- Joined
- Jun 20, 2010
- Messages
- 35,576
- Name
- The Dude
HEAD COACH JEFF FISHER
(Opening Statement)
“What’d you guys do for an hour? You know, it’s funny, this is the second time in a row that we’ve had a little break, coming down here, and having a weather delay and then coming out and fortunately finding a way to win at the end. It was a great win for us, especially coming off the emotional win and the emotions from last Sunday at home, the long trip, and the circumstances. When you score points, which we did, you got a chance. Turnovers hurt us early but we got the two big plays on defense, the return for touchdown and the interception by Mark (Barron). That kind of balanced things out. I thought Case (Keenum) made some good throws. The game was hard but he made some really good throws. It was great to get the ball in the end zone, finally.”
(On first time Rams starting 2-1 since 2006)
“All I know is we got Arizona at Arizona next week. None of them are easy, but we’ll take it.”
(On his approach towards dealing with a weather delay)
“The most important thing is communicating with the players. Unfortunately, to begin with we didn’t know (about delay). We heard rumors that it may be 15 minutes, 60 minutes, or it may be an hour-and-a-half. The officiating crew did a great job keeping us informed and then I would relay the information to the players. Finally, I told them that we were going to get this thing going again. The staff got together and we had plenty of time to talk about what we were going to do, as they did as well, how to go about getting them warmed up and ready to go again after that delay. Especially the fatigue factor, both teams were extremely fatigued and I thought both teams rallied and came back and played well.”
(On getting Todd Gurley going)
“The difference there was we converted some third downs. We had some opportunities with him, a turnover here and there helps for extra carries. He’s not there yet, not because of Todd Gurley personally, but we don’t have him there offensively to where we want to get to.”
(On performance of defensive line)
“I’m going to look at the tape but that’s about as hard a job as you can ask of them considering we went to two ends, When Will (Hayes) came in, was injured, and when he returned we lost Eugene (Sims), but Aaron (Donald) was playing end and Ethan (Westbrooks) had to play the whole time. In the conditions, that’s hard. They’re going to need some rest the next couple of days but I was really impressed with the tenacity, the effort, and the enthusiasm the defense played with throughout the game.”
(On Toddy Gurley’s two touchdowns)
“Yeah, touchdowns. We found him in the box. It’s kind of sweet. I’m excited to hand them out.”
QUARTERBACK CASE KEENUM
(On the importance of Los Angeles’ first offensive drive of the game)
“It was really big. I wanted the ball, coming out. Coach (Jeff) Fisher said he wanted the ball. We wanted to go put some points on the board. We converted on some third downs which were really big coming out of the gate and (wide receiver Brian Quick) ran a great route on the post and spread it out there. He went and got it. It was great. It was really good.”
(On the offense working well together)
“There were some mistakes we want back. Obviously turnovers are huge. I know they got points off my turnover – they may have gotten them on the other one too, I’m not sure – but clean that stuff up. When we’re rolling and we’re doing what we do well – running the ball, play-action, quick game, throwing the ball down the field. It’s a good mix and I think we’re good when we do that.”
(On what the players did during the delay)
“We were just playing spades in there (laughs). No, we were trying to stay locked-in, obviously. Trying to stay hydrated, actually eating. It was weird. I guess that’s kind of (how) hockey players (are), you know the three periods. To have that crucial of a moment being paused, it was tough. It was really tough, but guys responded, did well. Defense came back out and did a heck of a job.”
(On the offense not having an issue scoring touchdowns tonight)
“Nope. We executed. We put it in the endzone. We had a couple of goal line series where we had a lot of plays down there and the offensive line did a great job of blocking for (running back) Todd (Gurley) and Todd finished on all of those, which was really good. And then the couple of explosive plays – guys getting up and downfield making plays for me, which was great.”
(On the importance, for him, of scoring a touchdown on the first drive)
“Anytime you can get out there and have success early it just kind of settles you down as an offense. Obviously the next drive was not what we wanted to do, but I was seeing the field well, (center Tim Barnes) and those guys up front were doing a good job with points and kind of getting settled in that groove. We hit that there in the third quarter as well and put together some drives when we needed to.”
(On wide receiver Tavon Austin)
“Tavon is a threat and any way we can get the ball in his hands, (our opponents) are looking out for that and he did a good job.”
(On what’s going through his mind on the last play of the game)
“I’m confident in my defense. This is the best defense in the league. I believe that and I had no doubt that they were going to stop (Tampa Bay). Obviously you have to give Tampa credit. They did a great job. They’re a really good football team and Jameis (Winston) is a great quarterback. He keeps slinging it no matter what is coming at him. He (gave) them a chance to win the game and our defense made a play when we needed it.”
(On the team being 2-1)
“I think it’s great. I think we are in a good spot. I think we are getting better each week, which is what you want to do. Going on the road and being successful is obviously really good, too. We’re going to have another tough test with another with a really good football team on the road again this week, so we’re going to enjoy this tonight and look forward to this next week.”
(On the amount of discussion the team had about what play to run after the delay)
“I think it changed a few times. There was some discussion. It’s (offensive coordinator) Rob’s (Boras) deal and I trust him. He trusts us to make plays and I trust (wide receiver) Kenny (Britt), I trust my guys, I trust the line and unfortunately (Tampa Bay cornerback Brent) Grimes got up and made a good play. We trust our defense too, at the same time. I love the play-call. I love the ball in my hands.”
WIDE RECEIVER KENNY BRITT
(On coming back out to play following the weather delay)
“It’s actually my second time [in a weather delay] with Coach Fischer. He does a great job bringing the team back together in the locker room, getting a good stretch in and motivating us to go back out there.”
(On the passing game progressing)
“We’re getting [Case] Keenum the ball in our game plan and plays book. You can tell Case is getting more comfortable back there in the pocket. As you see as the game goes on the defense loosens up and that guy in the backfield took advantage of it.”
(On teammate’s success)
“I’m happy about all my guys. Regardless of who it is, I’m proud. That’s my brother. Brian Quick, he did a great job today, he showed up. Right now you can tell the sky is the limit for us.”
(On spreading the ball around)
“It does a lot for our team. You can’t just zone in on one person every game. You can’t just zone in on Tavon Austin, or me, or Brian or the guy in the backfield. You can definitely see that today that they [Tampa Bay] were confused on who would get the ball.”
(On Coach Fischer referencing a box full of touchdowns to get)
“It’s always motivating because you always want to please your head coach. You want to do what he asks for. At the beginning of the week he asked for some touchdowns and guess what? He got some touchdowns.”
(On starting out 2-1 under Coach Fischer)
“I’ve played with Fischer before. We started off 5-0 before. So me as an L.A. Ram, it feels good definitely, keep this momentum going. We’ve got a divisional opponent next week, got to take it to Arizona.”
DEFENSIVE END ROBERT QUINN
(On character of team)
“We had a little rain delay, guys had to take a breather, get their mind right. We only had two minutes left. We were hoping the offense could go down there and score so we didn’t have to get on the field. But they put it on us to win the ball game. We just figured out a way to win. No matter how we did it, no matter what form or fashion we did. We just figured out a way to win and that’s all we care about – winning and nothing else. That’s all that really matters in this league is winning.”
(On not giving up on last play)
“As a D-lineman you can’t. You’ve got to kind of have a relentless effort. Like I said, I got upfield, came back and I thought he [Jameis Winston] was going to take off running for the touchdown, but I saw him pull up looking to the end zone. I just gave every last bit of effort I had to try to get to him. Luckily I had enough time and no one got open in time. I was able to get him down.”
(On the fumble return for touchdown)
“Just trying to get off on the ball. I think it was a passing down or I read pass. I just tried to get up, make a play. I think before that play I really didn’t do anything in the game, so it was a crucial moment. Luckily Ethan [Westbrooks], he got his hands on it cleanly and a few guys threw some blocks and led him on into the end zone. That was a big momentum swing. Like I said the guys really kept trucking away after that.
(On if Winston was aware of defensive pressure on the fumble)
“I guess he didn’t. All I know is I saw the ball still in his hands. That means I had time to try and get to him. That’s all I did. I didn’t really think anything else. I was just hoping the secondary linebackers locked their man down and if he started to take off running hopefully someone would pull him up. I just tried to give every last bit of effort I had to close the game out.”
DEFENSIVE END EUGENE SIMS
(On getting ejected from the game)
“He did something, I reacted and the result was me getting kicked out.”
(On his opponent having to do something really bad for him to react the way he did)
“Actually, it wasn’t a bad reaction. It was the same thing he did to me, so that was what it was.”
(On what his opponent did to make him react that way)
“It was on the field. I’m going to leave it at that.”
(On if he has ever been involved in a game with this sort of weather delay)
“This is the first one since I’ve been playing for seven years. This is the first one.”
(On how he would describe the delay)
“Boring, being ejected. Waiting on my teammates, it felt like I was grounded – which I was – and that’s what it was.”
(On what he learned from this game tonight)
“Just keep you composure as a veteran. It’s something I learned on the back end of my career. You do something l like that and you get caught up, it hurts your teammates, hurts you, hurts the organization. I had to put it on me and put it behind me and move one.”
DEFENSIVE LINEMAN ETHAN WESTBROOKS
(On returning a fumble for a touchdown)
“We practice the ball drill so much in practice, I just picked it up and ran as fast as I could.”
(On if anyone was going to catch him running for the touchdown)
“No, I was hoping they wouldn’t, but I looked up at the screen and saw someone, I don’t know who it was – [Tampa Bay quarterback Jameis] Winston or somebody – I was just like, ‘Please Lord, don’t let anyone catch me.”
(On looking up at the scoreboard while running for a touchdown)
“[It was] about the 30 or 40-yardline. I had to look up. I saw a red jersey so I didn’t want to turn all the way back, but I saw somebody coming.”
(On how exciting the game was)
“It happened like this my rookie year – we had the little weather delay thing, so it wasn’t anything too new. It definitely gave me a breath of air that I needed.”
(On the defense ending the game)
“We got the offense. The offense got us. It was the special teams. All three phases, we just had to ball out and make it work.”
(On the fumble return)
“I just saw it on the ground and I thought about just jumping on it, but we do so much ball drill work at practice, I just picked it up and hoped nobody was going to catch me, pretty much.”
(On if he was out of breath after his fumble recovery for a touchdown)
“Oh yeah, I was pretty done after that. My coaches were just like why didn’t I celebrate. I honestly had no energy to celebrate. I barely had enough energy to get to the sidelines.”
(Opening Statement)
“What’d you guys do for an hour? You know, it’s funny, this is the second time in a row that we’ve had a little break, coming down here, and having a weather delay and then coming out and fortunately finding a way to win at the end. It was a great win for us, especially coming off the emotional win and the emotions from last Sunday at home, the long trip, and the circumstances. When you score points, which we did, you got a chance. Turnovers hurt us early but we got the two big plays on defense, the return for touchdown and the interception by Mark (Barron). That kind of balanced things out. I thought Case (Keenum) made some good throws. The game was hard but he made some really good throws. It was great to get the ball in the end zone, finally.”
(On first time Rams starting 2-1 since 2006)
“All I know is we got Arizona at Arizona next week. None of them are easy, but we’ll take it.”
(On his approach towards dealing with a weather delay)
“The most important thing is communicating with the players. Unfortunately, to begin with we didn’t know (about delay). We heard rumors that it may be 15 minutes, 60 minutes, or it may be an hour-and-a-half. The officiating crew did a great job keeping us informed and then I would relay the information to the players. Finally, I told them that we were going to get this thing going again. The staff got together and we had plenty of time to talk about what we were going to do, as they did as well, how to go about getting them warmed up and ready to go again after that delay. Especially the fatigue factor, both teams were extremely fatigued and I thought both teams rallied and came back and played well.”
(On getting Todd Gurley going)
“The difference there was we converted some third downs. We had some opportunities with him, a turnover here and there helps for extra carries. He’s not there yet, not because of Todd Gurley personally, but we don’t have him there offensively to where we want to get to.”
(On performance of defensive line)
“I’m going to look at the tape but that’s about as hard a job as you can ask of them considering we went to two ends, When Will (Hayes) came in, was injured, and when he returned we lost Eugene (Sims), but Aaron (Donald) was playing end and Ethan (Westbrooks) had to play the whole time. In the conditions, that’s hard. They’re going to need some rest the next couple of days but I was really impressed with the tenacity, the effort, and the enthusiasm the defense played with throughout the game.”
(On Toddy Gurley’s two touchdowns)
“Yeah, touchdowns. We found him in the box. It’s kind of sweet. I’m excited to hand them out.”
QUARTERBACK CASE KEENUM
(On the importance of Los Angeles’ first offensive drive of the game)
“It was really big. I wanted the ball, coming out. Coach (Jeff) Fisher said he wanted the ball. We wanted to go put some points on the board. We converted on some third downs which were really big coming out of the gate and (wide receiver Brian Quick) ran a great route on the post and spread it out there. He went and got it. It was great. It was really good.”
(On the offense working well together)
“There were some mistakes we want back. Obviously turnovers are huge. I know they got points off my turnover – they may have gotten them on the other one too, I’m not sure – but clean that stuff up. When we’re rolling and we’re doing what we do well – running the ball, play-action, quick game, throwing the ball down the field. It’s a good mix and I think we’re good when we do that.”
(On what the players did during the delay)
“We were just playing spades in there (laughs). No, we were trying to stay locked-in, obviously. Trying to stay hydrated, actually eating. It was weird. I guess that’s kind of (how) hockey players (are), you know the three periods. To have that crucial of a moment being paused, it was tough. It was really tough, but guys responded, did well. Defense came back out and did a heck of a job.”
(On the offense not having an issue scoring touchdowns tonight)
“Nope. We executed. We put it in the endzone. We had a couple of goal line series where we had a lot of plays down there and the offensive line did a great job of blocking for (running back) Todd (Gurley) and Todd finished on all of those, which was really good. And then the couple of explosive plays – guys getting up and downfield making plays for me, which was great.”
(On the importance, for him, of scoring a touchdown on the first drive)
“Anytime you can get out there and have success early it just kind of settles you down as an offense. Obviously the next drive was not what we wanted to do, but I was seeing the field well, (center Tim Barnes) and those guys up front were doing a good job with points and kind of getting settled in that groove. We hit that there in the third quarter as well and put together some drives when we needed to.”
(On wide receiver Tavon Austin)
“Tavon is a threat and any way we can get the ball in his hands, (our opponents) are looking out for that and he did a good job.”
(On what’s going through his mind on the last play of the game)
“I’m confident in my defense. This is the best defense in the league. I believe that and I had no doubt that they were going to stop (Tampa Bay). Obviously you have to give Tampa credit. They did a great job. They’re a really good football team and Jameis (Winston) is a great quarterback. He keeps slinging it no matter what is coming at him. He (gave) them a chance to win the game and our defense made a play when we needed it.”
(On the team being 2-1)
“I think it’s great. I think we are in a good spot. I think we are getting better each week, which is what you want to do. Going on the road and being successful is obviously really good, too. We’re going to have another tough test with another with a really good football team on the road again this week, so we’re going to enjoy this tonight and look forward to this next week.”
(On the amount of discussion the team had about what play to run after the delay)
“I think it changed a few times. There was some discussion. It’s (offensive coordinator) Rob’s (Boras) deal and I trust him. He trusts us to make plays and I trust (wide receiver) Kenny (Britt), I trust my guys, I trust the line and unfortunately (Tampa Bay cornerback Brent) Grimes got up and made a good play. We trust our defense too, at the same time. I love the play-call. I love the ball in my hands.”
WIDE RECEIVER KENNY BRITT
(On coming back out to play following the weather delay)
“It’s actually my second time [in a weather delay] with Coach Fischer. He does a great job bringing the team back together in the locker room, getting a good stretch in and motivating us to go back out there.”
(On the passing game progressing)
“We’re getting [Case] Keenum the ball in our game plan and plays book. You can tell Case is getting more comfortable back there in the pocket. As you see as the game goes on the defense loosens up and that guy in the backfield took advantage of it.”
(On teammate’s success)
“I’m happy about all my guys. Regardless of who it is, I’m proud. That’s my brother. Brian Quick, he did a great job today, he showed up. Right now you can tell the sky is the limit for us.”
(On spreading the ball around)
“It does a lot for our team. You can’t just zone in on one person every game. You can’t just zone in on Tavon Austin, or me, or Brian or the guy in the backfield. You can definitely see that today that they [Tampa Bay] were confused on who would get the ball.”
(On Coach Fischer referencing a box full of touchdowns to get)
“It’s always motivating because you always want to please your head coach. You want to do what he asks for. At the beginning of the week he asked for some touchdowns and guess what? He got some touchdowns.”
(On starting out 2-1 under Coach Fischer)
“I’ve played with Fischer before. We started off 5-0 before. So me as an L.A. Ram, it feels good definitely, keep this momentum going. We’ve got a divisional opponent next week, got to take it to Arizona.”
DEFENSIVE END ROBERT QUINN
(On character of team)
“We had a little rain delay, guys had to take a breather, get their mind right. We only had two minutes left. We were hoping the offense could go down there and score so we didn’t have to get on the field. But they put it on us to win the ball game. We just figured out a way to win. No matter how we did it, no matter what form or fashion we did. We just figured out a way to win and that’s all we care about – winning and nothing else. That’s all that really matters in this league is winning.”
(On not giving up on last play)
“As a D-lineman you can’t. You’ve got to kind of have a relentless effort. Like I said, I got upfield, came back and I thought he [Jameis Winston] was going to take off running for the touchdown, but I saw him pull up looking to the end zone. I just gave every last bit of effort I had to try to get to him. Luckily I had enough time and no one got open in time. I was able to get him down.”
(On the fumble return for touchdown)
“Just trying to get off on the ball. I think it was a passing down or I read pass. I just tried to get up, make a play. I think before that play I really didn’t do anything in the game, so it was a crucial moment. Luckily Ethan [Westbrooks], he got his hands on it cleanly and a few guys threw some blocks and led him on into the end zone. That was a big momentum swing. Like I said the guys really kept trucking away after that.
(On if Winston was aware of defensive pressure on the fumble)
“I guess he didn’t. All I know is I saw the ball still in his hands. That means I had time to try and get to him. That’s all I did. I didn’t really think anything else. I was just hoping the secondary linebackers locked their man down and if he started to take off running hopefully someone would pull him up. I just tried to give every last bit of effort I had to close the game out.”
DEFENSIVE END EUGENE SIMS
(On getting ejected from the game)
“He did something, I reacted and the result was me getting kicked out.”
(On his opponent having to do something really bad for him to react the way he did)
“Actually, it wasn’t a bad reaction. It was the same thing he did to me, so that was what it was.”
(On what his opponent did to make him react that way)
“It was on the field. I’m going to leave it at that.”
(On if he has ever been involved in a game with this sort of weather delay)
“This is the first one since I’ve been playing for seven years. This is the first one.”
(On how he would describe the delay)
“Boring, being ejected. Waiting on my teammates, it felt like I was grounded – which I was – and that’s what it was.”
(On what he learned from this game tonight)
“Just keep you composure as a veteran. It’s something I learned on the back end of my career. You do something l like that and you get caught up, it hurts your teammates, hurts you, hurts the organization. I had to put it on me and put it behind me and move one.”
DEFENSIVE LINEMAN ETHAN WESTBROOKS
(On returning a fumble for a touchdown)
“We practice the ball drill so much in practice, I just picked it up and ran as fast as I could.”
(On if anyone was going to catch him running for the touchdown)
“No, I was hoping they wouldn’t, but I looked up at the screen and saw someone, I don’t know who it was – [Tampa Bay quarterback Jameis] Winston or somebody – I was just like, ‘Please Lord, don’t let anyone catch me.”
(On looking up at the scoreboard while running for a touchdown)
“[It was] about the 30 or 40-yardline. I had to look up. I saw a red jersey so I didn’t want to turn all the way back, but I saw somebody coming.”
(On how exciting the game was)
“It happened like this my rookie year – we had the little weather delay thing, so it wasn’t anything too new. It definitely gave me a breath of air that I needed.”
(On the defense ending the game)
“We got the offense. The offense got us. It was the special teams. All three phases, we just had to ball out and make it work.”
(On the fumble return)
“I just saw it on the ground and I thought about just jumping on it, but we do so much ball drill work at practice, I just picked it up and hoped nobody was going to catch me, pretty much.”
(On if he was out of breath after his fumble recovery for a touchdown)
“Oh yeah, I was pretty done after that. My coaches were just like why didn’t I celebrate. I honestly had no energy to celebrate. I barely had enough energy to get to the sidelines.”
