Monday Wrap-Up: Moving on to Week 17

Monday Wrap-Up: Moving on to Week 17

By Myles Simmons

The 2016 season is coming to a close, with the Cardinals coming to Los Angeles for a matchup on New Year’s Day. And though the season clearly has not gone the way the Rams had envisioned, interim head coach John Fassel said Monday he hasn’t detected players simply going through the motions just to get to the offseason.

“Maybe I’m naïve — I don’t think anybody in our coaching staff or anybody in the locker room is looking to just get out of here and hope we survive this last game. That’s not the feeling I get,” Fassel said. “I think we’re tough enough to be inspired one more week. Like we talked about last week, we’re all being evaluated and we’re playing for something.”

“Not that we’re looking for the individual accolades in this last game,” Fassel added, “but there’s things out there that we can strive for that are important to us. So I’m sure the guys will do it.”

Still, one of the negative byproducts of losing 10 of the last 11 games has been the decrease in team morale. Fassel admitted it’s low right now, “because it’s kind of been the same things for the last three months.”

“I don’t think the effort or preparation has deteriorated,” Fassel said. “But the morale has, just based on not winning football games, which I think is just human nature. And so I think my job is to build morale up where we fight for one more week.”

Saturday’s game in particular was disappointing because it featured lapses by all three phases.

“We were in great position to win the football game,” Fassel said. “Even after that score we gave up to make it 21-14, we had the ball with four, four-and-a-half minutes left. And in that situation, we practice four-minute offense where the goal is to get first downs or, worst-case scenario, make them burn their timeouts. And we did neither.

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