The rise and 16-year plateau of Jeff Fisher

Former Los Angeles Rams head coach Jeff Fisher started out the year with the goal of not finishing with a 7-9 record and he achieved just that.

Granted, he probably anticipated ticking that box by way of an improved record and playoff berth, but instead the NFL coaching stalwart was fired on Tuesday, one day removed from the Rams’ anaemic performance in a 42-14 loss to the Atlanta Falcons.

Expectations for the 2016 Rams ranged from middling to ‘ever-so-slight smile inducing’ as reservations about Fisher’s ability to get the most out of anyone other than this defensive line remained for what has felt like the past half-decade.

Fisher’s sacking shouldn’t come as too big a surprise, if not for the fact that in an industry that churns out coaches like a NutriBullet fresh out the box, he’s made a career of building respectable yet unsuccessful teams.

Since his Tennessee Titans fell one yard short of defeating the St Louis Rams in Superbowl 34 in 2000, Fisher has a 2-5 record in the playoffs and hasn’t reached the post-season since 2008.

To put into perspective as to how long ago this was, here’s a quick refresher about Fisher’s 2008 Titans:

• Kerry Collins was their 36-year-old starting quarterback
• Albert Haynesworth was the most dominant interior defensive lineman in the league
• Two stars of the 2006 Rose Bowl (widely regarded as the best college football game of all time), Vince Young and LenDale White, were still in the NFL.

Since then, Fisher has gone 45-63 as a head coach, with his final record as Rams head honcho sitting at 31-45.

So what led to the NFL Black Monday Grim Reaper – who looks suspiciously like Bobby Petrino – to come early for football’s greatest survivor?

First of all, let’s talk about a city that’s never been shy of making itself the center of attention, Los Angeles.

Every coach delivers the same tropes:

“Winning games is what matters. It doesn’t matter how you do it. Every win is difficult in the NFL.”

These words resonate in the lunch-pale Midwest state of Missouri, where teams like the St Louis Cardinals (MLB) built their reputation on the steady pursuit of excellence, and Division II Football program Northwest Missouri State have quietly put together one of the most impressive dynasties in all of college football.

But LA is different.

It was different the moment the Rams decided to provide all-access on HBO Hard Knocks, and it was different once Fisher announced on the very same show that there would be no more “7-9 bullshit”.

It isn’t enough just to win in Los Angeles, the game itself must be entertaining, and if you must lose, lose in a shootout!

All one need do to grasp the LA sporting mentality is look at the past five years of Lakers basketball.

So terrified of living in the shadow of their little brother Clippers, the Lakers opted to extend an aging, post-Achilles Kobe Bryant to a contract that hamstrung the rest of the team so as not lose their star power. In layman’s terms, the Lakers effectively decided they’d prefer to have the single worst season in franchise history rather than lose their star power on the court.

This is the pressure Fisher faced in LA that was never a factor in St Louis or Nashville.

The losses in recent weeks may have been the final nail in the coffin for Fisher, but his wins also never put a strong enough of a buffer between him and his fate, as they didn’t resonate with the west coast sporting community.

These same fans look back in fondness at the ‘Showtime Lakers’, the Kobe-Shaq duo and the Pete Carroll-led USC Trojans and say, “That’s what success looks like.”

Fisher’s version of success is a defensively stout, nine to three, touchdown-less win over the Seahawks in Week 2 (the only win at home for the Rams this year).

In a market that will cannibalise itself at the first chance it gets, the Rams also needed strong, concise communication from all levels of the organisation, and this was not the case at any point in the year.

The LA franchise recently announced they had reached a two-year contract extension with Fisher in one of the worst kept secrets in football.

The now-former Rams coach reportedly signed the extension shortly before the start of the season but its announcement was indefinitely delayed due to a soul-crushing 28-0 loss to the now 1-13 San Francisco 49ers.

The Rams followed the opening week loss with a three-game winning streak over two division rivals (Seattle and Arizona) and potential playoff smoky (Tampa Bay), and while this seemed like a logical time to announce the extension, the Rams waited until the week of December 4, from which point they lost to both the Patriots and Falcons by a combined 68-24.

In addition to the porous delivery of the contract news, Fisher’s lack of synergy with general manager Les Snead also pointed to the issues undermining the Rams.

Fisher often spoke of being a “no excuses” coach, but proceeded to throw Snead under the bus in regards to personnel decisions that aren’t currently helping the team. Players such as Stedman Bailey and Tre Mason, drafted by Snead, who have contributed and would likely be contributing now if not for happenings out of the control of anyone, let alone the Rams administration.

Bailey still hopes to return to football after surviving two gunshot wounds to the head in November of 2015, while Tre Mason has his own issues, after being “admitted for evaluation” to a Florida hospital on July 23 in what his mother Tina Mason believed to stem from repeated hits to the head and subsequent effects of CTE.

The state of the professional relationship between Fisher and Snead was even more damning after Fisher announced that he hadn’t even heard that his GM also received a contract extension that effectively ensured (at the time) they’d be hand-in-hand for the foreseeable future.

There is no more important relationship in the NFL than that of the head coach and GM.

Their partnership dictates a team’s scheme, personnel, offensive/defensive philosophy and the best way of achieving this, and if Fisher was this far out of the loop with Snead, then it only makes even more sense for the Rams to move on.

The Rams now need a cheat sheet for making this next coaching move as successful as possible, because if the San Diego Chargers’ potential move to LA goes through as expected, the wrong decision may soon see them become an afterthought in a market in which they pitched their flag in the dirt first.

1. Offensive minded, quarterback-friendly coach
Believe in Jared Goff. He’s too talented, was thrust into a losing situation, and they gave up too much for him to not attempt to maximise his talents. Look for a coach to employ more spread philosophies to allow Goff to play ‘college ball’ while he acclimatises to the pro-game.

2. Pick an ideology and commit to it
The Rams have been too indecisive on what they want to achieve offensively. Since 2013, they’ve drafted two open-space, spread receivers, in Tavon Austin and Stedman Bailey, yet also selected run blocker Greg Robinson second, and star running back Todd Gurley 10th overall in back-to-back years.

They must decide whether they want to be a rapid-fire, run after the catch, or a road-grading, control the clock offence.

3. Find defensive consistency
At their best, the Rams’ defence can be a top-five unit, but they failed to deliver week in, week out in 2016. The Rams have conceded more than 26 points on seven different occasions this season to the tune of 238 points (average 34 points against). In their other six games, the Rams have averaged only 11 points against.

A 23-point swing between a good defensive performance and a bad one is far too influential for such a talented unit.