Transcript: Fisher post practice presser 10/26...

Rams Head Coach Jeff Fisher – Post Practice – October 26, 2016

(Opening remarks):
“Good to get back on the practice field here in Southern California. It seems like we haven’t been here for a while. We got a lot accomplished. Monday was a challenge for the coaches as was yesterday. Players came back in yesterday and got some good work done – had some meetings and then got some work done outside – getting their bodies back. I thought we had a good session today. The bye week’s about, you know, everybody has different requirements. You literally sit down and talk in detail about each player and what they need. Some guys got rest, but by and large, today at practice, we got some a lot of really quality reps for the younger guys, which is good. (Q Jared (Goff) got a lot of reps, as we talked about. I thought he did well. Now they’re off and they’re entitled to four consecutive days off. My understanding is a lot of the guys are going to stick around. What better place to hang out over bye week than here. A lot of the guys will stick around. We have guys that are going to require some treatment and such. We got a lot done. From a coaching standpoint, we know the areas of improvement. We have to get the run game going and it all really starts there – that’s what we spent a great deal of time on here, these past couple days. Coaches are going to get a chance to unwind, rest, relax, and we’ll get back and get after our next opponent.”


(On the message he sends to the players heading into the bye week)
“It’s okay to enjoy yourself and have fun. Don’t shut the system down, though, because we’re going to come back and work. Make sure they take care of themselves and be smart, all of those things associated with it. I don’t want any early morning phone calls, those kind of things. But they know that, they’re pros, they understand. They’re good, just look forward to coming back. We have a great opportunity and it starts with the next opponent.”


(On the areas of improvement he needs to see from the offensive line coming out of the bye week)
“We need to be more productive in the run game. We need to minimize the penalties – as we mentioned on Monday, a couple of them I disagreed with. We just need to minimize the penalties, first-and-15’s and first-and-20’s are hard to overcome, especially against good defenses. They’re healthy and that’s the encouraging part. From the standpoint of where we are right now, compared to other teams, we’re going to be healthy and I’m excited about that.”


(On if there’s any thought to shifting things around on the offensive line)
“We’ve got guys that can play and that can back up. No, I’ve not given any consideration. ‘J.B.’ (G Jamon Brown) couldn’t play, he fractured his hand in practice, so (G) Cody (Wichmann) came in and I thought Cody did a nice job. Whenever ‘J.B.’ is ready to play, we’ll work him back in.”


(On what he was hoping to see from QB Jared Goff today and what he ended up seeing)
“We put him in all different situations. He participated in seven-on-seven, then we had a red-zone move, we had a first-and-10 run-play-pass period, then we had a pressure period. He handled everything really well – huddle presence and understanding, snap count, Mike-ID’s. He was going against our defense, he hadn’t gone against our defense in a while. So I thought he did a nice job.”


(On if he gets away or re-evaluates players during the bye week)
“That’s where the staff has spent a lot of time. You say ‘bye week – oh, you’ll be home for dinner at 6 (pm).’ No, we push it pretty hard over the last few days, just to do the self-scout and those kind of things – what’s good and what’s not. Where do we need to improve, what are teams doing against us and what are we not doing – those kind of things. We barely scratched the surface on our next opponent. Right now, our biggest opponent is ourselves, so spend time with yourselves.”


(On the report that Goff is a long ways away from playing)
“It was brought to my attention. I don’t know if you guys have seen Jason Cole here at practice. There’s only one source here and that’s me, so I don’t know where that’s coming from. It’s a little absurd that somebody that far removed would make that kind of comment based on a source. I don’t pay much attention to that.”


(On if the fact that Goff dresses out as the No. 2 quarterback on gamedays indicates that he is comfortable with sending Goff on the field)
“Yeah, it does. I didn’t see his report, but he probably didn’t cite that. He is, he’s a play awa – and he knows that. If he wasn’t making progress, he’d be a No.3. Now, also, I want to make this clear, just because (Q Sean (Mannion) is a three doesn’t mean Sean’s not ready to play, either. We only keep two active. Our room’s good right now, it’s really good, we just need to play a little better and play a little better around him.”


(On if Goff is inserted in the starting lineup, would he have to change the offensive scheme to better suit his skills)
“We would not change a thing. We wouldn’t scale anything back, we wouldn’t change a thing. He’s got that good of a feel for what we’re doing.”


(On how does the team stay on track coming off a bye week)
“It’s been a long 10 days, considering we left on Friday for Detroit, and we had high expectations there; a three-point loss, and then what happened in London. But, we can’t change that, we just come back. You give them that – is it half full, or half empty, type of thing – and you can show them how close we are. So, you have to hold on to that. It’s not like we had a repeat of the opener. These games have been close, we’ve been competitive. You look at some of the outstanding effort plays on defense, and their contact, and just everything. You just kind of wonder at some point, this thing is going to get turned around. That’s where we are right now, is holding on to hope that the health of this football team, and the experience is going to get it turned around.”


(On his thoughts regarding LT Greg Robinson ranking at the top of the league in penalties, and how he works with him to correct the issue)
“You have to look at each individual play, and the technique, and why. Like I said, Greg is going to be a really good player. He’s highly athletic. I thought, for the most part, he played an outstanding rusher in (Giants DE Jason Pierre-Paul) ‘J.P.P.’ and he held his own in this game. There’s no harder position to play besides the quarterback position, like I said, than the left tackle position, especially when you’re going to throw the ball.”


(On where Robinson needs to improve the most)
“Just like anybody else, it’s all the detailed fundamental technique things.”


(On if feels like there’s anything the defense can improve on)
“Yeah, our efficiency in the red zone is not good. We’re giving up too many touchdowns. Last year, we might’ve been second, and this year, we’re not there. Granted, I don’t like to say we’ve been out with three or four starters, we don’t have (C Trumaine (Johnson) and stuff like that, but we have to get back to, if they get down there, number one, we got to get back to holding them to field goals, to give us a chance. I though the corners played well, I though the corners played really well in the game. Both of them were run supporting, making plays on balls. They didn’t have any issues going into the game, with respect to their receiving corps. Had respect for them, but they weren’t concerned. Hopefully, we’ll get Trumaine back, and we’ll settle down a little bit there.”