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Jeff Fisher’s Rams are Heading the Wrong Way
Posted by: Bernie Miklasz
http://www.101sports.com/2015/09/28/jeff-fishers-rams-are-heading-the-wrong-way/
By now you’re familiar with the latest misadventures of the Futile Franchise.
The Rams contained the offensive mayhem created fast-paced Pittsburgh Steelers to 12 points, a good day’s work by any reasonable measure … and lost the game 12-6.
The Rams put Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger out of the competition and in search of crutches with a painful and unfortunate third-quarter knee injury … and still could not find a way to step over his fallen body to find a way to win the day.
The Rams trapped Big Ben and his backup Michael Vick for five sacks. They held the Steelers to 72 yards in the second half. Pittsburgh’s imposing ground game netted only 62 yards rushing, with franchise back Le’Veon Bell surrounded by men in blue, averaging only 3.3 yards per carry … and the Rams could not score enough to make it matter.
On the other side of the scrum, the Rams offense had only 12 first downs. They converted only two of 12 third-down plays. The roll-out debut of running back Todd Gurley did not lead them to the end zone. Gurley, the No. 1 draft choice, joined Tre Mason and Benny Cunningham in the impossible task of making it through the Steelers’ defensive blockade. The Rams’ three running backs were forced to scrounge for 37 yards on 16 carries.
In the first three games Rams’ backs have 42 rushing attempts for 111 yards, an scant average of 2.6 yards per run.
Where have you gone, June Henley?
You want to prevent Rams owner Stan Kroenke from running to Los Angeles? Easy: just put him behind this massive but passive Rams’ offensive line stocked with carefully scouted, hand-picked draft choices. And The Kronk won’t be able to go anywhere.
In a close game, with Big Ben felled and the triumph there for the snatching, Rams quarterback Nick Foles completed four of nine passes for 34 yards and one first down in the fourth quarter. The fourth-quarter misfires included a terrible decision to release a throw that became a fluttering, sailing, paper-airplane interception. And you think Cardinals closer Trevor Rosenthal made a bad pitch down the street at Busch Stadium? Foles’ fourth-quarter passer rating: 15.3.
Rams receivers dropped so many passes, they might as well have used oven mitts as part of their gear.
There was a pregame fire on a patch of the plastic field before the game … and if you think I’m going to write a lame joke about how the Rams might want to think about saving the fireworks for their offense — well, you’ve come to the wrong comedy club. I don’t have anything clever to say.
But I do have questions that are bugging me, so let’s get to the stinking point:
Jeff Fisher, shouldn’t you be winning games by now?
Coach Fisher, shouldn’t you have an offense that’s more evolved and in synch with 2015?
The primitive version of the NFL legalized the forward pass in 1906, so haven’t you had plenty of time to figure this out?
Coach, you came to St. Louis with a reputation for having tough teams, and an offense that would maul the opposition’s defensive fronts to win the bloody skirmishes in the pit to pile up the rushing yards.
So why can’t your team run the football?
Isn’t that your speciality?
This is Fisher’s fourth season as coach. Along with GM Les Snead, Fisher has had the benefit of four drafts, considerable free-agent dollars, and trades to build a decent offense.
Fisher-Snead have invested 21 draft choices in their offense. The count, by position: nine offensive linemen (including four tackles), five running backs, five wide receivers, and two quarterbacks.
By now the Rams should have an offense that, at minimum, is ruggedly effective. An offense that can road grade a defense. An offense capable of cultivating an efficient if unimaginative passing game.
The Rams made the gigantic trade with Washington in 2012, bartering the draft rights to quarterback Robert Griffin III for a collection of premium draft choices. But the whopper of a deal did not produce a single player that’s bringing the Fisher offense out of the Stone Age.
And Fisher and Snead made a trade for Foles, their coveted quarterback. Time will tell on that one, but Foles’ last two performances didn’t come close to matching his opening-day slinging against Seattle.
When offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer left the Rams and the NFL after the 2014 season to run the offense for Mark Richt at the University of Georgia, Fisher had a chance to go outside the organization and recruit a creative mind to pull this offense out of the ditch. Instead, Fisher promoted within. Granted, it’s early but Frank Cignetti makes Schotty look like Mike Martz by comparison.
But the shot at Cignetti misses the point.
As I’ve written and said many times: this is the Jeff Fisher offense, and will remain the Jeff Fisher offense as long as Jeff Fisher is the Rams’ head coach. Blaming the offensive coordinator for the Rams’ miserable offense would be like faulting the ship’s orchestra for the sinking of the Titanic.
This is Fisher’s 20th season as an NFL head coach.
For now, we’ll just review the first 19 seasons — even though the 20th season is looking rather familiar.
In the annual league rankings for points scored from scrimmage by an offense, Fisher’s first 19 teams finished in the top 10 only three times and haven’t been better than 12th over the past 10 seasons.
Using the same measure — points by the offense, and not defense or special teams — Fisher’s offense has scored more than the league average only nine times in 19 seasons … and only three times over the past nine seasons.
I went back and looked at the average offensive-points totals of teams that made the playoffs during Fisher’s first 19 seasons.
Fisher’s offenses have matched or exceeded the playoff-caliber average for a particular season only three times out of 19. And it hasn’t happened for 10 consecutive seasons, through 2014. (And only once over the past 14 seasons.)
So for the love of Don Coryell, how in the world does this coach — or the team’s detached owner — expect to put together a playoff-level team with an offense that’s so chronically behind the modern standard for points scored?
We should view all of these Rams’ running plays that get stuffed as something of a metaphor; the failure represents Fisher’s insistence on repeatedly slamming into a big and impenetrable wall and expecting it to crumble when there’s little or no chance of breaking through.
This is an example of hard-headedness in the worst way: sticking with a preferred style that does not work — but stubbornly refusing to change.
In Fisher’s first three seasons the Rams ranked (in order), 28th, 22nd, and 23rd in points from scrimmage on offense.
Three games into the 2015 schedule, the Rams are sinking even lower.
They’ve scored only 43 points on offense. Ugh. And that’s the fewest in the league.
Four teams have more than doubled the Rams’ 43-point output. Eight offenses have put up 70+ points so far. And 14 teams have 60+ points on offense, with Green Bay almost certainly raising that count to 15 pending, and the Chiefs needing 16 points tonight to make it 16 teams with 60 or more.
After defeating Seattle in the first game, the Rams scored one touchdown an 16 total points in losses to Washington and Pittsburgh. In the two losses they converted only 4 of 22 third-down plays … and we can make that 4 of 25 if we include three failures on fourth down. The Rams have only 23 first downs in their last two games — the lowest two-game total during Fishers’s four seasons here.
The Rams are going the wrong way.
There’s no excuse for this.
Not in the fourth year of a program.
Not after using 21 draft picks to stock the offense — with 10 prospects chosen in the first three rounds, and 11 going among the first 100 players selected overall in their draft class.
Not after making WR Tavon Austin the 8th overall pick in 2013, and left offensive tackle Greg Robinson the No. 2 overall selection in 2014. (Gurley, the No. 10 overall choice in 2015, obviously gets a pass in this accounting. He just appeared in his first game.)
Not after using the 33rd overall pick in 2012 on WR Brian Quick, who hasn’t been put on the game-day roster in the first three weeks of the ’15 season. Not after using the No. 50 overall pick in ’12 on spare-part running back Isaiah Pead.
Not after lavishing free-agent dollars on offensive pieces such as tight end Jared Cook, center Scott Wells, wide receiver Kenny Britt, and offensive tackle Jake Long. (Among others.)
Not after trading for Foles.
The Rams are going the wrong way.
In Fisher’s first two seasons in St. Louis: 14 wins, 17 losses, a tie for a .453 winning percentage.
In Fisher’s last two seasons (19 games): 7 wins, 12 losses and a .368 winning percentage.
The Rams, 1-2, are staring at the distinct possibility of a 1-4 record. Their next two games will send them to Arizona, and then to Green Bay.
Going back to last season, the Rams are 1-5 in their last six games, and that could be 1-7 two weeks from now.
I ask this sincerely: is there any legitimate reason to believe Coach Fisher is capable of significant change, and can reverse so many ominous trends that have him wallowing with a .428 winning percentage in his last seven seasons as an NFL head coach?
I liked his hiring before the 2012 season. I liked the team’s immediate improvement under Fisher with that 7-8-1 record in his first season here. But even though progress has been made in refurbishing the roster, the coaching is another story. I don’t believe Fisher can adapt. I hoped that he could, but I no longer see a reason to have the same optimism I felt when he too over.
Any talk of firing Fisher is irrelevant. Kroenke won’t do that. Not when he still has Fisher under contract (at $7 million) in 2016. And not when there’s still a chance of the Rams moving to Los Angeles.
A substantial part of Fisher’s appeal to Kroenke is obvious: Fisher has experience in coaching a relocating team, having been in charge when the late Bud Adams moved his Houston Oilers to Tennessee to become the Titans in 1997.
As crazy as it sounds, Jeff Fisher has as much job security as New England head coach Bill Belichick.
Thanks for reading …
-Bernie
Posted by: Bernie Miklasz
http://www.101sports.com/2015/09/28/jeff-fishers-rams-are-heading-the-wrong-way/
By now you’re familiar with the latest misadventures of the Futile Franchise.
The Rams contained the offensive mayhem created fast-paced Pittsburgh Steelers to 12 points, a good day’s work by any reasonable measure … and lost the game 12-6.
The Rams put Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger out of the competition and in search of crutches with a painful and unfortunate third-quarter knee injury … and still could not find a way to step over his fallen body to find a way to win the day.
The Rams trapped Big Ben and his backup Michael Vick for five sacks. They held the Steelers to 72 yards in the second half. Pittsburgh’s imposing ground game netted only 62 yards rushing, with franchise back Le’Veon Bell surrounded by men in blue, averaging only 3.3 yards per carry … and the Rams could not score enough to make it matter.
On the other side of the scrum, the Rams offense had only 12 first downs. They converted only two of 12 third-down plays. The roll-out debut of running back Todd Gurley did not lead them to the end zone. Gurley, the No. 1 draft choice, joined Tre Mason and Benny Cunningham in the impossible task of making it through the Steelers’ defensive blockade. The Rams’ three running backs were forced to scrounge for 37 yards on 16 carries.
In the first three games Rams’ backs have 42 rushing attempts for 111 yards, an scant average of 2.6 yards per run.
Where have you gone, June Henley?
You want to prevent Rams owner Stan Kroenke from running to Los Angeles? Easy: just put him behind this massive but passive Rams’ offensive line stocked with carefully scouted, hand-picked draft choices. And The Kronk won’t be able to go anywhere.
In a close game, with Big Ben felled and the triumph there for the snatching, Rams quarterback Nick Foles completed four of nine passes for 34 yards and one first down in the fourth quarter. The fourth-quarter misfires included a terrible decision to release a throw that became a fluttering, sailing, paper-airplane interception. And you think Cardinals closer Trevor Rosenthal made a bad pitch down the street at Busch Stadium? Foles’ fourth-quarter passer rating: 15.3.
Rams receivers dropped so many passes, they might as well have used oven mitts as part of their gear.
There was a pregame fire on a patch of the plastic field before the game … and if you think I’m going to write a lame joke about how the Rams might want to think about saving the fireworks for their offense — well, you’ve come to the wrong comedy club. I don’t have anything clever to say.
But I do have questions that are bugging me, so let’s get to the stinking point:
Jeff Fisher, shouldn’t you be winning games by now?
Coach Fisher, shouldn’t you have an offense that’s more evolved and in synch with 2015?
The primitive version of the NFL legalized the forward pass in 1906, so haven’t you had plenty of time to figure this out?
Coach, you came to St. Louis with a reputation for having tough teams, and an offense that would maul the opposition’s defensive fronts to win the bloody skirmishes in the pit to pile up the rushing yards.
So why can’t your team run the football?
Isn’t that your speciality?
This is Fisher’s fourth season as coach. Along with GM Les Snead, Fisher has had the benefit of four drafts, considerable free-agent dollars, and trades to build a decent offense.
Fisher-Snead have invested 21 draft choices in their offense. The count, by position: nine offensive linemen (including four tackles), five running backs, five wide receivers, and two quarterbacks.
By now the Rams should have an offense that, at minimum, is ruggedly effective. An offense that can road grade a defense. An offense capable of cultivating an efficient if unimaginative passing game.
The Rams made the gigantic trade with Washington in 2012, bartering the draft rights to quarterback Robert Griffin III for a collection of premium draft choices. But the whopper of a deal did not produce a single player that’s bringing the Fisher offense out of the Stone Age.
And Fisher and Snead made a trade for Foles, their coveted quarterback. Time will tell on that one, but Foles’ last two performances didn’t come close to matching his opening-day slinging against Seattle.
When offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer left the Rams and the NFL after the 2014 season to run the offense for Mark Richt at the University of Georgia, Fisher had a chance to go outside the organization and recruit a creative mind to pull this offense out of the ditch. Instead, Fisher promoted within. Granted, it’s early but Frank Cignetti makes Schotty look like Mike Martz by comparison.
But the shot at Cignetti misses the point.
As I’ve written and said many times: this is the Jeff Fisher offense, and will remain the Jeff Fisher offense as long as Jeff Fisher is the Rams’ head coach. Blaming the offensive coordinator for the Rams’ miserable offense would be like faulting the ship’s orchestra for the sinking of the Titanic.
This is Fisher’s 20th season as an NFL head coach.
For now, we’ll just review the first 19 seasons — even though the 20th season is looking rather familiar.
In the annual league rankings for points scored from scrimmage by an offense, Fisher’s first 19 teams finished in the top 10 only three times and haven’t been better than 12th over the past 10 seasons.
Using the same measure — points by the offense, and not defense or special teams — Fisher’s offense has scored more than the league average only nine times in 19 seasons … and only three times over the past nine seasons.
I went back and looked at the average offensive-points totals of teams that made the playoffs during Fisher’s first 19 seasons.
Fisher’s offenses have matched or exceeded the playoff-caliber average for a particular season only three times out of 19. And it hasn’t happened for 10 consecutive seasons, through 2014. (And only once over the past 14 seasons.)
So for the love of Don Coryell, how in the world does this coach — or the team’s detached owner — expect to put together a playoff-level team with an offense that’s so chronically behind the modern standard for points scored?
We should view all of these Rams’ running plays that get stuffed as something of a metaphor; the failure represents Fisher’s insistence on repeatedly slamming into a big and impenetrable wall and expecting it to crumble when there’s little or no chance of breaking through.
This is an example of hard-headedness in the worst way: sticking with a preferred style that does not work — but stubbornly refusing to change.
In Fisher’s first three seasons the Rams ranked (in order), 28th, 22nd, and 23rd in points from scrimmage on offense.
Three games into the 2015 schedule, the Rams are sinking even lower.
They’ve scored only 43 points on offense. Ugh. And that’s the fewest in the league.
Four teams have more than doubled the Rams’ 43-point output. Eight offenses have put up 70+ points so far. And 14 teams have 60+ points on offense, with Green Bay almost certainly raising that count to 15 pending, and the Chiefs needing 16 points tonight to make it 16 teams with 60 or more.
After defeating Seattle in the first game, the Rams scored one touchdown an 16 total points in losses to Washington and Pittsburgh. In the two losses they converted only 4 of 22 third-down plays … and we can make that 4 of 25 if we include three failures on fourth down. The Rams have only 23 first downs in their last two games — the lowest two-game total during Fishers’s four seasons here.
The Rams are going the wrong way.
There’s no excuse for this.
Not in the fourth year of a program.
Not after using 21 draft picks to stock the offense — with 10 prospects chosen in the first three rounds, and 11 going among the first 100 players selected overall in their draft class.
Not after making WR Tavon Austin the 8th overall pick in 2013, and left offensive tackle Greg Robinson the No. 2 overall selection in 2014. (Gurley, the No. 10 overall choice in 2015, obviously gets a pass in this accounting. He just appeared in his first game.)
Not after using the 33rd overall pick in 2012 on WR Brian Quick, who hasn’t been put on the game-day roster in the first three weeks of the ’15 season. Not after using the No. 50 overall pick in ’12 on spare-part running back Isaiah Pead.
Not after lavishing free-agent dollars on offensive pieces such as tight end Jared Cook, center Scott Wells, wide receiver Kenny Britt, and offensive tackle Jake Long. (Among others.)
Not after trading for Foles.
The Rams are going the wrong way.
In Fisher’s first two seasons in St. Louis: 14 wins, 17 losses, a tie for a .453 winning percentage.
In Fisher’s last two seasons (19 games): 7 wins, 12 losses and a .368 winning percentage.
The Rams, 1-2, are staring at the distinct possibility of a 1-4 record. Their next two games will send them to Arizona, and then to Green Bay.
Going back to last season, the Rams are 1-5 in their last six games, and that could be 1-7 two weeks from now.
I ask this sincerely: is there any legitimate reason to believe Coach Fisher is capable of significant change, and can reverse so many ominous trends that have him wallowing with a .428 winning percentage in his last seven seasons as an NFL head coach?
I liked his hiring before the 2012 season. I liked the team’s immediate improvement under Fisher with that 7-8-1 record in his first season here. But even though progress has been made in refurbishing the roster, the coaching is another story. I don’t believe Fisher can adapt. I hoped that he could, but I no longer see a reason to have the same optimism I felt when he too over.
Any talk of firing Fisher is irrelevant. Kroenke won’t do that. Not when he still has Fisher under contract (at $7 million) in 2016. And not when there’s still a chance of the Rams moving to Los Angeles.
A substantial part of Fisher’s appeal to Kroenke is obvious: Fisher has experience in coaching a relocating team, having been in charge when the late Bud Adams moved his Houston Oilers to Tennessee to become the Titans in 1997.
As crazy as it sounds, Jeff Fisher has as much job security as New England head coach Bill Belichick.
Thanks for reading …
-Bernie
