TRANSCRIPT: Rams Head Coach Jeff Fisher, 12-16-13

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Rams Head Coach Jeff Fisher – News Conference – December 16, 2013

(On RB Zac Stacy returning after his injury in the first quarter)
“He got a hip contusion, so he just went inside, had some treatment, then came back out – settled it down.”

(On Stacy’s status for this week)
“He’s going to be a little sore this week. Probably won’t practice Wednesday, but he came right back and played pretty well.”

(On if he was surprised that Stacy returned after being announced as a questionable return)
“No, guys have come back off of that. They can come back off of a hip pointer.”

(On if anyone affected K Garrett Hartley’s missed field goal)
“Yeah, (DT Michael) Brockers got a finger on it.”

(On if it was the first or second missed field goal by Hartley)
“He (Brockers) got a finger on the first one. It’s hard to tell on the second. I think it was just a result of the element of pressure because we’ve been pressuring pretty good sometimes. The kicking, the snap, the hold and the approach operation is affected by pressure, and I think they tried to hurry it a little bit.”

(On QB Kellen Clemens’ running ability)
“I thought it was good. He got down when he needed to and drew a penalty, so it was good. We’ll have to keep that in the game plan.”

(General remarks)
“Overall offensively: no turnovers, no sacks and no penalties. And we were 50 percent on third down. We ran the ball, ran it for over 100 yards, and that’s a winning formula. So it was good to get back to that. Defensively, really challenged by their passing game, their run game early. I thought we made some good adjustments. Our rush affected their approach and that gave us a chance. They gave us a chance, did not make shots down field and he’s (Saints QB Drew Breees) a big play guy down the field. Because they were blocking their way out of the backfield, they couldn’t get people deep down field, so our rush really had an impact on the ball game. I thought the whole defensive line played very well. When you’re forcing him to take check downs and now there’s frustration there because they weren’t tackling the check downs as well. But when Drew Brees is dumping the ball off to the back underneath, you’re having a good day defensively. And I thought (DE) Rob (Quinn) played very, very well. His caused fumble is probably one of the better defensive plays I’ve seen in my career – just very, very impressive. To get nudged by the tight end between the tackle and the guard inside, go down – the guard pushed him to the ground – crawl back up and knock the ball out was indicative of the type of athlete that he is. It was very impressive.”

(On if he thinks Quinn should receive consideration for defensive player of the year)
“I don’t know of any other defensive player that’s playing as consistently as well as he is. There’s a lot of good defensive players in the league, but I definitely believe he should be considered for that. Ask Drew Brees.”

(On how the team can play more consistently)
“Again, every opponent’s different. We’re playing with effort. The team plays with great effort and enthusiasm and emotion and plays hard in all three phases. It’s just we fell into something good yesterday with…Rob (Quinn) started off with the pressure. Their first play of the game, he affects that pass and (S) T.J. (McDonald) makes the interception and we capitalize. Then it just went from there. We got a lot of good things out of some young players yesterday. It was good to see young guys step up. ‘A.P.’, (WR Austin Pettis) for example, hasn’t been targeted very often and then makes some big plays in the first half. ‘Sted’ (WR Stedman Bailey) makes plays. Watching ‘Tree’ (LB Alec Ogletree) just getting better and ‘Jenks’’ (CB Janoris Jenkins) effort was outstanding – outstanding effort coming back off his little issue that he had.”

(On how Jenkins has progressed this season)
“He’s definitely improving, no doubt. Now, he doesn’t have the four interception returns for touchdowns that he had last year, but play-in and play-out, week-in and week-out, he’s definitely improved significantly over last year.”

(On the Saints testing Jenkins a lot late in the game)
“Yes, they did. It was an outstanding effort.”

(On if Jenkins’ competitiveness stood out to them when they evaluated him and drafted him)
“Yeah, that’s one of the reasons we drafted him because he just battles. He loves the game. He pays attention to the game. He learns the game. It’s important to him. He’s a great practice player, prepares and there’s nothing on the field that he doesn’t think he can’t do.”

(On Jenkins’ ability to recover and move on to the next play if he gives up a big gain)
“He’s got a very short-term memory, which you have to have at the corner spot.”

(On if it was a tough call to declare WR Tavon Austin inactive)
“He wouldn’t have been able to play yesterday. He’ll be day-to-day this week.”

(On if it’s hard on Austin not to be playing)
“Yeah, it’s not sitting very well with him right now. He’s a little frustrated, but he’s not able to play. He’ll be day-to-day this week. We’re hoping to get him on the practice field at some point late in the week and see.”

(On reports that he is more hands-on with the defense than he has been in years past)
“That comes from someone that doesn’t know what they’re talking about.”

(On how he explains several inaccurate reports over the weekend)

“There was a lot of that stuff. Interesting. I don’t know. We work upstairs, then we come downstairs, we go onto the field, and don’t pay attention to that stuff.”

(On if they thought that TE Cory Harkey could play fullback when they were evaluating him as an undrafted rookie free agent)
“Yeah, we saw it. We saw the athletic ability. You start at one position then you move. He’s really done a nice job handling everything as a fullback, the true fullback position. But, he also does everything very well on the line of scrimmage. He’s athletic, he’s smart, and he works. It’s important to him. (Tight Ends Coach) Rob’s (Boras) done a really good job with him.”

(On how much filling in for TE Lance Kendricks in the preseason helped Harkey’s development)
“It started at OTAs, camp, and then, it went through the end of the preseason and we almost lost him in the preseason with that injury. We were very lucky that wasn’t significant. But, we saw the progress prior to him getting hurt. He fought back off the injury, came back, and has played well for us.”

(On what he’s seen from WR Justin Veltung over the last few weeks to activate him from the practice squad)

“He returned punts early. I think he returned in a couple preseason games after we brought him in and saw that. Saw the run skills and he’s got the ball skills. He’s a smart guy. He can make the decisions. So, we had a chance to – ‘AP’s (WR Austin Pettis) a reliable backup punt returner, as well – but we’d seen Justin do it and we figured with Tavon being unable to go that he’d be the right replacement and made some good decisions yesterday.”

(On what he’s seen from G/T Rodger Saffold playing at right guard)
“It’s impressive to watch him play. He’s done a great job – run game, pass protection, athletically, pulling. He’s doing most of the pulling in that run scheme and he’s blocking very affectively.”

(On if Sunday’s game was one of QB Kellen Clemens most accurate games)
“He got off to a great start and he put the ball where he needed to put it, made good decisions. The check down that he got to (RB) Zac (Stacy) there, he was pressured. He got the ball underneath to Zac on that third down play, was a huge play for us in the ball game. Gave Zac a chance to convert, but yeah, ‘Kell’ played good, played well, got us in and out of the run game. It’s a sophisticated defense, see a lot of things that you don’t ordinarily see. Scheme-wise, we’ve moved some people around to try to dictate and try to make it a little more predictable. They became a little more predictable and we were able to take advantage of it. ‘Kell’ did a good job with that.”

(On if it was tough to see DE Gerald Rivers get claimed by the Jaguars)
“Yeah, we thought there may be a chance, but we needed to make a spot. We felt like that was the best place to go. We have significant depth here. He was not going to be active for us. Anytime you put somebody out there, especially this time of the year – teams that are trying to upgrade the bottom half of their roster, evaluating players, sign for futures – you’re going to risk losing somebody when you have to waive them.”

(On if the win against the Saints was one of S Darian Stewart’s best games)
“Yes. I think it was probably his best game as a Ram. Played well in position. In position, eight tackles in sub defense. He played pretty well.”

(On why it’s taken longer for Stewart to progress)
“I think he’s becoming familiar with his responsibility. He’s just playing the nickel, but probably we played…75 percent of the snaps were sub-defensive snaps, so, in essence, he basically played most of the game as a starter. We had a good plan. He had a good feel for what they were doing.”

(On if he thinks Stacy has done enough to be considered the long term running back of the future)
“I think we’ve got a good group of backs. We’ll discuss needs when the season’s over, but I think based on what we’ve seen in the production from that position I think we have a good group of running backs for the future.”


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