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Rams Head Coach Jeff Fisher – Press Conference – September 8, 2014
(Opening remarks)
“Postgame I mentioned, I discussed several injuries, we had three of significance. I really don’t have much information for you other than, (OL) Rodger (Saffold) looked like he checked out okay. We’re still doing tests on (DE) Chris (Long), hopefully we’ll have some more information; that’s an ankle injury. To clarify things once again, (QB) Shaun Hill strained a quad in the second quarter and that was the reason he did not return. He felt like he could take a shotgun snap and throw the ball if we had an issue with (QB) Austin (Davis), so therefore we kept him dressed and kept him on the sideline. He’ll be day-to-day this week. We’ll just monitor his situation, as far as that’s concerned. So, those were the injuries.
“As we go back and looked at the tape as a staff, a lot of things came to light. We did not have a good day offensively. We had 11 drives and in each of those 11 drives we had an issue, whether it was a sack or penalty or mental error or something. We have to get significantly better there and avoid hurting ourselves. Defensively, there were some bright spots and then there were some tackling issues. I don’t care whether it’s a running back or a wide receiver, you don’t permit him to run 80 yards on a crack-toss for a touchdown. He’s an outstanding athlete, but we were, were not very – to say the least - not very efficient on that particular play. Special teams-wise I thought we did some good stuff. (P) Johnny (Hekker) did a nice job. Our coverage units were good. We were very close, very close as we look at the tape with respect to punt returns and explosive plays there. We went through it and, as you say, very disappointed, but we have the 24-hour rule, it’s in effect. It’s over. Guys are looking forward to the next challenge and correcting these mistakes.”
(On if Hill will the starting quarterback if he’s healthy)
“Yes. If Shaun is able to play he will be our starter. There’s no issue there. Shaun’s our quarterback, so if he’s healthy, he starts. That will be the case throughout the season.”
(On how Hill strained his quad)
“Typically, quad strains are a result of running. It was not a contusion, it wasn’t impact. It started to get sore, I think, earlier in the game as he was escaping some pressure.”
(On if he made the decision to pull Hill out of the game or did Hill make it himself)
“I made the decision with him. We discussed that. We discussed it in the locker room at halftime and then I discussed it after we came back out on the field. He wanted to play but he felt – he was in agreement with me – that the best thing for the immediate future here for the next week or the week to follow would be that he didn’t make it any worse because if you make it any worse, then you’re looking at a significant amount of playing time.”
(On if Hill was upset about not going back in to play)
“No, he totally understood. He was not upset. He actually tried to throw that ball away, he wasn’t trying to fit it in to (TE Jared) Cook, the guy (Vikings CB Josh Robinson) made a great play. He was trying to throw it away. You lack the lower body strength to make that throw and that was a concern of his.”
(On if he has heard anything about him pulling QB Shaun Hill instead of Hill leaving due to an injury)
“I’ve not heard anything along those lines. I’m telling you the truth. I’ve never messed around with the quarterback situation my entire career. I’m speaking truthfully. He had a quad strain and I took him out of the game, period. On the depth chart, he’s clearly ahead of (QB) Austin Davis. It’s not a negative commentary on Austin, but he gives us the best chance to win. If he can’t go, then Austin steps and then he gives us the best chance to win. That’s absurd.”
(On if Hill’s practice status for Wednesday is uncertain)
“That’s correct. I think this will be a day-to-day situation.”
(On Hill’s performance)
“Shaun was effective. With the exception of that ball he tried to throw away, he was effective. He made plays. They pressured him. We expected them to pressure him, as anybody would a backup quarterback. But, I thought he was effective. You saw the throws he made, the timing throws that he made. He was under pressure. We had a protection issue. He got hit and was unable to convert one of the third downs. But I thought had he stayed in the game, I thought we would’ve had a chance. Realistically speaking, we’re two plays away from going into the locker room at halftime 6-3. Make a field goal and throw that ball away and punt it away. Even with two minutes left to go in the quarter we’re down 10. One would think you’d have a shot with a veteran quarterback.”
(On Davis’ performance)
“Austin, there were several instances where he needs to throw the ball away and not take sack here. He got fooled on the pressure on the interception for a touchdown. There was someone in his face, he didn’t see the safety. Coming in off the bench, having not had a whole lot of reps during the practice week is a difficult thing to do. Especially, when you’re talking about your first real game experience in the National Football League. He’ll get plenty of practice reps this week, he’ll get more. If Shaun can’t practice Wednesday, we’re still going to give him (Davis) more reps just to continue to prepare him.”
(On why did took some time to get the run game going)
“Well you’re talking about the first regular season game, you’re talking about a new defensive staff. The ability to adjust, it’s hard to anticipate what they were going to do. They said throw it. It’s what they told us early in the game. They said throw it. They loaded the line of scrimmage. They slanted, they did all kinds of things. They said we’re not going to let you run it. So, we made some adjustments. We got it going. Once we got it going it was a little bit too late.”
(On the importance of getting WR Kenny Britt more touches)
“It’s important to get everybody more involved. I want to get (WR) Tavon (Austin) more involved in the offense as well. But this happened to be a day where we had opportunities to get the ball to (WR) Brian (Quick). For the most part, Brian made the plays. He’s not going to get an opportunity when we hand the football off. He did, however, do a nice job blocking. He was in the right place all the time and just one of those things that happened.”
(On if the Vikings defense tried to take Britt out of the offensive game plan)
“There was no commitment to that, no. Sometimes coverage rotation will take him, will prevent it from being primary but it doesn’t look like it was intentional.”
(On OL Jake Long and OL Rodger Saffold’s performances)
“I talked to Jake after the ball game, late in the locker room and asked him. He said he felt good, he felt good, he was happy to be back. The number of plays wasn’t an issue, you look at his production and the game itself, he did a nice job. I think that’s behind him. Rodger was good. He came out and, when he came out, (OL) Greg (Robinson) went in and Greg played pretty well. I thought Rodger played pretty well. Now, everybody took turns, Rodger had a false start and those kinds of things. That skews things from a coaching perspective, you can do nine out of 10 things right and have a false start in a critical situation and that’s not good. Those are the kinds of things we have to get rid of or overcome.”
(On former Baltimore RB Ray Rice’s indefinite suspension)
“It was brought to my attention here about an hour ago, we’ve been busy. Obviously, the actions taken by the league and by the Baltimore Ravens are appropriate, I support them. I will just say this, there’s really no place for domestic violence in society let alone the National Football League. I would support the actions as I would expect everyone else to as well.”
(On if there's an internal policy regarding domestic violence)
“I’m not going to discuss our internal policies, our club rules and things like that. But you can read between the lines.”
(On the early missed field goal and if he was tempted to go on fourth-and-one)
“I was It was fourth-and-one-and-a half, I was. Prior to that I was thinking, well if we got to five-to- six then we’re well in Greg’s (Zuerlein) range and then we would go ahead and take a shot. Once we got the fourth-and-one-and- a half I was. I also felt like the game was kind of taking shape as it might be one of those, 13-10 games. I felt like at that point it was well within his range and I felt like we needed points. You can always come back and second guess your decision, but I felt like that was the right decision at the time.”
(Does over exuberance play into mistakes)
“No.”
(On Minnesota’s ability to attack the perimeter of the defense and how he will adjust)
“We have to do a better job up front setting the edges. We had people running behind blocks, not crossing over. On a couple plays we had poor angles out of the secondary. We also had an alignment era on the long touchdown run. We’re going to have to continue work at that and we’ll get that fixed. (Defensive Coordinator) Gregg (Williams) is very much aware of it and not happy right now, so we’ll get it fixed.”
(On bright spots in the defensive performances)
“First off, the guys played really hard, they flew around. I thought (CB) E.J. (Gaines) did a nice job starting his first game in the National Football League as a rookie. I thought he hung in there and did a nice job, it was a perfect throw and catch. We’d like to see him make that play, however it didn’t happen. But I thought E.J. was a bright spot. (S) T.J (McDonald) made some plays, had a couple misses but everybody’s going to have misses in space with ‘AP’ (Vikings RB Adrian Peterson). But I thought T.J. played better than he played at any time last year. (DT) Aaron (Donald) did some good things inside, he got good some pressure. Had a couple tackles for losses, there was some good things all-in-all but again, not a good enough effort to win.”
(On if DE Will Hayes will start if DE Chris Long cannot play)
“If for some reason Chris would miss time, yeah, Will would step up and start.”
(On how Hayes looked)
“Will was fine. Will hadn’t played a whole lot in the preseason. The injuries are behind him now.”
(On the decision behind not activating RB Tre Mason being inactive and activiating Trey Watts)
“It was special teams. Trey Watts was doing more. Not that Tre (Mason) can’t, but Trey Watts was doing more on special teams standpoint, from a backup stand point, kickoff coverage, kickoff return, personal protector and those things. You can’t keep them all up. Tre (Mason) was a little surprised, doesn’t like it and was the first one upstairs in the special team’s coaches office this morning.”
(On S Maurice Alexander)
“We kept four safeties and I’ve got five corners up. He’s doing a nice job, but I would trust the other two to play defense prior to him right now.”
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(Opening remarks)
“Postgame I mentioned, I discussed several injuries, we had three of significance. I really don’t have much information for you other than, (OL) Rodger (Saffold) looked like he checked out okay. We’re still doing tests on (DE) Chris (Long), hopefully we’ll have some more information; that’s an ankle injury. To clarify things once again, (QB) Shaun Hill strained a quad in the second quarter and that was the reason he did not return. He felt like he could take a shotgun snap and throw the ball if we had an issue with (QB) Austin (Davis), so therefore we kept him dressed and kept him on the sideline. He’ll be day-to-day this week. We’ll just monitor his situation, as far as that’s concerned. So, those were the injuries.
“As we go back and looked at the tape as a staff, a lot of things came to light. We did not have a good day offensively. We had 11 drives and in each of those 11 drives we had an issue, whether it was a sack or penalty or mental error or something. We have to get significantly better there and avoid hurting ourselves. Defensively, there were some bright spots and then there were some tackling issues. I don’t care whether it’s a running back or a wide receiver, you don’t permit him to run 80 yards on a crack-toss for a touchdown. He’s an outstanding athlete, but we were, were not very – to say the least - not very efficient on that particular play. Special teams-wise I thought we did some good stuff. (P) Johnny (Hekker) did a nice job. Our coverage units were good. We were very close, very close as we look at the tape with respect to punt returns and explosive plays there. We went through it and, as you say, very disappointed, but we have the 24-hour rule, it’s in effect. It’s over. Guys are looking forward to the next challenge and correcting these mistakes.”
(On if Hill will the starting quarterback if he’s healthy)
“Yes. If Shaun is able to play he will be our starter. There’s no issue there. Shaun’s our quarterback, so if he’s healthy, he starts. That will be the case throughout the season.”
(On how Hill strained his quad)
“Typically, quad strains are a result of running. It was not a contusion, it wasn’t impact. It started to get sore, I think, earlier in the game as he was escaping some pressure.”
(On if he made the decision to pull Hill out of the game or did Hill make it himself)
“I made the decision with him. We discussed that. We discussed it in the locker room at halftime and then I discussed it after we came back out on the field. He wanted to play but he felt – he was in agreement with me – that the best thing for the immediate future here for the next week or the week to follow would be that he didn’t make it any worse because if you make it any worse, then you’re looking at a significant amount of playing time.”
(On if Hill was upset about not going back in to play)
“No, he totally understood. He was not upset. He actually tried to throw that ball away, he wasn’t trying to fit it in to (TE Jared) Cook, the guy (Vikings CB Josh Robinson) made a great play. He was trying to throw it away. You lack the lower body strength to make that throw and that was a concern of his.”
(On if he has heard anything about him pulling QB Shaun Hill instead of Hill leaving due to an injury)
“I’ve not heard anything along those lines. I’m telling you the truth. I’ve never messed around with the quarterback situation my entire career. I’m speaking truthfully. He had a quad strain and I took him out of the game, period. On the depth chart, he’s clearly ahead of (QB) Austin Davis. It’s not a negative commentary on Austin, but he gives us the best chance to win. If he can’t go, then Austin steps and then he gives us the best chance to win. That’s absurd.”
(On if Hill’s practice status for Wednesday is uncertain)
“That’s correct. I think this will be a day-to-day situation.”
(On Hill’s performance)
“Shaun was effective. With the exception of that ball he tried to throw away, he was effective. He made plays. They pressured him. We expected them to pressure him, as anybody would a backup quarterback. But, I thought he was effective. You saw the throws he made, the timing throws that he made. He was under pressure. We had a protection issue. He got hit and was unable to convert one of the third downs. But I thought had he stayed in the game, I thought we would’ve had a chance. Realistically speaking, we’re two plays away from going into the locker room at halftime 6-3. Make a field goal and throw that ball away and punt it away. Even with two minutes left to go in the quarter we’re down 10. One would think you’d have a shot with a veteran quarterback.”
(On Davis’ performance)
“Austin, there were several instances where he needs to throw the ball away and not take sack here. He got fooled on the pressure on the interception for a touchdown. There was someone in his face, he didn’t see the safety. Coming in off the bench, having not had a whole lot of reps during the practice week is a difficult thing to do. Especially, when you’re talking about your first real game experience in the National Football League. He’ll get plenty of practice reps this week, he’ll get more. If Shaun can’t practice Wednesday, we’re still going to give him (Davis) more reps just to continue to prepare him.”
(On why did took some time to get the run game going)
“Well you’re talking about the first regular season game, you’re talking about a new defensive staff. The ability to adjust, it’s hard to anticipate what they were going to do. They said throw it. It’s what they told us early in the game. They said throw it. They loaded the line of scrimmage. They slanted, they did all kinds of things. They said we’re not going to let you run it. So, we made some adjustments. We got it going. Once we got it going it was a little bit too late.”
(On the importance of getting WR Kenny Britt more touches)
“It’s important to get everybody more involved. I want to get (WR) Tavon (Austin) more involved in the offense as well. But this happened to be a day where we had opportunities to get the ball to (WR) Brian (Quick). For the most part, Brian made the plays. He’s not going to get an opportunity when we hand the football off. He did, however, do a nice job blocking. He was in the right place all the time and just one of those things that happened.”
(On if the Vikings defense tried to take Britt out of the offensive game plan)
“There was no commitment to that, no. Sometimes coverage rotation will take him, will prevent it from being primary but it doesn’t look like it was intentional.”
(On OL Jake Long and OL Rodger Saffold’s performances)
“I talked to Jake after the ball game, late in the locker room and asked him. He said he felt good, he felt good, he was happy to be back. The number of plays wasn’t an issue, you look at his production and the game itself, he did a nice job. I think that’s behind him. Rodger was good. He came out and, when he came out, (OL) Greg (Robinson) went in and Greg played pretty well. I thought Rodger played pretty well. Now, everybody took turns, Rodger had a false start and those kinds of things. That skews things from a coaching perspective, you can do nine out of 10 things right and have a false start in a critical situation and that’s not good. Those are the kinds of things we have to get rid of or overcome.”
(On former Baltimore RB Ray Rice’s indefinite suspension)
“It was brought to my attention here about an hour ago, we’ve been busy. Obviously, the actions taken by the league and by the Baltimore Ravens are appropriate, I support them. I will just say this, there’s really no place for domestic violence in society let alone the National Football League. I would support the actions as I would expect everyone else to as well.”
(On if there's an internal policy regarding domestic violence)
“I’m not going to discuss our internal policies, our club rules and things like that. But you can read between the lines.”
(On the early missed field goal and if he was tempted to go on fourth-and-one)
“I was It was fourth-and-one-and-a half, I was. Prior to that I was thinking, well if we got to five-to- six then we’re well in Greg’s (Zuerlein) range and then we would go ahead and take a shot. Once we got the fourth-and-one-and- a half I was. I also felt like the game was kind of taking shape as it might be one of those, 13-10 games. I felt like at that point it was well within his range and I felt like we needed points. You can always come back and second guess your decision, but I felt like that was the right decision at the time.”
(Does over exuberance play into mistakes)
“No.”
(On Minnesota’s ability to attack the perimeter of the defense and how he will adjust)
“We have to do a better job up front setting the edges. We had people running behind blocks, not crossing over. On a couple plays we had poor angles out of the secondary. We also had an alignment era on the long touchdown run. We’re going to have to continue work at that and we’ll get that fixed. (Defensive Coordinator) Gregg (Williams) is very much aware of it and not happy right now, so we’ll get it fixed.”
(On bright spots in the defensive performances)
“First off, the guys played really hard, they flew around. I thought (CB) E.J. (Gaines) did a nice job starting his first game in the National Football League as a rookie. I thought he hung in there and did a nice job, it was a perfect throw and catch. We’d like to see him make that play, however it didn’t happen. But I thought E.J. was a bright spot. (S) T.J (McDonald) made some plays, had a couple misses but everybody’s going to have misses in space with ‘AP’ (Vikings RB Adrian Peterson). But I thought T.J. played better than he played at any time last year. (DT) Aaron (Donald) did some good things inside, he got good some pressure. Had a couple tackles for losses, there was some good things all-in-all but again, not a good enough effort to win.”
(On if DE Will Hayes will start if DE Chris Long cannot play)
“If for some reason Chris would miss time, yeah, Will would step up and start.”
(On how Hayes looked)
“Will was fine. Will hadn’t played a whole lot in the preseason. The injuries are behind him now.”
(On the decision behind not activating RB Tre Mason being inactive and activiating Trey Watts)
“It was special teams. Trey Watts was doing more. Not that Tre (Mason) can’t, but Trey Watts was doing more on special teams standpoint, from a backup stand point, kickoff coverage, kickoff return, personal protector and those things. You can’t keep them all up. Tre (Mason) was a little surprised, doesn’t like it and was the first one upstairs in the special team’s coaches office this morning.”
(On S Maurice Alexander)
“We kept four safeties and I’ve got five corners up. He’s doing a nice job, but I would trust the other two to play defense prior to him right now.”
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