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Rams Head Coach Jeff Fisher – News Conference – December 9, 2013
(On what he saw on film and why it was difficult to get the run game going)
“It’s their defense. We knew going in, I think they were fourth in the league in defense against the run, and they played like that. They were very good. We couldn’t get it started. We got some yards but they were tough yards, and, obviously, then we got behind. We’ve run the ball in the second half fairly well, but we didn’t have an opportunity to do this because of the discrepancy in the score. They’re a good defense and we just really couldn’t get it going. If you can’t get ahead of the chains on early downs to create second-and-4, second-and-5, then your third-and-7’s are hard to convert, and that’s what happened to us in the first half.”
(On if teams have picked up on RB Zac Stacy’s styles and tendencies)
“It’s personnel, it’s match-ups, it’s their front. They’re a big front…playing really well. (LB Daryl) Washington’s back – they’re sturdy. It was just hard to get creases. Over the last four to six weeks, we have done well and picked things up in the second half. Like I said, we just didn’t get a chance to do that.”
(On the penalties called against the Rams)
“They’re high. They’ve been up the last two weeks. They’re an issue. There’s a number of them that we’ve looked at, we’ve discussed it, that shouldn’t have been called. But still, nonetheless, they’re up. We had our first penalty in seven games in the return game, as I mentioned last night, and that was disappointing. We had a stumble, a takedown and that gave us bad field position. We had a personal foul – (DE) Rob’s (Quinn) is not good, he’s got to keep his poise. He can’t take his helmet off with the frustration. I’m going to disagree with (DE) Eugene’s (Sims) only because, like I said, the whistle didn’t blow. He’s blocking. (QB) Carson’s (Palmer) pursuing the runner, he pushes him down. We’ll try to get an explanation as to why that wasn’t picked up, and then we had a couple others where you kind of go, ‘Oh well.’”
(On if how hard a block is determines if it is a penalty or not)
“He just pushed him down. It was after the play, but the referee didn’t know. I don’t know what happened. I don’t know if we’ll ever know what happened on that play. I know it was a fumble, we got the ball. The whistle blew on the goal line, but no other whistle blew during (CB) Janoris’ (Jenkins) attempt at a return.”
(On if the referees should be more patient before blowing the play dead right away)
“Scoring plays are reviewable, so I’m sure that’s why (Side Judge) Rick (Patterson), he thought the ball crossed the plane, and so that’s why he ruled it a touchdown. So, you go upstairs and if he’s wrong, fine, it’s reviewable and you get it right. But, once you rule a touchdown – we were just fortunate to get a clear recovery because once he rules touchdown the play’s dead, and if there’s not obvious recovery where ‘Jenks’ recovered it, then we don’t get the ball at that point.”
(On if Jenkins’ return would have been a touchdown)
“It would have been a touchdown.”
(On the Cardinals not stopping on the fumble)
“They pursued – everybody did.”
(On if anything can be changed in the rules to prevent an incident like that again)
“No, it’s basically been referred to, for many, many years, as an inadvertent whistle.”
(On how G Harvey Dahl looked in his first game back from injury)
“It looked like it was his first week back. He didn’t play all the snaps. He did OK. I expect him to be better this week, but he played hard like he does. He was down field, was correct in everything that he did.”
(On how C Tim Barnes played)
“Tim was good. Again, it’s a good front. He was challenged, but he knew what to do and how to do it. He was overmatched at times, but everybody is when you play that front. But, I thought by and large he did a good job in protections. He didn’t have any protection issues, those came outside.”
(On how well Cardinals OLB John Abraham is playing as a 35-year-old)
“Still playing good, took advantage of some opportunities. Crowd noise was not extreme, but it was loud enough to where we were silent count and took advantage of a couple times, but yes, good player. He’s helped them. He’s obviously playing better the second half of the year than I think he did the first half.”
(On Cardinals WR Larry Fitzgerald’s success despite covering him pretty well for most of the game)
“Yeah, we were in position to make plays pretty much the whole game, we just didn’t. (Cardinals QB Carson Palmer) he was very accurate. Ball was placed in a position where we couldn’t get our hands on it. We were forced to make tackles. Obviously the ball was out. Their plan was to get it out and they executed their plan. They did a nice job. They didn’t put themselves in a position to get their quarterback hit.”
(On what the secondary can do to improve)
“We’ve got to get better. We’ve got to do better up front. It’s a total defensive effort. If you look at one area in particular, it’s third down. That’s where I’m not impressed or pleased right now, to say the least, in our third-down efficiency defense. We’ve got to get better there. That gets the ball back for our offense and with the offense struggling on third down as well, at least if you get it back you get them more drives. That’s got to be a big area of emphasis here as we finish up the year.”
(On what the cause of the defense’s struggles on third down is)
“We’re just not making plays whether it’s a penalty or it’s a complete pass or it’s a missed tackle. We’re doing a lot of different things. (Defensive Coordinator) Coach (Tim) Walton’s doing a lot of different things and we’re just not making the plays. Good defenses, their third down efficiency’s usually in the low 30s and that’s got to be a goal to for us.”
(On if there is any news on WR Tavon Austin’s injury)
“Nothing, no. We did our test and he’ll be day-to-day this week.”
(On getting WR Tavon Austin get the ball more)
“We’re trying to spread the ball around. It makes sense to get it to him as often as you can in space and we’re trying to do that. But, it’s just not as easy as one would think. He’s returning. He’s getting some opportunities. He’s a threat to go the distance every time he touches the ball in the return game. You see what he can do with reverses. We’ll continue to do that. We’ll try to expand that package.”
(On LB Alec Ogletree’s development)
“Each week he does something that surprises you. You say, ‘Wow’ on a positive side. He’s tackled very well, got off blocks, ran much better this week in his pass coverage and things than he was last week. Didn’t have any issues with the footing, and yeah, he’s making a lot of plays for us.”
(On what he saw on film and why it was difficult to get the run game going)
“It’s their defense. We knew going in, I think they were fourth in the league in defense against the run, and they played like that. They were very good. We couldn’t get it started. We got some yards but they were tough yards, and, obviously, then we got behind. We’ve run the ball in the second half fairly well, but we didn’t have an opportunity to do this because of the discrepancy in the score. They’re a good defense and we just really couldn’t get it going. If you can’t get ahead of the chains on early downs to create second-and-4, second-and-5, then your third-and-7’s are hard to convert, and that’s what happened to us in the first half.”
(On if teams have picked up on RB Zac Stacy’s styles and tendencies)
“It’s personnel, it’s match-ups, it’s their front. They’re a big front…playing really well. (LB Daryl) Washington’s back – they’re sturdy. It was just hard to get creases. Over the last four to six weeks, we have done well and picked things up in the second half. Like I said, we just didn’t get a chance to do that.”
(On the penalties called against the Rams)
“They’re high. They’ve been up the last two weeks. They’re an issue. There’s a number of them that we’ve looked at, we’ve discussed it, that shouldn’t have been called. But still, nonetheless, they’re up. We had our first penalty in seven games in the return game, as I mentioned last night, and that was disappointing. We had a stumble, a takedown and that gave us bad field position. We had a personal foul – (DE) Rob’s (Quinn) is not good, he’s got to keep his poise. He can’t take his helmet off with the frustration. I’m going to disagree with (DE) Eugene’s (Sims) only because, like I said, the whistle didn’t blow. He’s blocking. (QB) Carson’s (Palmer) pursuing the runner, he pushes him down. We’ll try to get an explanation as to why that wasn’t picked up, and then we had a couple others where you kind of go, ‘Oh well.’”
(On if how hard a block is determines if it is a penalty or not)
“He just pushed him down. It was after the play, but the referee didn’t know. I don’t know what happened. I don’t know if we’ll ever know what happened on that play. I know it was a fumble, we got the ball. The whistle blew on the goal line, but no other whistle blew during (CB) Janoris’ (Jenkins) attempt at a return.”
(On if the referees should be more patient before blowing the play dead right away)
“Scoring plays are reviewable, so I’m sure that’s why (Side Judge) Rick (Patterson), he thought the ball crossed the plane, and so that’s why he ruled it a touchdown. So, you go upstairs and if he’s wrong, fine, it’s reviewable and you get it right. But, once you rule a touchdown – we were just fortunate to get a clear recovery because once he rules touchdown the play’s dead, and if there’s not obvious recovery where ‘Jenks’ recovered it, then we don’t get the ball at that point.”
(On if Jenkins’ return would have been a touchdown)
“It would have been a touchdown.”
(On the Cardinals not stopping on the fumble)
“They pursued – everybody did.”
(On if anything can be changed in the rules to prevent an incident like that again)
“No, it’s basically been referred to, for many, many years, as an inadvertent whistle.”
(On how G Harvey Dahl looked in his first game back from injury)
“It looked like it was his first week back. He didn’t play all the snaps. He did OK. I expect him to be better this week, but he played hard like he does. He was down field, was correct in everything that he did.”
(On how C Tim Barnes played)
“Tim was good. Again, it’s a good front. He was challenged, but he knew what to do and how to do it. He was overmatched at times, but everybody is when you play that front. But, I thought by and large he did a good job in protections. He didn’t have any protection issues, those came outside.”
(On how well Cardinals OLB John Abraham is playing as a 35-year-old)
“Still playing good, took advantage of some opportunities. Crowd noise was not extreme, but it was loud enough to where we were silent count and took advantage of a couple times, but yes, good player. He’s helped them. He’s obviously playing better the second half of the year than I think he did the first half.”
(On Cardinals WR Larry Fitzgerald’s success despite covering him pretty well for most of the game)
“Yeah, we were in position to make plays pretty much the whole game, we just didn’t. (Cardinals QB Carson Palmer) he was very accurate. Ball was placed in a position where we couldn’t get our hands on it. We were forced to make tackles. Obviously the ball was out. Their plan was to get it out and they executed their plan. They did a nice job. They didn’t put themselves in a position to get their quarterback hit.”
(On what the secondary can do to improve)
“We’ve got to get better. We’ve got to do better up front. It’s a total defensive effort. If you look at one area in particular, it’s third down. That’s where I’m not impressed or pleased right now, to say the least, in our third-down efficiency defense. We’ve got to get better there. That gets the ball back for our offense and with the offense struggling on third down as well, at least if you get it back you get them more drives. That’s got to be a big area of emphasis here as we finish up the year.”
(On what the cause of the defense’s struggles on third down is)
“We’re just not making plays whether it’s a penalty or it’s a complete pass or it’s a missed tackle. We’re doing a lot of different things. (Defensive Coordinator) Coach (Tim) Walton’s doing a lot of different things and we’re just not making the plays. Good defenses, their third down efficiency’s usually in the low 30s and that’s got to be a goal to for us.”
(On if there is any news on WR Tavon Austin’s injury)
“Nothing, no. We did our test and he’ll be day-to-day this week.”
(On getting WR Tavon Austin get the ball more)
“We’re trying to spread the ball around. It makes sense to get it to him as often as you can in space and we’re trying to do that. But, it’s just not as easy as one would think. He’s returning. He’s getting some opportunities. He’s a threat to go the distance every time he touches the ball in the return game. You see what he can do with reverses. We’ll continue to do that. We’ll try to expand that package.”
(On LB Alec Ogletree’s development)
“Each week he does something that surprises you. You say, ‘Wow’ on a positive side. He’s tackled very well, got off blocks, ran much better this week in his pass coverage and things than he was last week. Didn’t have any issues with the footing, and yeah, he’s making a lot of plays for us.”