Fisher throws offensive coordinator under the bus

The day after the St. Louis Rams lost to the Arizona Cardinals 27-3, head coach Jeff Fisher relieved offensive coordinator Frank Cignetti of his duties. The firing was not really a surprise. Fisher has been slowly warming up the bus to run Cignetti over for weeks.

Just last week after the loss to the Cincinnati Bengals, Fisher assigned 70 percent of the blame to the offense. The Rams offense is one of the worst that many of us have ever witnessed. The Rams rank near the bottom in most offensive statistics, especially on important things like points, passing yards and total yards. 

Cignetti was a scapegoat for a team assembled by the same man who fired him. How’s that for irony?

In that loss to the Cardinals this past Sunday, Rams QB Nick Foles was worse than awful. It’s not often Rams receivers get open, but when they did Foles was way off the mark. I still shake my head wondering if Fisher regrets giving Foles that extension. He looks like his confidence is completely shot. And Fisher has every intention of playing backup Case Keenum the rest of the way.

When it comes to offense, the game has passed Fisher by. He chose Brian Schottenheimer over Hue Jackson. Hue Jackson accepted the same position with the Bengals, and we saw how well they played against the Rams. And keeping with the continuity of things on offense, Fisher choose to stay in-house, passing on a young, talented Adam Gase, who is now Chicago Bears offensive coordinator, for Cignetti.

Initially I thought tight ends coach Rob Boras was going to get the job, and now he has it for the remainder of the season. Fisher sounded kind of happy about Boras being the OC for the interim. If he felt this way, why didn’t he just hire Boras?

No matter who’s the OC, the Rams have to execute better. They were a pathetic 1 for 12 on 3rd down conversions.  These same players can’t be depended on to block, catch, effectively run a route or play disciplined football. Yet Fisher sounded rather upbeat about the talent on the roster and the future of this football team.

As I look at the Rams’ potential unrestricted free agents, there is not one single player on offense worth retaining. I would say the same thing about the restricted list too. There will be more tough decisions for Fisher on the defensive side of the ball. Just in the secondary alone, Janoris Jenkins, Trumaine Johnson, Mark Barron and Rodney McLeod will be unrestricted.

Look at the position the Rams are in now because of this regime. The Rams are in need of QB, OL and WR desperately, and after free agency hits the team could lose a chunk of its talented secondary. This is all Fisher’s fault. He hired this staff, drafted these players and signed these free agents. Yet Cignetti gets ran over by the bus. This was his first chance ever as an OC at this level, and in his defense he had nothing to work with. 

This organization as a whole is just bad at evaluating talent. I’m not questioning the effort. But how hard is it to catch a damn football with nobody around you? Or why is this team so undisciplined? For two straight weeks, special teams player Chase Reynolds had a penalty that put the Rams defense back on the field after just walking off it. Notice that Fisher didn’t cut him. 

It’s time to cut Fisher and turn the page on this Rams regime.

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