Jeff Fisher on fake punt: I liked the look

[lordbannon]

No it was an illegal formation , not a false start . He had a choice

I stand corrected

 

[kurtfaulk]

.

I wonder if he liked that look more than the look the bucs gave him when he thought it was a good idea to go for 2 via a qd sneak from the 2 yard line, with possibly the smallest Qb in the league.

.

 

[LesBaker]

The fake punt..........in that situation........IMO was a bad call PLUS bad play design.

If you get the first down then it's forgivable, not smart, but forgivable. The timing and the fact they were deep in their own territory makes it a risk not worth taking.

The FG on 4th down at the 4.

I don't understand the decision because the chance to either tie or pin them deep isn't worse than getting 3 points and still needing to score a TD and tie or go for 2 and win.

I think those two things combined were the killer, more than the pick 6 and Gurley's fumble. Neither of those helped, but they didn't hurt as much.

This was a winnable game that was, IMO, lost on those two plays.

 

[TomMack]

It has to be pretty embarrassing getting out coached by Rex Ryan and that exactly what happen.
The Bills were praying Coach Fish ran that fake punt and low and behold the fish stepped right in the bucket.

 

[Corbin]

Why the F wouldn't you give the ball to Hekker to throw? So freaking stupid it's not even funny. The player who split out left (Brown) would have been wide open like CUnningham in years past. SO dumb. Even the gunner on the right side would of been open!.

 

[Jorgeh0605]

Am I the only one that was ok for going for it here? We needed a boost in momentum, and a 4th down conversion could provide that spark, and add in that it would be a little unexpected i thought it was a decent risk. Dice didn't roll our way, it happens, what are you going to do?

 

[lordbannon]

I don't inherently hate going for it there. My main issue is that it's a predictable time for Fisher to go for it based on his history, and it wasn't well executed. The whole point of a fake is to catch the other team off guard, and down in the 4th quarter, you expect Fisher to do something like that. But I'm also the type of person who would go for an onside kick any time you get one of those 15 yard penalties enforced on the kickoff. And I don't think I've seen anyone do that...ever..

That said, I also didn't hate settling for the field goal. You need two scores to win. I would PREFER going for it, but I can see the logic of taking the (practically) guaranteed points. But the decision of kicking the field goal says "I trust my defense tstop them", while the fake says the opposite.

 

[-X-]

Interesting comment by Ryan on that fake punt too. I don't know how much of it is true, and how much of it is bravado though.

"(Special Teams Coordinator) Danny Crossman, (Special Teams Assistant) Eric Smith, and (Quality Control-Special Teams) Kathryn Smith did a great job preparing special teams for that exact play, so we were ready for it."

That *exact* play? I don't see how that's possible.

 

[TomMack]

If you go for it there you have to be 100% sure it's going to work. Period. You had to know the Bills were sitting on the fake. Horrible coaching. I always thought the job of a coach is put the players in a position to win. That's decision was 7-9 bull-poop.

 

[Bruce2980]

I was at the game ..... I liked the call...... IMO, he gave his offense an opportunity to go win the game. If it doesn't work, you have confidence in your defense that they can hold for just a field goal, and then you still have to score a TD when you get the ball back. Bottom line is the Gurley fumble and Keenum the pick 6 is what lost the game, not whether to go for it on 4th down late in the 4th Qtr.

Why didn't they go for the win on first and second down prior to the telegraphed fake punt? Instead they run the ball. Did the coaching staff really think that they were going to fool any team in the NFL by running on first down, really? Why not go for the first down on third down and throw the ball past the first down marker, say to Quick who was wide open. Why not go for the win earlier in the game while in the red zone, during any of the multiple trips, and actually pass the ball into the end zone, doesn't this team have tall WRs and TEs that can catch, isn't that where 6 points are scored?

Didn't Fisher spend a practice showing his players that the ball needs to be in this ten yard area of the field to score a TD, maybe the OC wasn't there to see what he was talking about? Maybe Keenum didn't have the guts to throw it in there, maybe the coaches didn't have faith in Keenum to get it there, maybe the coaches didn't know it was supposed to go there? Who knows?

 

[Bruce2980]

Has anyone ever seen him accept responsibility for anything?
Can't recall him ever saying anything was ever on him or his fault.
Real leaders accept responsibility for their mis-steps and
even sometimes when they're not at fault.

No, but I would like to see a video of it if he did. He buried the players after the SF game too, no mention of the ineptitude on the coaching staff, even though the whiners knew where the ball was going prior to every run play. But I guess that's the Rams offenses fault.

 

[OntarioRam]

Interesting comment by Ryan on that fake punt too. I don't know how much of it is true, and how much of it is bravado though.

"(Special Teams Coordinator) Danny Crossman, (Special Teams Assistant) Eric Smith, and (Quality Control-Special Teams) Kathryn Smith did a great job preparing special teams for that exact play, so we were ready for it."

That *exact* play? I don't see how that's possible.

Rex probably just reference a fake punt, when he talks about "that exact play". As opposed to actual play that was ran. Like you, I don't see how it would be possible otherwise.

 

[-X-]

Rex probably just reference a fake punt, when he talks about "that exact play". As opposed to actual play that was ran. Like you, I don't see how it would be possible otherwise.

Yeah.

 

[UKram]

Rex probably just reference a fake punt, when he talks about "that exact play". As opposed to actual play that was ran. Like you, I don't see how it would be possible otherwise.

do the Ryans have any links to ol' Bill down in new England ....coz....ya know

 

[JerseyRam1]

First off, the call was terrible. What I am further confused by is we have the best throwing punter in the league. Certainly if Benny was healthy and available, a throw to him works often. Curious why we simply dont waggle a TE after a block?

The fake punt would have worked had Hekker thrown the ball instead of a run play by Marquez. Too bad Benny Cunningham was not available. Otherwise, it would have been Hekker to Cunningham fake punt for a first down.

 

[dieterbrock]

Funny thing is that when he pulled off the fake punt against Seattle in similar field position, we all applauded his balls of steel.

 

[Psycho_X]

Fisher doubled down on his fake punt. But this last sentence.... I just can't even.... that's the way you're wired? To lose? It has taken you a long way? But what way has that been? .500 football? gratz?

 

[99Balloons]

First off, the call was terrible. What I am further confused by is we have the best throwing punter in the league. Certainly if Benny was healthy and available, a throw to him works often. Curious why we simply dont waggle a TE after a block?

Yes, the fake punt was terrible, especially it's in Rams territory.

But if he had pulled the fake punt, I'd prefer Hekker to pull the ruse because he's 100% so far (I may be wrong on this). But it's better if it's a pass fake punt because the defenders have to account for the receivers rather than the runner.

Bottom line is, the Rams offense need to pull out all the creative stops as much as possible because scoring field goals is not gonna cut it.

 

[Picked4td]

Fisher doubled down on his fake punt. But this last sentence.... I just can't even.... that's the way you're wired? To lose? It has taken you a long way? But what way has that been? .500 football? gratz?

Pretty sure by the last 2 sentences he means running fake punts. Sure he hasnt had a winning season, but I dont think anyone can deny that his fake punts helped the team win some games, which im sure he and the team are proud of. Fake punt/fgs are always going to be apart of a Jeff Fisher team, and because they are a gamble, some times they will work and everyone will love him for it, and some times it wont work and everyone will hate him for it. Part of being a gambler is living with the loses, and because hes also won so much from it, dont expect him to change.

 

[Psycho_X]

Pretty sure by the last 2 sentences he means running fake punts. Sure he hasnt had a winning season, but I dont think anyone can deny that his fake punts helped the team win some games, which im sure he and the team are proud of. Fake punt/fgs are always going to be apart of a Jeff Fisher team, and because they are a gamble, some times they will work and everyone will love him for it, and some times it wont work and everyone will hate him for it. Part of being a gambler is living with the loses, and because hes also won so much from it, dont expect him to change.

I don't know, I'd like to get to a point where we're not having to gamble on fakes that most people know are coming now because he's done it so often. Problem with gambling if you're going against a foe they'll tend to see your gambles coming if you always do them the same way. I guess he changed it up by not having Hekker throw it this time but really it was an obvious point in the game where a fake could happen. Any coach worth a crap is going to tell his team to sit on the return there in case of a fake. The past ones seem to happen when we're not desperate towards the end of the game.

I wish he'd start gambling on offense and try to get a touchdown by throwing the ball into the endzone when we're in the red zone. That's a gamble I can get behind. At least there if we don't succeed we maintain field position.