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Fisher has had his fill of offside penalties
• By Jim Thomas
http://www.stltoday.com/sports/foot...cle_c1ea3675-a15d-5bba-b33d-c2b329e62b14.html
Since the hiring of coach Jeff Fisher in 2012, an attacking Rams defense has spent a lot of time on the other side of the line of scrimmage.
The team’s 172 sacks since the start of the 2012 season is a league high.
This season, the Rams are tied for second in sacks with 27.
Throw in tackles for loss — against the run or after a completed pass (on a screen, for example) — and the St. Louis defense has come up with 70 negative plays, trailing only Denver and Detroit in that category, with 71 apiece.
“We’re a ‘get-off’ unit,” defensive tackle Michael Brockers said. “We want to get in the backfield, we want to destroy stuff.”
Trouble is, the Rams have been “getting off” too quickly lately — much to Fisher’s chagrin. In last week’s 21-18 overtime loss at Minnesota, the Rams’ defense was flagged five times either for being offside or for a neutral zone infraction.
They did so twice against San Francisco two Sundays ago and five times on Oct. 25 against Cleveland. That’s 12 times in three games. Such mistakes are easy enough to overlook after a victory, as was the case against the Browns and 49ers.
But then came Minnesota. Three of those penalties came in the first quarter:
• An offside penalty against Brockers on Minnesota’s first possession of the day gave the Vikings a first down on a field goal drive.
• A neutral zone infraction against Brockers, followed by an offside flag against backup defensive tackle Nick Fairley helped push Minnesota along on an 80-yard touchdown drive on the Vikings’ second series.
“It’s hard to play penalty free, but I think as a defense we should know that people are trying to keep us from rushing the passer,” Brockers said. “And trying to keep us from getting in the backfield. So they’re gonna hard-count us. We have to look at that, and learn from it, and just get better from it.”
In the second half, veteran defensive end William Hayes was flagged twice for being offside. Neither penalty was part of a scoring drive, but both came with the Vikings up 18-15 and helped them control the clock at a time when the Rams were playing catch-up.
“I generally don’t jump too often,” Hayes said. “They were able to get the best of me last week. So hopefully I’m gonna fix it up this week and we don’t have an issue any more.”
Fisher can only hope so. In his most animated press conference since coming to St. Louis, Fisher got especially worked up Monday on the topic of those defensive offside penalties.
He brought up the topic himself when stating that he wasn’t bothered by assertions of dirty play by his teams.
“What bothers me right now is the stuff before and after the whistle,” Fisher said, referring to penalties. “Those are the things that bother me, namely defensive offside. That’s something I gotta get fixed.
“We’ve had 12 defensive offsides in three games and that is too many. It doesn’t win games for you, so we gotta get that fixed.”
When asked just how he plans on fixing it, Fisher almost came unhinged.
“I can’t give — I’m not going to share it,” he replied. “But we’re going to get it fixed.”
Then, with his voice rising almost to a shout, he added: “I’ll back ’em off. I’ll back ’em. They can line up three yards off the ball. We’ll get a running start after the ball’s snapped. But I’m gonna figure out a way to eliminate defensive offsides.”
Fisher actually backed up from the podium, providing a visual of how the players would be backed off the line of scrimmage.
The Rams have a league-high 12 defensive offside penalties through eight games this season. Denver and Miami are next with 11 apiece, but otherwise the Rams are way ahead of the pack. No other team has more than seven such penalties, and 20 teams have four or fewer.
On five other occasions, the Rams have been flagged for neutral zone infractions, the second-worst total in the league to Tampa Bay’s eight.
Put the two totals together and the Rams have either jumped offside or lined up offside a league-worst 17 times on defense this season.
“Trust me, Gregg (Williams) has harped on it for weeks,” linebacker James Laurinaitis said, referring to the team’s defensive coordinator. “This is not something that he just started talking about Monday. This has been something that he’s been harping on for a while. The head coach has harped on it for a while.”
As far back as Green Bay in early October, Fisher periodically blew an air horn at practice, trying to startle the defense into jumping offside. He even blew the air horn early in the morning that week during a defensive team meeting to get his point across.
“It’s a very fine line,” Laurinaitis said. “Teams that usually lead the NFL in sacks usually have a lot of offside penalties. And teams at the bottom (in sacks) have few.
“But we can’t be naive and think it’s not a problem. Whenever you give offenses first-and-5 and free plays, it’s a bad deal. So we gotta figure it out. I’m sure Coach (Fisher) has a plan.”
And probably not one that includes lining up three yards off the line of scrimmage.
• By Jim Thomas
http://www.stltoday.com/sports/foot...cle_c1ea3675-a15d-5bba-b33d-c2b329e62b14.html
Since the hiring of coach Jeff Fisher in 2012, an attacking Rams defense has spent a lot of time on the other side of the line of scrimmage.
The team’s 172 sacks since the start of the 2012 season is a league high.
This season, the Rams are tied for second in sacks with 27.
Throw in tackles for loss — against the run or after a completed pass (on a screen, for example) — and the St. Louis defense has come up with 70 negative plays, trailing only Denver and Detroit in that category, with 71 apiece.
“We’re a ‘get-off’ unit,” defensive tackle Michael Brockers said. “We want to get in the backfield, we want to destroy stuff.”
Trouble is, the Rams have been “getting off” too quickly lately — much to Fisher’s chagrin. In last week’s 21-18 overtime loss at Minnesota, the Rams’ defense was flagged five times either for being offside or for a neutral zone infraction.
They did so twice against San Francisco two Sundays ago and five times on Oct. 25 against Cleveland. That’s 12 times in three games. Such mistakes are easy enough to overlook after a victory, as was the case against the Browns and 49ers.
But then came Minnesota. Three of those penalties came in the first quarter:
• An offside penalty against Brockers on Minnesota’s first possession of the day gave the Vikings a first down on a field goal drive.
• A neutral zone infraction against Brockers, followed by an offside flag against backup defensive tackle Nick Fairley helped push Minnesota along on an 80-yard touchdown drive on the Vikings’ second series.
“It’s hard to play penalty free, but I think as a defense we should know that people are trying to keep us from rushing the passer,” Brockers said. “And trying to keep us from getting in the backfield. So they’re gonna hard-count us. We have to look at that, and learn from it, and just get better from it.”
In the second half, veteran defensive end William Hayes was flagged twice for being offside. Neither penalty was part of a scoring drive, but both came with the Vikings up 18-15 and helped them control the clock at a time when the Rams were playing catch-up.
“I generally don’t jump too often,” Hayes said. “They were able to get the best of me last week. So hopefully I’m gonna fix it up this week and we don’t have an issue any more.”
Fisher can only hope so. In his most animated press conference since coming to St. Louis, Fisher got especially worked up Monday on the topic of those defensive offside penalties.
He brought up the topic himself when stating that he wasn’t bothered by assertions of dirty play by his teams.
“What bothers me right now is the stuff before and after the whistle,” Fisher said, referring to penalties. “Those are the things that bother me, namely defensive offside. That’s something I gotta get fixed.
“We’ve had 12 defensive offsides in three games and that is too many. It doesn’t win games for you, so we gotta get that fixed.”
When asked just how he plans on fixing it, Fisher almost came unhinged.
“I can’t give — I’m not going to share it,” he replied. “But we’re going to get it fixed.”
Then, with his voice rising almost to a shout, he added: “I’ll back ’em off. I’ll back ’em. They can line up three yards off the ball. We’ll get a running start after the ball’s snapped. But I’m gonna figure out a way to eliminate defensive offsides.”
Fisher actually backed up from the podium, providing a visual of how the players would be backed off the line of scrimmage.
The Rams have a league-high 12 defensive offside penalties through eight games this season. Denver and Miami are next with 11 apiece, but otherwise the Rams are way ahead of the pack. No other team has more than seven such penalties, and 20 teams have four or fewer.
On five other occasions, the Rams have been flagged for neutral zone infractions, the second-worst total in the league to Tampa Bay’s eight.
Put the two totals together and the Rams have either jumped offside or lined up offside a league-worst 17 times on defense this season.
“Trust me, Gregg (Williams) has harped on it for weeks,” linebacker James Laurinaitis said, referring to the team’s defensive coordinator. “This is not something that he just started talking about Monday. This has been something that he’s been harping on for a while. The head coach has harped on it for a while.”
As far back as Green Bay in early October, Fisher periodically blew an air horn at practice, trying to startle the defense into jumping offside. He even blew the air horn early in the morning that week during a defensive team meeting to get his point across.
“It’s a very fine line,” Laurinaitis said. “Teams that usually lead the NFL in sacks usually have a lot of offside penalties. And teams at the bottom (in sacks) have few.
“But we can’t be naive and think it’s not a problem. Whenever you give offenses first-and-5 and free plays, it’s a bad deal. So we gotta figure it out. I’m sure Coach (Fisher) has a plan.”
And probably not one that includes lining up three yards off the line of scrimmage.
