From his handling of Case Keenum's concussion to his team's alleged dirty play, Rams head coach Jeff Fisher has taken some shots during the past few weeks. The Vikings were upset about the hit that concussed Teddy Bridgewater. Rodney Harrison accused Fisher of laughing at an injury. Most recently, Ravens head coach John Harbaugh's comments after Sunday's game weren't flattering.
On Tuesday, Fisher fired back. Appearing on his weekly ESPN radio show, Fisher threw accusations right back at his critics.
"I'm kind of intrigued by some of the stuff -- and I can't verify it -- but the insinuations or whatever of, that we were a dirty team coming out," Fisher said. "Then I've got plays I've got to send the league office where their players are hitting us in the mouth after plays. With fists.
"It was allowed in the game because it wasn't called, and I'm not complaining. We played hard."
Specifically, Fisher seemed especially angry about the Ravens' late hit on Bradley Marquez.
"Let's go back to the Bradley Marquez catch," Fisher said. "That's a huge play for us. So Bradley is on the ground tackled and is getting up and almost going to give the ball to the official, and he almost has his neck broken because he's hit by their player. So boom, it's unnecessary roughness, but our guys are not going to put up with that and you saw them come to his defense, which is appropriate. I had no problem with those offsetting fouls.
"But we're a dirty team and they're hitting us two or three seconds after the play is over, and they hit Tavon [Austin] out of bounds? We had six penalties and they averaged about five yards apiece. ... They need to take a look in the mirror."
Fisher has a point about that late-hit on Bradley Marquez.
He also has a point about that late-hit on Tavon Austin.
As Fisher mentioned, the Rams were penalized just six times for 35 yards on Sunday. On the other hand, the Ravens were hit with 10 penalties for 137 yards.
But the complaints Harbaugh issued on Monday addressed an incident in which the Rams weren't flagged.
"On that one, I saw the punter hit one of our guys dead in the back that [the officials] missed," Harbaugh said, via ESPN. "I saw our guy retaliate, which is not what you want to see. Then I saw a free fall out there, which is not unusual against the team we're playing."
I'm not entirely certain which punt Harbaugh is referring to, but I found one situation where the Ravens were flagged three times on a Rams punt, which was followed by a very brief and light altercation. During the play, I didn't see Rams punter Johnny Hekker hit anyone, though the camera cut away just before the altercation.
Hecker was then seen clapping in the direction of the Ravens.
As for Fisher's handling of Keenum's concussion, Fisher said on Monday that he wasn't aware of Keenum's concussion because he was in "game management" mode. The league is currently investigating why Keenum wasn't removed from the game.
