Adam Gase – December 11, 2017 (Postgame)
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Monday, December 11, 2017
Postgame – New England Patriots
Miami Dolphins Head Coach Adam Gase (transcribed by Michelle Stone)
(Can you talk about the game that CB Xavien Howard had and the decision to have him shadow WR Brandin Cooks?) – “When we started setting up this week, I think (Defensive Coordinator) Matt (Burke) kind of goes through what they’re thinking about doing. That’s just something that they felt confident about. X’s (Xavien Howard) confidence is really getting, it’s getting up there. He has had two really good games in a row. It’s good to see him really feeling it. The more confidence he gets, and if we get him one-on-one a lot, that helps us.”
(Your defense – New England, 0-for-11 on third downs – what led to the overall big defensive play that we saw out there?) – “It’s just down in, down out. Any time they threw it, (we would) just try to get around him (Patriots QB Tom Brady), create some pressure. We they get to third down, when our guys know you’re going to throw it, you just get close to him and try to get a hand on it whether or not they’re actually knocking him down or sacking him. It was that presence constantly, just kind of getting around him.”
(The feeling for this win, everything that went on – offense, defense, special teams – you pretty much won every stage of the game. You’ve got to feel pretty good for those guys in the locker room in there.) – “Those guys have been working hard. We had a little bump in the road midseason, We’re down to one game at a time right now. We’ve had two good weeks in a row, complementary football. All three phases have been playing together. We’ve been waiting for this to happen. We’ll just keep going one at a time and see what happens.”
(Can you talk a little bit about RB Kenyan Drake. 195 total yards, 115 rushing.) – “Even when we don’t quite block it right, he makes it work. He has good vision. With speed like that, he just gets a little bit of green grass and seems to go a pretty good distance.”
(We saw a lot of different play calls out here, especially early in this football game. Were there a number of things that you saw that you thought you could take advantage of?) – “I don’t know if it’s so much take advantage. It was just more we focused more on ourselves this week of let’s put a good plan together. Let’s try to use as many guys as we could and see if we can do some things that we hadn’t really shown in a while. A lot of the stuff we dug up from earlier in the season. Guys executed the plan well.”
(Can you talk about CB Xavien Howard? Can you talk about your defense as a whole? I think they were 0-for-10 on third downs and Patriots QB Tom Brady seemed to be bumped around all day long and seemed to be kind of antsy in the pocket there and just all night pressure on him.) – “I think the guys did a good job of playing team defense. It really starts with our front and then linebackers and the secondary. The guys did a good job. They played well together tonight.”
(So you had WR Jakeem Grant outside for a touchdown. Could have been two touchdowns. You had WR Jarvis Landry in the backfield, Grant in the backfield, TE MarQuies Gray in the backfield. MarQuies Gray at fullback. Are those the things you were talking about being the different things?) – “We just moved some guys around. We used some different personnel packages. When we get into a flow a little bit, it kind of makes it easier to get to those personnel groupings. I think, maybe tonight, (we) did it earlier in the series than what we had normally done. It worked out. Guys made plays. Jay (Cutler) did a good job of getting those guys the ball and they did a good job of being where they were supposed to be.”
(Can you talk about the protection? Because QB Jay Cutler didn’t seem to be under duress, certainly not nearly as much as QB Matt Moore was the first game with seven sacks.) – “They do a lot of different stuff. That’s why we were kind of changed some personnel groupings out, tried to see if we can add an extra guy in protection every once in a while, just keep them guessing as far as what we were trying to do. It didn’t always work, but we were just trying to keep them a little bit off balance and see if we could give him enough time to make the throws.”
(Can you talk about the night that JQB ay Cutler had, moving around the pocket, getting the ball to his guys? I know he’s sitting right here.) – “I know. I’m glad you did it when he walked it. (laughter)”
(You don’t want to make QB Jay Cutler blush.) – “He did a good job. He stayed focused the entire game. He stayed wired in and kept going through the drives. When we went back out there, we had good focus. We just kept talking about resetting one series at a time. Every series we just wanted to make sure to get a first down and do everything we can to get in that red zone, and when we get in the red zone we wanted to score touchdowns.”
(Is this the best your team has played this year?) – “I think this is probably one of the better games we’ve played probably in the last two years as a team, all three phases.”
