Adam Gase – November 19, 2017 (Postgame)
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Sunday, November 19, 2017
Postgame – Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Miami Dolphins Head Coach Adam Gase (transcribed by Michelle Stone)
(How big a difference was it losing QB Jay Cutler in the game do you think? What difference did it make?) – “They kind of got us messed up on or our cadence there for a little bit. (We had) some miscommunication with what was going on. I feel like there were a couple of things we kind of stayed away from as far as run game, some of the movement stuff. We got into a rhythm there for a little bit. When Matt (Moore) goes in, he hasn’t had a ton of reps with what we were doing on the short week. He’s trying to figure a couple of things out on the fly. When you don’t see it live in practice, sometimes you just don’t get what you want.”
(Four turnovers, 17 penalties – your thoughts on watching that?) – “We’ve got to catch the ball. We’ve got to hold onto the ball. Penalties, pre-snap stuff – it’s just ridiculous. That’s something that we made a big emphasis on this week on both sides of the ball. Obviously, we didn’t handle it very good on offense.”
(How would you describe QB Matt Moore’s performance?) – “There was a lot of good. A couple of things that (I) wish would have happened different, especially down in the red area. We had a couple opportunities. Instead of kicking field goals, having opportunities for touchdowns. But he went in there and executed as well as he could. There are a couple of things we got to clean up, but that’s going to happen when you get thrown in there in the middle of the game.”
(Obviously, the turnovers – the four turnovers, that last one that was kind of afterwards – it has got to feel good that you were in the game, but you walk away empty handed. It’s tough to overcome four turnovers, and then mentioned all of the penalties that came along with that.) – “I thought the defense did a good job of trying to respond. We just didn’t do a very good job of holding onto the ball. Jay (Cutler) kind of got fooled by the defense on the one interception. We drop one. We don’t execute it correctly in the red area. We knew they were going to pursue us and had to be tight on our ball security, and we didn’t do that at the end of the half.”
(It seemed like another game where the tight end really had his way with your defense. What do need to do to shore that up?) – “It’s kind of a catch-22. You start playing a bunch of man, now you’re putting two really good receivers one-on-one. You start playing some zone and have vision on the quarterback, the tight ends have the ability to get behind you. You’ve got to try to find ways to stay tight in the zone coverages, have good eyes, be in the right spot, try to cover him up (and) get to the passer.”
(When you saw the replay of the safety, how do you evaluate that?) – “We felt like he ran into his own guy and by the time we touched him that he was in the end zone. We thought we’d take a shot with the challenge, and it didn’t turn out the way we wanted.”
(What was their explanation to you? It did look like his own man pushed him back. It looked like it was pretty clear.) – “I didn’t ask him. What am I going to do?”
(Some of the problems that you mentioned with the offense not going, are you puzzled by the fact that guys haven’t turned those things around? Are you disappointed?) – “The pre-snap stuff is a little frustrating. For the most part, execution was better. It’s tough. ‘93’ (Gerald McCoy) is a tough guy to block. We were trying to do everything we can to make sure we have double teams on him for the most part, but he makes it very difficult to do a lot of things.”
(You kind of get to the point where the defense is put into a position to protect the lead. Is a late tie kind of the same situation? And if not, how is it not?) – “You’d like to give them a little bit more than just two minutes. I’d like to see what we could do if we actually had a lead for a quarter, see what we can really can do and cause a lot of disruption. It makes it hard, because you know they’re going to throw, but at the same time you’re going to play a lot more zone. You’re still trying to hold them, trying not to let them into field-goal range. There’s a point, yes, that it’s better than being behind, but at the same time, still not playing with the lead, really.”
(You’ve lost four in a row. Do you think this team is still capable of doing something significant this year?) – “I think if we can clean up the things that we can control, that’s going to give us our best chance. We hurt ourselves more than anybody. Like today, I never felt like they really just flat out stopped us. It was always something when we had a drive where we didn’t do anything on offense. Defensively, we did a lot better job as far as guys doing exactly what they’re coached to do, but at the same time, we do enough wrong that it hurts us. If we could just figure out a way to put one together, you just never know what’s going to happen. That’s why you’ve got 24-hours to feel sorry for yourself on this one. You just better move on to the next one, because we’re going to go on the road. We’ve got to find a way to get things cleaned up, and we got to play a way cleaner game than this. I know that.”
(There have been multiple games where there’ve been these situations where penalties, things where you shoot yourselves in the foot. You keep trying to find a way to get past them, get over them. How do you do that in short order with six games left?) – “You keep working on it. You try to prevent it in practice. We’re trying different things in practice to make sure we eliminate those issues. Obviously, this week we made a big emphasis on it and got worse for some reason.”
(Why start LB Chase Allen at middle linebacker? Was it a tough decision to part ways with Rey Maualuga?) – “That was just kind of how it fell for us. We were repping him this week anyways. That was just the decision we came to. It wasn’t very hard.”
(What do you know about how QB Jay Cutler got hurt? Would you like to go back to him this season when healthy?) – “We’ll see where he’s at, because right at the end of the half … That’s why basically everything stopped for us. That’s why we went into halftime.”
(But healthy, QB Jay Cutler is your guy?) – “I want to get to tomorrow first, see how he’s feeling.”
