Cignetti out, Boras in as offensive coordinator
• By Jim Thomas
http://www.stltoday.com/sports/foot...cle_2d9bc750-cd79-50e6-80ea-7864fd76096e.html
In 20 seasons as an NFL head coach Jeff Fisher said he could not recall firing a coach in the middle of a season. And then came Monday.
With the Rams in the midst of a five-game losing streak, the offense getting worse by the week, and his own job seemingly in jeopardy, Fisher fired offensive coordinator Frank Cignetti.
“I’ve become a very good friend of Frank’s over the years, and I’m very fond of Frank,” Fisher said at his regular Monday media session. “He’s a great man. But it was, in my estimation, time to move in a different direction.
“Our focus is on the future of this offense, the future of this football team. I felt like this was the best thing we could do.”
Rob Boras, who had the title of assistant head coach/offense while also coaching tight ends, takes over as coordinator. By all accounts, Boras finished a close second to Cignetti last offseason for the OC job.
“It was very close,” Fisher said. “If you’ve seen Rob coach on the field, Rob’s a hands-on, very enthusiastic or detailed guy. He gets the big picture. He’s not done a lot of play-calling before and that was really the difference and the reason I went with Frank (in February). But we can take care of that. I have no concern about that.”
But Boras, 45, can’t throw a pass accurately, make a contested catch as a receiver, or throw a crunching block as a lineman. This deep into a season, it’s debatable how much of an impact he can have.
So what exactly can Boras bring to the league’s 31st-ranked offense and 32nd-ranked passing game after 12 contests?
“There’s some different thoughts,” Fisher said. “Stimulate the staff. A little more creativity. But it’s the run game. We’re lacking in the run game efficiency right now and it all starts there. Rob, wherever he’s been, he’s been very successful with respect to the run.”
Fisher said he has been thinking about making a change at coordinator for a couple of weeks.
“Just haven’t gotten the production,” Fisher said. “We’re getting what we want out of ’em on the practice field. It’s not carrying over to the game. I didn’t wake up this morning and make this decision.”
By noon Monday, Fisher said Boras was working as offensive coordinator. Fisher said he informed the Rams’ offensive players of the change at about 2 p.m., or right around the time the team publicly announced the switch.
Fisher said the players were shocked by the news.
“Yeah, they were,” Fisher said. “And I hope they took it personally because they need to. You’ve got a good man and a good football coach that’s busting his butt every single day. Now, for whatever reasons, he’s no longer here. They have to take some responsibility for that.
“All the blame’s not to fall on his shoulders. But it’s the way this business works. Players contributed, coaches contributed, everybody contributed (to Cignetti’s ouster).”
Cignetti, 50, came in as part of Fisher’s original staff in 2012, serving as quarterbacks coach his first three seasons in St. Louis. He had 11 seasons of coordinator’s experience at the college level, but his Rams promotion last February made him a coordinator at the NFL level for the first time.
Upon taking the job, Cignetti stressed that he was all about running the football and putting players in position to maximize their strengths. Getting the ball more often to Tavon Austin was a priority.
The playbook was streamlined and the play-calling terminology simplified. The Rams went to more of a zone-blocking scheme, which in theory would help a young line. At quarterback, the plan was to get the ball out quickly with Nick Foles.
Even with their recent struggles, the Rams are tied for ninth in the NFL in rushing offense behind feature back Todd Gurley. Austin is getting the ball more than in his previous two seasons. Through 12 games, he has 73 touches, 685 yards rushing-receiving, and eight touchdowns — all single-season highs with four games to play.
But just about everything else involving the offense has been a disaster. The team is averaging only 178 passing yards per game, on pace to be the third-worst output since the move to St. Louis in 1995. The current per-game average of 15.8 points would be the fourth-worst showing in the 21 seasons for the team in St. Louis.
The Rams rank 26th in red zone offense (48.1%) and are 32nd — or last — in third-down conversion rate (24.5%). Foles ranks 31st among NFL quarterbacks in passer rating (69.0) and returns to the bench this week with Case Keenum now cleared from his Nov. 22 concussion.
“The lack of production’s obvious,” Fisher said. “We’ve been talking about it for weeks. ... Eighteen touchdowns in 12 weeks just doesn’t give you a chance to win a lot of games. Seven of our 12 games, we’ve scored 13 points or less.”
As was the case with Cignetti, Boras also came in with Fisher’s original Rams coaching staff in 2012. A Chicago-area native, he was a four-year starting center at DePauw University, a Division III school in Greencastle, Ind.
He began coaching in 1992, spending his first 12 seasons at the college level. His only stint calling plays during that time as for three seasons at Nevada-Las Vegas. He has spent his last 12 seasons in the NFL, as tight ends coach in Chicago (2004-09) and then Jacksonville (2010-11) before coming to St. Louis.
Part of Boras’ job description this season as assistant head coach/offense was to have more input in the running game. That role obviously evolves again as coordinator.
“What I’m anticipating is it’s play selection, it’s calls, it’s adjustments and things like that,” Fisher said. “It’s commitment to it as far as the play calling’s concerned. Expanding on some things that we need to do, and then hopefully pushing things down the field as a result of it because that’s what we haven’t been able to do.”
With Boras’ promotion, offensive assistant Kenan Smith assumes full-time duties as tight ends coach. He had been helping Boras with the tight ends previously.
