Adam Gase – October 10, 2016
Download PDF version
Monday, October 10, 2016
Head Coach Adam Gase
(On what happened with G/T Laremy Tunsil yesterday) – “From what I gathered, he slipped in the shower and when he fell, he jacked his ankle up. I don’t know how it actually happened. I know sometimes when something like that happens, you really don’t know exactly how you did it because you just know you’re in pain. And then I’m driving to the game – and I’m actually with our o-line coach (Chris Foerster) – he gets a phone call and I hear him talking on the phone and I’m kind of going, ‘Who is he talking to?’ And then I just (hear) ‘Alright, ‘L.T.’ (Laremy Tunsil), I’ll see you at the stadium.’ And I’m kind of like, ‘What just happened?’ Then I get a little bit of the details of what happened and then now it goes into, ‘What’s the next step?’ Once we found that out, everything kind of went in motion. Then it was more about how hurt is he? Because we didn’t know; he’s at the hotel. So we had to get him over there, x-ray him, all those type of things. I had to move on it quick as far as, ‘Okay, what’s our plan now?’ And make some adjustments and trying to reconfigure what we needed to do in the game.”
(On how hurt is G/T Laremy Tunsil) – “So we’re still kind of going through, as far as how long … or is it day-to-day? Week-to-week? Every day can be different, because once again, everybody heals differently. We’re just going to have to see. We’re going to see how he feels tomorrow. He feels a little bit better today. How’s he going to be tomorrow? How is he going to be Wednesday? Obviously the sooner that he gets back, the better for us.”
(On if G/T Laremy Tunsil was sober) – “He’s at the team hotel. It’s 8:30 in the morning or whatever. We got mandatory breakfast and then the guys drive to the game. I mean the guy was taking a shower and slipped. It’s not the first time I’ve seen something weird happen pregame. In 2009, I saw a guy slip in Cincinnati because they were putting sunblock on him and he had cleats on. (He) separates his shoulder and we already had the inactives in. It’s like one of those one-in-a-thousand, one-in-a-million type deals. When it happens, it’s a bad deal because when you talk about unexpected, that’s an unexpected thing that happened.”
(On if G/T Laremy Tunsil is on crutches) – “No. He’s walking.”
(On taking a shower four or five hours before a game and if that is fairly [normal]) – “He woke up. I took a shower before I came to the game. I jumped in the shower and got ready for the game and was heading over to the stadium.”
(On G/T Laremy Tunsil and if he was disheartened or frustrated) – “I’m sure it’s a cross between embarrassment and, ‘Really, I’m missing a game because of this?’ He knows him being out there makes us better. He’s a competitor and he knows we count on him being healthy and being a part of our offense.”
(On how much G/T Laremy Tunsil’s absence hurt) – “Any time you lose a starter, it doesn’t help you, and especially the way that we had practiced all week and kind of what we had going and planning and what we planned on doing during the game. All of a sudden two guys get thrown out of position that they weren’t expecting to play at.”
(On how far ahead of time did he know that T Branden Albert would not be able to go?) – “We pretty much made that decision … I think me and him starting texting, I want to say maybe Thursday, that he was kind of like, ‘Something’s not right. Something’s not right.’ Then as more texts came to me, then we realized there was no chance for us to get him out there. We couldn’t do that to him. I mean he lost 12 pounds. He looked – even Sunday – he still looked like he was drained. He couldn’t eat. So we just got to figure out and make sure that we get his strength back and get his weight back up.”
(On mono was ruled out for T Branden Albert) – “They did. They know what it was. They went through all those tests. I think there’s some kind of legal precedence that I can’t talk about it or something. We’ll go with that one.”
(On if other players came down with it) – “No. It’s nothing contagious.”
(On why G Billy Turner went to left tackle and not G/T Jermon Bushrod) – “The one thing about doing that is you don’t know unless you’ve actually had to do this, but (Bushrod’s) played right guard since he got here. And to throw him out at left tackle with no reps … it’s just something that, since we’ve been so deep as far as who would play left tackle. We felt like that gave us our best chance.”
(On G Dallas Thomas playing left guard and not C/G Anthony Steen) – “Well, Anthony (Steen) was up just in case. I mean originally when we heard this, I was going, alright, so (Anthony) Steen, I wasn’t even sure was going to be able to go on Sunday and I started making contingency plans in my brain of, alright, so if Dion (Sims) has to play tackle … That’s what I started thinking of because I thought we were going to have six linemen up. Then I went to the trainers and they were like, ‘If something really happened to where he had to go in the game, he can play it’s just he doesn’t have full strength.’ He hadn’t really leaned on guys to test it out to that extreme.”
(On how C Mike Pouncey did) – “Really well. Really well. It was like he was never gone.”
(On saying QB Ryan Tannehill is his quarterback for the rest of year and if quarterback is a different position for him) – “Well, I know when we have 18 drop-back passes and he’s hit or sacked on nine of them, and then the completions we do have, he’s got guys in his face. So I’m supposed to blame him for that? I get a look at the whole picture. I’m calling the plays. I know what it’s supposed to look like and it’s not looking like that right now as far as what’s going on around him. When we start cleaning some things up and we give him a chance to perform at the level that I think he’s going to perform … if he doesn’t do it, that’s one thing. But I need to see to where we get a chance in protection. We’re right on a lot of the other things that we’re supposed to be doing. Everybody is (saying), ‘Is he going to have mistakes?’ Yes, that last interception. I told him before he went out there, I was like, ‘When I call this play, you’re going to have to fit it in.’ He tries to fit it in and he gets jacked to the point where I thought he was going to get his rotator cuff blown out and his knee blown out. And then everybody gets pissed at him. Everybody wants to blame that position. It’s the easy one to do because you can see completion, incompletion, interception. When you hit your back foot and you get sacked, there’s not much you can do about it.”
(On if he feels he can make a decision on QB Ryan Tannehill after 16 games if protection stays like it is) – “I mean that’s so far away right now. I know everybody wants to rush to judgement. I mean we’re five games in. I know this. We’re going to go back to work on Wednesday and then we’re going to figure out a way to get better.”
(On how much protection can get cleaned up this week if you’re getting two guys on the left side back) – “That always helps. The closer we can get to that starting line, the better. Just keep tinkering. My biggest thing for me as a play caller is I have to find what do we do well and then try to emphasize that. There are times we’re doing certain things where I feel like that’s who we are starting to become, and then something will fall off and we have some kind of issue, whether it be protection or somebody running the wrong route or we make a wrong read. The biggest thing for us is we need to kind of separate ourselves as what type of team are we, as far as offensively. It’s been a little bit of a struggle for us. One, we just haven’t had enough plays to really kind emphasize anything.”
(On T Ja’Wuan James not playing good this year) – “To say he’s not good, I think that’s a little extreme. I would say this, if there’s … I don’t want to say 75 because we’re averaging like what 50 (plays per game)? But if there’s 50 plays in a game, he’s having 45 really good plays to where he’s doing things right and then we’re having five rough plays, or five bad plays. It’s just something (that) when you’re at tackle, those five bad plays really stick out. That’s the thing. I know we’ve changed some technique things that we were trying to do with the tackles and some guys, it takes to quicker than others. Some of the things that we’re trying to do with him are different than what he’s done in the past. It’s about sometimes trusting your coaching, trusting the scheme that we’re trying to do and selling out and being all in. Sometimes what happens is when you’re in the middle of the game and bullets are flying, you’re trying to just figure out a way to get the guy blocked. And then you go away from a certain technique, and it’s a group working together, that can put you in a bad spot. That’s what’s happening a couple of times. I know he’s trying to do it right. It’s just we need him to kind of pick up the pace of doing it right all the time.”
(On Titans OLB Derrick Morgan’s sack yesterday) – “He wasn’t the only one messed up on that. Everybody was. I mean, we’re running a slip screen and we’re totally wrong upfront. Everybody. Everybody’s wrong. That was just a full … that was a full bust by everybody.”
(On which units are making progress) – “The one thing I know I was encouraged about was the way that Jay (Ajayi) ran. Even when we had a couple miscues upfront where we had a free runner, he found a way to either make that guy miss or get us to the line of scrimmage. There were a couple times where he got 9 yards on nothing and he made it happen. The fact that I saw a guy that was not allowing somebody else’s mistake become his mistake, he was trying to make something happen. That was big for me. I told him today, I was like, ‘What you did yesterday was outstanding,’ as far as the way his ball security (was) in traffic, the way that he found a way to try to keep us ahead of the sticks. That was very encouraging for me. We did have (Mike) Pouncey being back. We had no issues upfront as far as communication with the Mike (linebacker) points. He played really well. But getting him back, we need to get a little bit of that chemistry going back. At some point, we’d like to get our starting five in there.”
(On whether he has thought about evaluating players from other teams) – “We do that … Every Monday, we come in and we end up having a meeting at night saying, ‘Is there anybody out there? Do we need to make any changes?’ We’re constantly having those discussions. I know (General Manager) Chris (Grier) and his guys in personnel, they’re always looking at other teams’ practice squads. When something comes up, it’s brought up in a discussion and we make the best decisions for us at the time. Every week changes. Every game is another evaluation stage for us (to) figure out where we’re at. Sometimes, injuries come us where guys go up and down on IR (Injured Reserve), PUP (Physically Unable to Perform) – things like that. Eventually, we’re going to have to make some changes, because we’re going to have these guys coming off of PUP.”
(On whether there was a mismatch between WR Jarvis Landry and a linebacker in the first series and what happened there) – “In that formation sometimes when you pressure, you end up getting receivers matched up on linebackers or safeties and things like that. For him, he wasn’t the primary on that one. His progression – if we would’ve been right on a progression – got off of what he wanted to do originally. The way they pressured us, we got some pressure in his face to where he had to get his eyes off it. (We) probably would’ve had a chance if we dump it down to Dion (Sims). Even though it’s under the sticks, we had a chance to run for it. That’s why it takes everybody. It’s not just one guy back there. (If) you lose vision on something – you don’t see what’s going on – all of a sudden you don’t convert.”
(On missed tackles and containing the edge) – “It was probably the worst we’ve had as far as missed tackles. I would think … The thing – for these guys – that ends up happening on defense is when you have missed tackles and then guys start trying to help themselves instead of staying with their assignment and cleaning those types of things up, now all of a sudden you got another guy out of his gap and then it creates another hole. When you got two guys like they have (DeMarco Murray and Derrick Henry), who have the ability to see a lot and they can make adjustments and a guy doesn’t fit right, they’re going to find where you screwed up and they’re going to expose you. That’s why you see an 8-, 15-yard run ripped off. That’s usually what happens. It’s hard to block everybody up perfect and find that hole and have an explosive play. A lot of times what happens is when you have explosive runs, it is because somebody misfit the run. We had way too much of that going on yesterday to where one guy is trying to do somebody else’s job to compensate for what happened earlier in the game. Like I said yesterday, it’s one guy putting a finger on the dam to stop the leak and then here comes another one and another one. You can’t do that and then be successful versus the run game, and that was the story of our game yesterday.”
(On how frustrating it is to not fit the runs with eight in the box) – “It’s frustrating for everybody, because you’re trying to take away what everybody knew what they were going to do. But it comes down to doing your assignment right, making sure that you’re fitting it correctly. As a coach, when you’re working on it as much as you do during the week, you want to make sure when you hit the game, you have to do it right. Right now, we’re at that stage where things are being fitted right in practice, and we have to transfer it to the game. It’s about performing under pressure. When the lights come on, we have to make sure that we’re translating practice to the game.”
(On who stood out on defense) – “We have some good, some bad, so it’s hard for me to say one guy who stood out, because we took our turns all over the place. I know Reshad (Jones) always seems to be a guy making a lot of plays, but he has his mistakes, too. But a lot of times his mistakes come from … When you’re at that position, you can gamble. When you’re a player of his caliber, you make that gamble and usually make the play. The problem is when he does miss, it’s usually … It could be really bad, but good thing for him he’s such a great player that he ends up making those plays.”
(On wanting to turn the pass rush loose) – “When you look at the situation that we’ve been in all these games is, the defense has so many plays. It’s one thing to stop the run, but it’s one thing to stop the run for 60 plays or 50 plays. It’s because they’re on the field as much as they are, because we’re not doing what we need to do on offense and we’re behind, so the other team is running the ball and our guys are getting pounded on, and it wears on those guys. Over time, it’s really going to affect us, because we built this thing to where, if we can stop the run early and we get ahead of them, all of a sudden you let those guys do what they do best, which I’d obviously love to see Cam (Wake) pass rush more. I’d love to see Mario (Williams) and (Ndamukong) Suh and ‘J.J.’ (Jason Jones) be able to rush the passer as much as possible. But when you’re down by 10 or 14 or seven (points) for most of the game, now that team is able to stay balanced. It doesn’t put us at our strength.”
(On how the defense can rush the passer more often) – “You keep moving pieces around. You keep trying to figure out a way or a different type of personnel grouping that we want to throw out there. We did it yesterday. We played some different fronts and defenses and had some different guys in there and played some different fronts, trying to find ways to slow down the run. We didn’t do a good job of fitting it up and making plays when we had chances to make plays. (When) we have a free runner through the hole, the defense is designed that way, we have to make the tackle. It really comes down to guys selling out and going fast through there and finishing the play.”
Cameron Wake – October 9, 2016 (Postgame)
Sunday, October 9, 2016
Postgame – vs. Tennessee
Miami Dolphins DE Cameron Wake (transcribed by Ted Leshinski)
(Cam, the 200-and-something yards rushing that you guys allowed, do you have any idea why that was? Poor tackling or misfits?) – “In order to have that kind of production for them – or lack of production on defense – it was a little bit of everything. It has to be poor tackling. It has to be misfits. It has to be miscommunication. It has to be a lot that goes on to have that kind of day. I’d have to watch the tape, but there’s no way that can happen unless there’s a lot going on.”
(Cam, what is the mindset of this team right now (with) having a team like that come in that you felt like was a good opportunity and come up in the short end? Where are you right now, and how do you guys get out of this rut that you’re in?) – “I felt like it was a great opportunity. Coming into the game, you felt like things were lined up for a great day. One of our main goals on defense was to win first downs. And I’m pretty sure – again, I don’t have the stats or film – but I’m pretty sure they won that battle. When you got a team that’s in front of the sticks going second-and-short, third-and-1, that changes a lot of things that you have as far as the way the team is set up. We on defense, we have to do better from the very beginning. Third downs have been something that we do well, but you got to get to that point first. If we can’t even get to third down situations, then that’s going to be hard on our side of the ball. It takes a lot of different things that obviously need to be fixed in order to get that changed, but it was disappointing to say the least.”
(How about this team as a whole – offensively, defensively, special teams – how do you guys get all on the same page? You still have a long way to go, and if you keep playing this way, it’s going to be a long, hard road for you.) – “Even the first quarter of the season has been tough. I feel like we haven’t played a full complementary football game, yet. There have been spurts where offense has been doing great and there’s been spurts defense, but we have to play with each other. And it can’t be just one quarter. It has to be the entire game. We have to go down there and stop the team and give the ball to the offensive, (so) they can go down and score and then we do it again. That hasn’t happened. So, just getting on the same page, I feel like it … I can assure you, guys are frustrated. Guys are disappointed. Frankly, I hope that everybody is pissed off and uncomfortable with this feeling, because with the kind of guys and kind of team we have, this should not be happening. So doing whatever we can to get it fixed is our number one priority.”
(It seems like you guys – both side of the ball – are still playing hard. Is that what you see from where you stand?) – “I don’t really see effort or guys that are giving up. They stay there and they fight, but it’s not the only part of the game. You’ve got to go in there and you’ve got to be fined turned. You have to have the details correct. You’re straining hard as you can, 100 percent in the wrong gap. That’s not going to help us. Each man has to be on top of his job. Whatever it is – offense, defense, special teams, all of the above – to make sure that you’re doing your job every play all the time or else, as you see in this league obviously, it only takes one guy. It only takes on guy to miss a block on offense, one guy to miss a block on special teams, one guy to not to be in his gap on defense. That play can be detrimental to your team. I feel like, again, the frustrating thing is showing that you can do it. Obviously, we’ve done each thing as a whole, as a team, but doing it together and doing it for 60 minutes has been the trouble.”
(Cam, how do you keep this team mentally focused – pushing, driven – and believing in each other?) – “I haven’t sensed that that has been an issue. Guys have been out there. Guys have been fighting to the last snap (with) effort and (they) want to. I don’t see that as an issue. Now, again, some of the details, obviously, have not been up to the standard that we probably want. Again, 10 guys doing (work) as has hard as they can … Even the eleventh guy, if he’s going at it as hard as he can, but (is) in the wrong direction, offsides –there are a lot of things, obviously – (but) that one thing, one person can ruin the entire play. I don’t think guys are out of it in that sense. It’s the consistency in the details that probably need more attention.”
(Cam, I know injuries are part of the game – I know you don’t want to use them as an excuse – but seven inactive players today were all projected starters. Two linebackers, two offensive lineman. How much of an affect did that have on the game?) – “Football is a violent sport. I, obviously, have recently gone through such things. It’s an unfortunate part of this game. It’s the most violent game I know of. You’re going to have those things happen. But I feel like it’s not like we’re not the only ones playing. They’re out there playing as well, and I’m sure they have injuries that maybe could help them. To me, at the end of the day, it all ends up evening back out. Your second guy up maybe has to play against their second guy up, and you have to win that battle. There are no chumps. There are no bums that put on jerseys on Sunday, whether you’re first, second or third team. It doesn’t matter. You’re the best at what you do on the planet. You got to go in and you got to achieve and step up to the same level as the guy you replaced. That to me is nowhere near an excuse. When your number is called, you got to go in and get your job done.”
(Cam, how does losing affect you now maybe in comparison to very early in your career?) – “I hate it as much as my first high school game, the first time I lost. (It is) the same pain, the same disgust, same fury. It boils inside of you. It doesn’t get any easier. Unfortunately, I’ve experienced it too many times. I still don’t like it. Poop still tastes the same, I’m sure, no matter if it’s the first time you’ve had it or the fifth time or seventh.”n?
DeVante Parker – October 9, 2016 (Postgame)
Download PDF version
Sunday, October 9, 2016
Postgame – vs. Tennessee
Miami Dolphins WR DeVante Parker (transcribed by Jason D. Silver)
(What happened on the interception?) “Which interception?”
(The one that was behind you?) – “Just behind a little bit, kind of bobbled it. Said I didn’t catch it but, I caught an interception.”
(Are frustrated right now about how this offense has been?) – “I’m just, I don’t know what I’m frustrated about. I’m just frustrated that we need a win. That’s it, just get the Ws.”
(How do you feel like you are playing right now?) – “I think I’m playing pretty good. When they call the ball for me I just got to make the plays, but as a whole we just got to pull out the W.
(You think maybe if they went to you more this offense might be better?) – “I’m not sure. I just go with the flow. Whatever happens, happens.”
Jakeem Grant – October 9, 2016 (Postgame)
Download PDF version
Sunday, October 9, 2016
Postgame – vs. Tennessee
Miami Dolphins Wide Receiver Jakeem Grant (transcribed by Renzo Sheppard)
(Obviously, the moment that you’ve been waiting for, for a while?) – “Yes, it’s definitely a moment I’ve been waiting for. But like I said, the return would feel much better if we came out with the W.”
(Can you describe the feeling of crossing the end zone with the touchdown for you?) – “It felt great. It felt really good. But like I said previously, it would’ve felt a lot better if we got the W.”
(You got a little dinged up in the first half.) – “(I) just got rolled up on my ankle. I came back in, because I felt like if I would’ve stayed out, I would’ve been letting my team down. That’s just how I am. I’m going to push through anything I can to help the team out.”
Ndamukong Suh – October 9, 2016 (Postgame)
Download PDF version
Sunday, October 9, 2016
Postgame – vs. Tennessee
Miami Dolphins Defensive Tackle Ndamukong Suh (transcribed by Renzo Sheppard)
(The run defense allowed 235 yards, what happened out there?) – “It comes down to tackling and execution. I think it’s as simple as that. We didn’t accomplish those two things. They have two great running backs and we didn’t shut them down.”
(What do you think of this season right now, 1-4 with a lot of football to play. What do you think of this team right now, overall big picture?) – “We’re in a tough situation, like you said, 1-4. But there’s a lot of football left. We’ve got two more home games before our bye. We need to finish out strong and get prepared for the Steelers.”
(It seemed like last week you were getting outside run support and today they were able to get outside and attack the corner on the defense, why were they able to do that? – “I’m honestly not particularly sure, because the most of the time I’m dealing with double teams working in the middle where my space is. Obviously I understand when the ball is getting to our edge, I’ve got to rally and get over there to help get the running back down. But I’d have to go back and look at the film to give you a better answer.”
(What do you guys have to do overall as a defense? Do individual guys need to look in the mirror and say you need to do a better job or is it as a unit that you guys need to tighten up) – “I think as a unit, we just have to focus on the task that we have at hand. (We) understand that stopping the run is going to be very, very important, no matter who the game is (against), whether it’s two good running backs that we just played against or an average running back. We’ve got to stop the run and make each and every team we play against a one-dimensional team so we can rush the passer and put them in tough situations, put them in long-yard situations and go from there.”
(You had no sacks and almost no pressure on (Marcus) Mariota, was it because they were running the ball so successfully?) – “Yes, no question. I mean they ran the ball very well and if I were them, I wouldn’t stop doing that. You can run the clock out and also put up points.”
(As a defense or as a team, do you see progress being made or do you see you guys being stuck in the mud right now?) – “I think we’ve just got to execute and focus on the things we’ve got to get done. We’re going into the Steelers week and we’ve got to focus on the task that we have here and get prepared.”
Jay Ajayi – October 9, 2016 (Postgame)
Download PDF version
Sunday, October 9, 2016
Postgame – vs. Tennessee
Miami Dolphins RB Jay Ajayi (transcribed by David Norwood II)
(Your team didn’t do as well you hoped…) – “Yes, definitely. We lost. That’s just the matter of fact, so we’ve got to go back to drawing board and figure it out and we got to get some moves.”
(How frustrating is it now to be 1-4?) – “I mean, at the end of the day it’s a long season. It’s frustrating for the simple fact that we want to win games and this is not where we want to be at this point. At this point right now, it’s still early and we’re basically going to take it one week at a time, one game at a time, and see what happens at the end of the season.”
(Jay, do you feel like you got into a little bit of a rhythm in the running game today. You seem to have more carries than you have gotten…) – “Yes, I feel like I was able to do some good things on the ground; but at the same time, we have to be able to execute and stay on the field longer and keep those drives moving. We’re going to go back to work this next week and look to how we can improve, and come out next Sunday hopefully better.”
Ryan Tannehill – October 9, 2016 (Postgame)
Download PDF version
Sunday, October 9, 2016
Postgame – vs. Tennessee
Miami Dolphins Quarterback Ryan Tannehill (transcribed by Sara Perez)
(Ryan, as tough a day as you’ve had out there – a lot of pressure on you, six sacks, trying to get rid of the ball seemed to be tough. How tough was it on you?) – “Yes, it was a tough day. I think all around, offensively, we have to be better.”
(What do you do to get better? When you look at the points per game and three-and-outs and all that, it seems to be very similar numbers week in and week out. How do you resolve that? And you got to resolve it, obviously, in a short time here.) – “Every man has to be better, starting with me. We have to feel better. We have to block better. We have to move better. It’s just (about) going back to work, there’s nothing drastic. All we have to do is come to work and get better each and every day. Every man controls the things he can control, work at the things he needs to work at, and we’ll be in good shape.”
(Scheme-wise you’re happy with it? When you look at tapes it’s just one guy breaks down on one play and another guy another play. Are those the situations you’re seeing?) – “It was a couple situations today where they did a good job on defense, caught us in a coverage. We hurt ourselves by getting to third-and-long and then you’re playing the guessing game of what they’re going to be in. We have to keep ourselves in third-and-manageable. Penalties hurt us. A couple negative plays hurt us and put us in third-and-long. Those are always going to be tough. We have to be consistent on third-and-manageable and then convert them when you get those opportunities.”
(Obviously, you heard the fans chanting. How do you react to that?) – “I just have to keep playing. I have to play my game, keep my focus on the things I need to do and play for the guys around me. I love being on this team. I love the guys in the huddle with me, and I’m going to do everything I can to go out and play the way they expect me to play. So, do I like it? No, but it doesn’t affect how I play or how I think about myself.”
(Ryan, as far as this team, do you see progress being made or what do you think big picture?) – “Yes, I think big picture there’s definitely progress. We’re getting better. Obviously, we need to make a big stride. All it takes is one week, one good week for us to kind of get things rolling, and I think we’ll be headed in the right direction. Obviously, that needs to be this week.”
(Head Coach Adam Gase said that you’ll be the quarterback the rest of the year pretty much no matter what. What’s your reaction to that?) – “I know (Head) Coach (Adam Gase) has confidence in me – I have confidence in myself – and I think the guys on offense have confidence in me. We’re going to go out and play. I’m going to go out and play. I’m going to push myself in practice, do anything I can to get better and expect to play better.”
(Offensive line guys – G/T Laremy Tunsil misses, T Branden Albert misses. Frustrating? At the start of the week, it looked like there was a chance with C Mike Pouncey coming back that, that offensive line would be intact. Frustrating?) – “Yes, it’s tough. You think you’re getting ‘B.A.’ (Branden Albert) back and then he has an illness. Then you lose ‘L.T.’ (Laremy Tunsil) day of the game. That’s tough. It puts those guys that are put in spots they’re not used to playing in tough positions. It puts our offense in a little bit of a tough position, but things happen. You have to be able to adapt and find ways to move the ball and score points.”
Adam Gase – October 9, 2016 (Postgame)
Download PDF version
Sunday, October 9, 2016
Postgame – vs. Tennessee
Miami Dolphins Head Coach Adam Gase (transcribed by Michelle Stone)
(Adam, G/T Laremy Tunsil – how did he get injured?) – “He was getting ready for the game. I’m still kind of sorting everything out right now. We’re trying to get ready for (the game) and all of a sudden he lets you know that he’s not going to be able to go so we had to make some quick adjustments.”
(I know you’re not going to want to make any excuses, but a lot of injuries – all seven inactives were projected starters coming out of training camp. How much did that impact the game?) – “I mean, it happens. It happens as far as week-to-week, usually you have a couple of guys down. You never like to have this many guys, a couple of them being some fluke-type of thing. We didn’t think that ‘B.A.’ (Branden Albert) was going to be down at the beginning of the week, but he loses 12 pounds throughout the week and we can’t put him out there. He tried to practice. It just would be wrong for us to try to do that. Obviously, those guys can help you; but I feel like we have plenty of guys that can fill the roles that we need them to fill. We just have to do a better job.”
(Coach, you pretty much knew what they wanted to do coming in. There were a lot of three-tight, they wanted to run the football, and that’s exactly what they did – 224 yards rushing at the last count for me – that’s got to be a disappointing afternoon for you.) – “It was surprising considering that we were doing a pretty good job as far as fitting it – we weren’t finishing our tackles. That’ll kill you every time, especially with a running back like that. One guy misses, and they block it up well. Our guys were fitting everything right and it just takes a one-on-one match up, he makes him miss, now all of a sudden he’s in the safety, and a lot of times he’s going to make that guy miss. We have to do a better job as far as our tackling goes. It’s tough because the d-line is doing their job, and now all of a sudden, they want to go try to make a play to help, and now we’re moving out of our gap. It’s one of those things where you spring a leak somewhere else and then somebody else tries to plug it and then another one springs. We have to make sure we go back and we’ve got to figure out a way to do a better job of tackling.”
(Offensively – you look at the numbers, six punts, five of them three-and-outs, two of them interceptions…) – “We’re inept right now. We’ve just got to figure something out. We tried to slow it down today, and huddle, and we only had 41 plays and eat up 23 minutes. We’re not getting enough first downs. We had a chance there on the third-and-1, and the ball gets batted down. We think we’re in the end zone to be down by three and we get a holding call. It just seems that we can’t get out of our own way right now. We’ve just got to go back to work. We’ve got to clean up some of these things. There’s nothing really great that I can point to in this game, especially for the offense. I know that Jay (Ajayi) ran hard. There were times where there were free runners in the backfield and I thought that there were going to be two or three runs that were negative plays and he found a way to get to the line of scrimmage and get positive yards. That was encouraging for me as far as having a guy who you can lean on to try to get positive yards. There were some bad play calls in there that put our offense in a bad position. We’ve got to go back to work. We’ve got to figure out a way to do a better job of consistently executing play in and play out.”
(Coach, was there any point in the game where you considered taking Ryan Tannehill out of the game?) – “No. He’s not coming out. You can ask me a hundred times. He’s going to be in there the rest of this season.”
(Adam, what do you make of the season now that you’re 1-4? The big picture…) – “Well, the whole NFL is a mess, isn’t it? How many teams have the same record or are one win above us? You’ve got to play the whole season. Everybody counted Kansas City out. The one year New England is 2-2 and the sky’s falling and all of a sudden they rattle it out and go to the Super Bowl and win it. You better play this thing out. You never know what’s going to happen.”
(Adam, I know you have a lot on your plate right now after that performance, but what tops your priority list in terms of what you need to fix?) – “A lot of times, I look at it offensively. I know there’s some fixes we can have there as far as we hold onto the ball, we get first downs, the time of possession changes, and it helps the defense. That’s why it’s irritating for me, as far as if we could figure out a way to be more consistent on offense, it’s going to take a lot of pressure off the defense (and) keep those guys fresh. We built this defense to play with a lead. We just haven’t come through on offense yet. We had some changes. We’re trying to figure out some ways to get guys the ball, get the ball out quick, not put Ryan (Tannehill) in a bad position as far as holding onto the ball. It just didn’t work out the way that we wanted it to.”
