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Rams Head Coach Jeff Fisher
(On the team’s first half performance)
“They (Baltimore) were 0-for-5 on third down. They completed five passes. They rushed for 24 yards – this is outside the two-minute – and they had 14 points and we had, I think, nine penalties at that point. So, yes we had a nice little candid discussion at halftime regarding that. Unfortunately, you’ve got guys that are trying hard, busting their butt and the reality is most of the flags that were thrown were directed towards players that, unfortunately, are not going to be on the field for us, if there’s any consolation there. We’ve been talking about penalties all week. I’ve shared it with you guys and you know the unsportsmanlike conduct, you just can’t have them. We’ll get those things fixed. I’m happy to report that the starters that we sat got through the game without injury. It’s a little different for us, but we talked about it earlier in the week and felt like this was the best thing for this team as far as starting the regular season. The guys had great work against each other all week, even including yesterday. I informed them about 5:00 (p.m.). We got a chance to look at a lot of young players and I thought it worked out well.”
(On if he told the starters they would sit the game at 5:00 p.m. this evening)
“Yes.”
(On his usual tendency to play starters in the fourth preseason game)
“Yeah, typically I have, but I guess in the new world that we’re in, it’s hard to. It’s hard to do that. What that implies is that I’m pleased with where they are right now, those guys that sat. They worked hard. We got a great workout and it allowed them to fast-forward their minds to Arizona.”
(On QB Kellen Clemens)
“Yeah, Kellen did good. He was a little worried about his modeling career after football because he broke his nose, but he came in and played well.”
(On if Clemens had a broken nose tonight)
“Yes.”
(On what he liked about tonight’s performance)
“You know, the running backs, the young running backs did well. Benny’s (Cunningham) quick and powerful and same with Zac (Stacy). Way to keep the chains moving. You like to see the second-and-5’s and the second-and-4’s, which was good. I thought defensively, guys made plays. We didn’t have the ability most of the game to match up with them. They went goal-line personnel and we stayed base defense. We kept them out of the end zone. We were out at nickel for some time during the half. We stayed base and got off the field. I thought, and we’ll look at the tape, but thought we saw some improvement out of some of the guys on special teams. It looks like our core group of ‘teams’ is starting to take shape.”
(On if there were any final roster spots up for grabs heading into tonight’s game)
“We have some tough choices, yeah, that we have to sort out, with depth at different positions. The roster may look, initially, a little different than it has in the past. We may carry more at one position and fewer at the others and look for outside help.”
(On if he was concerned about RB Isaiah Pead’s fumble)
“Yeah, this is his second one. We had three of them. Now, ‘Quickie’s’ (WR Brian Quick) was hard. (WR) Tavon’s (Austin) got to learn, when you’re stumbling and trying to keep your balance, the most important thing is protecting the football. Yeah, the hat was on the football and that can’t happen, so we’ll continue to work with him.”
(On DT Jermelle Cudjo)
“Cudjo got to play, yeah. I talked to (Defensive Line) Coach (Mike) Waufle he said he felt like he did pretty well, so we didn’t play him very much. We wanted to get (T) Rodger (Saffold) some more experience. So I think he got about six snaps out there on the right side.”
(On S Matt Daniels displaying good tackling and making big plays tonight)
“Yeah, Matt did against a seasoned tight end, too. You have a one-on-one matchup with (Ravens TE) Dallas (Clark) a couple situations so it was good to see him.”
QB Sam Bradford
(On if he is glad the preseason is over and ready to begin the regular season)
“Yeah, absolutely. I thought we had a really good training camp. I thought we did some really good things during the preseason when we were on the field, and now it’s full steam ahead getting ready for Arizona next week.”
(On if it was nice to see WRs Brian Quick and Tavon Austin be more involved)
“Absolutely. I think it was great. From my perspective today just being able to watch and watching some of those young guys go out there and make plays. We all know what they’re capable of, but it’s always nice when they kind of reaffirm that with their play on the field.”
(On how much more improved the team is compared to last season)
“I think obviously we are much improved at the skill position group just in the sense that we’ve got a lot more speed. I think there’s still a lot of things that we need to clean up as far as details goes. We’re young in that group. Even (TE Jared) Cook, it’s his first year in the system. Like I said, I think we’ve done a lot of really good things in the preseason, but I think in order for us to take that next step, there’s still some things that we can get cleaned up going in to next week.”
(On what needs to be cleaned up)
“Just route depths. Cleaning up some different cuts as far as whether it’s a speed cut, whether we’re going to drop before we break out of it.”
(On cleaning up ‘hot reads’)
“Exactly. I think some of those young guys – I think it was great because our defense throws a lot of looks at us, but I think we still missed some conversions. Just a lot of little things that we’ve got to make sure once we get going next week, we can’t afford to miss things like that.”
(On utilizing more of the playbook next week)
“Yeah, for the most part this preseason, we were pretty ‘vanilla’. I think every team around the league is pretty much the same way. Obviously, there’s some things that we haven’t showed that we need to continue to work in practice.”
(On if penalties are an issue)
“Yeah, absolutely. I think Coach – through our first two or our second and third game I mean we had 20 penalties in two games. You’re not going to win many football games when you have that many penalties. I don’t know what it was tonight, but I think we had nine in the first half. Eleven, that’s inexcusable. If we want to be the team that we can be, penalties is the quickest way to shoot yourself in the foot, and they’re things that we just can’t have.”
(On if penalties are a result of the youth on the team or lack of focus)
“I don’t know. I don’t know if it’s a focus thing. I don’t think we can use the fact that we’re young. It doesn’t matter how young we are, we still can’t make those mistakes.”
(On how excited he is to put it all together in Week 1)
“I’m really excited. I think it will be nice to actually get into an actual game week with a game plan, talk to ‘Schotty’ (Offensive Coordinator Brian Schottenheimer) obviously this weekend and early next week and figure out exactly what we want to do. The preseason is tough in the fact that you pretty much run everything that you have. There’s not really a game plan. There’s a call sheet, but we don’t really sit down and talk. So, it will be nice to actually get into a game week and know exactly what’s going to be on the call sheet and what our plan of attack is.”
CB Janoris Jenkins
(On how the team looks)
“I felt we look pretty good. We’ve got a lot of young guys, we’ve got a lot of veterans. They’ve been great leaders to us. We’ve just got to come together as a team and be ready to go out and play every week.”
S Matt Daniels
(On his performance in the game)
“I feel like I did my job tonight. I went out and made a couple of plays when I had the opportunity to do so. I felt good out there and my knee felt great. I just went out and did my job. Everything else is up to the organization. I’m happy with my performance tonight though.”
(On his interception)
“I actually had a lot of help from (S) Rodney McLeod. He gave me a great reroute because the guy was trying to run an out-and-up and Rodney really pushed him out wide, which allowed me to stay on the inside and go and make the play. I really wanted to get a pick-six, but it didn’t happen. I’m happy though.”
(On the interception being a nice comeback from injury)
“It’s a nice way to finish it off. I’m just relieved. I feel like a lot of weight was lifted off of my shoulders. All of the rehab finally paid off and I’m just happy to be back out there and competing.”
RB Zac Stacy
(On getting into a rhythm with having few carries so far)
“It’s all about getting a rhythm or whatnot, just getting the feel of the game. The more hits you take, the more accustomed you become throughout the game, so it was good to get my feet wet a little bit, series after series after series. I felt like Kellen Clemmens was getting comfortable each drive, so for the most part it was pretty good.”
(On what his role will be among the running backs)
“Whatever the case may be. Right now I’m just trying to develop a role of just whenever I get the opportunity to just make the most of it, to put the offense and this team in the best possible situation to be successful.”
(On making the adjustment from Vanderbilt to NFL and if he could tell the difference when attacking the line of scrimmage)
“No, not really. For the most part I always say that playing at the next level, playing at the SEC, was a great internship to get ready for the next level. A lot of guys were fast, a lot of guys were big, a lot of guys were physical. They could run. That’s the name of the game, so you’ve just got to be able to play a little smarter and always anticipate well, prepare your butt off throughout the week, and it eventually slows down. The game slows down.”
WR Brian Quick
(On his postgame conversation with Torry Holt)
“He was just telling me to continue to grow, continue to build off of what you are doing each week. That helped me. That was great.”
(On if he is getting more comfortable with the offensive system)
“Of course. I have the athleticism. We all do. Playing on this level, you have to be smart. You can’t make mental errors and I’m just trying to minimize my mental errors and continue to grow.”
(On if he was excited to get extended playing time tonight)
“Oh yeah, I don’t want any plays off. I feel like this was the opportunity for me to show everybody that I took a step forward and that I can be a great player.”
(On if tonight was an opportunity to show that he is ready to get some work with the starting unit)
“Oh yeah, I’m ready. Everybody sees that I’m growing and I’m getting better. I have to build that trust with Sam (Bradford). He has to be able to trust me. That’s going to take every day in practice doing everything right.”
(On if he feels like he made a statement today)
“I would say I took a step forward. I feel like I did okay. There are a lot of different things that I know that I could have done better. There are always opportunities for me to get better. I feel like as long as I continue to do what I need to do then I feel like I will be in with the 1’s or wherever Schotty (OC Brian Schottenheimer) decides.”
(On the team’s first half performance)
“They (Baltimore) were 0-for-5 on third down. They completed five passes. They rushed for 24 yards – this is outside the two-minute – and they had 14 points and we had, I think, nine penalties at that point. So, yes we had a nice little candid discussion at halftime regarding that. Unfortunately, you’ve got guys that are trying hard, busting their butt and the reality is most of the flags that were thrown were directed towards players that, unfortunately, are not going to be on the field for us, if there’s any consolation there. We’ve been talking about penalties all week. I’ve shared it with you guys and you know the unsportsmanlike conduct, you just can’t have them. We’ll get those things fixed. I’m happy to report that the starters that we sat got through the game without injury. It’s a little different for us, but we talked about it earlier in the week and felt like this was the best thing for this team as far as starting the regular season. The guys had great work against each other all week, even including yesterday. I informed them about 5:00 (p.m.). We got a chance to look at a lot of young players and I thought it worked out well.”
(On if he told the starters they would sit the game at 5:00 p.m. this evening)
“Yes.”
(On his usual tendency to play starters in the fourth preseason game)
“Yeah, typically I have, but I guess in the new world that we’re in, it’s hard to. It’s hard to do that. What that implies is that I’m pleased with where they are right now, those guys that sat. They worked hard. We got a great workout and it allowed them to fast-forward their minds to Arizona.”
(On QB Kellen Clemens)
“Yeah, Kellen did good. He was a little worried about his modeling career after football because he broke his nose, but he came in and played well.”
(On if Clemens had a broken nose tonight)
“Yes.”
(On what he liked about tonight’s performance)
“You know, the running backs, the young running backs did well. Benny’s (Cunningham) quick and powerful and same with Zac (Stacy). Way to keep the chains moving. You like to see the second-and-5’s and the second-and-4’s, which was good. I thought defensively, guys made plays. We didn’t have the ability most of the game to match up with them. They went goal-line personnel and we stayed base defense. We kept them out of the end zone. We were out at nickel for some time during the half. We stayed base and got off the field. I thought, and we’ll look at the tape, but thought we saw some improvement out of some of the guys on special teams. It looks like our core group of ‘teams’ is starting to take shape.”
(On if there were any final roster spots up for grabs heading into tonight’s game)
“We have some tough choices, yeah, that we have to sort out, with depth at different positions. The roster may look, initially, a little different than it has in the past. We may carry more at one position and fewer at the others and look for outside help.”
(On if he was concerned about RB Isaiah Pead’s fumble)
“Yeah, this is his second one. We had three of them. Now, ‘Quickie’s’ (WR Brian Quick) was hard. (WR) Tavon’s (Austin) got to learn, when you’re stumbling and trying to keep your balance, the most important thing is protecting the football. Yeah, the hat was on the football and that can’t happen, so we’ll continue to work with him.”
(On DT Jermelle Cudjo)
“Cudjo got to play, yeah. I talked to (Defensive Line) Coach (Mike) Waufle he said he felt like he did pretty well, so we didn’t play him very much. We wanted to get (T) Rodger (Saffold) some more experience. So I think he got about six snaps out there on the right side.”
(On S Matt Daniels displaying good tackling and making big plays tonight)
“Yeah, Matt did against a seasoned tight end, too. You have a one-on-one matchup with (Ravens TE) Dallas (Clark) a couple situations so it was good to see him.”
QB Sam Bradford
(On if he is glad the preseason is over and ready to begin the regular season)
“Yeah, absolutely. I thought we had a really good training camp. I thought we did some really good things during the preseason when we were on the field, and now it’s full steam ahead getting ready for Arizona next week.”
(On if it was nice to see WRs Brian Quick and Tavon Austin be more involved)
“Absolutely. I think it was great. From my perspective today just being able to watch and watching some of those young guys go out there and make plays. We all know what they’re capable of, but it’s always nice when they kind of reaffirm that with their play on the field.”
(On how much more improved the team is compared to last season)
“I think obviously we are much improved at the skill position group just in the sense that we’ve got a lot more speed. I think there’s still a lot of things that we need to clean up as far as details goes. We’re young in that group. Even (TE Jared) Cook, it’s his first year in the system. Like I said, I think we’ve done a lot of really good things in the preseason, but I think in order for us to take that next step, there’s still some things that we can get cleaned up going in to next week.”
(On what needs to be cleaned up)
“Just route depths. Cleaning up some different cuts as far as whether it’s a speed cut, whether we’re going to drop before we break out of it.”
(On cleaning up ‘hot reads’)
“Exactly. I think some of those young guys – I think it was great because our defense throws a lot of looks at us, but I think we still missed some conversions. Just a lot of little things that we’ve got to make sure once we get going next week, we can’t afford to miss things like that.”
(On utilizing more of the playbook next week)
“Yeah, for the most part this preseason, we were pretty ‘vanilla’. I think every team around the league is pretty much the same way. Obviously, there’s some things that we haven’t showed that we need to continue to work in practice.”
(On if penalties are an issue)
“Yeah, absolutely. I think Coach – through our first two or our second and third game I mean we had 20 penalties in two games. You’re not going to win many football games when you have that many penalties. I don’t know what it was tonight, but I think we had nine in the first half. Eleven, that’s inexcusable. If we want to be the team that we can be, penalties is the quickest way to shoot yourself in the foot, and they’re things that we just can’t have.”
(On if penalties are a result of the youth on the team or lack of focus)
“I don’t know. I don’t know if it’s a focus thing. I don’t think we can use the fact that we’re young. It doesn’t matter how young we are, we still can’t make those mistakes.”
(On how excited he is to put it all together in Week 1)
“I’m really excited. I think it will be nice to actually get into an actual game week with a game plan, talk to ‘Schotty’ (Offensive Coordinator Brian Schottenheimer) obviously this weekend and early next week and figure out exactly what we want to do. The preseason is tough in the fact that you pretty much run everything that you have. There’s not really a game plan. There’s a call sheet, but we don’t really sit down and talk. So, it will be nice to actually get into a game week and know exactly what’s going to be on the call sheet and what our plan of attack is.”
CB Janoris Jenkins
(On how the team looks)
“I felt we look pretty good. We’ve got a lot of young guys, we’ve got a lot of veterans. They’ve been great leaders to us. We’ve just got to come together as a team and be ready to go out and play every week.”
S Matt Daniels
(On his performance in the game)
“I feel like I did my job tonight. I went out and made a couple of plays when I had the opportunity to do so. I felt good out there and my knee felt great. I just went out and did my job. Everything else is up to the organization. I’m happy with my performance tonight though.”
(On his interception)
“I actually had a lot of help from (S) Rodney McLeod. He gave me a great reroute because the guy was trying to run an out-and-up and Rodney really pushed him out wide, which allowed me to stay on the inside and go and make the play. I really wanted to get a pick-six, but it didn’t happen. I’m happy though.”
(On the interception being a nice comeback from injury)
“It’s a nice way to finish it off. I’m just relieved. I feel like a lot of weight was lifted off of my shoulders. All of the rehab finally paid off and I’m just happy to be back out there and competing.”
RB Zac Stacy
(On getting into a rhythm with having few carries so far)
“It’s all about getting a rhythm or whatnot, just getting the feel of the game. The more hits you take, the more accustomed you become throughout the game, so it was good to get my feet wet a little bit, series after series after series. I felt like Kellen Clemmens was getting comfortable each drive, so for the most part it was pretty good.”
(On what his role will be among the running backs)
“Whatever the case may be. Right now I’m just trying to develop a role of just whenever I get the opportunity to just make the most of it, to put the offense and this team in the best possible situation to be successful.”
(On making the adjustment from Vanderbilt to NFL and if he could tell the difference when attacking the line of scrimmage)
“No, not really. For the most part I always say that playing at the next level, playing at the SEC, was a great internship to get ready for the next level. A lot of guys were fast, a lot of guys were big, a lot of guys were physical. They could run. That’s the name of the game, so you’ve just got to be able to play a little smarter and always anticipate well, prepare your butt off throughout the week, and it eventually slows down. The game slows down.”
WR Brian Quick
(On his postgame conversation with Torry Holt)
“He was just telling me to continue to grow, continue to build off of what you are doing each week. That helped me. That was great.”
(On if he is getting more comfortable with the offensive system)
“Of course. I have the athleticism. We all do. Playing on this level, you have to be smart. You can’t make mental errors and I’m just trying to minimize my mental errors and continue to grow.”
(On if he was excited to get extended playing time tonight)
“Oh yeah, I don’t want any plays off. I feel like this was the opportunity for me to show everybody that I took a step forward and that I can be a great player.”
(On if tonight was an opportunity to show that he is ready to get some work with the starting unit)
“Oh yeah, I’m ready. Everybody sees that I’m growing and I’m getting better. I have to build that trust with Sam (Bradford). He has to be able to trust me. That’s going to take every day in practice doing everything right.”
(On if he feels like he made a statement today)
“I would say I took a step forward. I feel like I did okay. There are a lot of different things that I know that I could have done better. There are always opportunities for me to get better. I feel like as long as I continue to do what I need to do then I feel like I will be in with the 1’s or wherever Schotty (OC Brian Schottenheimer) decides.”