Like most fans I'll always have mixed feelings about Fisher. The end of his tenure was largely his own doing but it also overshadowed what was a pretty good start.
When Fisher was hired several friends of mine said he gave the Rams "instant credibility" and coming off that 15-65 stretch- the worst 5-year run in NFL history let's remember- that was important.
And he did. He walked in and took the worst team in the league for five years to 7-8-1 in the league's toughest division. They were an illegal formation call (49ers game) away from 8-8. They were fun to watch again. In every game. Competitive. "Credible." Being in the tough NFC West that Rams team was probably 15th or 16th best in the league. They ran the ball well, played good defense, resurrected Bradford. It was a great start and very good coaching job in my opinion.
Year two was much the same. While losing their starting QB and still playing in easily the league's toughest division (by far) they still went 7-9. Zac Stacy ran wild, the defense posted 50+ sacks for the 2nd straight year. Top 15 overall team again. But kinks in the armor appeared. Jared Cook wasn't all that.. They traded up for Tavon Austin and he only occasionally flashed. The offense overall remained bottom 10.
2014 and here we go again... Bradford goes down and Fisher faces having to start backup QBs for 25 straight games (going 10-15 over that span). They come out totally flat in week 1, blow big leads at home early in the year vs. DAL and SF. They have a reputation for being undisciplined and even somewhat dirty. As fans we're understandably no longer content looking at 7 wins again. Having a top 10 defense and special teams unit can't cover up for an offense that seems to be stepping backward. Kenny Britt to the rescue? Not so much... Yet by week 14 they were 6-7 and had posted back-to-back shutouts, winning by a combined 76-0. Fisher was 20-24-1 (.456) as Head Coach at what was probably his high point with the Rams. Then... they come unglued
again, totally undisciplined (and dirty) in losses to ARZ, NYG and SEA. 6-10..... They're probably the 18th or 19th best team in the league. The natives get restless. Me included.
The next season is more of the same and fans, me included, started to feel "ok, this is as far as he can take this team. He won't change. So the team won't change." Sloppy, inconsistent play, dropped passes, penalties remain an issue. This isn't year one it's year FOUR. Foles plays well for 4 starts and then the bottom falls out. A 4-3 start fades quickly. Gurley is exciting but we all start reading about the Draft with a month left in the season before 3 window-dressing wins gets them to 7 wins again. A bottom 10 offense is now bottom 4 or 5. They can't even produce a 700-yard WR.
Then 2016 and disaster strikes. Fisher's "I know what I'm doing" speech in Hard Knocks starts to show cracks in the team's confidence in him (or in himself). It gets as ugly as it can get with one of the five worst single-season teams they've ever had. They are unwatchable. He's shown the door...
So to me it's not absolutes with Fisher. He did a genuinely good job with the Rams in 2012 and 2013. Maybe even the majority of 2014 overall. But winning about 45% of his games was his limit, his peak. Coming off 2007-2011 that was such a breath of fresh air. But by year 4 and 5, it was not good enough. Good defense, running the ball well and good special teams are not enough when there is an anchor weighing the team down in the form of an awful passing offense and offensive scheme in general plus way too many penalties and being undisciplined as a team. I think part of his problem was he was seen as a "veterans' coach" in how he managed players yet they kept trotting out the youngest teams in the league. That didn't sync...
So I'm glad Fisher came to the Rams when he did. But I'm also sure glad he left when he did....
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/08/2018 06:11AM by LMU93.
