Adam Gase – November 16, 2017
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Thursday, November 16, 2017
Head Coach Adam Gase
(Didn’t have a chance to ask Defensive Coordinator Matt Burke this, but without calling out individual guys, do you think the division that we’ve seen defensively as far as against the run and pass rush the past few weeks, do you think it’s equal parts ends, tackles, linebackers or has there been a particular area – without naming names – a group that needs to particularly play better?) – “We’ve talked about this before: when you play defense, it’s a group deal, it’s 11 guys. Really at the end of the day, everybody has to be on the same page. Everybody needs to do their job, because it’s hard to be successful on defense if guys are trying to cover for other guys or doing things that aren’t meant to be done in that particular call. Really, the quickest way to get things going in the right direction is getting 11 guys doing their job and everybody trusting each other as far as what they’re doing.”
(The package with LB Rey Maualuga offensively, has it exceeded what you thought? Obviously, it has been limited. It has just been a handful of plays. Is two or three plays pretty much the realistic max you can do that offensively in your eyes?) – “You can do it 30 plays if you want. That was just kind of the situation that we felt like it was good for us with what we wanted to do, what we had in. We didn’t get to a couple things that we liked. We’ll just kind of keep seeing where that goes.”
(Offensive Coordinator Clyde Christensen was talking about WR DeVante Parker not having the same, “edge” is the word he used, now as what he did maybe in training camp or coming out of training camp. Why is that? What’s he missing? What’s his problem?) – “I think a little bit of it is when you miss that time and you’re away from that group, you miss some value in the reps, game experience, those type of things. With where we were at before he got injured, we were relying on him heavily in a lot of different situations. Some of it we never got to it, what we would be practicing. I think him coming back, he’s trying to feel, ‘Alright, what’s my role?’ Offense has changed throughout the season, and you start getting into a flow and guys start getting better at certain things that they do. I think he had a really good target as far as what he was doing, and now he’s trying to feel his way out a little bit. I think he has got a better feel. Last week we started really seeing him get going in practice. He made some plays for us this last game. I think we’ve just got to get him going a little more, whether it be giving him more opportunities earlier in the game to see if we can get him to make a play, whether it be down the field or in that intermediate area. Some of it is on opportunities. I think if we give him some more opportunities, we’ll see what we were doing earlier in the season.”
(I don’t mean to disparage WR DeVante Parker or anything, but an alpha receiver will say, “I’m the guy. I’m the guy before I got injured, and I’m going to be the guy after I got injured.” Shouldn’t he be – instead of waiting for someone to give him a role – imposing himself?) – “You always want that, but you’re still dealing with a very young player. You’re dealing with a guy that has missed time in his career, early in his career. I’ve been around this before. I’ve seen situations like this where you’re kind of waiting for a guy to take that step. Sometimes it takes longer than other guys. Some guys just grab it right away and take it over. He just has to keep getting better and then get that feel of, ‘I can dominate, and I can consistently make the plays that we need to make.’ It really starts with growing that confidence in practice, being consistent every day, giving that quarterback that reliability of when he puts that ball up there’s one guy coming down with it.”
(RB Kenyan Drake has quite an impressive yards per carry average based on two runs. Can you explain to the average Dolphin fan who looks at RB Damien Williams’ average and sees RB Kenyan Drake’s average and explain to them why you value two backs and why Damien is the starter?) – “We look at it as really they’re both starters. They’re both going to play. Who’s out there on the first play of the game is really irrelevant a lot of the times, because we go three wide receivers, one tight end or two tight ends and two wide receivers. We could put them both out there one game. What does that mean? It’s really irrelevant. We have a good feel of how we want to roll those two guys. Damien’s value, whether it be in the run game, pass game … We look at everything very closelu. It’s all equal to each other. It’s about getting yards, putting us in position to get third down conversions. I think that’s one of the things that both those guys have done a good job of is we’re converting more on third down, because we’re in third-and-manageable. That’s really the whole goal – which we set at the beginning of the year – of how many times can we get in third-and-6 or less, give ourselves run-pass options, make it hard for the defense to defend us. Last week was a good example. We had a lot of third-and-shorter distances. This last week was the first time that we were converting on third-and-7-to-10. That’s what we needed to do. The value that both of those guys have, we like, because they can do multiple things.”
(Defensive Coordinator Matt Burke talked about the challenge of regrouping defensively after Monday night. With the personalities you have on this defense, what sort of response do you think you’ll get from them?) – “I expect that group to come out ready to perform and play well. That’s the best thing about playing defense. It’s really about a mindset of 11 guys doing their job and playing with energy and emotion and playing fast and physical. It’s sometimes less about … On offense, it’s about lining up right and all those type of things and doing all pre-snap stuff before you even really get the play off. Sometimes it just takes a guy shooting up the middle and stroking somebody. That’s the (most fun) part about defense. That’s what I think our guys need to get back to doing – having fun and playing with emotion.”
(This is the first time you guys have seen Buccaneers CB Brent Grimes since obviously you guys moved on. Are you surprised at age 34 that he’s still playing at the level he is?) – “No. He does a good job and makes it really, really tough on the quarterback. The thing he does best is he makes quarterbacks feel like somebody is open. That’s why you see guys throw the ball at him and all of a sudden he has the ball. It happened last game. They were playing a coverage and the concept they ran, I’m pretty sure almost every quarterback would’ve thrown that ball. He was in such good positon. The toughest thing he did was make that catch. He does that consistently. He makes it tough, because you think a guy is open. He has a really good break on the ball. When he plays with vision, it’s a tough throw to make. You better be very accurate. You can’t miss by much.”
(Several of QB Jay Cutler’s throws from the last game seemed pretty far off target. When he is far off target, what are some things you notice that he needs to be aware of?) – “A couple of them, we weren’t on the same page. We took the wrong angle on one of the routes. He thought one of the guys were going high and he flattened it out. That was just one of those ones where he saw it one way, they saw it a different way. Some of them are not setting your feet properly, alignment and just some basic stuff. That’s one of the things that we’re consistently working on is trying to keep him in that … make that pocket firm, let him sit in there, work his feet and when he’s ready to turn it loose, have his proper mechanics. That’s when we get accuracy. There were some throws there in the second quarter, some in the fourth, that were really, really nice, especially to Kenny (Stills), that were 12-yard out routes that were very accurate. A lot of it is just mechanically being in the right position.”
(You guys have predominantly been a zone blocking team, outside zone; but some of your larger runs have been gap scheme. What’s your thought process on that – gap scheme versus zone – at this point in time?) – “It’s really what’s best for that game. This last game, if you want to run sideline to sideline with Thomas Davis and (Luke) Kuechly, have at it. It’s always going to be … It’ll be fun. We had a good mix. We were just trying to do everything we can to not let Kuechly just point out where everything was going, which when you watch his film against other teams, he’s pointing where the run is going. It’s really amazing to watch him play, because he’s a tough guy to play chess with. For me, I’m on the sideline and he’s on the field, so it makes it really tough. He makes it hard and we had to keep mixing it up. That’s really what we’re trying to do every week is what’s best for that game.”
(Defensive Coordinator Matt Burke was saying this defense hasn’t been able to really cut it loose. If they were given 14-, 17-point leads, 10-point leads, how different would they look?) – “That’s what we built it for. We haven’t really come through on offense in two years. That’s the part that has really been more disappointing for myself is we haven’t been able to put those guys in the position that we wanted to. That needs to be something that … If we get anything clicking, getting off to a faster start and having some consecutive drives early to where our defense doesn’t feel like they’re in four-minute mode for the entire second half, that’s really what we want to do. The hard part is going out there and executing early. Instead of feeling the game out, let’s be right early and not wait to the third quarter to actually do something.”
(We saw DT Ndamukong Suh pop up in the injury report again. Is that just last week carrying over?) – “Every week could be different for him (based on) how he’s feeling and whether or not we practice him. I know whatever he has, he’s giving it. When you play inside there, you’re going take some nasty hits and get cut all of the time. It’s a tough position to play. He gets doubled almost every play. He’s trying to fight through some things and hopefully, as the season goes on, we can get him a little healthier and healthier every week. That’s why we try to give him as much time off from practice as we can, just to take a little bit off of him.”
(Not to act as a jinx, but DT Ndamukong Suh hasn’t missed a game since 2011. What does that say for a player in that position to have that kind of durability?) – “I think a lot of it starts with the way that he trains. It starts in the spring when he goes up to Oregon. He’s unbelievable in his preparation during the week. You see him around all of the time. He’s always doing something. The day off, he’s the guy here early and he’s here for so long just doing things to make sure that his body’s ready to go on Sunday. It’s very impressive to witness.”
(Not every running back can run behind an upback. It’s difficult for some guys. What are the qualities of a running back that can have that vision for creases in the defense…) – “Running behind a fullback you’re saying? What are you asking?”
(For a running back, not every running back can really run that well behind an upback. What are some of the qualities that RB Kenyan Drake possesses that allows him to do that?) – “Really both of those guys (Drake and RB Damien Williams) can do it. I think Drake probably had a little bit more experience in college doing it, because they did multiple things (at Alabama). They had those fullback looks and they had those spread looks. I think Damien was probably a little less in what he did. It’s a different vantage point, it’s a different view and contact happens a little closer to the line of scrimmage. It’s tight, it’s a bang-bang deal and you’ve got to make a decision and roll with it. I think it’s just an instinct thing. Some guys can do it, some guys can’t. It’s no different than gun-run type things.”
(How’s the plan gone to try to get guys days back losing the bye? You guys obviously didn’t practice yesterday, right? So that’s one less day of practice this week. How do you feel the whole plan is?) – “We were going to do this anyways. This is what we do with Monday night games. We’re trying to get our guys recovered instead of rushing a plan in and rushing guys onto the field. We had set something up to where today and tomorrow we load it up pretty good. We look at it as when you play on Thursday night, for some reason you can get everything put in there and do all of these walkthroughs and then throw it out there on Thursday. We planned it the way we needed to plan it and we felt like giving ourselves time as coaches and then giving our players the proper amount of time to recover for the next game was important to us. I think that after the Thursday game, what we did was good for our guys to recharge a little bit. It went quick; but really, at the end of the day, we’ve got four days, which is what they normally get off that bye week.”
(I’m sure you’d like to see more numbers, obviously, tangible numbers from DE Charles Harris if you had the lead more, for reasons that you talked about. That said, how would you assess his rookie year?) – “He’s doing a lot of things good and anytime he’s ever had any kinds of struggles, it’s things that he’s never seen before. In this league, every week, you get the full gamut of plays. Coaches have a lot of time to put things together and try to take advantage of certain defenses and certain ways guys play. It’s just always going to be a learning experience for him and that’s why some of the veteran players … If you watch William Hayes, he does a great job. He’s seen so much and he knows how to play so many different things, it’s a little easier for him because it’s more of a reaction than thinking about, ‘This is coming so I’ve got to play it like this.’ That’s time. You try to get the process going as fast as possible and get him caught up as much as you can; but at the end of the day, he’s got to see it and react to it. The guys that are good players usually react a little quicker than others.”
Matt Burke – November 16, 2017
Thursday, November 16, 2017
Defensive Coordinator Matt Burke
(I’m sure you’ll get questions today about stopping the run but on a different issue, as far as the pass rush goes, 16 sacks in nine games and 26th in the league. With the quality of defensive line that you have, shouldn’t it be better and why hasn’t it been better?) – “I think it’s the same story every time I come up here. I think situationally, we haven’t had a chance to really cut it loose. I think games haven’t dictated us to truly cut it free and go rush and stuff. We’re always either in 50/50 downs or stuff, so that’s a whole team, a whole defense thing for us to address that. I just don’t feel like we’ve had opportunities, true rush opportunities, where we can just cut it loose and let those guys go actually do work for extended periods of time. No one played well the other night. Let’s not hide that fact, but I think we’ve got to do a better job of giving those guys chances to truly go rush.”
(How difficult has it been to pick up the pieces from that?) – “That’s not an easy game to swallow. Two things: one, I appreciate the schedule Adam (Gase) put together where we actually brought the guys back in on Tuesday afternoon. I didn’t sleep. We got back here (after the game Monday) and I just went right to work. We had a chance to really look at it. As a defense, we watched the entire second half together as a whole group. Again, it wasn’t easy to look at it; but there are things that had to be addressed, so we did that together as a group. Honestly, second-fold, things happen in mysterious ways I guess. Not having the bye week, to me, honestly helps us. If we had to sit two weeks and chew on that for a ‘bye weekend’ and not play for another two weeks … As a coach, it always helps being able to dive back in to ‘We’ve got to go back to work here and we can’t wallow in it. We’ve got to correct what we need to correct and get things adjusted.’ We went right back to it in the morning Tuesday and after the players were gone Tuesday and all day yesterday. We had to start really getting into our game plan for this week. In hindsight, having a game this weekend and having a short week gives us a chance to move on and let’s go play another game and hopefully get things righted.”
(How optimistic are you that will happen?) – “Good. I’m a pretty confident person and pretty positive. I think we have to address some things; but I always tell the guys that to me, the greatest thing about this league is that every week you have another opportunity. Every week is a separate entity and there’s different challenges and different issues. You don’t get a lot of second chances in life but you get 16 chances to keep playing and keep trying to get things right. I’m excited to get back to work and have a chance to get things back on track.”
(Being in nickel as often as you were at Carolina, did that have any impact on the ability to stop the run?) – “I don’t think so. The run game stuff, I felt like we were trying to take the ball out of the quarterback’s hands, especially early on. He had the one long run. The quarterback draws, they were stuff … They didn’t kill us. They broke out a couple and obviously the long run when they were backed up. That was a 70-yard run. The one at the end of the game, we were in 4-minute mode and missed like eight tackles. That’s 150 yards of offense right there in two runs. That’s kind of how it has been all year in terms of being in a sub defense and having to play run against sub defense. I don’t think that really affected anything.”
(Bucs QB Ryan Fitzpatrick instead of QB Jameis Winston, how does that change things for you?) – “From what I’ve seen … I actually coached at Harvard during Ryan’s junior year, so I’ve known Ryan for a long time. I haven’t seen their offense, in terms of schematically, really change drastically. Ryan has always been a – how do I say this – sneaky athlete. He’s underestimated. He’s not afraid to pull it down and he moves around really well in the pocket. He’s somewhat unpredictable in the way that he escapes in those sort of things. There’s still an element of the run game. Even when Winston was playing, they weren’t a huge, truly zone-read quarterback run team. That wasn’t necessarily part of their design. Schematically, it’s the same. Their skill players are still the same and who they’re trying to get the ball to and those sort of things. I don’t think there’s a ton of difference, to be honest with you, in terms of schematically and how we’re preparing.”
(How often do you watch the game back as a group and what do you hope to accomplish?) – “It’s kind of a fine line. Usually I will pull out some plays that I feel like we need to hit. I’m always conscientious of giving the coaches … It’s hard, especially on defense. There are different issues that have to be corrected a lot of times at the different levels. Usually I’ll pull out either good or bad plays that I want to make sure we all see and hit, and then I’ll break it up and let the coaches really kind of get into the details of their position groups. To be honest with you, I felt that one of our issues – Monday night and possibly in the last couple weeks – there’s been a little disconnect I felt between the different levels of the defense. I felt it was important for everybody to be in there together and talking it out. I just didn’t feel the communication was there. I didn’t feel the understanding of how the front fits with the linebackers and how the coverage in the back end fits the linebackers and that sort of thing. I felt it was important this week to really take most of the meeting together. I’ll sit in the room. Again, we all own that. I told those guys. I put all of the stats up on the board. None of them are pretty. Not a single one. I said ‘We own this together. Every man in this room has a piece of this and we’ve got to get it sorted out because I feel like we’re not playing together as a unit, which we were better at earlier in the year.’ Normally I don’t spend a ton of time, because I like those guys to be able to hone in on the details of their position groups and there are coaching points that have to be made on a micro scale; but I just felt that this was time for us to really sit in there and everyone needed to understand how all of the pieces are fitting together or how they haven’t been fitting together. We pretty much spent the whole meeting together as a defense this week.”
(You had high praise for your young cornerbacks about a month ago. The last month, at least to our eyes, they haven’t played as well as they were at the beginning of the season. Is that in your eyes as well?) – “I think nobody has played well. There is no positive to take out of last week, so let’s dig in and start there. I don’t want to blame specific players. I think it’s two-fold. ‘Tank’ (Cordrea Tankersley) is a rookie and he’s going to have his ups and downs. That’s kind of built in. Then ‘X’ (Xavien Howard), it’s funny. ‘X’s’ next step for me has to be locating the ball and getting the ball out, because if you actually pause the film, it’s not like you look at what ‘X’ is doing and saying ‘Man, he’s just getting roasted all over the place.’ He’s in good coverage, he’s just having trouble locating and getting balls out. I think that’s sort of his next step. A little bit schematically, I put a lot on those guys. We put them in some spots to play coverage and some of the challenges last week of the multifaceted run game, we kind of left those guys isolated a little bit. Part of that is schematic that I can help those guys a little bit more and just take some of the straight burden off those guys of just being isolated as much. I don’t think it’s been better or worse in terms of specifically to (Tankersley and Howard) in terms of the last week or two. I think it’s just every week we’re aware there are challenges that every guy has to face and those guys are going to have their ups and downs and we’ll keep working through them.”
(On the screen touchdown to Panthers WR Devin Funchess, our understanding is the quarterback is at the line, he obviously knows a blitz is coming, he’s making a change. Is there time for players on the field to back out of that blitz?) – “There is. We didn’t have that call up in that specific play. That was a good call against the blitz we had run. We do have audibles where we can check out if we feel something like that, but that wasn’t a play that we had that option in. There are cases when we show pressure and we have the ability to bail out of it if we feel like they’re checking to something to beat the pressure; but we didn’t have that up in that instance. It was a good call for them (and) a bad call for me.”
(You only have three interceptions. Is that part of what you were talking about before? You just haven’t been able to cut loose?) – “A little bit. I think that ties in. Again, I think interceptions, part of it comes from those sort of situations that are the same situations you’re going to get sacks in. When you know the team has to throw, whether they’re down or whatnot, or they’re trying to force throws in to tighter coverage because they have to get back in the game or whatever the situation is – 2-minute modes and all of those sort of things. So that’s part of it. Again, some of the last couple weeks we played matchup coverage stuff. A lot of times your interceptions come more from vision defenses, where you can see the ball being thrown and break on things, and we haven’t been in that as much the last couple of weeks, just some of the stuff schematically that’s been dictated. Part of it is scheme, part of it is a game situation. Again, we had two more chances last week. I know I said it in here last week but T.J. (McDonald) would have made a hell of a play on that if he gets his hands underneath it and the first drive of the second half, Bobby (McCain) kind of distracts it and it tips right back to Reshad (Jones) and hits off his chest too. We’re having chances when we get them. You’re going to get … Even a good quarterback is going to give you a couple of chances a game, and we’ve got to make them. We haven’t been doing that.”
Darren Rizzi – November 16, 2017
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Thursday, November 16, 2017
Associate Head Coach/Special Teams Coordinator Darren Rizzi
(I know it’s obviously week to week on personnel decisions, but did RB Senorise Perry do enough to where you think he’s your kickoff returner, at this point, moving forward?) – “Well what we’ve done is actually we’ve had a couple of guys back there together every week. It started off, before (Kenyan) Drake’s offensive role became bigger, he was back there with Drake. This past week, obviously Senorise was back there, really the last couple of weeks. Senorise is a guy that I’ve always had a high opinion of and I thought he did a really good job last week with his opportunities there. Jakeem (Grant) will continue to be back there as well, but it’ll really be a double-headed monster, if you will, and that’s kind of how we’ve been rolling. There’s been two guys back.”
(This is an unusual week where it’s supposed to be the bye and now you have a game. How do you feel like the coaching staff and the team overall has handled it from the beginning up until this week?) – “It’s been a whirlwind of a season for sure, but I think (Head Coach) Adam (Gase) has done a great job. We’re playing 16 games in a row and I think Adam’s done a great job understanding that, number one, with the schedule, with the players’ bodies, the rest, the recovery. For example, you can go back to our Thursday week, the time he gave them off afterwards, the extra time. I think he’s really been aware and cognizant of the players and that they have to play 16 games in a row. This week, obviously, coming off of a Monday game into a Sunday game and (we’re) treating this short week a little bit differently than we normally would. That’s been the biggest thing, knowing that the players have to go 16 in a row and what it does to them physically, just being aware and alert. There’s been not as much time off as they’d normally get. It’s definitely been an interesting situation, but it is what it is. (That was) the hand we were dealt, and we just deal with it.”
(How have you guys done with flipping field position so far this season?) – “That’s a multi-level question. There’s a lot of levels to it. You’ve got to look at the coverage aspect first, and I think in that aspect we’ve done very well, so far. That’s been one of our strengths in terms of guys covering on kicks, covering punts, effort, all of that stuff. I think that’s been really good. We’ve gotten our hands on a couple of punts and we’ve gotten our hands on a couple of field goals, which obviously changes field position. From the coverage game, the block game, I think that part has been our strength so far on special teams. I would like to have made more plays, certainly, in the return so far. I thought we may have taken a step forward last week in the kick return. Obviously, we didn’t have a lot of punt return opportunities last week; but it just comes down to a game-by-game thing, how many opportunities you’re going to get. It didn’t unfold that way last week. I think it’s been both. I think there’s been some things we’ve done really, really well, some things we want to improve on after looking back at nine games. I think the return part of it, we do want to set the table more for the offense when we can; but we have done a good job, like I said, of flipping the field in coverage.”
(RB Damien Williams seems to make plays every time he gets the ball in his hand on offense. Have you thought at all about putting him back there?) – “Yes, Damien’s a guy that any role we’ve ever given him since I’ve been here, he’s done well with. Whether it’s a little bit of offense, a lot of special teams or a lot of offense and a little bit of special teams, he seems to do very well with his role. He’s a great competitor. He’s one of the best competitors I’ve been around here in my time here, so you’re always looking to get him involved in anything and everything. That’s why he’s a guy that’s worn a lot of hats. He has been our kick returner in the past if you go back a couple of years. He’s part of the rotation back there and we work him in and it kind of depends. Last week, in the game, there was a point where we almost had him and (Kenyan) Drake back there depending on how the thing was going and how the rotation was going. Senorise (Perry) got dinged up for a minute, so (Damien’s) definitely part of the equation back there.”
(RB Damien Williams is a guy that’s been around forever. People forget that he was an undrafted guy. How did it come about, him ending up here, if you remember?) – “I don’t remember the specifics. All I remember is I know he had a situation at Oklahoma and then he went undrafted and all of that. I just remember from the first time, him coming out here the first couple of weeks, he flashed immediately as a guy that I thought, athletically could do a lot of different things. His toughness, he showed in that first preseason when he got here that he wasn’t afraid to block, tackle, cover and do all of those things. When you get a running back like that – an offensive player and specifically a running back – that can do those things and wear a lot of different hats, it certainly helps the special teams role, for sure.”
(You talked about the return game taking a step forward. What was it that you saw, tangibly, that made the difference or had you thinking positively?) – “I’ve mentioned this before, I think there’s been times where we’ve blocked well and maybe the returner wasn’t doing what he should do. There were times where the returner was on point and we missed the block. It just hasn’t meshed together, and I know that’s been a theme, maybe of our team, is the complementary football. I thought last week we were really on top of the game plan. They tried to kick it high and short to us a few times. I thought we did a great job of getting a hat on a hat, giving the returner a chance, and I thought Senorise (Perry) did a great job of getting downhill. He didn’t dance; he didn’t go sideways. He was really downhill, was very decisive, broke a tackle or two and the next thing you know, we’re out on the 28-yard line, not back on the 8. We know what a big difference it is when the offense goes out there and taking the field and you’re over the 25 as opposed to being back inside your 15. Whether it’s been a penalty or a missed block or a guy falling down, we’ve had a little bit of everything. It hasn’t been one thing where you’re like, ‘Wow, we’ve got to get better at that, it’s just one thing.’ We haven’t meshed it together. So I thought last week, our guys were really on point. I think we paid attention to the details, we were better technique-wise and Senorise did a good job. They really kicked away from Jakeem (Grant) last week. They kicked to Senorise every time. Maybe they were testing him; he hadn’t had a lot of reps. Whatever their game plan was, he answered the bell there, which I thought was positive.”
(Teams weren’t doing it earlier in the season and then they started to kick to WR Jakeem Grant. What can you do – obviously Jakeem is supposed to be the special teams specialist – what can you do to ensure that he gets the kickoff? Is there a fear of him running cross-field to field a kick to return it, as opposed to just letting RB Senorise Perry handle it?) – “Last week’s a great example. (Panthers kicker) Graham Gano’s a guy that we thought, going into the game, based on what he had done in the past, we really thought Jakeem was going to get more touches and they changed their entire game plan. (Gano’s) a guy that had kicked 39 out of 42 touchbacks – 39 touchbacks out of 42 attempts on the year – so we thought he was going to kick it out of the end zone, and the next thing you know, they bang four or five balls short. We’ve got to be ready for all of the situations. We go into the game maybe sometimes thinking Jakeem’s going to get touches or the other guy is going to get touches, and the other team, obviously, it’s a little bit of a chess match there, with them kicking it high and short to the corner. There was one that they almost kicked out of bounds. I can’t guarantee it, which is why, with the new rule and a lot of teams kicking it high and short, our number one job is keep the ball of the ground and make sure we field the football. That’s why we talked before about having two guys back there. Sometimes it is a deep guy and a short guy, sometimes it’s two deep guys. It depends on the team we’re playing, weather conditions and all of that. I’d love to sit here and tell you that I can guarantee Jakeem (will get the ball). I would love to say that Jakeem is going to get the ball three or four times in this game, but it’s not always (that easy), depending on what the other teams doing – their kicker and how they’re going to play it. It’s a little bit of a cat and mouse (game), for sure. There are some teams you look at in the NFL right now are kicking it high and short a lot of times, and there are other teams that aren’t. We’ve done a little bit of both. We’ve been about 50/50. We’re probably more down the middle there. There’s just no guarantees we can get (Jakeem) the ball, so we’ve got to take the opportunities and we’ve got to cash in when we do get them. There’s been a couple of times this year where we did get them and we had great looks and just didn’t cash in.”
(You’ve lost three in a row now by cumulatively not a small margin. Where do you put this team’s mindset right now?) – “You’ve got to go right back to what we’ve been doing all year. You’ve got to go right back to one game at a time. It’s easy to get lost in the past. It’s easy to get lost in the results of the last three weeks and it’s sometimes hard to keep perspective when those things happen. I think the one game mentality – the 1-0 – take care of this week (is the best approach). You look at where we are right now, where we sit in the AFC, you look at the big picture and we’re right in the middle of it. It’s a mindset. It’s a mentality you’re going to come to work with every day. Are you going to get lost in the fact that we came off of a tough loss this week or are you going to get back on the mindset of, ‘Hey, let’s take care of this game, let’s win at home, let’s get a W here and then we’re right back into the thick of things?’ That’s really how the AFC is playing out, and really the NFL is playing out that everybody (is close). There’s a lot of teams in the same position that we’re in, right in the middle of the pack. These next seven weeks are really going to determine a lot of different things. We’ve just got to take care of our in-house things, not worry about the outside things, and really just focus on one game. I know (Head Coach) Adam (Gase) has been preaching that from day one. It’s really the mindset, keeping the players’ perspective in that. What’s your approach going to be? Are you going to wallow in misery over the last three weeks and all of that or are you going to say, ‘Hey we’re going to get this one and we’re going to be right back in it and we’re going to have a positive approach.’ That’s our thing, our job as coaches, as well, is we’ve got to keep these guys positive and it’s been a really positive day today. I think we’re going to move forward and, again, keep that one game (at a time) approach.”
Adam Gase – November 14, 2017
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Tuesday, November 14, 2017
Head Coach Adam Gase
(After tape viewing, do you think effort was at all a question in the second half or do you think it was entirely an execution matter last night?) – “Really, effort is really hard to question with this group. They’re going to play hard. Sometimes the issue becomes other guys trying to cover for other guys – whether it be a mental mistake or guys just … Everybody starts trying to make a play and guys start getting out of their lanes, if you’re talking about defense, and then that’s where you see some of those big plays start occurring. Offensively, I just didn’t see that. I saw guys trying to find a way to get the ball in the end zone all the way to the end.”
(How do you turn this around?) – “Well, you know we’ve kind of taken our turns here on both sides of the ball. It would have been nice to start a little better early in the season. The defense probably wouldn’t have been on the field so much on offense and then now it’s kind of we’re flipping the script a little bit, which seems very similar to a little bit of what we did last year where our defense kind of got worn down there towards the end. We started having so many injuries that I think a lot of it had to do with the fact that they were playing so much football early in the season. This year, it’s kind of … We’ve stayed somewhat healthy. We just kind of lost our way just for a minute here and we just had to really re-group and get things back on track. It’s going to be about guys just really focusing on doing everything they can to prepare right, to practice right, and then when we hit Sunday, to execute the right way.”
(Now the losses you had in preseason can’t be understated. This is not to make excuses – obviously QB Ryan Tannehill, CB Tony Lippett, LB Raekwon McMillan, LB Koa Misi – all that being said, do you think that you and the front office might have overestimated how much talent you have on this year’s team off of 10-6 and off some free agent moves?) – “I don’t think so. I feel good about the group we have out there. We just have some things that we’ve got to clean up to where we don’t put ourselves in position to where games get out of hand. And that can happen in the NFL sometimes where an 8-minute stretch can all of a sudden make a close game just completely flip the switch, and we just have to do a better job of battling back when things don’t quite go as planned. At the end of the half, that’s a pretty tight game and we (have) a turnover, they get a touchdown, they get the ball back and get another touchdown, now all of sudden you go from having a 7-3 game to … It gets tougher when you’re going against the No. 1 defense when you put yourself behind by that much. We just have to find that way to play a little better complementary football. That’s really what we’ve been missing this year.”
(A couple of weeks ago you talked about players not necessarily retaining assignments because they weren’t studying them too much to begin with. Have you seen improvement in that regard?) – “Yes. Yes, especially on offense. I’ve seen a big difference and I see guys that not only are they doing a better job of knowing what to do, they’re doing a better job of executing it. There’s some plays here and there where I wish we’d be able to make, whether it be get a block made, get a throw made, get a catch made – be a little more detailed on a route; but a lot of times those are heat of the moment type actions that happens in. You’re not going to be 100 percent across the board every play as far as winning one-on-one battles. If that was the case, this game would be a lot easier. For the most part though, I do see guys that made big strides since a couple of weeks ago.”
(You guys have gotten off to bad starts going back to last year and now you’re averaging 4.3 points in the first half of games. What is it going to take for the offense to get off to a faster start or not put all the pressure into the second half?) – “I felt like we had a couple of good chances in the first half. We just didn’t get it done. That first drive we had where we get a third-down conversion and we get a good third-and-5, I think Jay (Cutler) had a chance to run it. He also saw Jarvis (Landry) with a lot of … He felt like there was a lot of green grass there and the ball sailed on him a little bit. Those plays, if we can figure out a way to just make that play, we’re at midfield or we got another first down, so we got another set of downs. If we can just get those one or two plays to stay on the field to give us a chance across the 50, I feel like we’ve been in pretty good shape when we get in the red zone. Our guys, they’re executing it really well. We just need to get the red zone more.”
(With the offense, last year you had more explosive plays. This year, you’ve gotten two good runs from RB Kenyan Drake; but where is the element of hitting teams with the big play?) – “Yes, that team last night, that’s a tough team to throw the ball down the field on. One, you’ve got a good rush. Two, they don’t play aggressive at corner. You’re going to get an occasional press here and there, but the percentages say they’re going to play off and they’re going to make you drive the field. That’s the history of that defense. They’re going to create pressure, blitz you and make you get the ball out quick. You can hold onto it, but you’re going to have third-and-12, third-and-15, and the whole goal for us last night was to make sure we were third-and-5 or less, and put ourselves in position to where we can convert on first down and keep drives alive. They were going to try to make you score through the goal line. They don’t give up a ton of big plays. That’s why they’re the No. 1 defense in football. If you want to push the ball down the field, you’re going to have a lot more bad results than you’re going to have good ones. The way you’ve got to play it is you’ve got to take what they give you and when you do get an opportunity, like Jay (Cutler) … We had a chance on a post. They were playing a coverage against a concept that we had and that’s what it afforded, and we missed it. Next thing we know, we’re third-and-10. You have to play what the defense is going to give you sometimes. You can try to force it, but you’re not going to have the results you want.”
(What common thread do you see on defense the last three weeks?) – “I think we’re probably overcompensating in certain spots where guys are trying to cover for other guys. It’s biting us a little bit, where we’ve just got to get back to the basics and fundamentals. Every guy do their job. That’s the hardest thing about defense is when you do have as many playmakers as we have, which we do – we have guys that are good in that front seven – and when things start getting a little leaky, somebody’s going to try to step up and make a play. That’s the good and part of defense. When you make the play it’s a good thing, and then you make the correction; but when they miss a play then it’s an explosive (play). We’ve just got to get back to guys doing their job, everybody staying on the same page and understanding that it takes 11 of them to do it right. It’s hard to have six, seven guys doing it right and then other guys just trying to make plays. We’ve got to just tighten it up and make sure our veteran players are doing a good job of being the guys that are the most consistent down in and down out.”
(You spoke after the Baltimore game about possibly personnel changes from within. Obviously, there’s not a lot out there on the waiver wire. Are you still considering that, because you have a few guys on the team, primarily young, who haven’t played a lot, or do you think these are the guys you’re going to go with that are playing now?) – “Yes, I think we’re always going to look at where everybody’s at physically, mentally, if somebody is not playing even close to the level we need them playing at and see if there’s any kind of adjustment you can make. The majority of the time, it’s hard because you only have so many guys. If we feel like there’s somewhere we need to make a move to make us better, we’ll do it; but I don’t really see us reaching to just do something to just drop a bomb on everybody. We’re looking for, ‘Who are the best 11 guys to play for that game, for that series, for that quarter, whatever it is to help us win?’”
(I know every game is important. Do you look at this right now as a crucial juncture of the season?) – “I think any time you get to this part of the season, really the games magnify. It’s hard to put an emphasis on one game over the other. I guess I’ve just had so many different seasons over the years where I’ve heard that, and then all of the sudden, something happens, it doesn’t go as planned and then, all of the sudden, you rattle off the rest of your games. So really, what we talked about was irrelevant. You just keep playing it one week at a time and trying to find a way to get better from the week before and clean things up and focus on that one game. If you start focusing on two, three, four games ahead of schedule, you’re just going to get in trouble. You’re occupying your mind with something you don’t have to worry about.”
(How would you assess the offensive line play last night?) – “There was a lot more good than bad. That was a tough front. That’s a tough front seven. That defense is playing about as well as you can play. That was probably one of our better games that we’ve actually played. We just couldn’t make the right play at the right time. I think I said that last night, where we need a third-down conversion on that first drive to keep us going. We’re in the position we want to be in, we’re third-and-5, and we don’t get it. It’s really going for both sides of the ball. When we need to have something to match the other side, we’re not getting it right now. If we get that figured out, then we’re going to see some different results.”
(With RB Kenyan Drake, two back-to-back weeks where he’s produced big runs. Is there any universal, underlying theme there in terms of what he’s doing right or what the offensive line is doing right or a different kind of run?) – “I think the guys knew on that particular play that he had this last game, where we made a big emphasis of if we got into that situation, they were very aggressive. We felt like we had seen enough on tape to where if we did get in that situation and got that play called, if we blocked that, that it was going to have a chance to get to the second level and it was going to be him and the safety. The guys blocked it really well and gave him a lot of room to get through that hole and it’s his job to make that safety miss. With his speed, it’s hard to figure out which direction he’s going to go. That was just one of those ones where everybody was just on high alert. They knew exactly what they were going to get. They knew they were going to get some form of pressure, they didn’t know exactly what it was going to be, but if everybody was on the right angles then we were going to have a shot for a big play. It was the same thing the week before. He had been saying the whole week when we were repping that play, he said, ‘I’m going to get to the secondary on this play, I know it.’ We ran it four or five times and when he finally did, it was a big play for us.”
(Do you think it will be a challenge this week to keep the group upbeat and engaged after three pretty dispiriting losses?) – “No, this group is pretty good at moving on. I think the coaching staff, too. That’s our job and we’ve got a lot of time left, a lot of ball left. I don’t know if you guys kind of pay attention to the rest of the league, but it’s not like anyone’s running away with anything. It’s a total disaster everywhere. Unless you’re … There’s about two teams where everybody is all happy. Everywhere else it’s misery.”
(What about CB Xavien Howard, with the game he had last night? What in his makeup would give you confidence that he can bounce back and forget some of the …?) – “(He’s) a short-term memory guy. He’s not going to worry about what happened on his last throw. I know the touchdown that they had, the last one, there’s not many guys that are going to defend that, because that was a really well-run route – the guy did a great job of keeping his speed – and that was as good of back shoulder fade as I’ve seen, because that thing was on a rope. That was the perfect throw, a perfect route and a well-executed play. To me, that’s the job of a corner. You’d better have short-term memory. If you’re not getting beat, you’re not playing. I mean it’s going to happen. It’s very rare you’re going to see corners that never have gotten beat. The best ones have. He’s a good player and he’s going to keep playing hard and he’s going to play tight coverage and when you’re a young player, as long as you don’t lose confidence, you’re eventually going to make those plays because you’re going to get more experience.”
Cameron Wake – November 13, 2017 (Postgame)
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Monday, November 13, 2017
Postgame – Carolina Panthers
Dolphins DE Cameron Wake (transcribed by the Carolina Panthers)
RE: The most yardage Carolina has had, your thoughts on what happened out there?
I am lost honestly. To me it’s not even just about the game, it’s losing, doing things that’s obvious and knowing what we know how to do. We stop the run most often, more days than not. We usually get after the quarterback, we do a lot of things well, normally; and those things tonight we didn’t do well. It would be one thing if we were always giving up yards like that or always dropping the ball or miscommunicating or doing whatever but it’s frustrating when you don’t do the things you do well, well.
RE: What’s the difference between this football team this year and the football team from last year?
The thing I am trying to figure out is, you look at certain games that we have had and we have been in tough situations, but we fight our way out from situations that maybe most people wouldn’t have thought we could. We’ve had some come-from-behind fourth quarter rallies and so on and so forth; and then we have had some games when we were just weren’t in the game. That’s the thing that blows my mind, is the same team that does this in my mind shouldn’t be the same team that is does this. Those two teams should be separate but the consistence is kind of baffling honestly. To me the only way I know how to fix it is to dig in and work harder. I feel like hard work always pays off no matter what. We just have to get back to the old school, grind it out and figure out a way to have that team, the Atlanta team, that team back in it. This isn’t acceptable, this is unacceptable to me.
RE: Can you get back to being that team that is there in the fourth quarter, there with a chance to win?
We have to and especially a game like this. I look at it like, offense did their job, they put points on the board, we as a defense have to show up. I’ve always been the type of guy to put it on our backs, let’s come down to the last play, put us on the field and we’ll get a stop and take the win and go home; but you have to be in the position to even have that happen and that comes from stopping the run, getting after the quarterback, getting off the field, getting offense the ball back. First quarter, second quarter, third quarter can’t just be ok fourth quarter and run a rally and hopefully close games out. We have to play consistently; this inconsistency is the thing that is killing us. Like you said we have to get back to being that team that does the things well that we did well in the first half of the season. The last few games it hasn’t been that way.
Ndamukong Suh – November 13, 2017 (Postgame)
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Monday, November 13, 2017
Postgame – Carolina Panthers
RE: Emotions after the game
Disappointed, especially the way that we just overall played throughout that game. We didn’t get off the field when we needed to get off the field, obviously on third downs, especially jumping off sides, we had some undisciplined plays, but at the end of the day we just have to find ways to get off the field.
RE: What do you think are some of the biggest reasons that Carolina was able to have so much success running the ball?
I think it was execution and tackling. At the end of the day we just didn’t tackle. Obviously they have great backs. Running backs can break a lot of tackles but we have to gang tackle. We have to find ways to [inaudible] and get off the field.
Jay Cutler – November 13, 2017 (Postgame)
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Monday, November 13, 2017
Postgame – Carolina Panthers
Dolphins QB Jay Cutler (transcribed by the Carolina Panthers)
RE: Describe interception
We got the coverage we wanted. They just pushed a little bit, and I have to lay it out there a little more. It was a bad ball by me, and it put us in a bad spot.
RE: Decision not to go to the half
We felt good – we made a good call there. I just have to make a better play.
RE: How do the Dolphins regain their confidence
There is a lot of football left. The pieces are in the locker room, I truly believe that. I have been around a lot of good teams, there is a lot of good guys and a lot of good talent in there. We just have to get back to work, it is really the only thing we can do.
RE: Offensive struggles
I will have to go back and watch the film. We did some good things. We have to play better, that starts in the first half. We have to keep from putting our defense in bad spots.
RE: Panthers Defense
They are a really good defense. They did not really do anything that surprised us, just made plays.
Xavien Howard – November 13, 2017 (Postgame)
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Monday, November 13, 2017
Postgame – Carolina Panthers
Dolphins CB Xavien Howard (transcribed by the Carolina Panthers)
RE: Tough loss defensively
We’ve just got to come up there and start fast. We’ve just got to finish the game.
RE: Cam Newton as dual threat
He was out there making plays, that’s all I can say. It was tough to stop the run, especially Cam. Then he would make passes… so we’ve just got to go back to the playbook.
RE: Frustrated with Cam Newton celebrating
No. You’ve just got to come out there and have fun. It’s football. You’ve just got to come out and have fun. You’ve just got to play the game.
