In Fisher’s Defense : He Flourishes With 49ers After Flopping With Rams

“I consider myself fortunate just to be in this business. Every morning, I get up and high-five myself knowing that I can go into work and enjoy my job. But Monday, it was different. It was very different.”

--Jeff Fisher, San Francisco defensive backs coach

It wasn’t rumbling that woke Jeff Fisher at 5:30 a.m. in his home near Santa Clara.

It was a crackling voice over his clock radio.

Fisher was stirred Monday by news of the 6.6 earthquake that had struck Southern California an hour earlier. Curiosity quickly turned to concern.

He began piecing together scraps of information as he dressed and left for the 49ers’ training facility.

The quake’s epicenter in Northridge was only a few miles from his parents’ home in Woodland Hills. He tried to call them, but he couldn’t get through.

It made Fisher uneasy all day as the 49er coaching staff prepared for Sunday’s NFC championship game at Dallas. Still, he attended game-plan meetings and watched films, trying somehow to devise a plan that will slow Dallas’ runaway offense.

But his thoughts kept straying home.

He wondered about his brother, Chris, and sisters, Pam and Lisa, who live in the San Fernando Valley. He learned later in the day that they were fine, but he still couldn’t get through to his parents.

“I sat there in meetings, and I kept calling up in the back of my mind what was going on down there,” Fisher said. “Were my parents OK? How bad was it?

“It’s hard to concentrate on your work when you’re wondering if the house you grew up in is still there.”

It was.

By 10 p.m., Fisher finally reached his parents by phone. Their home had sustained some minor damage, but everyone was fine. A fence collapsed in the back yard, and the kitchen was scattered with broken dishes and crystal.

“It was quite a relief,” Fisher said.

Growing up in Southern California, Fisher has had more than his share of anxious moments in earthquakes. He was 10 when when Southern California was shaken in 1971. Smaller quakes hit when he played at Woodland Hills Taft High, USC, and later when he was the Rams’ defensive coordinator.

Fisher surveyed the damage on TV that night--the crushed freeway overpasses, the fires and the homes that looked as if they were squeezed by a vise.

He thought about what a crazy year this has been. Only a few weeks earlier, he watched his mentor, Houston defensive coordinator Buddy Ryan, slug Oiler offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride during a sideline scuffle.

That wasn’t the Buddy Ryan who Fisher knows.

He knows the Buddy Ryan who groomed him as a player with the Chicago Bears and as a coach with the Philadelphia Eagles. Not the Ryan who blasts the Oiler offense in the media.

He knows the Buddy Ryan who is loved by his players. Not the Ryan who challenged former Bears’ Coach Mike Ditka to a fight.

He knows the Buddy Ryan who stopped by on Christmas Eve to see Fisher’s three children the day before the 49ers played the Oilers. Not the Ryan who lashes out at fellow assistant coaches.

“I’ve never gone into detail with Buddy about what happened with Gilbride,” Fisher said. “There are a lot of frustrations in coaching, as there are in all walks of life. And with Buddy, he vents his frustrations a little differently than most do.”

Fisher’s playing career ended in 1985, the year Ryan’s 46 defense and Ditka’s offense led the Bears to a victory over the Patriots in Super Bowl XX.

Fisher was out with an ankle injury that season, but gained valuable experience assisting Ryan’s staff. When Ryan accepted the head coaching job in Philadelphia in 1986, he brought Fisher along as the defensive backs coach.

In 1989, Fisher’s first as the Eagles’ defensive coordinator, they led the league in interceptions (30) and sacks (62). The next season, they ranked first in the league against the rush and were second in sacks (46).

But the Eagles floundered in the playoffs, and owner Norman Braman didn’t renew Ryan’s contract after the 1990 season. Ryan headed to his horse farm, and Fisher went looking for work.

Fisher’s complex but effective defensive scheme appealed to several teams. His age--32 at the time--made him an attractive heir apparent as a head coach.

The Rams couldn’t resist.

Fisher lasted only one season in Anaheim. An undermanned defense couldn’t run Fisher’s scheme the same way Reggie White, Clyde Simmons and Jerome Brown did in Philadelphia. The Rams gave up nearly 26 points a game during a 10-game losing streak in which the offense failed to score more than 20 in a game.

“Jeff did a great job in ‘91,” said 49er linebacker Larry Kelm, a starter on the 1991 Rams.

“We just didn’t have a very good team that year. He came in with a complex defense, and we didn’t have the people who could execute.”

Robinson resigned after the season, but it wasn’t Fisher who replaced him. The job went to Chuck Knox, who brought in George Dyer, his assistant in Seattle, as the defensive coordinator.

“When the Rams let Jeff go, it really wasn’t a reflection on his ability,” Kelm said. “He just took the fall. He wasn’t Chuck’s kind of guy, and Chuck wanted to bring in his guy.”

It didn’t take long for Fisher to find work.

Cincinnati, Minnesota and Pittsburgh contacted him about their vacant defensive coordinator jobs. Then 49er Coach George Seifert called.

Eleven days after the Rams fired him, Fisher accepted the defensive backs position with the 49ers, replacing Ray Rhodes, who left to become the Green Bay Packers’ defensive coordinator.

“It was disappointing when the Rams didn’t retain me,” Fisher said, “because I wanted to finish what I had started. But I think it has worked out in the long run. It really has.”

San Francisco is 26-9 since Fisher joined its staff. The 49ers were ranked 10th in league in passing defense (192.7 yards a game). Safeties Tim McDonald, who signed as a free agent in the off-season, and Merton Hanks steadied the secondary.

Although sporadically effective this season, San Francisco’s defense stood firm last week, holding the New York Giants’ Rodney Hampton to 12 yards rushing in a 44-3 divisional playoff victory.

“It was a great performance across the board,” Fisher said. “We had fumbled around earlier in the year, and in those last couple games (Houston and Philadelphia) we played a lot of people. Still, there were a lot of question marks about this club’s defense.”

Questions that could be answered Sunday against the Cowboys. Fisher said memories of last year’s 30-20 championship game loss to the Cowboys still linger with the 49er coaching staff.

“We never look ahead, but we were staring down the road to (the Super Bowl in) Pasadena last year,” he said.

“I’ll never forget the feeling after we lost last year’s championship game, when we came back to our offices that Monday. It was hard to describe. It was so tough. We were so close.

“I keep reminding myself of that feeling every once in a while.”