people can see that their posts are being read and appreciated. It is true that as a group, if we have a flaw, it’s not responding enough to things people take the trouble to add. I myself can’t respond to every post cause then there’s just this long line of “zn” responses. I read everything here myself and I know I am not alone.
znModeratorInterview With Keith Cossrow, All Or Nothing Showrunner
We got to speak with the man behind the show detailing the 2016 Los Angeles Ramsll or Nothing Season 2
I had a chance to speak with Keith Cossrow, Coordinating Producer and showrunner for All or Nothing, NFL Films’ show about a year in the life of an NFL Franchise.
Last night, the second season of the show launched on Amazon Prime Video chronicling the Los Angeles Rams 2016 season.
I talked to Cossrow about the show, his role and how the series will move beyond Season 2.
How long have you been with NFL Films? Were you with the show from the conceptual phase prior to Season 1, and how did you come to be a part of this?
Yeah, I’ve been in charge of it from the get go, Season 1. I’ve been the showrunner for both seasons. I’ve been with NFL Films for 20 years since 1997, 20 seasons as we like to say.
So how did the idea of the show, prior to the Rams, how did that develop?
Since Hard Knocks was born, it was viewed as the Holy Grail. “When are you guys gonna do a Hard Knocks on the regular season?”
We always thought it was impossible, because the two things teams talk about most during the regular season are injuries and strategy. You just can’t show that stuff in real-time the way you do Hard Knocks where it’s the preseason with a different set of storylines that can be shared much easier.
So we thought, it’s never going to happen. And even if it does, it’s not going to be very good, because we won’t be able to show anything.
And then this [Arizona] Cardinals thing developed last year, and we started to figure out that maybe we could shoot the whole thing, not tell anybody because we didn’t know how it was gonna turn out, keep it a secret, put the whole thing together and then air the whole thing after the season was over betting that the content would be compelling enough and unique enough and the access would be extraordinary enough that people would be interested in watching it.
We found a partner in Amazon who aligned with that point of view and thought it would fit their audience and what they were looking to do with sports and original programming in the way they like to do on-demand streaming and bingeable content. We had never done a binge show before, so it was really exciting to get into this format with Amazon.
The rest is history.
We did the Cardinals season. It went spectacularly well. Amazon had great results, and it won the Emmy for Serialized Sports Documentary, and we were on to Season 2.
How did that transition work, going from the Cardinals to selecting the Rams? How did that happen?
Well, it’s always a challenge to pick a team whether it’s Hard Knocks or this.
Were you guys under the same constraints as Hard Knocks with the rules like no playoffs, no new head coach?
No, there are no rules for this. It’s so new…
The challenge last year was that nobody had seen the show when we were asking them if they want to do it. We said, “Well, we did this thing with the Cardinals, and it’s coming out soon.” You’re trying to get a team to agree to do it in the spring before they break up for the summer.
And they’re all like, “Are you crazy? The Cardinals didn’t do that.” And we’re, “But they did! We swear! It’s going to drop on July 1st, and it’s going to be really cool!” And teams were like, “Well, call us next year. If it goes well with the Cardinals, maybe we’ll think about it.”
But one thing that was a big priority for the league last year was to document the Rams move to Los Angeles. We thought that their return home to Southern California was an historic story as the first relocation in a generation. More than that, it was the Rams coming back to LA. And it was something we all knew we needed to document. So we started documenting it from the time the move was announced.
Obviously, Hard Knocks happened. Hard Knocks, from a production standpoint and a relationship standpoint, went really well with [Head] Coach [Jeff] Fisher and with the team. They were very comfortable with our crew and trusted us. So we all agreed it would be an interesting proposition to stick around.
The crew, the footprint is much smaller for All or Nothing. We managed to get through this entire second season without anyone knowing what we were doing. That’s in large part because of how small the crew is. It’s by design. We don’t want people talking about this show during the season if we can avoid it.
The Rams were terrific to work with from the top down. [COO] Kevin Demoff, [General Manager] Les Snead, Jeff Fisher and his staff. The players were great.
And you know, the season started so well, and we thought, “Holy moly. We might’ve caught lightning in a bottle for the second time.”
And then it took a turn, and things changed.
You said you like to pick a team in the spring. Have you picked one for Season 3?
Not yet. We’re working on it, talking to a few teams. Hopefully, we’ll have one lined up pretty soon. When we do, we’ll probably keep it quiet for a while.
But it’s a long process and a serious decision for a team to make. We have to respect that process and go through it and have a lot of conversations with a lot of teams to get there.
You mentioned the 3-1 start. Things looking good. Was there a sense of how things were going to go for the season overall? Did you notice anything different about the Rams compared to the Cardinals from the showrunner’s standpoint?
No, nor did our directors in the field, Shannon Furman or Pat Harris.
No, we thought this team had a lot of talent. Obviously, there were questions on the offensive side of the ball, but the defense was so good. And they were playing genuinely good football that first quarter of the season.
It’s interesting if you go back as you watch the show even through London and even beyond that with the Carolina game, they were losing every one of those games on the last possession. You know, they could have very easily been 5-2 heading into their bye after London.
We might have very easily been talking about a different season.
Yeah, the line really often times seems tenuous. I do wonder what makes the difference between a winning and losing team, especially with the Cardinals season on the NFL Network right now. It’s just so hard to perceive the difference between a winning team and a losing team off the field.
Isn’t that so interesting though? I think that’s one of the real mysteries of the show is how fine that line is in the NFL.
We start this season out with the notion that what you’re about to see happens to 7 or 8 teams every year. And it’s not that these teams don’t have good players. It’s not that their coaches aren’t working their asses off every second of the day, sleeping in the office. It’s not that they’re not brilliant football coaches. They’re the very best in the world at this.
Twenty teams don’t make the playoffs! That is by definition a failure in this league where the expectation is to win every year. Thirty-one teams aren’t going to reach the ultimate goal. Twenty aren’t going to make the playoffs, and about a quarter of them are going to fire their entire coaching staff. Every single year.
And when you stop to consider that, you start to realize how much is at stake for these guys every single day when they come to work. Because if things don’t go well, lives are going to be upended. Families are going to have to relocate. Careers are going to end. It’s a totally different world when you begin to understand it from that perspective.
That’s why the title of the series is All or Nothing.
Yeah, I appreciated the framing with Fisher’s firing up front to start the entire season almost like Sunset Boulevard where we know what’s going to happen but it’s the process that’s most interesting.
I think people are going to walk into this wondering, “Are we going to see what happens really with Jeff Fisher and the coaching staff?” I think there’s that element of the elephant in the room, so I think it was important to give the audience a glimpse of that right out of the gate.
But you know, to go back to your original question about noticing anything different, the answer really is, “No.”
You probably experienced it binge-watching it, there’s not a moment where it’s like, “Oh man, it’s over.” They’re 3-1, and then they lose a close game, and then they lose another close game. It’s not like they did anything different. One different play each of those games and you’re 5-2 or 6-1.
That’s the NFL. It’s that close.
Instead, you’re 3-4. Your offense is really struggling. You’ve got a fan base that wants to see their rookie quarterback. And all of the sudden, things start changing. A couple more losses on top of that, and now you’re starting to get desperate.
It’s not like you feel like you’re watching a train wreck. It’s all unfolding in real time almost in slow motion as a viewer.
Yeah, it’s not like a train wreck. It’s more like a slow train derailment.
How much stuff did you guys have to leave on the cutting room floor either by your decision or by request from the team?
Not that much. Being able to air it six months after the season gives us an opportunity to air so much more of what happens.
I think it’s more a balance of trying to figure out what is going to make the most compelling story for an audience. If you go too heavy on the strategy and the Xs and Os, you’re going to lose a lot of the audience, the casual fans. If you ignore all of the football, then you’re going to lose you, the avid fan.
We want to appeal to as broad an audience as possible. We want people who are tuning into Amazon to watch Catastrophe or The Man in the High Castle to want to watch this show. You want to appeal to broad audience that loves premium television or content in that serialized, addictive, character-driven storytelling. That’s what we’re aiming to do here.
So you’re trying to hit a lot of categories at once. That’s the balance. It’s not really a question of, “We better leave this bit of strategy on the cutting room floor because it didn’t work out.” It’s more just that we don’t want to bore you. We want you to be interested in what happens next.
It’s a balance. The whole show’s a balance.
Clearly, a big part of the story was just about the return of the NFL to Los Angeles, something that was both new and familiar at the same time. Did you guys pick up on anything from the city, the market that was distinct, on how LA was reacting to the Rams and not just the other way around?
I think everybody noticed in that first month that there was genuine excitement. When they filled the Coliseum for that Seattle game and you had the [Red Hot] Chili Peppers playing…
We made a decision to cover that game as if it was a playoff game. We mic’ed more people than we probably ever have in a regular season game between the players, wives and coaches. So we really covered that game, and I think it shows. We spent about 15 minutes on that game.
The excitement was genuine. LA was ready for that team and for football, and I think LA was really responding. When you see Case Keenum going in to be on Ryan Seacrest’s show with his wife, they were riding high.
But it’s LA. There’s a lot to do there. If you’re not winning, they’re going to find something else to do. The imperative in LA is that you have to win pretty consistently. Every sports team in that town knows that. The Rams are no exception, and the Chargers will find that out pretty quickly.
Once you get there, you have to win.
What have you guys as a production team learned from these first two seasons that you’re going to do differently moving forward?
Good question.
We’re constantly learning. From Year 1 to Year 2, this show got technically much better.
We had a lot more cameras in the right places that allowed us to capture, say, the day Jeff Fisher was let go. That made a huge difference. We had more cameras on the practice field, more players and coaches mic’ed up during practice.
We shoot everything from a distance. We try not to be up in everybody’s face, because we don’t want them to be aware of us. We really want to be the proverbial flies on the wall. “You guys have your football season.
We’ll be here off to the side documenting it.” You can always get better at that, but that’s sort of been our project at NFL Films for 55 years: how to capture these people and their lives as a team doing their thing as well as it can possibly be captured.
We’re constantly looking for better ways to do things. We’re already investigating better ways to capture sound in those meeting rooms and some other technical advancements that will help us in Season 3. We’re always looking for ways to improve the product.
One of the areas of improvement this year from Season 1 to Season 2, we didn’t have a camera in the Cardinals’ coaches booth until very late in Season 1. We knew from Hard Knocks that those add a lot, add a dimension. We got a camera in the coaches booth in the playoffs in the Arizona series in the last couple of episodes.
But here, we got a camera in the coaches booth very early in the season, and we kept it there the entire season, home and on the road. It’s very complex to rig those up in every different stadium the team travels to. But you can see watching it how valuable those shots are.
Those moments when they lose the game in Detroit and you sit there with [Offensive Coordinator] Rob Boras in that booth after Case Keenum throws an interception at the end on a pass attempt to Lance Kendricks and you sit there with Boras as he actually apologizes to the other coaches in the booth and then just sits there for like a minute…
you’re right at that moment at a place that it’s impossible to not understand how much these people care, how hard they’ve worked, how much they’ve invested and how much is at stake for all of them in these games.
You know, we sit there at home. We watch these games. We scream at our TVs. We want to call up the radio station or write on our blogs and in our papers this coach has got to get fired and that coach isn’t up to the job. When you actually see these guys do the job in a moment like that?
How helpless they are that far from the field? When they call a play and it gets executed and it doesn’t go right? It’s excruciating. And it can’t help but change your perspective of all this a little bit.
I’m surprised. When you talked about what you learned, I thought you guys would have learned to watch out for falling goalposts with the wind.
(I was alluding to a moment in episode 6 where heavy winds blew some goalposts down; it’s also the episode in which Fisher got fired.)
We learned a lot. How about that day with the wind all in the middle of everything…
You know, show 6. Here’s one thing to note with that episode. We anticipated that some people are going to want to tune in and just watch that episode for obvious reasons. So we did construct that episode in such a way that it can stand on its own.
Even if you haven’t watched the first five, you can watch that one and get it. Now I think if you take the time to watch the first five and understand how they arrive at that moment when Jeff Fisher is fired, I think you’ll get a lot more out of it.
On one level, that was something we thought might be pretty important with that episode that it be a standalone episode. We know it’s the moment that people are going to talk about most and remember.
You know, nobody ever told us to stop rolling the cameras that day. And that’s a testament to our directors Shannon Furman and Pat Harris and the crew that was on site that day that Coach Fisher and the team trusted them to that degree.
Having the cameras where they are, you’re able to not be in the room with them and just roll. We operate those cameras remotely. And I think what emerged is something very powerful.
There’s been a lot of these access shows over the years, 24/7, Hard Knocks, other sports that have dipped their toes into the all-access waters. A lot of them have been excellent. But there’s never been a show until All or Nothing that spends every day of an entire season with the team. This season, we shot 1,200 hours with the Rams.
When you get to that moment and you build up the trust and the relationship, they’re used to it. They trust. They’re going about their business, and we’re able to capture something none of those shows have ever captured. I don’t think any show has ever captured a coach being fired in the middle of the season.
And it’s not just the moment that Jeff Fisher gets fired that’s important. It’s the fallout. It’s what happens after he leaves the room, and you’re left in this silence with this group of people who now have to pick up the pieces and are, really, traumatized. It’s a horrible moment in all of their lives. And you have to handle it very carefully.
Our goal is to show the world a side of the NFL that no one has ever seen, but to do it in such a way that humanizes all of these people and gives us an opportunity to understand the life that they’ve chosen. How challenging it is. What’s at stake for them. What can happen when it does go bad, when a coach does get fired.
When you see the emotional response, I would think it’s pretty powerful for everybody.
znModeratorChomsky agrees with zn
What does he think of putting Havenstein at guard?
znModeratorI think that your tireless dedication to this board has made it what it is today.
As promised beforehand, you get pie for saying that.
July 2, 2017 at 3:28 pm in reply to: Police Record Themselves Conspiring to Fabricate Charges Against Protester #70664znModeratorJuly 2, 2017 at 1:17 pm in reply to: Warner chooses his wife to be the presenter for his Hall of Fame induction #70661znModeratorDamn your memory is much better than mine!
No, believe me. It’s because my memory is bad that I go straight to sources when writing up thinks like that. I just pulled up a 2005 roster. After seeing it in print recollection drifts in like an old man who’s just now getting alert enough to function cause he’s on his 2nd cup of coffee.
July 2, 2017 at 11:29 am in reply to: Warner chooses his wife to be the presenter for his Hall of Fame induction #70656znModeratorYeah all those Arizona years should have been Ram years.
============
Yes.
not the Giant years though.
w
vWell it was just one year with the Giants.
The way I understand this, Kurt did not leave because of the thumb. He left because of the fall out over arguing about the thumb (including Brenda going public on Martz). I just have this feeling that all this was one of the effects of Vermeil retiring. I just think Vermeil would have handled the Kurt situation.
The Rams would have fallen apart anyway. Bulger was good enough to be a playoff qb in those years (2003-2005). But they needed to have a defense and to re-stock the roster with good drafts. By the time 2005 rolled around, Bruce was an 11 year vet, Faulk was running on a bad knee though they had Jackson, Hakim and Proehl were gone, the line was starting Barron and Terrell, the corners were Groce and Travis Fisher, Mike Furrey was the FS, the MLB was Chris Claiborne (one of the worst in Rams history), and Anthony Hargrove was at end with Jimmy Kennedy at DT. The defense was ranked 30th and they didn’t have the firepower to overcome that like they did in 2000.
znModeratorthey did a good job of documenting the team slowly disintegrating over the course of the season culminating in the firing of jeff fisher and the aftermath that took place.
Yes, and, quite rejuevenating it was too to watch that again.
But seriously yeah it is well done.
znModeratorRams React to Jeff Fisher’s Firing | All or Nothing: A Season with the Los Angeles Rams
znModeratorI signed up for a free month of Amazon Prime and watched it.
It really is well done.
But, you have to be willing to re-live 2016.
.
znModeratorReality show on Rams season shows players took blame for Jeff Fisher’s firing
Alden Gonzalez
LOS ANGELES — One team official compared the streaming of Amazon’s latest “All or Nothing” series to “watching the Titanic sink.”
The Los Angeles Rams were bad in 2016, their first season back in Southern California, and the last thing they want to do is relive it all. It’s all available for public view now, though. And like a bad car crash, it is painstakingly difficult to look away.
“All or Nothing: A Season with the Los Angeles Rams” became available for streaming for Amazon Prime consumers on Friday. It is the second installment, following the chronicling of a far more successful 2015 Arizona Cardinals team last summer.
The series, produced by NFL Films and narrated by Jon Hamm, began with the move from St. Louis to Los Angeles in early 2016 and ended with the hiring of Sean McVay in early 2017. It included everything in between — the drafting of Jared Goff, the infamous “7-9 bulls—” speech, the demoralizing Monday Night Football loss, the 3-1 start, the sudden spiral, the sluggish offense and, most prominently, the Jeff Fisher firing.
Throughout, “All or Nothing” portrays a team that stuck together and often struggled with what became a nomadic 2016 calendar year. It gives one a sense for the insane hours the assistants put in and how drastically their lives change when a head coach is let go. It showed how much the players appreciated Fisher and how responsible they felt when he was dismissed.
Below are some of the new developments from the eight-episode series, which aired nearly a year after HBO followed the Rams through training camp with “Hard Knocks.”
Fisher’s apex: The Rams had easy motivation heading into their Week 4 game. It was against the Cardinals. “We don’t like these guys,” Fisher told his coaches in the week leading up to it. “Do not like these guys.” His staff feasted on that for motivation. In a meeting with his position group, defensive backs coach Dennard Wilson played a soundbite of Cardinals coach Bruce Arians from his postgame news conference after a win over the Rams in 2015, in which he said, “There’s an 11-3 team and a team that’s always 8-8. You figure it out.”
Said Wilson: “This m—–f—– does not respect you.”
The Rams implemented a quick-snap cadence called “cheetah,” which caught the Cardinals off guard and set the tone in their victory. They were 3-1 and coming off back-to-back road wins, in a position few would’ve foreseen. But Fisher sensed looming danger because his team was having a hard time stopping the run and getting it going on the ground.
“We’re frustrated right now — not at 3-1, but just frustrated because we have to do better,” Fisher told his coaches. “We stay doing what we’re doing. We’re not going to win another f—ing game.”
He had no idea he’d come so close to being right.
Goff’s chance: The show dispelled any thought Rams owner Stan Kroenke, or anybody else, pushed Fisher to start Goff in Week 11 against the Dolphins. Before the Week 10 game on the road against the Jets, Fisher broke the news to Kroenke himself. “Either way today, I’m going to go with the rook next week at home,” Fisher told him. Case Keenum was making his final start at quarterback that day and didn’t even know it.
In the next team meeting, after the announcement had been made, Fisher reminded everyone Keenum was voted a captain before the start of the season.
“You’re still a captain,” Fisher said to Keenum. “I want to thank you for your energy, your leadership, your commitment, your passion, your desire — everything you’ve done to this point.”
Downward spiral: As the weeks went on and the losses mounted, backup running back Benny Cunningham huddled the team together in the middle of the practice field.
“This is how I feed my family,” Cunningham told the rest of the team. “If we lose the rest of these games, guess what: I’m not going to have a job. You’re not going to have a job. You’re not going to have a f—ing job. So pick this s— up.”
The Rams never did, of course. They finished the season with seven straight losses. After a 3-1 start, they dropped 11 of 12. During one four-game stretch, they lost by a combined 93 points. Their most demoralizing loss came at home against the Falcons, who beat them 42-12 in Week 14, four days before the Rams had to travel to Seattle to play a Thursday night game. After the game, Fisher told the team, “If you care about each other, if you care about yourselves, if you care about me, you gotta suck it up.”
Veteran defensive end William Hayes then addressed the team.
“He put us before he put himself, and this is how we’re f—ing repaying him, man,” Hayes said. “Y’all don’t realize how f—ing good we have it, and then a new m—–f—– comes in, and he wants not one of you m—–f—–s around here.”
The firing: “All or Nothing” aired two Fisher meetings in the wake of his firing on Dec. 12: with the coaches and with the players.
“OK, you’re going to have some challenges this weekend with respect to injuries,” Fisher begins to tell the coaches. “Reggie [Scott, the head athletic trainer] will keep you abreast. Unfortunately I won’t be here this weekend. I was just fired.”
That’s it. Fisher said he would meet with the players at 11:30 and that they shouldn’t be told anything until then. The room was stunned and silent. Assistant coach Mike Singletary stood up, looked Fisher in the eyes, shook his hand firmly and said, “Thank you.” Later, the coaches all came up individually to hug him.
“I’m going to do my best to hold it together and thank the team,” Fisher said. “I appreciate everything you guys have done for this football team and for me and the loyalty that you’ve shown. It’s a freaking shock. Sorry if I let you guys down. You guys didn’t let me down. You busted your ass every single day for me.”
Below is the speech Fisher gave to the players …
“We’ve had some great team meetings over the years, man. Some great ones. This is one that you’re probably going to remember because I’m no longer your head coach. I just wanted to say that I love you guys. … I’m going to walk out of here with my head up high, and I want you guys to do me a favor: finish strong. And this becomes the end of my legacy here. I’m sorry if I let anybody down. I don’t think I did, nor did the coaches. But this business is based on wins and losses. I’ll tell you this: You have to cherish it every day. Every single day, you have to cherish it. Opportunity to play in this league, and be part of the National Football League, nothing better. Nothing better. Every single day, cherish it. Love your families, love each other. I love you guys. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. But I’ll be fine. I’m going fishing.”
Rams COO Kevin Demoff then addressed the team. He said the team had great players, great coaches and it merely came down to the wins not being there often enough. He didn’t want them to carry any guilt, but they did. All-Pro punter Johnny Hekker spoke to the group while in tears and said they all ruined an opportunity with Fisher. Hayes, who spent eight of his seasons playing under Fisher on two teams, said: “That’s our f—ing fault, man. Y’all just lost the greatest thing next to this team. Y’all ain’t never going to play in front of a head coach like that.”
Carrying on after Fisher: Todd Gurley, his head down, was crying in the meeting when Fisher announced he had been fired. The Rams had three games left in their season, including a quick turnaround in Seattle, and the message to the players was to finish strong for their former head coach and their personal pride.
During one of the practices, offensive coordinator Rob Boras told Goff: “No matter who’s coaching you, these guys are gonna do whatever you tell them. It’s your team. I don’t care who the head coach is. I don’t care who the coordinator/position coach is. It’s your team. They’re gonna do what you tell them. So set the standard now.”
“I know,” Goff told him. “I’ve been thinking about it for weeks.”
Fisher, with a puppy in his arms, was standing in front of the gate at the team facility when the buses left for the airport a couple of days after his firing, saluting his former team. The Rams never won again. John Fassel, the special-teams coordinator who served as the interim coach, addressed the team after the final game, a 44-6 loss to the Cardinals. His voice cracked.
“For me, the past three weeks and the opportunity to be here in front of all you guys is an opportunity that I’ll never forget and an opportunity that I’ll never take for granted,” Fassel said. “And it just goes to show that at all times, you gotta be ready to jump in and do something that maybe you weren’t expected to do. And how you conduct yourself at all times matters. … I’m proud to be a Ram, men. I’m proud to be a Ram.”
McVay and Snead: At one point in the draft room, McVay turned to general manager Les Snead and said, “If the minicamp is any indicator, we hit on our free agents.” The series then showed Snead’s thought process for his eventual trade with the Bills, in which he moved down from 37th to 44th in order to attain an additional third-round pick. “You don’t want to pick early second [round] often,” Snead told McVay. “But when you’re picking early second, never fall in love with a player. You’ll always get an extra third[-round pick].”
McVay, barely three months into the job, later went around the room, reassuring Demoff about what they did in the second and third rounds and then addressing Kroenke. “This will be good,” he told him.
Fisher, in the aftermath: In the final episode, “All or Nothing” caught up with Boras, Hayes, Keenum, tight end Lance Kendricks and defensive coordinator Gregg Williams in their new cities. The series ends with Fisher, alongside his wife and two of his dogs, at his home a half-hour outside Nashville. He will be a grandfather in September, and because he won’t work in the NFL this season, he’ll get to be there when the baby is born.
“I gave it my best shot, had fun,” Fisher said. “Miss the players. That’s what I miss most right now is the players. But they’re staying in touch. I want to get back on the sidelines. Not going to happen this year, obviously, but we’ll just see what happens. In the interim, this is our life.”
June 30, 2017 at 7:08 pm in reply to: Donald looks for new contract, and is impressed with McVay #70622znModeratorVid link:
http://www.espn.com/video/clip?id=19776158
Donald frustrated waiting for new deal from Rams Josina Anderson explains why DT Aaron Donald is underpaid and running out of patience with L.A..
znModeratori agree to a certain extent. but if you have to cover for one position that necessarily limits what you can do since you’re directing more resources to a spot than you would like to.
they’ll have to do that to a certain extent but hopefully not more than they’re comfortable with.
But then that’s relative because it’s true for every OL. No OL can do everything equally well. They all play to their strengths and minimize their weaknesses.
June 30, 2017 at 5:30 pm in reply to: Donald looks for new contract, and is impressed with McVay #70615znModeratorFor balance on this issue, here’s a coupla tweets from a different thread:
…
1. Much like the Derek Carr contract situation, both the team (#Rams) and player (AD) are in agreement the player has outplayed current deal https://t.co/a6qgKI0nJT
— Vincent Bonsignore (@DailyNewsVinny) June 27, 2017
2. In other words, nothing about the Donald situation is being perceived as selfish. https://t.co/kGpDpLmaZc
— Vincent Bonsignore (@DailyNewsVinny) June 27, 2017
June 30, 2017 at 5:28 pm in reply to: Donald looks for new contract, and is impressed with McVay #70614znModeratorAaron Donald noncommittal on reporting to training camp
Michael David Smith
Aaron Donald noncommittal on reporting to training camp
Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald wants a new contract, and he won’t say whether he’ll show up to training camp if he doesn’t get what he wants.
“I’m just working, just grinding and we’ll see what happens,” Donald said on SiriusXM NFL Radio.
Donald wouldn’t say whether there are any reasons for optimism that a deal will get done.
“I’m just letting my agents handle that,” Donald said. “All I can do is keep working to keep myself in top shape.”
Donald did report to mandatory minicamp despite the absence of a new contract, so it would seem likely that he’d report to training camp as well. But he’s not going to promise that without a new deal in hand.
June 30, 2017 at 5:08 pm in reply to: Goff's ninth game? articles on Goff in OTAs & mini-camp & up to training camp #70612znModeratorNFC West Q&A: What are realistic expectations for Jared Goff in Year 2?
Alden Gonzalez
The Los Angeles Rams traded up last year to take quarterback Jared Goff No. 1 overall, but they weren’t expecting a superstar.
At least not yet.
They simply need him to take care of the football and be enough of a downfield threat that defenses aren’t stacking the box so aggressively to stop running back Todd Gurley.
It’s reasonable to expect improvement from Goff, but those expectations must be tempered. His numbers through seven games — 54.6 completion percentage, 5.3 yards per attempt, 22.9 Total QBR — were dreadful. And though a lot of the blame can be directed at an inadequate offensive line and an uninspiring group of receivers, Goff himself showed he has a long way to go. He needs to make better reads, be more accurate and have a better feel in the pocket.
The Rams have turned over their coaching staff, adding Sean McVay and a collection of coaches with a history of helping quarterbacks succeed. So, what are realistic expectations for Goff in Year 2?
Josh Weinfuss, Arizona Cardinals reporter: There’s nowhere to go but up, right? It’s silly not to expect Goff to make significant strides between Years 1 and 2, when most players have their biggest growth. Developing quarterbacks, especially rookies, is tough in this era of the collective bargaining agreement, when interaction with coaches is so limited. And it didn’t help Goff last year that he didn’t start until Week 11. In theory, starting him in Week 1 would’ve given him the chance to get fully baptized by the fire of the NFL. Or he should’ve sat his entire rookie season and learned that way, as Carson Palmer did in 2003. His growth may have been stunted by playing in only seven games. After a full offseason to work on his own game while learning an entirely new scheme — possibly one he can contribute to molding — more growth should be expected from him. I’m not projecting him to be a Pro Bowler in Year 2, but I think he’ll show more of why he was the No. 1 pick.
Nick Wagoner, San Francisco 49ers reporter: Well, for his sake, the first expectation should be that he can spend more time upright and scanning the field before throwing than he did as a rookie. The signing of tackle Andrew Whitworth should help in that regard, but the Rams still have major questions at three other spots on the line. The Rams also continued to add receiving options for Goff, which was something they lacked when they drafted him. There still isn’t a No. 1 wideout here, but a few reliable ones are better than none. The addition of McVay should be even better for Goff’s future. The quarterback had little chance to live up to his draft status under former coach Jeff Fisher and his antiquated offensive scheme, but McVay looks to be at the complete opposite end of that spectrum. That’s not to say he will turn Goff into a superstar. But if Goff is going to develop at all, McVay seems capable of pulling whatever the quarterback has out of him. I wouldn’t expect Goff to magically become a Pro Bowler in Year 2, but a step forward to something closer to league average or slightly below is reasonable.
Sheil Kapadia, Seattle Seahawks reporter: Periods of competency. That may sound harsh, but as mentioned, Goff’s rookie debut was terrible. He averaged 3.77 yards per dropback, which would have been the worst mark in the league had he qualified with enough starts. As a point of reference, among qualifying quarterbacks, Brock Osweiler ranked last and even he averaged 5.26 yards per dropback. No passing game in the NFL was less efficient than the Rams’. It’s completely fair to point out that Goff wasn’t given a ton of help from the coaching staff or his supporting cast, but at no time last season did he look the part of a No. 1 overall pick. There will be struggles and inconsistencies in 2017, but if Goff can show flashes of upside with a new coaching staff, that will at least give Rams fans hope for the future.
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