Adam Gase – November 6, 2016 (Postgame)
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Sunday, November 6, 2016
Postgame – vs. N.Y. Jets
Miami Dolphins Head Coach Adam Gase (transcribed by Michelle Stone)
(In a game full of big plays, was there one defining big play? Was it definitely that kickoff return by Kenyon [Drake]?) – “Probably. That was obviously a game changer for us. Probably that penalty, that offsides penalty, and us getting our guys another shot at returning it. Jakeem [Grant], it probably tired him out a little bit. He covered about 80 yards and gained four.”
(Are you glad – obviously Jakeem’s great, they kicked it away from him…) – “Well, we were having a big debate whether or not we were going to put Jarvis [Landry] back there because we thought Jakeem was pretty worn out. We were kind of hoping that would happen. It worked out for us.”
(The way that your team has played overall, the three-game win streak, three-and-one on the home stand, you’re back into the playoff race, these last three games, what can you say about them?) – “I think our guys did a good job of sticking with what we’ve been doing since the first week of the season. They know every week we come in and we’re 0-0 and our job is to be 1-0 at the end of the week. We played some tough games at the beginning of the season and no one got frustrated. We made changes where we needed to make changes. We got healthy in certain spots. That’s what made a huge difference. Guys have done a huge job. They’re been working extremely hard during the week and they’ve been making sure they’re prepared every week.”
(What does this say about the resiliency of your football team? You’re 1-4 and you climb back to .500 and, in this football game, where it was a tight game all day, you get that tough break late in the game and it looks like a momentum change, and you come right back with a touchdown on the kick return to really seal that deal. It says a lot about how your team has fought back in both situations.) – “I think guys are doing a good job of focusing on what’s happening in that moment, instead of dwelling on something that’s happened in the past in the game, or trying to look forward [thinking] we better make a play here, we better do this…that mindset of this play is the most important play for us right now. Guys have been doing that during practice and they’ve done it in games, especially the last couple of weeks. We’ve been down a couple of times. You don’t really feel any kind of swing there as far as a negative emotion. Guys are flatline as far as that goes, but the energy level is high and everybody is trying to do everything that they can to be the guy that makes the next play.”
(You knew going into this game that the Jets were coming in the number one rushing defense in the league. You knew it was going to be tough but you still stayed with it late in the game, in the fourth quarter, when you need to close the game out, it paid dividends with the two big runs by [RB] Jay Ajayi.) – “That’s always going to be our goal. He knows exactly how I want to call the game as far as I’m never going to go away from him. His job is to keep hammering it and wait until the fourth quarter. If teams can stay with him, and they can tackle him, then they’re probably going to win the game.”
(Defensively you gave up yards, but when it got into the red zone, other than that last touchdown, you were able to hold them to field goals and they did a pretty good job at that aspect of the game.) – “Vance [Joseph], he has a good package there in the red zone. It’s tough to go against. Obviously we practice against it all the time. That’s the key for us. We talk about it all the time. The odds are really irrelevant. You prevent touchdowns, you prevent explosive plays, and it’s going to put us in a good spot.”
(Can you put Kenyon Drake’s rookie year into perspective?) – “I think the last couple of weeks has really been his first opportunity. We’ve had him up. He’s been doing some things on special teams. We’ve had some specialty plays for him occasionally. We try to use him on third down every once in a while because we’ve got so many guys. We’ve had so many guys go in before, and we’ve used Jay so much on first and second down, it’s a chance for us to put him and Damien [Williams] in there. They know exactly what plays are theirs. We try to just keep those three guys as fresh as we can throughout the game.”
(You pile up the wins now, three-in-a-row. Are you finding, during the week now, that it’s becoming easier as far as the preparation because maybe guys are buying into what you’ve been doing?) – “I don’t think it’s ever easy to get ready for an NFL game. Every week you’re starting over, you’re grinding, there’s a lot of information to cram into a short week. The longer the season goes, the more guys’ bodies start getting sore. It’s tough sometimes to go out to practice and get after it.”
(I meant as far as guys buying into what you’re doing.) – “I guess I haven’t seen a change since we started. When we were losing games, I never saw a change in anyone.”
(Byron Maxwell, it appeared he was shadowing Brandon Marshall – was that the case? And was that decision made before or after Brandon’s comment?) – “I think what we did decide was a certain plan as to how to handle where Brandon was, but they did a great job of moving him around early. He was inside quite a bit and was working against our zone. He’s so tough to handle outside – you start putting him inside, in my experience, any time he went inside, that’s when he became an issue. He played tough and he made some really good plays. There were a couple of times where we had some penalties called on us on him. That happens. You’re trying to match his physicality, you’re trying to make sure that you’re doing everything you can to combat him. It’s a tough matchup to play against him.”
(And that was the strategy the whole week, going into the game?) – “Everything we do is done on Wednesday. We’re not going to change our game plan because someone says something.”
(Talk about the impact of [DT] Ndamukong Suh, especially today when you needed it in the latter part of the game.) – “Tough man to block. I know that. I’m glad he’s on our team. It’s impressive to watch. When you see an interior guy cause that much disruption, to be able to get his hands actually on the quarterback, that’s even a tougher assignment. Those guys will get pressure, but he finishes it.”
(Cameron Wake – the two strip sacks today, steadily coming on. I don’t know if you’re surprised by anything that Cam does, but what do you think of what he’s done the last few weeks?) – “He’s just trying to make sure that whatever he has in the tank, he’s putting it out there on Sundays. He’s not going to leave anything out there. He’s going to make sure that he shows up, and if he has an opportunity to win a game, he’s going to try do everything he can to be a part of the success of our defense.”
(Can you talk about [DT] Jordan Phillips, the interception in particular and his play in general. Is that a zone blitz where he was dropping into coverage?) – “Yes. It was. That was interesting. It was one of the few times I looked up as we were having so many issues on offense, I look up and I see him just dropping. I saw him catch it, and I thought, please score. We hadn’t been so hot in the red zone. That was a great play. If there’s one guy where a ball comes at you, he’s going to catch it. He has really good hands.”
(Were you surprised by his ability to do a vertical leap out there?) – “I was hoping he’d do whatever he could to score.”
(How about [CB] Bobby McCain – suspicion of a concussion, comes back in, gets the interception, playing inside against Brandon [Marshall] sometimes.) – “It’s a tough assignment. The one thing that we constantly talked to Bobby about was just to trust in Vance (Joseph) as a defensive play caller, to play your leverage, to do what you’re supposed to do, don’t try to go outside that box, and if they run certain routes, keep that coverage. That’s on the coordinator for calling the defense. We just want to make sure that he’s just doing his job play in and play out. Vance does such as good job when he calls the defense and if you could hear some of the things I hear during the game, it’s very impressive.”
