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Rams Head Coach Jeff Fisher – Post–Practice – September 5, 2014
(On the addition of OL Mike Remmers to the practice squad and if he can help against Minnesota since he was there previously)
“We didn’t bring him in for that reason. We brought him because we felt like he’s got some ability. He’s bounced around, been at a few teams. Watched him play in some preseason games looked like he’s got something to work with.”
(On what is left before the game on Sunday)
“We’re going to emphasize just recovery now. We got to replenish fluids and things like that and rest. Get our legs back cause it’s been, obviously, hot. We’ve got to fine tune some things tomorrow. As a staff, we go through our thoughts regarding the openers and things like that. And then we’ll have a walk-thru tomorrow and go through all different situations.”
(On what it’s like to have Defensive Coordinator Gregg Williams here to start the season as opposed to last season at this time)
“Well, last year at this time we were excited about what was ahead. We were very young at the safety position. I think the biggest difference between this team and last year’s is another year of experience. And so, that’s helpful. I think we have the ability to do, from a week-to-week standpoint really whatever we want to do because we have so much defense in. The guys have a good feel, have a really good feel for situations and things like that so we’re going to try and create some mismatches.”
(On Williams’ impact on the defense)
“Well, it’s a lot of energy. He’s very well prepared. He’s been really in every situation. So it’s our jobs as coaches to have them prepared for those situations and he’s gone a good job of that.”
(On the versatility of the linebackers in pass and run coverage)
“Nowadays your linebackers have to be able to do both. They’ll defend the run, they got to be able to pressure and then they got to be able to not only understand zone concepts but also be able to play man-to-man.”
(On preparing players for a full game)
“Fortunately for us most everybody’s done that already, so they’re used to it. Now we didn’t do it this year, the other big challenge, I think, is really it’s from pregame warm-ups to kickoff because you really have to keep everybody focused. It’s very emotional at the start of the game and our preference is to focus on your football. Just control your emotions and just go out and play football. You got a better chance executing early in the game than you do if you just go out there and get caught up in the emotions of the opener.”
(On what goes through his head the last 48 hours before the opener)
“It’s just you go back through the checklist. I go through a checklist of things that need to mentioned, reminders. For example, in an emotional game if a player takes his helmet off on the field it’s a 15-yard penalty. So it’s those kinds of things that they need to be reminded about, the points of emphasis. The emphasis on that taunting and things like that. To get them to understand that you can’t hurt the football team. And then of course you have to prepare yourself and the staff for different situations. If there’s six seconds left and we can’t stop the clock, we need to pick up five yards and get the ball out of bounds, how do we do that and those kinds of things.”
Rams Defensive Coordinator Gregg Williams – Post–Practice – September 5, 2014(On if the team is ready for Sunday)
“They’ve had a good week, had a good week of preparation. All spring it’s been fun. Had a bunch of practice coaching, had a bunch of practice playing, now and do it for real. ”
(On his excitement level)
“This is good. I’ve been doing this for a long time. This is the next game, first game this year and I’ve been coaching… I’ve been in this sport an awful long time. It’s fun to be back in the state of Missouri, just like I’ve said. Good young football team, now it’s time to play for real. I’m excited to watch these guys play. ”
(On if he sees potential in the team)
“You know how that is with potential, coaches don’t like talking about potential, coaches like talking about performance and production. These guys have done very well at all roads of their stops. All stops in the roads they’ve had with their college careers, the reason they’ve come here. The fact that this is a young football team I think it’s very moldable. I think they’ve done a great job, (Head Coach) Jeff (Fisher) and those guys have done a great job here with the right kind of guys on defense and now we just need to make sure that we’re getting a chance to play and stay healthy and play our way. This is fun and this is going to be a good test for us, because I think Minnesota’s done a good job of improving their football team, improving their organization. I have a tremendous about of respect for (Vikings Head Coach) Mike Zimmer, he’s been a friend of mine for a long time. All of us defensive guys hang together. He’s got a couple of defensive assistants that have been on my staffs before and I’ve coached them and all of a sudden now they’re on the other staff. There’s a familiarity there with (Vikings Secondary Coach) Jerry Gray and (Vikings Assistant Secondary Coach) John Gannon over on that side of the ball. It’ll be fun, but once the ball gets kicked off its competition and it’s about winning ball games. I’m looking forward to doing that. ”
(On if the current secondary is the youngest he’s been around)
“Maybe total youngest, yeah. I’ve had a good young guys every year. Any place I’ve gone on the stops is tried to rebuild secondaries. I’ve been involved with drafting some really good players. They have some really good players here that we’ve drafted before I got here and as I got here too. Young is no excuse anymore, it’s about producing. The fact you have young legs, you have fresh legs too, so it’s about running and doing things the way we want done.”
(On CB E.J. Gaines and what has he seen from him)
“Good kid. The thing about him is if you guys focus on him during the game you don’t ever see him get rattled. That’s extremely important when you play the corner position. A Lot of times we talk about how high strung a corner or wide receiver is. That can be good, but you’ve also got to be able to keep your wits about you. E.J. has been very impressive in the games I’ve seen so far, on staying composed and doing what corners have to do. He’s got a short memory and he gets out there and plays the play and the most important play is the one he’s on. He has a quick memory loss of what just happened and will correct on the sidelines. Been real impressed with how he’s gone about his business. ”
(On how RB Adrian Peterson challenges the second level and cornerbacks and how important it is to make sure they get around the field)
“Everybody. One of the things we emphasize, we emphasize that we try to minimize the amount of times you’re in one-on-one tacking positions. When you are in those one-on-one tackling positions, understand your leverage and your help. We have guys running to the ball and everywhere I’ve been able to coach guys buy in to that real quick. If they don’t they stand by me.”
(On DT Aaron Donald and his progression)
“Been very good. The reason that we brought him here is we saw a lot of things you can’t coach. Mom and Dad did a great job passing on a lot of good genes to him. He’s got great quickness, he has very good instincts. Instincts are things that really coaches don’t have a lot of say about. Mom and Dad’s have more say about those kind of instincts things. He’s got good instincts to play the game. I’ve been really liking the way he’s fit into the scheme of things here (Defensive Line Coach) Mike Waffle’s got a great plan for him on how we plan on using him all year long and especially in this first ball game.”
(On if he adjusts his schemes to the opponent’s offensive strengths)
“That’s a good question. One of the things I’ve done is everywhere I’ve gone I’ve done that. If you guys have followed where I’ve gone around and coached is I change the scheme of the defense to fit the players that you have to coach. I think it’s poor coaching when you force players to do things they can’t do. We all have strengths, we all have weaknesses and how do we play to those strengths that we have here? We’ll adapt and adjust the style of play and we do so many different things schematically, wow we’ll just have to hone in on when the guys are out there, making sure we’re surrounding the guys that are out there with the right call.”
(On what are some of the strengths)
“I’m not looking to tip anybody. Come to the game and watch the game.”
(On the challenges the Viking’s present on offense and if it starts with RB Adrian Peterson)
“Unbelievable, that guy. Good skill group, a very good skill group, starting with Adrian. The quarterback’s very composed, he’s won a bunch of ball games. He did a great a great job. I’ve been most impressed with him when he was with (Patriots Head Coach) Bill (Belichick) at New England and how he was able to handle that situation. I have a lot of respect for (Vikings Offensive Coordinator) Norv Turner. He’s an unbelievable offensive coordinator and how he has been able to handle all different kinds of quarterbacks and the skill sets that quarterbacks, adapting to the quarterback he has. When you have a running back like Peterson it starts there. Their offensive line is a really good veteran group, well coached by (Offensive Line Coach) Jeff (Davidson) and the boys. Then their receivers and the tight ends, they’ve upgraded their thing a lot. (Kyle) Rudolph is playing very, very well. Everybody’s talked about (Wr Cordarrell) Patterson, getting (WR Greg) Jennings in there from Green Bay. All those guys are good, so we’re going to have to have our work cut out of us. We’re going to have to play very well and play the way that we’re expected to play. That is tackle very well, swarm to the football, affect the pocket as much as we can in our rush. We’ve got some good rushers here, we can’t let the ball go over our head in a hurry. Anytime you let the ball go over your head in a hurry but you’re in trouble. That’s been one of the things I’ve been most pleased about, watching these guys and how we practice. Going through the preseason, we haven’t done that. we’ve done a good job on keeping the ball in front of us and we’ve got to continue to do that.”
(On how tough it is going against Norv Turner and trying to anticipate the Viking’s offense)
“One of the things that he does, he’s going to have to try to figure out is Gregg going to be like Buffalo, Washington, Jacksonville, New Orleans… what style of defense is he playing? I do the same thing, it works both ways - San Diego, Oakland, Dallas, Cleveland, what is he doing? But we go back and take a look at all those things. I know they’re going to take a look at all those kind of things for us. They’re going to take a look about what we showed in preseason, which was very little. They did the same. There’s a little bit of guess work going on as far as what we know that they can do and how he goes about utilizing his personnel. It’ll be a chess match and once we get into the game it’ll be fun to see who can make the adjustments during the game, too. We’re both guessing on what we’re trying to do and then during the game you got to be able to hone in a focus in on this is what’s going on. Now you got to play. ”
(On the addition of OL Mike Remmers to the practice squad and if he can help against Minnesota since he was there previously)
“We didn’t bring him in for that reason. We brought him because we felt like he’s got some ability. He’s bounced around, been at a few teams. Watched him play in some preseason games looked like he’s got something to work with.”
(On what is left before the game on Sunday)
“We’re going to emphasize just recovery now. We got to replenish fluids and things like that and rest. Get our legs back cause it’s been, obviously, hot. We’ve got to fine tune some things tomorrow. As a staff, we go through our thoughts regarding the openers and things like that. And then we’ll have a walk-thru tomorrow and go through all different situations.”
(On what it’s like to have Defensive Coordinator Gregg Williams here to start the season as opposed to last season at this time)
“Well, last year at this time we were excited about what was ahead. We were very young at the safety position. I think the biggest difference between this team and last year’s is another year of experience. And so, that’s helpful. I think we have the ability to do, from a week-to-week standpoint really whatever we want to do because we have so much defense in. The guys have a good feel, have a really good feel for situations and things like that so we’re going to try and create some mismatches.”
(On Williams’ impact on the defense)
“Well, it’s a lot of energy. He’s very well prepared. He’s been really in every situation. So it’s our jobs as coaches to have them prepared for those situations and he’s gone a good job of that.”
(On the versatility of the linebackers in pass and run coverage)
“Nowadays your linebackers have to be able to do both. They’ll defend the run, they got to be able to pressure and then they got to be able to not only understand zone concepts but also be able to play man-to-man.”
(On preparing players for a full game)
“Fortunately for us most everybody’s done that already, so they’re used to it. Now we didn’t do it this year, the other big challenge, I think, is really it’s from pregame warm-ups to kickoff because you really have to keep everybody focused. It’s very emotional at the start of the game and our preference is to focus on your football. Just control your emotions and just go out and play football. You got a better chance executing early in the game than you do if you just go out there and get caught up in the emotions of the opener.”
(On what goes through his head the last 48 hours before the opener)
“It’s just you go back through the checklist. I go through a checklist of things that need to mentioned, reminders. For example, in an emotional game if a player takes his helmet off on the field it’s a 15-yard penalty. So it’s those kinds of things that they need to be reminded about, the points of emphasis. The emphasis on that taunting and things like that. To get them to understand that you can’t hurt the football team. And then of course you have to prepare yourself and the staff for different situations. If there’s six seconds left and we can’t stop the clock, we need to pick up five yards and get the ball out of bounds, how do we do that and those kinds of things.”
Rams Defensive Coordinator Gregg Williams – Post–Practice – September 5, 2014(On if the team is ready for Sunday)
“They’ve had a good week, had a good week of preparation. All spring it’s been fun. Had a bunch of practice coaching, had a bunch of practice playing, now and do it for real. ”
(On his excitement level)
“This is good. I’ve been doing this for a long time. This is the next game, first game this year and I’ve been coaching… I’ve been in this sport an awful long time. It’s fun to be back in the state of Missouri, just like I’ve said. Good young football team, now it’s time to play for real. I’m excited to watch these guys play. ”
(On if he sees potential in the team)
“You know how that is with potential, coaches don’t like talking about potential, coaches like talking about performance and production. These guys have done very well at all roads of their stops. All stops in the roads they’ve had with their college careers, the reason they’ve come here. The fact that this is a young football team I think it’s very moldable. I think they’ve done a great job, (Head Coach) Jeff (Fisher) and those guys have done a great job here with the right kind of guys on defense and now we just need to make sure that we’re getting a chance to play and stay healthy and play our way. This is fun and this is going to be a good test for us, because I think Minnesota’s done a good job of improving their football team, improving their organization. I have a tremendous about of respect for (Vikings Head Coach) Mike Zimmer, he’s been a friend of mine for a long time. All of us defensive guys hang together. He’s got a couple of defensive assistants that have been on my staffs before and I’ve coached them and all of a sudden now they’re on the other staff. There’s a familiarity there with (Vikings Secondary Coach) Jerry Gray and (Vikings Assistant Secondary Coach) John Gannon over on that side of the ball. It’ll be fun, but once the ball gets kicked off its competition and it’s about winning ball games. I’m looking forward to doing that. ”
(On if the current secondary is the youngest he’s been around)
“Maybe total youngest, yeah. I’ve had a good young guys every year. Any place I’ve gone on the stops is tried to rebuild secondaries. I’ve been involved with drafting some really good players. They have some really good players here that we’ve drafted before I got here and as I got here too. Young is no excuse anymore, it’s about producing. The fact you have young legs, you have fresh legs too, so it’s about running and doing things the way we want done.”
(On CB E.J. Gaines and what has he seen from him)
“Good kid. The thing about him is if you guys focus on him during the game you don’t ever see him get rattled. That’s extremely important when you play the corner position. A Lot of times we talk about how high strung a corner or wide receiver is. That can be good, but you’ve also got to be able to keep your wits about you. E.J. has been very impressive in the games I’ve seen so far, on staying composed and doing what corners have to do. He’s got a short memory and he gets out there and plays the play and the most important play is the one he’s on. He has a quick memory loss of what just happened and will correct on the sidelines. Been real impressed with how he’s gone about his business. ”
(On how RB Adrian Peterson challenges the second level and cornerbacks and how important it is to make sure they get around the field)
“Everybody. One of the things we emphasize, we emphasize that we try to minimize the amount of times you’re in one-on-one tacking positions. When you are in those one-on-one tackling positions, understand your leverage and your help. We have guys running to the ball and everywhere I’ve been able to coach guys buy in to that real quick. If they don’t they stand by me.”
(On DT Aaron Donald and his progression)
“Been very good. The reason that we brought him here is we saw a lot of things you can’t coach. Mom and Dad did a great job passing on a lot of good genes to him. He’s got great quickness, he has very good instincts. Instincts are things that really coaches don’t have a lot of say about. Mom and Dad’s have more say about those kind of instincts things. He’s got good instincts to play the game. I’ve been really liking the way he’s fit into the scheme of things here (Defensive Line Coach) Mike Waffle’s got a great plan for him on how we plan on using him all year long and especially in this first ball game.”
(On if he adjusts his schemes to the opponent’s offensive strengths)
“That’s a good question. One of the things I’ve done is everywhere I’ve gone I’ve done that. If you guys have followed where I’ve gone around and coached is I change the scheme of the defense to fit the players that you have to coach. I think it’s poor coaching when you force players to do things they can’t do. We all have strengths, we all have weaknesses and how do we play to those strengths that we have here? We’ll adapt and adjust the style of play and we do so many different things schematically, wow we’ll just have to hone in on when the guys are out there, making sure we’re surrounding the guys that are out there with the right call.”
(On what are some of the strengths)
“I’m not looking to tip anybody. Come to the game and watch the game.”
(On the challenges the Viking’s present on offense and if it starts with RB Adrian Peterson)
“Unbelievable, that guy. Good skill group, a very good skill group, starting with Adrian. The quarterback’s very composed, he’s won a bunch of ball games. He did a great a great job. I’ve been most impressed with him when he was with (Patriots Head Coach) Bill (Belichick) at New England and how he was able to handle that situation. I have a lot of respect for (Vikings Offensive Coordinator) Norv Turner. He’s an unbelievable offensive coordinator and how he has been able to handle all different kinds of quarterbacks and the skill sets that quarterbacks, adapting to the quarterback he has. When you have a running back like Peterson it starts there. Their offensive line is a really good veteran group, well coached by (Offensive Line Coach) Jeff (Davidson) and the boys. Then their receivers and the tight ends, they’ve upgraded their thing a lot. (Kyle) Rudolph is playing very, very well. Everybody’s talked about (Wr Cordarrell) Patterson, getting (WR Greg) Jennings in there from Green Bay. All those guys are good, so we’re going to have to have our work cut out of us. We’re going to have to play very well and play the way that we’re expected to play. That is tackle very well, swarm to the football, affect the pocket as much as we can in our rush. We’ve got some good rushers here, we can’t let the ball go over our head in a hurry. Anytime you let the ball go over your head in a hurry but you’re in trouble. That’s been one of the things I’ve been most pleased about, watching these guys and how we practice. Going through the preseason, we haven’t done that. we’ve done a good job on keeping the ball in front of us and we’ve got to continue to do that.”
(On how tough it is going against Norv Turner and trying to anticipate the Viking’s offense)
“One of the things that he does, he’s going to have to try to figure out is Gregg going to be like Buffalo, Washington, Jacksonville, New Orleans… what style of defense is he playing? I do the same thing, it works both ways - San Diego, Oakland, Dallas, Cleveland, what is he doing? But we go back and take a look at all those things. I know they’re going to take a look at all those kind of things for us. They’re going to take a look about what we showed in preseason, which was very little. They did the same. There’s a little bit of guess work going on as far as what we know that they can do and how he goes about utilizing his personnel. It’ll be a chess match and once we get into the game it’ll be fun to see who can make the adjustments during the game, too. We’re both guessing on what we’re trying to do and then during the game you got to be able to hone in a focus in on this is what’s going on. Now you got to play. ”
