Rams Week 11 Preview

Brian Stull (@StullySTL) is a special contributor for Riverbender.com and is a former sideline reporter for the St. Louis Rams

Citing it's never an easy decision to make a change mid-season, St. Louis Rams Head Coach Jeff Fisher met with his team Wednesday to announce he was replacing Austin Davis as the starting quarterback with Shaun Hill.

 "We looked at things Monday night and I had lengthy discussions with the offensive staff and just felt that the best thing to do, at this point moving forward, was to lean on the experienced quarterback,” said Fisher. "I appreciated Austin and his work ethic and his poise, his dedication and the tireless effort that he put in to prepare himself to play. He’s much better now than he was when he started, but made the decision to go ahead and play with Shaun. It's all out in the open, there’s no controversy.

"We're moving forward with an experienced quarterback that for all intents and purposes lost his job because of injury. You all understand why we went that way because of the production that we got earlier out of Austin. The last few weeks have been difficult for him. The defenses that he’s faced have been especially good. Again, I don’t want to present anything that appears to be cloudy, but this is in my opinion and the offensive staff's opinion, what’s best for this football team right now."

Hill, who suffered a quad/thigh injury in early September against Minnesota, admits that once he was healthy, it was tough not to be taking the snaps under center.

"When that happened, I still had a job to do," he explained. “You just kind of have to dust yourself off and go do what you’re asked to do. It was hard, but still at the same time, it’s not like getting cut and you're out of here. You've got to really be able to wipe it off and accept your role at that time. Also, I had the two weeks of injury that I was just fighting to get a jersey. I knew those weeks I wasn’t going to be starting, so as it kind of all played out, the hard part was those two weeks when I was hurt."

In his 9^th NFL season, Hill has thrown 41 touchdowns in 36 games played.