Jeff Fisher put on a clinic on how not to coach Sunday.
The Los Angeles Rams head coach made a couple of questionable decisions in the fourth quarter of his team’s 30-19 loss to the Buffalo Bills, the second of which involved a horrendous fake-punt attempt.
The Rams were trailing the Bills 23-19 with under four minutes remaining. They lined up to punt deep in their own territory on 4th-and-5 but tried to catch the Bills off-guard by calling for a direct snap to wide receiver Bradley Marquez. Marquez was stuffed before the first-down marker, giving Buffalo the football at the Los Angeles 25-yard line. See the failed fake-punt attempt for yourself.
Sure enough, LeSean McCoy ran for 24 yards on the next play, and Tyrod Taylor fired a touchdown pass to Marquise Goodwin two plays after that to help seal Buffalo’s win.
The fake punt was the second head-scratching coaching decision by Fisher in the fourth quarter, as he also called for a field-goal attempt from Bills’ 4-yard line with the Rams trailing by seven points with under six minutes remaining. Greg Zuerlein drilled the 22-yarder, but there wasn’t much benefit to taking three points in that instance when they could have played for the tie or the lead by going for it on fourth down.
The Rams fell to 3-2 with the loss. Don’t look now, but Fisher and Co. could be on their way to another 7-9 record with dumb moves like the ones made Sunday.
Thumbnail photo via Kirby Lee/USA TODAY Sports Images
