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http://www.ocregister.com/articles/fisher-733071-rams-keenum.html
LONDON – Jeff Fisher stood in front of reporters after another lost afternoon, another slew of mistakes and blown assignments and miscommunication and penalties and turnovers.
And another dreadful loss by his Rams.
In typical Fisher fashion, the Rams coach pointed plenty of fingers at his players and even his coaches.
But never once did he point a finger at the main culprit: Himself.
And rather than talking about what he should do for the future of the Rams – turn the quarterback keys over to rookie Jared Goff – he insisted he will stick with Case Keenum.
Selfishly so.
Because this is about Jeff Fisher, after all. Not the big picture of the Rams.
If it looked and sounded all too familiar, it’s because it is.
Jeff Fisher has become the master of ceremony of sorts at these events. And of deflecting blame and promising improvements and insisting the proper fixes will be made.
Nearly five complete years into his Rams tenure, he’s assumed this same position 40 times.
And if you count the 17 years he spent in Houston and Tennessee, it’s up to 160.
That’s an extraordinary amount of times to take the podium after coaching a team to another loss. In fact, it’s five shy of the all-time record.
That’s too many for Fisher to still be employed by the Rams, if you’re really being honest about things.
But with the Rams making the move from St. Louis to Los Angeles and all the upheaval that came with it, they felt changing coaches probably added an additional challenge they didn’t want to deal with. Just as importantly, after putting him through more than 12 months of uncertainty as the NFL untangled the Rams return to L.A., they felt they needed to do right by him.
So they gave Fisher the chance to coach the final year of his contract. And maybe, just maybe turn things around and earn a new deal.
So much for all that.
The extension should be out the window at this point, and not just because the Rams lost their third straight game Sunday in a 17-10 loss to the New York Giants in London.
It goes beyond one loss or a three-game losing streak.
Something just isn’t adding up.
And it begins with the man in charge.
It’s time for the Rams to look in another direction at head coach.
It’s time for a new vibe. A new voice. A new philosophy.
A new beginning.
It’s painfully obvious the Jeff Fisher era is not working. What’s worse, he’s now selfishly standing in the way of their future by coaching out of self preservation rather than with the big picture in mind.
That was painfully obvious when he blew off any consideration to making a switch at quarterback and expedite the Goff era by sticking with Keenum,
The Rams are going nowhere right now. They’re the same old tired, mediocre team they’ve always been under Fisher.
It’s time to accept that and get Goff onto the field, even if it means more short-term losses as he makes the transition to the NFL.
This season should no longer be about 2016, and some foolish notion the Rams will turn things around and turn the proverbial corner from 7-9 to 9-7.
That isn’t going to happen.
This season should no longer be about Fisher, either.
It should be about 2017 and 2018 and beyond.
And that means making the change to Goff.
But Fisher, who is thinking more about himself than the future, will have none of it.
In fact, he went out of his way to defend Keenum despite the four interceptions his quarterback threw Sunday and the side of the mountain he’s quarterbacked the Rams to through seven games.
“The quarterback is not the reason, by the way, that we lost three (straight) games,” Fisher said defiantly.
On that we agree.
Keenum isn’t the primary reason the Rams are 3-4. That’s on Fisher and the roster he’s constructed and the coaches he’s hired and the decisions he’s made and the philosophy he coaches by and the culture he’s created.
Keenum is just a small part of everything Fisher’s built.
But here is the problem.
In Keenum, Fisher sees a game manager quarterback who can maybe help squeak out enough wins to preserve his job. He’s thinking short-term, not long-term.
“I’m staying with Case,” Fisher said.
It’s self-preservation coaching at its worst.
And it’s standing in the way of the Rams, who need to think big picture now more than ever.
Goff might not represent the present, but he is the face of the future.
The Rams invested six draft picks to move into position to draft him, then chose him over Carson Wentz, who has developed into an immediate sensation in Philadelphia.
Unless you foolishly think the Rams can gather themselves for a second-half push – and I have news for you, folks, the Rams are going to continue to bumble about under Fisher just like they always have – then the rest of the season should be about preparing and developing Goff and letting him build chemistry and trust with the rest of the offense.
And what a perfect time then during the upcoming bye week and with the Rams facing five home games over their final nine games.
But Fisher will have none of it.
“Jared is going to play when we feel Jared is ready,” Fisher said.
Translation: Jared will play only if I think he can help me keep my job.
And that’s just selfish.
LONDON – Jeff Fisher stood in front of reporters after another lost afternoon, another slew of mistakes and blown assignments and miscommunication and penalties and turnovers.
And another dreadful loss by his Rams.
In typical Fisher fashion, the Rams coach pointed plenty of fingers at his players and even his coaches.
But never once did he point a finger at the main culprit: Himself.
And rather than talking about what he should do for the future of the Rams – turn the quarterback keys over to rookie Jared Goff – he insisted he will stick with Case Keenum.
Selfishly so.
Because this is about Jeff Fisher, after all. Not the big picture of the Rams.
If it looked and sounded all too familiar, it’s because it is.
Jeff Fisher has become the master of ceremony of sorts at these events. And of deflecting blame and promising improvements and insisting the proper fixes will be made.
Nearly five complete years into his Rams tenure, he’s assumed this same position 40 times.
And if you count the 17 years he spent in Houston and Tennessee, it’s up to 160.
That’s an extraordinary amount of times to take the podium after coaching a team to another loss. In fact, it’s five shy of the all-time record.
That’s too many for Fisher to still be employed by the Rams, if you’re really being honest about things.
But with the Rams making the move from St. Louis to Los Angeles and all the upheaval that came with it, they felt changing coaches probably added an additional challenge they didn’t want to deal with. Just as importantly, after putting him through more than 12 months of uncertainty as the NFL untangled the Rams return to L.A., they felt they needed to do right by him.
So they gave Fisher the chance to coach the final year of his contract. And maybe, just maybe turn things around and earn a new deal.
So much for all that.
The extension should be out the window at this point, and not just because the Rams lost their third straight game Sunday in a 17-10 loss to the New York Giants in London.
It goes beyond one loss or a three-game losing streak.
Something just isn’t adding up.
And it begins with the man in charge.
It’s time for the Rams to look in another direction at head coach.
It’s time for a new vibe. A new voice. A new philosophy.
A new beginning.
It’s painfully obvious the Jeff Fisher era is not working. What’s worse, he’s now selfishly standing in the way of their future by coaching out of self preservation rather than with the big picture in mind.
That was painfully obvious when he blew off any consideration to making a switch at quarterback and expedite the Goff era by sticking with Keenum,
The Rams are going nowhere right now. They’re the same old tired, mediocre team they’ve always been under Fisher.
It’s time to accept that and get Goff onto the field, even if it means more short-term losses as he makes the transition to the NFL.
This season should no longer be about 2016, and some foolish notion the Rams will turn things around and turn the proverbial corner from 7-9 to 9-7.
That isn’t going to happen.
This season should no longer be about Fisher, either.
It should be about 2017 and 2018 and beyond.
And that means making the change to Goff.
But Fisher, who is thinking more about himself than the future, will have none of it.
In fact, he went out of his way to defend Keenum despite the four interceptions his quarterback threw Sunday and the side of the mountain he’s quarterbacked the Rams to through seven games.
“The quarterback is not the reason, by the way, that we lost three (straight) games,” Fisher said defiantly.
On that we agree.
Keenum isn’t the primary reason the Rams are 3-4. That’s on Fisher and the roster he’s constructed and the coaches he’s hired and the decisions he’s made and the philosophy he coaches by and the culture he’s created.
Keenum is just a small part of everything Fisher’s built.
But here is the problem.
In Keenum, Fisher sees a game manager quarterback who can maybe help squeak out enough wins to preserve his job. He’s thinking short-term, not long-term.
“I’m staying with Case,” Fisher said.
It’s self-preservation coaching at its worst.
And it’s standing in the way of the Rams, who need to think big picture now more than ever.
Goff might not represent the present, but he is the face of the future.
The Rams invested six draft picks to move into position to draft him, then chose him over Carson Wentz, who has developed into an immediate sensation in Philadelphia.
Unless you foolishly think the Rams can gather themselves for a second-half push – and I have news for you, folks, the Rams are going to continue to bumble about under Fisher just like they always have – then the rest of the season should be about preparing and developing Goff and letting him build chemistry and trust with the rest of the offense.
And what a perfect time then during the upcoming bye week and with the Rams facing five home games over their final nine games.
But Fisher will have none of it.
“Jared is going to play when we feel Jared is ready,” Fisher said.
Translation: Jared will play only if I think he can help me keep my job.
And that’s just selfish.
