- Joined
- Jun 20, 2010
- Messages
- 35,576
- Name
- The Dude
Rams Head Coach Jeff Fisher
(Opening statement)
“It seems like a long ten days, but it was a good win for us. As we’ve been talking about during the past week there were things that we set out to do, things we needed to do differently. Fortunately, we were able to put those things in motion a little bit. When you have 36 rushes and 34 pass attempts, or whatever it was, and balance that suggests that you’re keeping the ball and you’re creating third down situations that are convertible and so on, so forth. We’ve still got a long way to go. Made some mistakes. Had some opportunities. Need to clean up the special teams stuff. I have not seen it so I can’t comment on the two penalties until I look at it. Out of fairness to (WR) Tavon (Austin) we can’t even get close to any blocks in the backs or holds now because he’s got a chance to make some plays for us. I think we came through it healthy and it’s nice to get a win under our belts.”
(On feelings in the locker room after the game considering the team’s last stretch of games)
“We’ve put that behind us and we looked at this as if it was the home opener and we just had a poor preseason so, we’ve got 11 games left on the schedule.”
(On RB Zac Stacy)
“Zac, I think, he had a long run of 12 (yards) and averaged 5.5 or better. So he’s hitting the hole well…He got some extra stuff, so it was good. Then (RB) Daryl (Richardson), we felt like between the two of them we could change things up. So we got some things done in the run game. I thought the offensive line played pretty well.”
(On S Matt Giordano and S Darien Stewart getting takeaways)
“I mean, ‘Gio’s’ play was huge, but you’ve got to give Rob (DE Robert Quinn) some credit. That was a hurry. Rob was right on the quarterback’s shoulder and affected the throw, for us. Then our guys acted like they knew what to do with it. They got the blocks made and it was a great return. It kind of jumpstarted us after the slow start.”
(On the fumble play involving LB Alec Ogletree and Stewart)
“’Stew’ stripped and recovered, but Ogletree was the one who, obviously, created the opportunity to get the strip because he made a very athletic play on the double team.”
(On the Rams’ front four)
“Well keep in mind, they traded their starting left tackle and moved the right tackle to left tackle and he got hurt, so they had two backup tackles. Everybody has depth issues. In light of that we knew the ball was going to come out quick. They were not going to hold football. I thought, for the most part, with the exception of a couple runs – the run right before the half, which is the one you give up and then the one drive where we were a little loose so to speak in the run game, but you give up some because you don’t want to give up big plays. We’ll look at the tape, but I thought they were active. (DT) Matt (Conrath) couldn’t go and so we had a seven-man rotation.”
(On if there were substitution issues on Jacksonville’s touchdown pass to WR Justin Blackmon)
“Well they’re really good at subbing, but they went with a personnel grouping and then stayed with it. We were not going to change personnel groupings, but I think when the line started out there, we tried to get the call in and then the call didn’t get communicated. So I think as coaches, we have to take that. I’d like to see things communicated. They’re a very, very fast-tempo offense. We told our team this. The perception is that Philly’s got the fast-tempo. They were faster than Philly was in their preseason game. So they’re very up-tempo and so we worked at it all week and we got caught off guard once.”
(On WR Austin Pettis continuing to produce)
“Well he is. That was a great catch. That was a game-winning catch. It kind of put the game out of reach. He kept drives alive for a couple times. Got to his spot. I know we played four quite a bit. ‘Sted’ (WR Stedman Bailey) didn’t get in, but they were all effective for us.”
(On if he got a good look on the blocked punt)
“Yes, I know what happened. That was us. We shouldn’t have been in that situation backed up. We set some things up during the week and probably should’ve waited until about mid-field when we weren’t going to get a rush. Our players didn’t have an opportunity to protect because we basically had three guys outside covering.”
Rams QB Sam Bradford
(On how it felt good to get the offense going)
“Absolutely. Obviously, after the past couple weeks I think it was big for us to come in, get a win, just kind of break that losing streak and get some momentum going into the second quarter of the season.”
(On what the offense needs to do to get a faster start)
“I don’t know. Like I said earlier this week, if you guys have answers, we’re looking for them. But we know that’s going to be big going down the road. We’ve got to be able to come out, start fast, put points on the board and play with a lead and stop playing from behind.”
(On what the takeaway was from the game)
“I thought we did some things really well. Obviously, there’s things that we’re going to need to correct going forward. But I’m really proud of the guys up front and the guys running the ball today. I thought they did a great job. We finally got the run game going and give all the credit to those guys up front. It was a group effort, and the guys running the ball did a great job of running hard and trusting those guys today.”
(On how much it helped to have the running game working today)
“It helped tremendously. Any time you’re having success running the football it really opens up some of the things you can do with play action. Today we still weren’t great with it, but going forward as long as we can continue to run the ball it’s going to help balance things out and keep defenses from attacking, knowing that we’re one-dimensional.”
(On RB Zac Stacy)
“I thought Zac did a great job today. I think he showed everyone what he was about. He ran hard, he ran physical, he ran downhill. I don’t think you could ask for much more from him today.”
(On Head Coach Jeff Fisher telling the team to act as if this was the season opener and forget the past few games)
“Yeah, those first four were just preseason games, I think we’ve played eight preseason games. Any time you win a season opener there’s going to be some things that you do well and some things that you need to improve. We’ll go in tomorrow and look at the film and try to get ready for Houston next week.”
(On what the mood in the locker room was after the win)
“Like you said, after last Thursday night I think everyone in this locker room was pretty frustrated because we know that we’re capable of playing at a much higher level than we did. I think it was a long wait to get back on the field. That’s kind of the problem with playing on Thursday night is there’s a big break. If you lose you have to wait a long time to get back on the field, so I think everyone was excited to get out there today. To pull out the win, I think it’s huge for this group. It’ll give us some confidence going forward.”
(On WR Austin Pettis)
“You can’t say enough good things about Austin Pettis. I’ve said it since OTA’s, I think he’s one of our most dependable. He’s so smart, you can put him all over the field. He knows every route that everyone’s supposed to run and I can trust him because I know that he’s going to see things the right way and he’s going to be in the right spot.”
(On the importance of trust with his receivers)
“Absolutely. You’ve got to have that trust with a wide receiver, a tight end, a back in order to turn things loose. I trust those guys to go make plays, but I would say right now with AP (Pettis) he’s doing so many things so well that I really trust him. I think it showed up today, when we needed to make a play I went to AP and he made a tough catch and it was a really, really big play for us.”
(On if it mattered how good or bad this win was)
“Every week I don’t think it matters how pretty it is or how ugly it is, if you get a win, a win’s a win. When you’re able to come out and do some things like we were able to do today, get the run game going, that’s a huge positive and that’s something we can build on going forward.”
(On how important it is to be able to respond to opponents’ offenses)
“It’s extremely important. I thought there were two really big drives in this game. The one before half where we ate up almost all the clock and walked away with a touchdown, and then that drive at the end where they cut it seven. We go down, I don’t know how much time we took off the clock, answered right back and made it a two touchdown game. That’s all you can do, that’s all you can ask for. I think it says a lot about our guys. Things weren’t always pretty today, but everyone hung in there. No one flinched and we went out there and executed when we needed to. “
(On what he wants to do better offensively)
“Everything. I think just being more efficient. We talked about it a little bit about it earlier, but I think starting fast, getting ourselves going early is something that we really struggle with. But I think if we can come out and get ourselves into a rhythm early, then that’ll really help things going forward.”
(On if he will be rooting for the St. Louis Cardinals today)
“Oh, absolutely.”
Rams RB Zac Stacy
(On his play)
“It was pretty much a good, productive day. It all started up front, but we came into the game – we wanted to establish the run and we got that job done today. It was just overall a good team win for us.”
(On if today was a must-win)
“Most definitely. We wanted it this week. This was the only game that mattered this week.”
(On when he found out he was going to get the start)
“It was pretty much kind of a later in the week thing. All the backs prepared the same way, so whenever the opportunity is called, whenever your name is called you just get the job done.”
(On if he had butterflies today)
“Not really. I’ve been doing it my whole career. Obviously the game is faster, but at the same time, it’s football – just out there to have fun.”
(On how he felt once he got rolling)
“I was able to get into a rhythm a little bit. For the most part, there were a lot of good things that we did up front to open up holes and everything for all of us, so hopefully we can keep the momentum going into next week.”
(On how he thinks his running style helps the team)
“(Head) Coach (Jeff) Fisher, he loves that physical type of running, and that’s one thing that we all emphasize in the running back room. We want to bring that physicality out there on the field, so it was pretty much what we emphasized all week.”
(On how it feels to be a part of jumpstarting the run game)
“It’s definitely a confidence booster for the run game. But, all around, whatever play is called, we want to execute it to the fullest.”
T Joe Barksdale
(On run blocking opposed to pass blocking)
“Run blocking, just like pass blocking has its ups and downs. Run blocking has its good things, good points and bad points. It gives you a chance to impose your will on the other defenders, wear them down a little bit when it is time to throw the ball. It also opens up a wide array of screens, play actions, that kind of things that you can build off the run blocking game. But, most importantly, it gives you a chance to let the guy in front of you know that it’s going to be a long day.”
(On if he feels like they sent a message through their run blocking)
“I believe so, and like I said, not every run was perfect. Not every play was blocked perfectly, but we’re going to come in and correct it, critique ourselves, be our worst critic. But, I think that we took a step in the right direction today. We know we can do some special things in the future.”
(On Coach Jeff Fisher’s postgame message)
“Pretty much what I just said. We didn’t make it easy on ourselves to win the game. There was some things that we did, kind of stepped on our toes couple times, but, at the end of the day, it is hard to win in the league. We’ve got to come in tomorrow ready to work and get better.”
T Jake Long
(On RB Zac Stacy)
“He runs the ball hard and he can run over guys and break away at times, but he did a good job today.”
(On how big it was to get a win)
“Feels great. We needed to get that bad taste out of our mouth from the last few weeks. Haven’t played like we know we can play. It felt good, but we’ve got to keep improving and get better.”
(On the offensive line’s play today)
“Yeah, I think we did some good things. We’ve got to keep improving on staying on guys up front, opening up holes, knocking guys back. When we can establish the run like that, it makes it easier on the passing downs, so we’ve got to keep getting better up front, keep improving as an offense.”
Rams TE Lance Kendricks
(On how important it was to get a win)
"I think it helps our confidence as a team. We've got a young team, so just being able to get out there and just perform well, offense moving the ball, running the ball, it felt good."
(On how important it was to have RB Zac Stacy running well)
"Great. He works hard in practice and he's always prepared. It was good to actually finally get him out there and perform and see him to do well."
(On if they still have improvements to make)
"Yeah, definitely a lot of improvements to make, but I think that was definitely a good start running the ball and passing the ball. I think we're starting to get on track. We're starting to do the fundamental things...less mistakes, less penalties, especially on offense. I don't think we had one (penalty), if many. We're definitely starting to get on the right track."
(On if it was difficult to hear the fans boo)
"It is, but it's the NFL. You've just got to go out there and perform whether they're booing or cheering."
(On how they needed the win)
"We need it to help our confidence, and as a young team, confidence is definitely what we need. I think being able to run the ball and pass the ball, that balance helped us a lot. Less mistakes, we were very disciplined on offense I think today. It was good to be able to move the ball."
(On his dive into the end zone on his touchdown)
"At that point, across the 10-yard line you've just got to get it across. Can't get tackled on the 1 (yard line)."
(On if it took a while to get the offense going)
"Yeah, it did. It took a lot of patience because we knew what we wanted to do. We knew it was there. We had to get everybody on the same page and eventually we did."
Rams WR Austin Pettis
(On the win)
"It was nice. Honestly, we, offensively, just wanted to come out and be more productive than we had been and put some points on the board and fortunately we were able to do that today."
(On if they needed this win)
"Yeah, I think definitely. I think confidence wise just for the offense, to see us come out early in the game and be able to move the ball and put points on the board was something that we had been hoping for the past couple weeks. We finally put it together."
(On if he found the soft spot in the coverage on his first touchdown)
"Yeah. We had run a few different variations of that play. We have very interchangeable guys, so people get moved around and they were really worried about (TE) Lance (Kendricks) on the inside there and that's the position that (TE Jared) Cook is in a lot too. So, a couple of guys didn't pay attention to me as much and (QB) Sam (Bradford) found me pretty quick."
(On his second touchdown)
"That second one, that was just a deep play. We just had straight go's and Coach (Brian) Schottenheimer wanted us to go out and just make a play and gave us the opportunity and Sam threw a great ball to me."
(On if the coverage was good on his second touchdown)
"Yeah, they did. If I didn't catch that, I probably would have been hearing it tomorrow. So, I'm glad we were able to come down with it."
(On if he liked the offense stretching the field today)
"I think definitely. I think the game plan worked well today. The coaches had a very set plan that they had in mind, balancing our offense out with the running and passing. I think we were pretty close today in that and we were pretty successful with both."
Rams DE Chris Long
(On if the team played better this week)
“The tape will tell that. We’re happy with the win, but at the end of the day, we’re going to have to evaluate how we played by looking at the film. Just like you can lose and play well, you can win and not play up to your standards. I’m not saying that’s what happened, but obviously we can get a lot better. I’m looking forward to fixing whatever problems we may have and playing a really good team this week.”
(On if the team needed this win)
“We needed a win. We needed that really bad, to get out here and score more points than them at the end of the day. It’s not easy winning games in the NFL, especially with some of the issues we’ve had in the past month. It’s nice to get the win.”
(On how the defense played)
“It can be a lot better, but we won the football game. I’ll take the win and some mistakes any day. We’ll sit here tomorrow and hash out and see what we can get better at. There are a lot of things we can get better at, and we’re going to have a great test this week. That’s the exciting thing about it. And hats off to Jacksonville, they played really hard and they’re a good football team, but we ended up getting the win.”
Rams S Matt Giordano
(On if his interception return for touchdown was the spark the team needed)
“It definitely was a play I felt like we needed as a team. We just needed to get a spark going, and I’m thankful enough that I was the one to spark it off. Again, there’s ten other guys on that field so I can’t take any credit. They did their job blocking after I caught the ball. It was a great team execution play.”
(On playing all game after not getting much playing time)
“You can practice all you want, or you can get the mental reps, but you don’t get that in so you get the physical reps. That’s what I’m thinking right now as I get playing time on the defense is to get physical reps, still fight off that rust, and keep going.”
(On the win)
“It’s great. Like I said before, any victory in the NFL is great. It just takes a snowflake to start an avalanche so hopefully we can keep this thing going.”
(On if he felt pressure to make a play)
“I really didn’t put that pressure on me. It was there, and it was easy because my teammates were blocking for me. They did a great job blocking for me. If you look at the end of the play, I thought I saw two Rams, they got that last block for me so I could just stroll into the end zone. Like I said before, it was a great team execution play that we ran and hopefully there’ll be more to come.”
Rams DE Robert Quinn
(On the defense’s game plan)
“(RB) Maurice Jones-Drew is one of, if not the best guys on the team. We tried to slow him down as much as possible. We knew (WR) Justin Blackmon was coming back so we wanted to shut him down. He made a few plays, (and) Maurice broke a few runs but we kept it to a minimum and made the big plays and big stops when we needed to. The offense played a heck of a game today, so we want to give a lot of credit to them, of course.”
(On the defense’s play)
“We still made a lot of mistakes, We still won the game, so all we can do is get better and make corrections to what we did wrong. All we can do is improve from there. ”
Jacksonville Jaguars Head Coach Gus Bradley
(On team injuries)
“I will get you caught up to date on some of the injuries that took place. (OT) Luke Joeckel has a high ankle fracture which means he will be out for the season. (QB) Blaine Gabbert had a hamstring strain and could no longer go in the game that is why we saw the substitution with (QB) Chad Henne. (TE) Allen Reisner had a MSL sprain, he came back and finished playing, but we will look at that once he gets in the training room.”
(On the game)
“The tale of this game was the turnovers. We had two interceptions and a fumble, they were critical to the game. I believe we also had two more fumbles but we got those back. There are so many times when these games come back to the small security of making good decisions with the ball. We will continue to emphasize that. I thought initially the defense played well in the beginning part of the game. The first half we came in and our third down percentage…., but we just couldn’t sustain it. At the end we didn’t get a stop when we needed to. The situation when we were inside the five (yard line), we had five opportunities I believe in there to get the game within seven. To not convert on that situation is disappointing. It is disappointing when you have five opportunities. We will take a look at all of those things. We are trying to define ourselves as a culture of excellence and that is what we are going to continue to strive to be. We aren’t there yet, and it shows up on the game field. That is our objective, that is what we are trying to do and we will continue to work towards that.”
(On if the Luke Joeckel injury was a ‘clean break’)
“I believe they took the x-ray a little bit lower and they didn’t see it, but then they took a little higher x-ray and they saw it. Everything for his career is good.”
(On how big of a loss it is to lose Joeckel)
“He is a good player, but guys will step up. (OL) Cameron Bradfield did a nice job. We will take a look at it on film to give you and accurate assessment of his play. It would be unfair to Cam and to everyone, so we will take a look at it. But for him (Bradfield) to jump in there and play , both him and (G) Austin Pasztor, to go up against two really good rushers, they looked pretty solid.”
(On switching tackles on every other series)
“We were looking at that. I don’t know how well it played out, but we knew that we would have them both play.”
(On the wrist injury of Gabbert)
“He did get hit in the wrist, but it was his non-throwing hand. He was ok with that.”
(On the play of QB Chad Henne)
“Blaine came out right away and got the long pass to (WR) Justin Blackmon and we go in with our opportunity there. Chad came in and got a big pass in to Justin again and they rolled coverage and we gained an explosive play off of it. They both had their moments. We just need the consistency of making good decisions. We just have to continue to train. The challenge is for our guys to play with some freedom. We have to find that balance, where we are making good decisions but yet we have freedom to make plays.”
(On the decision to take the points off the board)
“I thought that when we had that situation, I think we were down by 14 at the time, I just thought for us the in that situation, regarding momentum it would give us an opportunity to score.”
(The blow of loosing Joeckel and Gabbert)
“I thought the guys bounced back from that pretty good. On the sidelines the demeanor was great. I think that with our team you can sense that, ‘Why do we do these things….why do we have a penalty on Ace Sanders’ long return, why are we doing those things.’ It comes back to good decision making. At times with younger players you may have that. We are five games in now, and bad decisions have to be taken out of our game regardless of age.”
(On the Rams scoring 17 straight points and the Jaguars not being able to stop the bleeding and obtain momentum)
“We bounce back. You look at the scores throughout the league and they are high scorers for the most part. As a team you have to have the ability to bounce back. When you are down seven or ten, it doesn’t matter, you have to continue to battle and fight back. I felt that from our guys, but again the decisions and penalties that you can’t have in a game.”
(On Gabbert being the starter next week)
“I will take a look at his injury.”
(Opening statement)
“It seems like a long ten days, but it was a good win for us. As we’ve been talking about during the past week there were things that we set out to do, things we needed to do differently. Fortunately, we were able to put those things in motion a little bit. When you have 36 rushes and 34 pass attempts, or whatever it was, and balance that suggests that you’re keeping the ball and you’re creating third down situations that are convertible and so on, so forth. We’ve still got a long way to go. Made some mistakes. Had some opportunities. Need to clean up the special teams stuff. I have not seen it so I can’t comment on the two penalties until I look at it. Out of fairness to (WR) Tavon (Austin) we can’t even get close to any blocks in the backs or holds now because he’s got a chance to make some plays for us. I think we came through it healthy and it’s nice to get a win under our belts.”
(On feelings in the locker room after the game considering the team’s last stretch of games)
“We’ve put that behind us and we looked at this as if it was the home opener and we just had a poor preseason so, we’ve got 11 games left on the schedule.”
(On RB Zac Stacy)
“Zac, I think, he had a long run of 12 (yards) and averaged 5.5 or better. So he’s hitting the hole well…He got some extra stuff, so it was good. Then (RB) Daryl (Richardson), we felt like between the two of them we could change things up. So we got some things done in the run game. I thought the offensive line played pretty well.”
(On S Matt Giordano and S Darien Stewart getting takeaways)
“I mean, ‘Gio’s’ play was huge, but you’ve got to give Rob (DE Robert Quinn) some credit. That was a hurry. Rob was right on the quarterback’s shoulder and affected the throw, for us. Then our guys acted like they knew what to do with it. They got the blocks made and it was a great return. It kind of jumpstarted us after the slow start.”
(On the fumble play involving LB Alec Ogletree and Stewart)
“’Stew’ stripped and recovered, but Ogletree was the one who, obviously, created the opportunity to get the strip because he made a very athletic play on the double team.”
(On the Rams’ front four)
“Well keep in mind, they traded their starting left tackle and moved the right tackle to left tackle and he got hurt, so they had two backup tackles. Everybody has depth issues. In light of that we knew the ball was going to come out quick. They were not going to hold football. I thought, for the most part, with the exception of a couple runs – the run right before the half, which is the one you give up and then the one drive where we were a little loose so to speak in the run game, but you give up some because you don’t want to give up big plays. We’ll look at the tape, but I thought they were active. (DT) Matt (Conrath) couldn’t go and so we had a seven-man rotation.”
(On if there were substitution issues on Jacksonville’s touchdown pass to WR Justin Blackmon)
“Well they’re really good at subbing, but they went with a personnel grouping and then stayed with it. We were not going to change personnel groupings, but I think when the line started out there, we tried to get the call in and then the call didn’t get communicated. So I think as coaches, we have to take that. I’d like to see things communicated. They’re a very, very fast-tempo offense. We told our team this. The perception is that Philly’s got the fast-tempo. They were faster than Philly was in their preseason game. So they’re very up-tempo and so we worked at it all week and we got caught off guard once.”
(On WR Austin Pettis continuing to produce)
“Well he is. That was a great catch. That was a game-winning catch. It kind of put the game out of reach. He kept drives alive for a couple times. Got to his spot. I know we played four quite a bit. ‘Sted’ (WR Stedman Bailey) didn’t get in, but they were all effective for us.”
(On if he got a good look on the blocked punt)
“Yes, I know what happened. That was us. We shouldn’t have been in that situation backed up. We set some things up during the week and probably should’ve waited until about mid-field when we weren’t going to get a rush. Our players didn’t have an opportunity to protect because we basically had three guys outside covering.”
Rams QB Sam Bradford
(On how it felt good to get the offense going)
“Absolutely. Obviously, after the past couple weeks I think it was big for us to come in, get a win, just kind of break that losing streak and get some momentum going into the second quarter of the season.”
(On what the offense needs to do to get a faster start)
“I don’t know. Like I said earlier this week, if you guys have answers, we’re looking for them. But we know that’s going to be big going down the road. We’ve got to be able to come out, start fast, put points on the board and play with a lead and stop playing from behind.”
(On what the takeaway was from the game)
“I thought we did some things really well. Obviously, there’s things that we’re going to need to correct going forward. But I’m really proud of the guys up front and the guys running the ball today. I thought they did a great job. We finally got the run game going and give all the credit to those guys up front. It was a group effort, and the guys running the ball did a great job of running hard and trusting those guys today.”
(On how much it helped to have the running game working today)
“It helped tremendously. Any time you’re having success running the football it really opens up some of the things you can do with play action. Today we still weren’t great with it, but going forward as long as we can continue to run the ball it’s going to help balance things out and keep defenses from attacking, knowing that we’re one-dimensional.”
(On RB Zac Stacy)
“I thought Zac did a great job today. I think he showed everyone what he was about. He ran hard, he ran physical, he ran downhill. I don’t think you could ask for much more from him today.”
(On Head Coach Jeff Fisher telling the team to act as if this was the season opener and forget the past few games)
“Yeah, those first four were just preseason games, I think we’ve played eight preseason games. Any time you win a season opener there’s going to be some things that you do well and some things that you need to improve. We’ll go in tomorrow and look at the film and try to get ready for Houston next week.”
(On what the mood in the locker room was after the win)
“Like you said, after last Thursday night I think everyone in this locker room was pretty frustrated because we know that we’re capable of playing at a much higher level than we did. I think it was a long wait to get back on the field. That’s kind of the problem with playing on Thursday night is there’s a big break. If you lose you have to wait a long time to get back on the field, so I think everyone was excited to get out there today. To pull out the win, I think it’s huge for this group. It’ll give us some confidence going forward.”
(On WR Austin Pettis)
“You can’t say enough good things about Austin Pettis. I’ve said it since OTA’s, I think he’s one of our most dependable. He’s so smart, you can put him all over the field. He knows every route that everyone’s supposed to run and I can trust him because I know that he’s going to see things the right way and he’s going to be in the right spot.”
(On the importance of trust with his receivers)
“Absolutely. You’ve got to have that trust with a wide receiver, a tight end, a back in order to turn things loose. I trust those guys to go make plays, but I would say right now with AP (Pettis) he’s doing so many things so well that I really trust him. I think it showed up today, when we needed to make a play I went to AP and he made a tough catch and it was a really, really big play for us.”
(On if it mattered how good or bad this win was)
“Every week I don’t think it matters how pretty it is or how ugly it is, if you get a win, a win’s a win. When you’re able to come out and do some things like we were able to do today, get the run game going, that’s a huge positive and that’s something we can build on going forward.”
(On how important it is to be able to respond to opponents’ offenses)
“It’s extremely important. I thought there were two really big drives in this game. The one before half where we ate up almost all the clock and walked away with a touchdown, and then that drive at the end where they cut it seven. We go down, I don’t know how much time we took off the clock, answered right back and made it a two touchdown game. That’s all you can do, that’s all you can ask for. I think it says a lot about our guys. Things weren’t always pretty today, but everyone hung in there. No one flinched and we went out there and executed when we needed to. “
(On what he wants to do better offensively)
“Everything. I think just being more efficient. We talked about it a little bit about it earlier, but I think starting fast, getting ourselves going early is something that we really struggle with. But I think if we can come out and get ourselves into a rhythm early, then that’ll really help things going forward.”
(On if he will be rooting for the St. Louis Cardinals today)
“Oh, absolutely.”
Rams RB Zac Stacy
(On his play)
“It was pretty much a good, productive day. It all started up front, but we came into the game – we wanted to establish the run and we got that job done today. It was just overall a good team win for us.”
(On if today was a must-win)
“Most definitely. We wanted it this week. This was the only game that mattered this week.”
(On when he found out he was going to get the start)
“It was pretty much kind of a later in the week thing. All the backs prepared the same way, so whenever the opportunity is called, whenever your name is called you just get the job done.”
(On if he had butterflies today)
“Not really. I’ve been doing it my whole career. Obviously the game is faster, but at the same time, it’s football – just out there to have fun.”
(On how he felt once he got rolling)
“I was able to get into a rhythm a little bit. For the most part, there were a lot of good things that we did up front to open up holes and everything for all of us, so hopefully we can keep the momentum going into next week.”
(On how he thinks his running style helps the team)
“(Head) Coach (Jeff) Fisher, he loves that physical type of running, and that’s one thing that we all emphasize in the running back room. We want to bring that physicality out there on the field, so it was pretty much what we emphasized all week.”
(On how it feels to be a part of jumpstarting the run game)
“It’s definitely a confidence booster for the run game. But, all around, whatever play is called, we want to execute it to the fullest.”
T Joe Barksdale
(On run blocking opposed to pass blocking)
“Run blocking, just like pass blocking has its ups and downs. Run blocking has its good things, good points and bad points. It gives you a chance to impose your will on the other defenders, wear them down a little bit when it is time to throw the ball. It also opens up a wide array of screens, play actions, that kind of things that you can build off the run blocking game. But, most importantly, it gives you a chance to let the guy in front of you know that it’s going to be a long day.”
(On if he feels like they sent a message through their run blocking)
“I believe so, and like I said, not every run was perfect. Not every play was blocked perfectly, but we’re going to come in and correct it, critique ourselves, be our worst critic. But, I think that we took a step in the right direction today. We know we can do some special things in the future.”
(On Coach Jeff Fisher’s postgame message)
“Pretty much what I just said. We didn’t make it easy on ourselves to win the game. There was some things that we did, kind of stepped on our toes couple times, but, at the end of the day, it is hard to win in the league. We’ve got to come in tomorrow ready to work and get better.”
T Jake Long
(On RB Zac Stacy)
“He runs the ball hard and he can run over guys and break away at times, but he did a good job today.”
(On how big it was to get a win)
“Feels great. We needed to get that bad taste out of our mouth from the last few weeks. Haven’t played like we know we can play. It felt good, but we’ve got to keep improving and get better.”
(On the offensive line’s play today)
“Yeah, I think we did some good things. We’ve got to keep improving on staying on guys up front, opening up holes, knocking guys back. When we can establish the run like that, it makes it easier on the passing downs, so we’ve got to keep getting better up front, keep improving as an offense.”
Rams TE Lance Kendricks
(On how important it was to get a win)
"I think it helps our confidence as a team. We've got a young team, so just being able to get out there and just perform well, offense moving the ball, running the ball, it felt good."
(On how important it was to have RB Zac Stacy running well)
"Great. He works hard in practice and he's always prepared. It was good to actually finally get him out there and perform and see him to do well."
(On if they still have improvements to make)
"Yeah, definitely a lot of improvements to make, but I think that was definitely a good start running the ball and passing the ball. I think we're starting to get on track. We're starting to do the fundamental things...less mistakes, less penalties, especially on offense. I don't think we had one (penalty), if many. We're definitely starting to get on the right track."
(On if it was difficult to hear the fans boo)
"It is, but it's the NFL. You've just got to go out there and perform whether they're booing or cheering."
(On how they needed the win)
"We need it to help our confidence, and as a young team, confidence is definitely what we need. I think being able to run the ball and pass the ball, that balance helped us a lot. Less mistakes, we were very disciplined on offense I think today. It was good to be able to move the ball."
(On his dive into the end zone on his touchdown)
"At that point, across the 10-yard line you've just got to get it across. Can't get tackled on the 1 (yard line)."
(On if it took a while to get the offense going)
"Yeah, it did. It took a lot of patience because we knew what we wanted to do. We knew it was there. We had to get everybody on the same page and eventually we did."
Rams WR Austin Pettis
(On the win)
"It was nice. Honestly, we, offensively, just wanted to come out and be more productive than we had been and put some points on the board and fortunately we were able to do that today."
(On if they needed this win)
"Yeah, I think definitely. I think confidence wise just for the offense, to see us come out early in the game and be able to move the ball and put points on the board was something that we had been hoping for the past couple weeks. We finally put it together."
(On if he found the soft spot in the coverage on his first touchdown)
"Yeah. We had run a few different variations of that play. We have very interchangeable guys, so people get moved around and they were really worried about (TE) Lance (Kendricks) on the inside there and that's the position that (TE Jared) Cook is in a lot too. So, a couple of guys didn't pay attention to me as much and (QB) Sam (Bradford) found me pretty quick."
(On his second touchdown)
"That second one, that was just a deep play. We just had straight go's and Coach (Brian) Schottenheimer wanted us to go out and just make a play and gave us the opportunity and Sam threw a great ball to me."
(On if the coverage was good on his second touchdown)
"Yeah, they did. If I didn't catch that, I probably would have been hearing it tomorrow. So, I'm glad we were able to come down with it."
(On if he liked the offense stretching the field today)
"I think definitely. I think the game plan worked well today. The coaches had a very set plan that they had in mind, balancing our offense out with the running and passing. I think we were pretty close today in that and we were pretty successful with both."
Rams DE Chris Long
(On if the team played better this week)
“The tape will tell that. We’re happy with the win, but at the end of the day, we’re going to have to evaluate how we played by looking at the film. Just like you can lose and play well, you can win and not play up to your standards. I’m not saying that’s what happened, but obviously we can get a lot better. I’m looking forward to fixing whatever problems we may have and playing a really good team this week.”
(On if the team needed this win)
“We needed a win. We needed that really bad, to get out here and score more points than them at the end of the day. It’s not easy winning games in the NFL, especially with some of the issues we’ve had in the past month. It’s nice to get the win.”
(On how the defense played)
“It can be a lot better, but we won the football game. I’ll take the win and some mistakes any day. We’ll sit here tomorrow and hash out and see what we can get better at. There are a lot of things we can get better at, and we’re going to have a great test this week. That’s the exciting thing about it. And hats off to Jacksonville, they played really hard and they’re a good football team, but we ended up getting the win.”
Rams S Matt Giordano
(On if his interception return for touchdown was the spark the team needed)
“It definitely was a play I felt like we needed as a team. We just needed to get a spark going, and I’m thankful enough that I was the one to spark it off. Again, there’s ten other guys on that field so I can’t take any credit. They did their job blocking after I caught the ball. It was a great team execution play.”
(On playing all game after not getting much playing time)
“You can practice all you want, or you can get the mental reps, but you don’t get that in so you get the physical reps. That’s what I’m thinking right now as I get playing time on the defense is to get physical reps, still fight off that rust, and keep going.”
(On the win)
“It’s great. Like I said before, any victory in the NFL is great. It just takes a snowflake to start an avalanche so hopefully we can keep this thing going.”
(On if he felt pressure to make a play)
“I really didn’t put that pressure on me. It was there, and it was easy because my teammates were blocking for me. They did a great job blocking for me. If you look at the end of the play, I thought I saw two Rams, they got that last block for me so I could just stroll into the end zone. Like I said before, it was a great team execution play that we ran and hopefully there’ll be more to come.”
Rams DE Robert Quinn
(On the defense’s game plan)
“(RB) Maurice Jones-Drew is one of, if not the best guys on the team. We tried to slow him down as much as possible. We knew (WR) Justin Blackmon was coming back so we wanted to shut him down. He made a few plays, (and) Maurice broke a few runs but we kept it to a minimum and made the big plays and big stops when we needed to. The offense played a heck of a game today, so we want to give a lot of credit to them, of course.”
(On the defense’s play)
“We still made a lot of mistakes, We still won the game, so all we can do is get better and make corrections to what we did wrong. All we can do is improve from there. ”
Jacksonville Jaguars Head Coach Gus Bradley
(On team injuries)
“I will get you caught up to date on some of the injuries that took place. (OT) Luke Joeckel has a high ankle fracture which means he will be out for the season. (QB) Blaine Gabbert had a hamstring strain and could no longer go in the game that is why we saw the substitution with (QB) Chad Henne. (TE) Allen Reisner had a MSL sprain, he came back and finished playing, but we will look at that once he gets in the training room.”
(On the game)
“The tale of this game was the turnovers. We had two interceptions and a fumble, they were critical to the game. I believe we also had two more fumbles but we got those back. There are so many times when these games come back to the small security of making good decisions with the ball. We will continue to emphasize that. I thought initially the defense played well in the beginning part of the game. The first half we came in and our third down percentage…., but we just couldn’t sustain it. At the end we didn’t get a stop when we needed to. The situation when we were inside the five (yard line), we had five opportunities I believe in there to get the game within seven. To not convert on that situation is disappointing. It is disappointing when you have five opportunities. We will take a look at all of those things. We are trying to define ourselves as a culture of excellence and that is what we are going to continue to strive to be. We aren’t there yet, and it shows up on the game field. That is our objective, that is what we are trying to do and we will continue to work towards that.”
(On if the Luke Joeckel injury was a ‘clean break’)
“I believe they took the x-ray a little bit lower and they didn’t see it, but then they took a little higher x-ray and they saw it. Everything for his career is good.”
(On how big of a loss it is to lose Joeckel)
“He is a good player, but guys will step up. (OL) Cameron Bradfield did a nice job. We will take a look at it on film to give you and accurate assessment of his play. It would be unfair to Cam and to everyone, so we will take a look at it. But for him (Bradfield) to jump in there and play , both him and (G) Austin Pasztor, to go up against two really good rushers, they looked pretty solid.”
(On switching tackles on every other series)
“We were looking at that. I don’t know how well it played out, but we knew that we would have them both play.”
(On the wrist injury of Gabbert)
“He did get hit in the wrist, but it was his non-throwing hand. He was ok with that.”
(On the play of QB Chad Henne)
“Blaine came out right away and got the long pass to (WR) Justin Blackmon and we go in with our opportunity there. Chad came in and got a big pass in to Justin again and they rolled coverage and we gained an explosive play off of it. They both had their moments. We just need the consistency of making good decisions. We just have to continue to train. The challenge is for our guys to play with some freedom. We have to find that balance, where we are making good decisions but yet we have freedom to make plays.”
(On the decision to take the points off the board)
“I thought that when we had that situation, I think we were down by 14 at the time, I just thought for us the in that situation, regarding momentum it would give us an opportunity to score.”
(The blow of loosing Joeckel and Gabbert)
“I thought the guys bounced back from that pretty good. On the sidelines the demeanor was great. I think that with our team you can sense that, ‘Why do we do these things….why do we have a penalty on Ace Sanders’ long return, why are we doing those things.’ It comes back to good decision making. At times with younger players you may have that. We are five games in now, and bad decisions have to be taken out of our game regardless of age.”
(On the Rams scoring 17 straight points and the Jaguars not being able to stop the bleeding and obtain momentum)
“We bounce back. You look at the scores throughout the league and they are high scorers for the most part. As a team you have to have the ability to bounce back. When you are down seven or ten, it doesn’t matter, you have to continue to battle and fight back. I felt that from our guys, but again the decisions and penalties that you can’t have in a game.”
(On Gabbert being the starter next week)
“I will take a look at his injury.”