Halloween is a great time to think about what scares us. This is the time of year we celebrate our fears. We dress up in costumes, decorate our yards and consume pounds of candy and food, all in honor of what we find horrifying. Los Angeles Rams head coach Jeff Fisher is a fearful man afraid of many things, but there is one thing he’s most afraid of is being labeled a loser. But, as you know, sometimes we become what we fear the most.
Jeff Fisher is a loser. Of that there is no doubt. His 160 head coaching losses have come faster and with more futility than any other NFL coach in history. If Fisher loses five more games this season, which he most certainly will, he will be tied with the great Dan Reeves as the losingest head coach of all time.
Jeff Fisher has become the 3rd coach to lose 160 games in NFL history. He is now five shy of Dan Reeves for the most in NFL history.
— NFL on ESPN (@ESPNNFL) October 23, 2016
There’s one caveat with that title for Reeves and it’s an important one. Reeves took not just one, but four teams to the Super Bowl that had no business being there. At no point in any of Reeves’ three Super Bowl runs with the Denver Broncos or one with the Atlanta Falcons was his team the best in its division. Not by a long shot. Reeves, through his coaching prowess, got more from lesser teams. Reeves coached in 20 playoff games and won 11 of them. Of Reeves’ nine playoff appearances as head coach, he was one-and-done just twice, his first two trips with the Broncos in 1983 and 1984.
Jeff Fisher, on the other hand, has led teams to the playoffs six times and was one-and-done three of those times. He has a 5-6 playoff record and, while he did take the Tennessee Titans to the Super Bowl in the 1999 season, he never came close again.
"I like Jeff Fisher. But this is L.A., not St.Louis. If you are not winning, people will go somewhere else." – @EricDickerson just now.
— Jason Stewart (@JasonStewart) October 24, 2016
So let’s take the playoffs out of it because we should. Every team but one loses its final game and we shouldn’t hold Reeves’ ability to coax undermanned NFL teams, especially before the modern free agent era, into the playoffs. Dan Reeves lost 156 regular season games over 23 seasons. Jeff Fisher has lost 154 regular season games over 22 seasons.
Jeff Fisher, watching this game as the sun rises in England, finally knows his inner self. A single tear streams into his piping-hot coffee.
— Patrick Daugherty (@RotoPat) October 24, 2016
Jeff Fisher, on-field coaching decisions to the contrary, isn’t stupid. He knows the mantle of mediocrity has hung around his neck for years, but that narrative turned last season. Last season, everybody figured Fisher out and his fears were laid bare for all to see. Jeff Fisher isn’t a mediocre coach. He’s a shitty coach.
This was the year he was going to prove everybody wrong. It started in the preseason and was captured by the Hard Knocks cameras from NFL Films. It’s become the mantra for Fisher this season and one I, and every other NFL writer, loves to throw in his face after each stupid loss.
“I know what I’m doing,” he says, then proves, over and over again, that he doesn’t.
The Rams traded a ton of future draft picks for Jared Goff, a move I was against for many reasons that I’ve documented already. Knowing Fisher as I do, I was shocked the Rams made the trade. He’s in the final year of his contract and needed a winning season to prove he deserved an extension. The way to guarantee that wouldn’t happen would be to draft a rookie QB and start him.
Little did I know the depths of Fisher’s cowardice. By drafting Goff, Fisher thought he could have an excuse if the Rams, once again, didn’t produce a winning season with one of the most talented young rosters in the NFL. There would be a finger to point before blowing hot air through his snot-strewn mustache and shaking his head. “We’ll get better,” he’d say. “These things take time.”
Jeff Fisher is going to stick with Keenum over Goff because he gives the #Rams the best chance of finishing 7-9.
— Adam Rank (@adamrank) October 23, 2016
Only they don’t. Carson Wentz in Philadelphia proves that. Dak Prescott (who the Rams should have and could have drafted without trading anything) proves that. Sam Bradford, the quarterback Fisher shipped out of town for Nick Foles, who he then cut, looks like he’s going to lead the Minnesota Vikings to the Super Bowl.
Case Keenum has, for three straight weeks, thrown game-ending interceptions. The Rams have lost all three games and yet Fisher isn’t ready to pull the plug on Keenum and put in Goff. Yes, the Rams would probably lose with Goff, but he needs the starter reps. He needs the NFL action if he’s going to be the quarterback of the future. Playing Goff now pays off down the road for the Rams. It’ll be exciting, if nothing else.
If Jeff Fisher finds out how common ties are in soccer he won't get on the plane back to America
— Rodger Sherman (@rodger) October 23, 2016
But Fisher is a coward. He knows plugging in Goff right now surrenders the season and ends his coaching career. He has no faith in his rookie QB just like I, and the rest of the NFL, have no faith in Fisher. He thinks he can somehow gut this season out with Keenum and an increasingly ineffective defense (that should be one of the best units in the league). Fisher thinks he can coach this team to the playoffs and prove all of us wrong.
But that’s just more 7-and-9 bullshit.
