Rams working fundamentals on Wednesday/Wagoner

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RamBill

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Rams working fundamentals on Wednesday
By Nick Wagoner

http://espn.go.com/blog/st-louis-rams/post/_/id/12063/rams-working-fundamentals-on-wednesday

EARTH CITY, Mo. -- The St. Louis Rams were technically back on the practice field on Tuesday for the first time since the disappointing 34-31 loss to the Dallas Cowboys when they went through a corrections period.

On what would normally have been their day off, Rams coach Jeff Fisher offered an amusing description of how the team felt about extending the usual 24-hour cooling off period for a full 48 hours before Wednesday's actual practice.

"(We) came on the field, worked some things out, they were a little fussy yesterday as you can imagine," Fisher said. "But they’re back, they got back today, we had a really good session."

Having apparently moved past the fussy part of the week, the Rams turned their attention to working on things like fundamentals and technique in Wednesday's practice. In what is typically known as self-scouting time, Fisher made it a point to offer a longer description of what he wanted to accomplish Wednesday afternoon during this bye week.

"We are looking at some things we need to do better and we’re also working some of our younger players into practice," Fisher said. "What happens typically is you get going and the backups don’t get the reps so this bye week is a good time to get them some reps. This week basically is about guys that need to rehab get to rehab, guys that need to recover get to recover and then guys that need the reps and technique work get that."

Of course, the Rams have and will continue to begin taking a look at their next opponent, the Philadelphia Eagles, this week. That matchup is scheduled for Oct. 5.

The Rams were without four players for Wednesday's practice, none of whose absence came as a surprise. Cornerback Trumaine Johnson (knee), center Barrett Jones (back) and cornerback Brandon McGee (foot) did not participate. Jones did do some running on the side, however. Receiver Tavon Austin (knee) did some work in the individual drills.

Fisher said the Week 4 bye is the earliest one he can remember in his career but said he never minds getting the chance to get back to basics.

"You make the most of it," Fisher said. "We’ve got an opportunity to get some guys back. Hopefully some of the guys, the Tavons and those guys that we have been without the last week or so will be able to get back on the practice field this week."
 

RamBill

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  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #2

Rams back to basics in bye week practice

• By Jim Thomas

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/foot...cle_7329b381-21f5-57db-9b3c-61cac3be450d.html

The emphasis was on technique, fundamentals, and getting reps for backups during Wednesday's bye week practice, with some early preparation work for Philadelphia mixed in.

The players were off Monday but came in for corrections Tuesday. Usually it's the other way around.

"They were a little fussy (Tuesday) as you can imagine," coach Jeff Fisher said Wednesday. "But they're back. We got back today. We had a good session."

The team returns to practice Thursday, then as mandated by the collective bargaining agreement, the players get four consecutive days off _ Friday through Monday.

Not practicing Wednesday were cornerbacks Trumaine Johnson (knee) and Brandon McGee (foot). Center/guard Barrett Jones (back) did some work on the side. Wide receiver/punt returner Tavon Austin (knee) did some individual work.

The Rams' next game is Oct. 5 at Philadelphia.
 

Alan

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Again, fundamentals is what you concentrate on during TC and the preseason IMO.
 

Selassie I

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Jordan used to say that you can NEVER stop working on the fundamentals. All the way up to his final year, he always challenged himself to improve his technique and fundamentals,,, and if anyone was at the top of his game, Michael certainly was.

We've got an extra young team, the TCs have been shortened dramatically, and practice time has now been limited as well. Fish needs to use all the coaching time he can find to speed up and improve this team's development. Too bad they are forced to give the players 4 days off in a row during the bye week.
 

Alan

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Good points @Selassie I and all of them spot on. I'm mainly referring to the increased emphasis on learning how to tackle now instead of before the season started.
 

MTRamsFan

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When I coached, we called them EDDs... "Every Day Drills." It is so vital to the success of a team to work on them everyday.
 

Selassie I

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Good points @Selassie I and all of them spot on. I'm mainly referring to the increased emphasis on learning how to tackle now instead of before the season started.

Come on now,,, you aren't saying that you think they didn't work on tackling before the season started are you? I gotta believe they worked on it back then too.

Tackling in all levels of football has really gone to shit these days. Guys don't wrap up anymore,,, I see it in every game I watch these days,,, a defender has the perfect angle on the ball carrier, he comes in a gives a shoulder blast with no attempt to wrap up at all,,, and the ball carrier bounces off and gains big yards. Pisses me off.

You can't put this all on Fish and Co. I know you're not Fish's biggest fan, but you should give him props for working on the fine points of the game that have been forsaken throughout the very young careers of his team.
 

Alan

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Selassie I thinking I'm overly critical of the Fish:
Come on now,,, you aren't saying that you think they didn't work on tackling before the season started are you? I gotta believe they worked on it back then too.

Tackling in all levels of football has really gone to crap these days. Guys don't wrap up anymore,,, I see it in every game I watch these days,,, a defender has the perfect angle on the ball carrier, he comes in a gives a shoulder blast with no attempt to wrap up at all,,, and the ball carrier bounces off and gains big yards. Pisses me off.

You can't put this all on Fish and Co. I know you're not Fish's biggest fan, but you should give him props for working on the fine points of the game that have been forsaken throughout the very young careers of his team.
I'm sure they did work on it earlier but let me ask you this, when do you stop working on the fundamentals and move on to the "fine points of the game"? Moving to the finer points of the game prior to learning the fundamentals is self defeating IMO.

Oh yeah!

Am I being a little too hard on Fish because I have never liked him? Maybe.:cautious: I admit NOTHING! :LOL:

In my own defense, I am/was totally against the hiring of Williams too and I've yet to say anything bad about him. Although I have agreed with some negative things others have said about him. :p
 

ram007

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Jordan used to say that you can NEVER stop working on the fundamentals. All the way up to his final year, he always challenged himself to improve his technique and fundamentals,,, and if anyone was at the top of his game, Michael certainly was.

We've got an extra young team, the TCs have been shortened dramatically, and practice time has now been limited as well. Fish needs to use all the coaching time he can find to speed up and improve this team's development. Too bad they are forced to give the players 4 days off in a row during the bye week.

I am not feeling bad that players are getting rest for 4 days during bye week and not available to learn "fundamentals" during 4th week of a season in 16 game schedule. They should have been coached to do it already. :(
 

209RamsFan

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You can blame the garbage tackling techniques on Gooodell....teams are NOT allowed a certain amount of fulll contact days....which is effing garbage.
 

Alan

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209RamsFan with a questionable statement:
You can blame the garbage tackling techniques on Gooodell....teams are NOT allowed a certain amount of fulll contact days....which is effing garbage.
Are you sure of those facts 209? I'm like 90% sure that that was at the behest of the NFLPA. Maybe 95% sure. That's what I remember from the negotiations. I'm pretty sure that few if any of the teams liked that which means Goodell wouldn't like that.

Anybody else remember this or have some links?
 

Selassie I

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I'm sure they did work on it earlier but let me ask you this, when do you stop working on the fundamentals and move on to the "fine points of the game"? Moving to the finer points of the game prior to learning the fundamentals is self defeating IMO.

Oh yeah!

Am I being a little too hard on Fish because I have never liked him? Maybe.:cautious: I admit NOTHING! :LOL:

In my own defense, I am/was totally against the hiring of Williams too and I've yet to say anything bad about him. Although I have agreed with some negative things others have said about him. :p


I don't think you should ever stop working on fundamentals. Ever. And something tells me that Fish and Co. don't either. I gotta believe that they utilize their practice field time to work on the basics every chance they get. Meanwhile,,, in the meeting and film rooms... the "fine points of the game" are being reviewed every week.
 

Thordaddy

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Are you sure of those facts 209? I'm like 90% sure that that was at the behest of the NFLPA. Maybe 95% sure. That's what I remember from the negotiations. I'm pretty sure that few if any of the teams liked that which means Goodell wouldn't like that.

Anybody else remember this or have some links?
I'm sure you are correct there Al, the union,all unions basically negotiate for shorter work weeks and more dues paying members, it's only logical and in their best interest,if they weren't doing that they wouldn't be doing their job.
BTW since we have issues with tackling ,going back and working on fundamentals is the only way to do anything about it now so what happened back in training camp is moot, we need to improve those things.
Not only Jordan but Tiger Woods worked daily on fundamentals ,Albert Pujols hit off a T everyday, Lombardi was correct "you block better you tackle better you win" ,because every play depends on executing those skills.
 

Alan

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Selassie I losing sight of something critical:
I don't think you should ever stop working on fundamentals. Ever.
And something tells me that Fish and Co. don't either. I gotta believe that they utilize their practice field time to work on the basics every chance they get. Meanwhile,,, in the meeting and film rooms... the "fine points of the game" are being reviewed every week.
Oh I agree with that. That's not the subject though is it? We're not talking about ongoing training , we're talking about a sudden emphasis on fundamentals or we wouldn't even be talking about this. What's worse and the reason behind my rant, is the obvious need for that. Yeah, after 3 games. That "a day late and a dollar short" seems to be a recurring theme. How long did it take him last year to decide Walton needed help? 4 games? Sound familiar?