Fisher sticking with Davis at quarterback
• By Jim Thomas
http://www.stltoday.com/sports/foot...cle_96a08b19-ed02-5902-ab2a-607600aa83b5.html
It was another rough day at the office Sunday for Austin Davis — and he’s had a few of those lately. But coach Jeff Fisher said Monday he is not contemplating a quarterback change.
“No,” Fisher said, giving about as direct an answer as possible.
“He didn’t have his best half,” Fisher continued. “He missed some opportunities, he made a couple bad decisions. Said he had difficulty seeing at times. The last couple weeks, he’s thrown four interceptions, but we’re gonna hang in there (with him). He’s working real hard, so we’ll see where it goes.”
The problems for Davis in the Rams’ 31-14 loss to Arizona were more confined to the fourth quarter, when he completed only six of 16 throws for 70 yards and two interceptions. His passer rating for the quarter was 12.0.
The first of those interceptions was a badly underthrown deep ball to a wide-open Chris Givens that would’ve been a touchdown.
“I don’t really have an answer” for the interception, Davis said. “Don’t understand it; don’t know why it happened. We got the look we were looking for. I thought Chris ran a good route and won. ... Ball didn’t go where I wanted it.”
The second interception was thrown high to Kenny Britt but was catchable. It went off Britt’s hands and was returned for a score. Davis later lost a fumble while getting sacked and that ball was returned for a touchdown by Arizona.
So this season, six turnovers by Davis — four interceptions and two fumbles on sacks — have been returned for touchdowns. It’s bad enough to have a turnover. But a turnover for an opposing touchdown, well, that’s a recipe for defeat.
Even while giving Davis a vote of confidence, Fisher didn’t have many good things to say about his performance at University of Phoenix Stadium.
Was pass protection an issue Sunday, or was it a case of the quarterback holding on to the ball too long?
Fisher indicated it was mostly the latter.
“Now at times, give the defense credit,” he said. “There’s gonna be an unblocked rusher, and you have to get rid of the football. The quarterback’s gotta get rid of the football. He’s gotta see that.”
As an example, Fisher pointed to the 11-yard sack taken by Davis on third-and-11 from the Arizona 36 late in the third quarter.
“Austin, he can’t take a sack in field-goal range,” Fisher said. “You’ve gotta throw the ball away.”
But Fisher did concede that the pass protection wasn’t always there for Davis.
“We had a couple pass-rush ‘games’ where we got soft (in protection),” Fisher said. “But the ball has to come out.”
Were Sunday’s woes partly a case of Rams receivers not getting sufficient separation from defenders?
“We had opportunities,” Fisher said. “We had a number of opportunities for some significant catch and run opportunities.”
So after lighting it up in his first three starts with six TD passes, only two interceptions and a passer rating of 100.6, Davis has six TD passes, six interceptions and a rating of just 73.4 over his next five starts.
Three of those five starts have been on the road. And four of those five games have come against defenses ranked in the top 5. But those are not the kind of numbers you want at quarterback, particularly the turnover numbers.
The book on facing Austin may simply be to pressure him as much as possible, especially up the middle, making it harder for him to find throwing lanes.
“I mean the position’s hard to play,” Fisher said. “This (Arizona) defense has done this to a lot of quarterbacks. Good quarterbacks. But that’s part of playing the position.
“Sometimes you’re gonna have a hard Sunday as a quarterback. He’s disappointed in what’s happened but he’ll bounce back.”
When asked if Davis was getting frustrated, Fisher shot back: “Well, choose a better word. Frustrated? Yeah. Disappointed. Whatever. He’s not pleased with what happened yesterday, but he’ll bounce back.”
The fourth quarter of games has been particularly tough on Davis lately. Among NFL passers with enough playing time to qualify for the rankings, Davis is 35th in the league in fourth-quarter passing with a passer rating of just 68.1. His fourth-quarter numbers include a completion percentage of 57.7, with four TD passes and six interceptions.
Davis is far from an excuse-maker. He’s very honest in assessing his play, and knows he must play better.
“The thing I’m learning really quick is you can play well for 3½ quarters, but you have to play four,” he said. “You can’t have a single letdown. Right now I’m having those, and it’s costing our football team.”
And a bad habit that hampered his development and advancement with the Rams before this season — keeping his eyes on the pass rush instead of the receivers — has cropped up again.
If you play quarterback long enough in the league, you’re going to get blitzed and hit and buzzed in the pocket. The key is staying calm amid the chaos that’s often all around you in the pocket.
For example, the Rams had 17 quarterback pressures, 12 QB hits and three sacks against Arizona quarterbacks Carson Palmer and Drew Stanton — with most of that coming, of course, against Palmer before he was injured. Facing that kind of heat often is part of the job description at quarterback.
The Arizona blitz package had defenders coming from everywhere and different times, making it a tough chore for an inexperienced quarterback such as Davis.
“So just the ability to learn from this, and get your eyes downfield and not on the rush is something that I’ve got to do,” Davis said.
