Kendrick Norton – December 19, 2018
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Wednesday, December 19, 2018
DT Kendrick Norton
(Your thoughts on being picked up by the Dolphins?) – “I’m excited to be here. I’m excited to be back in Miami where it all started.”
(What has this experience been like for you?) – “It hasn’t been much yet. I just got here. I’m new to town, new to the team, so I haven’t gotten a chance to get too settled in yet; but it’s been pretty good so far.”
(What were your emotions when you found out that a team claimed you off the practice squad?) – “There was just so much going on. I’ve been going since I got the call so I haven’t really had time to sit down and absorb it all yet. I’m excited to be here.”
(Give us a sense of the timing. When did you get the call and how soon were you on a plane?) – “I got the call and then like three or four hours later I was on a plane on the way down here. I just tried to get all of my affairs in order in Carolina and stuff and then get ready to leave and come down here for a couple of weeks.”
(So a lot of your stuff is still in Carolina I take it?) – “Yeah. Everything.”
(When you left the University of Miami early, did you expect this journey would be as difficult as it was?) – “It really hasn’t been difficult. Some people’s outlooks on it might be different from mine but it hasn’t been difficult at all. It’s been a great learning experience. This year I learned a lot from a lot of great guys. I can’t wait to get this journey started.”
(Head Coach Adam Gase mentioned that the Dolphins were interested you in the draft process. Did you have a lot of communications with them?) – “Yes. They expressed a lot of interest and they were trying to get me down here but I guess they had different priorities and stuff to get in order or whatever they had going on upstairs. I just know they had to take care of their business. But I’m here now.”
(Tell us about the tweet that you sent on draft night about the 31 GMs that passed on you. The motivation behind that? Does it still carry with you today?) – “It was kind of self-explanatory but yes, I’m driven to go out and carve a name for myself and make everyone who passed on me … show them what I can do.”
(Former Hurricanes Defensive Coordinator Manny Diaz left UM. I don’t know how close you were.) – “Yeah. That’s my guy. I’m proud of him. Coaches just like players, they’re always looking for a bigger job and still trying to accomplish their dreams in coaching and stuff. He did a lot for the University of Miami. I know he touched a lot of guys’ lives. Anyone who has ever been in contact with him is happy for him to get this chance.”
(How would you describe your playing style?) – “I play physical and (have a) good get-off. I play hard.”
(Did you know anybody here other than WR Malcolm Lewis?) – “Yeah, Isaiah Ford. Dee Delaney went to Miami. I believe that’s it. I haven’t even seen everybody yet.”
(Where did you know WR Isaiah Ford from?) – “We played in high school together.”
(To clarify, the whole Ken Norton situation.) – “No, that’s not my father or my grandfather or anything. I don’t know them.”
(That’s kind of weird how that wound up on your draft report thing.) – “Yeah. I don’t know where they got it from but they just kind of fabricated that one.”
(Do people ask you about that a lot?) – “Yeah.”
Adam Gase – December 19, 2018
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Wednesday, December 19, 2018
Head Coach Adam Gase
(We saw CB Xavien Howard come back. Where is he on his progress and is he likely for Sunday?) – “We’ll see how this week goes. Hopefully we can get him out to practice and move him around against some competition. It’s trending in the right direction. I think he’s done a good job of doing everything that he’s been asked to do, working hard and trying to get out there as fast as he can.”
(How deserved is his Pro Bowl recognition?) – “He’s had some really good games. He’s made some big plays in key moments for us and flipped some games for us. I think he’s done a good job, especially the last six or seven weeks. All of his coverage has been tight. He’s around the ball all of the time. He’s kind of preventing guys from getting the ball thrown their way. It’s hard to really think of too many guys that are really above him.”
(You guys had CB Bobby McCain shadowing Vikings WR Adam Thielen last week. Why was he qualified for that job?) – “We were just trying to get the right matchups. Him and Minkah (Fitzpatrick), we were trying to get the right body type on the right guy. We thought that was the best thing for us to do. We rotated some of those other guys in there. We were trying to do everything we could to give us the best chance to win.”
(How disappointing was it to see RB Frank Gore’s season end the way it did and also, as a head coach, how would you describe what it’s been like coaching him?) – “It’s disappointing considering the amount of games, the amount of starts that he’s had in a row. I wish he could’ve finished this out. He’s a special person. He’s a special player. I think it’s hard to find somebody that’s really done anything comparable to him, especially the way football is now and how he’s run early in his career. To last this long and then to produce the way he has at this age is just something you just probably won’t ever see again.”
(Has RB Frank Gore expressed anything to you about wanting to come back next year?) – “We haven’t gotten there yet. Right now, it’s really hard for him to just really swallow at this point.”
(The offense is close to the top of the league in average yards per rush but the number of rushes is down. What would be the reason why there’s not a greater amount of rushes?) – “Because we’re bad on third down. We don’t have a lot of plays. I don’t even know what our play average is, but it’s not very good. I think that’s really probably the reason why the rush attempts are that low. The yardage is high because we’ve had those explosive runs. I don’t even know how many we’ve had. Having a 75-yarder, those type of things – that will do it for you real fast. That will get the average up. That will get the yardage up. If we had more plays, we’d have more attempts. The fact that we find ourselves in third-and-seven-plus way too much and we haven’t been very good at even coming close to converting them, that really hurts us.”
(How do you look at the big-play nature of your offense? Is that something you rely on?) – “We obviously have had to because that’s been something that’s really helped us more than anything. To rely on it, that’s a little scary to do because you can go a whole game without getting one of those. We’ve been lucky in the fact that we’ve had good execution on a lot of those plays that we’ve had explosive plays. You want more of that to where it looks like it does in a walkthrough. In this last game, they blocked that perfect. (Kalen) Ballage used his speed, didn’t hesitate and just blew past everybody. That was great to see. The more consistent we can be on things like that, the better results we’ll have.”
(S Reshad Jones expressed some frustration about how he’s being used on Monday. How do you feel about where he is mentally right now?) – “He’s fine. I asked him about it. I was giving him a hard time. The way that we’ve had to move people around, we kind of get caught in certain situations. Him and T.J. (McDonald) are kind of interchangeable to where it’s almost like, I don’t want to say exactly how we do things, but you think of it as just left-right and there’s a slot on that side, that guy goes down and the other guy is back. It’s kind of dictated by the formation in some of these cases. We want to put him in the best position possible. We’ve kind of had to do things a certain way because of who we have out there. Minkah (Fitzpatrick) going to corner and us kind of moving all these guys around, that’s kind of why that’s happened.”
(We didn’t notice S T.J. McDonald out there today. If he can’t play, what are your options?) – “We’re just going to have to keep working through all these scenarios and moving guys around. We at least have some options as far as guys that have been back there either this year or in practice. The good thing is we have multiple guys with flexibility.”
(You picked up DT Kendrick Norton off Carolina’s practice squad. What can you tell us about him and when you’re claiming a guy off another team’s practice squad, how much can you learn about that guy since he’s in another team’s camp?) – “You’re going off your college scouting for the most part. That’s what our pro department does. That’s what they do. It’s non-stop evaluating preseason film. Really, most of the work is done before we even hit the season. Probably in those first two weeks, they’ve evaluated everybody on the practice squad and they’re always constantly watching guys if they get moved up or play a game and then evaluate them again. For us, it was somebody we were interested in the whole draft process. We go through this every week. (General Manager) Chris (Grier) and his crew go through all of this every week of looking at everybody’s practice squad to see if anything changes. If we have a guy go down, we have to always be ready to see, if we don’t have what we’re looking for on our practice squad, being able to go grab somebody else. We’re kind of in that part of the year where it’s tough to get guys off of practice squads because they end up staying where they’re at because they know that system and they know the season is in the final two weeks. Why leave when you already know that system? It makes it tough to get a guy to come to you, but it was a good opportunity for us and a good opportunity for him. We’re always looking for big guys whether it’s offensive line or defensive line.”
(I wanted to ask you about the injured jerseys for RB Kenyan Drake and WR DeVante Parker. Now they’re out of them, does that mean they can be hit in practice and is it an indicator that they’re healthy from the shoulders?) – “They could be hit. We’re out of padded days, so they shouldn’t get hit at this point. But yes, that’s what it would mean, that they’re in better shape than what they were a couple weeks ago.”
(What have you learned from RB Kalen Ballage throughout the season?) – “I thought he did a good job of just sticking with learning everything (and) practicing hard. There was a time there where he could have mentally flipped a switch to where it would’ve been really hard for him. Sometimes when you’re a rookie, you don’t understand why you’re not playing and (wondering) ‘How do I get up?’ He’s looking in front of him and we have four other backs and they’re playing to him on special teams. He just never wavered. He just kept grinding. He did unbelievable on scout team to where our defense was struggling because he goes one speed. What you saw on Sunday, that’s how he practices. He finishes every run in the end zone and we’re always waiting for him to get back. He’s doing things the way you want a pro to do it.”
(Have you noticed any difference in the attention that guys are paying or the energy at practice or anything, based off the playoff possibilities not looking as clear as maybe last week?) – “I thought today was a good day. I thought guys were really good in our meetings. This defense is similar to some of the ones that we’ve seen in the past where a lot of our guys have recall on when I’m going through, here’s what they’re doing and here’s why they do some of this stuff. Guys were sharp in meetings and asked good questions. And then at practice, I thought offensively those guys, they were running and executing what we were asking them to do. Defensively we’re a little short-handed right now because we’re beat up for practice. Hopefully by Sunday we’ll be a little healthier. But I thought guys were good in the team meeting and individual meeting. There was good attention. There seemed (to be) good energy at practice. I don’t think they’re focusing on, ‘Hey, two weeks from now.’ I think they’re worried about trying to win this game and knowing that, ‘hey, is there a possibility?’ Yeah. It’s a small percentage, but you keep fighting to the end. Weird things happen in this league and you just never know.”
(So stunts against your offensive front, it seems like a lot of the damage has been done … What’s the deal, what’s the problem?) – “We haven’t done a very good job of passing them off, to where when we get picked, that guy is slamming him down and being able to re-trace and understand there’s a guy coming back to you. Sometimes we get hung up on them and that’s where we need to make huge improvement. We have to understand. We see it enough with our defense. We should be better than what we are right now. We’ve seen it enough. We understand what they’re trying to do and we haven’t really done a good job of reacting to some of the things that teams have done. There’s been some creative things that teams have done that we haven’t really seen that caught us off guard a couple of times; but at some point, we’ve got to understand kind of just the general philosophy of what they’re trying to do and we’ve got to find a way to get better at it. We’ve got to change up probably some of our protections when we do that. There’s probably a couple of things we can help them there. But at the end of the day, it’s about not hanging on one guy too long and just understanding there’s somebody going to replace him.”
(So is that physical? Is that mental? Is that instincts? Is that not studying enough?) – “I would say it’s not (not) studying enough. Everybody knows that’s going to happen. When you get beat on something in a game, you’re going to see it the next week. Like, teams are always going to test you. If you can’t stop like a wham play, you’re going to see it every week until you get zero yards or a negative play. If you’re giving up 20 yards a clip, you’re going to see it the next week. We know we’re always going to see it right away and we’ve just got to keep working at it. We’ve got to find some ways to take the edge off a little bit to where protection-wise, we can help ourselves by just gapping it up. Now you lose your back, you lose your tight end and any kind of check-downs. But there are some ways that we can try to help them up front and then at the same time, when we have to go six-man protection, we have to do a better job passing them off.”
(When CB Xavien Howard was out, how much did that hurt you schematically?) – “It’s going to hurt you a lot. It’s like when Laremy is out. When Laremy is in there, he’s on an island and we can double everybody else. But without Laremy, we’re not in good shape.”
(Did you expect T Laremy Tunsil to make the Pro Bowl?) – “I did. I think he’s the best tackle in football. I was shocked because without him, we can’t do anything. He’s on an island every play every game and he knows it. We tell him in the meetings. ‘Here’s what we’re doing protection-wise,’ and I tell him, ‘You’re on your own.’ And the way he sets and the way that he punches and sits down … Even last week, he would have been fine, then one of our backs runs into the back of him and knocks him off.”
(Why do you think T Laremy Tunsil didn’t make it?) – “I don’t know. That’s hard for me to explain. I don’t know the actual percentages of who gets a say and all those types of things.”
(Thinking about the nine sacks, about how many of those do you think QB Ryan Tannehill could have or should have done something to limit or prevent it pre- or post-span?) – “There was one pre-snap that I wasn’t real happy with what he did. I went through them the other day. Really, for the most part, he didn’t have much of a chance.”
Adam Gase – December 19, 2018 (Conference Call)
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Wednesday, December 19, 2018
Head Coach Adam Gase Conference Call with Jacksonville Media
(Could you give us a little bit of a snapshot of how QB Ryan Tannehill has handled this up and down year with the injuries and stuff?) – “He’s handled it as good as you can handle it when you’re coming off a season where you missed the whole year and then, really, he goes to throw a ball and gets hit right in the right spot and all of a sudden (he) can’t throw with any velocity or any kind of power. Really, it was one of those things nobody could get us a straight answer as far as he would be out. That was frustrating for him, but once he came back, he’s done a good job of improving each week. The New England game when he got the ankle, I really thought we lost him there for … it was going to be a while. But he fought through it and finished that game and then was able to play the last one.”
(Do you get the sense that QB Ryan Tannehill is kind of underappreciated for what he’s been able to go through and the way he’s played not just this year, but throughout his career?) – “Yeah. He’s had some really outstanding games. He’s put together some games where he’s had streaks of games where it’s been very good. I think the thing that a lot of people focus on is the fact that not only this year, but our first year together, we played some tough teams on the road and we haven’t done well as a team. The way that the league goes is really the quarterback gets, for the most part, he gets all the blame and some guys get a lot of the credit and some guys don’t.”
(Home and away is always tough or there’s usually an advantage at home, but any reason you think for your team why it’s such a disparity home and away?) – “I think our away games we played some good teams. We caught Cincinnati when they were first the division and one of the hottest offenses in football. We had opportunities in that game. New England is always a tough place to play. That’s probably why they have the best home record over the last three years. Indy was hot when we got them. Green Bay was still playing pretty good at the time. Houston, obviously, has continued playing well through the entire year. We got Minnesota probably at the wrong time where it was do-or-die for them. They make a coaching change and their guys were pretty fired up to play. They’re a tough defense. We got caught on the wrong end of that one and played it poorly as a whole team and we got way behind on a team you can’t get behind on.”
(What’s it like being around a guy like RB Frank Gore?) – “Any time you get a chance to be around a guy that’s going to be a future Hall of Famer, it’s special. He has so much impact on other players. His work ethic and how he goes about his daily business, it rubs off on other guys. That one is going to hurt. That hurts us as a team, as an offense. Being somebody who was around him 10 years ago, I’ve watched him do a lot of things at that time. I feel terrible for him just because I know he wanted to finish this season out on the right note.”
(What do you see out of Jacksonville, especially their offense has struggled the last three weeks. Do you wonder whether this is a bad time to be playing them because they can get things turned around?) – “Every game in the NFL, you’re going in as … You have to prepare for every game. You have to make sure that you understand what they do well, what you could possibly take advantage of. I know that we have to do a great job on offense because their defense is flying around and they’re causing havoc. They’re very tough to play because you might have an idea what they’re going to do, but blocking them and being able to get on their linebackers in the run game, it’s really tough. They have really good players all over the place on that defense. And offensively, (Head Coach) Doug (Marrone) does a great job with the run game, especially. We haven’t done great against the run. We have to make sure we tighten up, we’re gap sound and we tackle well, because when you got the backs they’ve got, it can be a problem for us.”
(When you watch the tape of them, what kind of stands out for you when you see CB Jalen Ramsey?) – “I see a guy that when he presses you, you don’t see many guys going very far. When he plays off … My window of seeing really good corners is small because I’m not going to count the years I was a little kid and Deion Sanders was playing. (laughter) But in the time that I’ve been in the league, I don’t know if I’ve seen anybody look as smooth as him when somebody’s running across the field. He stays tight. He’s not holding and grabbing guys. It’s almost like he knows the route and he’s running it for them. His ability to find the ball and either bat it down or pick it off … He’s so smooth with everything he does. It looks exactly the way that you wish you could teach every player how to do it. He just does it because he’s that good.”
(So you weren’t surprised when CB Jalen Ramsey made the Pro Bowl?) – “No. (laughter)”
Ryan Tannehill – December 19, 2018
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Wednesday, December 19, 2018
QB Ryan Tannehill
(So Packers Interim Head Coach Joe Philbin declined to say that QB Aaron Rodgers is going to be his starter this week. Does that mean anything to you?) – “It sounds very familiar but doesn’t mean a whole lot, no. (laughter) I can relate.”
(How are you feeling after nine sacks?) – “Not too bad. Thankfully I didn’t get dinged up or anything. I’m a little sore but not too bad.”
(Did any of those sacks affect your shoulder?) – “No.”
(When you went back and watched those sacks, how did you evaluate them?) – “You can’t put it all on one person or one group. I think it was a little bit of everyone. I could have done a couple of things differently. The line could have done a couple things differently – backs, tight ends. It was really everyone that was involved unfortunately failed at one point or another. We definitely need to come back and re-group this week and get back on track.”
(Your numbers at home are really good and the team’s as well. How would you describe the comfort level playing in the stadium here?) – “It’s good. It always feels good to play at home in front of your home crowd. We’re obviously familiar with playing there. It’s an honor to get to go out and step foot on that field every time we get to play at home. We want to put on a good show for our fans and win every game that we play at home. It’s definitely something we look forward to.”
(Is there something different about the road that makes such a drastic difference?) – “I mean it’s always different playing on the road. The snap count is different. The momentum of the game can change more rapidly, I think, on the road. But at the end of the day, it’s football. Those things can have slight affects in the game, yes; but it doesn’t change the game so to speak.”
(Can you talk a little bit about Jacksonville’s defense and why they’re so good? I know two weeks ago they shut out the Colts, which is pretty impressive. What do you see when you look at their tape?) – “They’re a talented team. I think it starts with the personnel. They have good players from their front to the linebackers and the secondary. All the way through, they’re really a solid team. (They’re) kind of a lot like we saw last week. They’ve stacked up good players at every position. They play fast. They keep things fairly simple. They play what they play and I think they do a good job of studying what teams do to attack them and really try to lock those things down. You have to give a lot of credit to the way they’re playing right now. They’ve played well pretty much all season, through the ups and the downs of their season. When you turn on the tape, you can’t tell what the score is by the way that they’re playing. They’re playing hard, they’re flying around (and) they’re excited to make plays. I have a ton of respect for this defense.”
(How have you seen RB Kalen Ballage’s growth from training camp to last weekend?) – “Kalen has been huge for us. I think just his progression throughout OTAs, throughout training camp, buying in and getting in the playbook and learning what to do, now you’re starting to see that (now that) he’s getting some opportunities in the backfield on offense. He’s taking advantage. You saw some of his talent last week. Not many guys can take that thing 75 yards untouched. He has the size to run tough and get the tough yards but then he also has the breakaway speed to be able to finish those long runs. He’s kind of a rare combo in that regard of size and speed.”
(Head Coach Adam Gase said today that he was shocked that T Laremy Tunsil didn’t make the Pro Bowl. Maybe he will as an alternate or something but how would you describe his growth?) – “Yeah, Laremy has been huge. Honestly, I’m shocked too. He’s been such a good player for us this year. I’m really disappointed to not hear him announced as a Pro Bowl player. I think that he’s been every bit of that for us and the way that he’s played, both in the run and the pass game. He’s strong, he’s athletic (and) he’s everything you look for in a tackle. We have a ton of confidence in Laremy and I think he should get a little bit more respect for it.”
(We know every week in this league that you guys are always playing for a job but what makes a team, that has had a rough season like Jacksonville – you know those guys are playing for jobs – how much more does that make them?) – “Like I said, they’ve played all year. You can’t turn on the tape and see guys loafing or looking like they don’t want to be out there. They’re playing hard. They’re flying around. I think they take a lot of pride in playing good football on defense. Like I said, we have a ton of respect for them and know that they’re going to come out and play hard against us.”
(When you are under duress like you were on Sunday, do you talk to your guys and demand better or do you just sit there and take it? What is the reaction to nine sacks?) – “I think initially it’s just trying to get it corrected. You go look on the sideline, ‘Hey, what happened? Where was the miscommunication or misstep?’ If it’s a mental thing, that’s when I kind of get a little ticked off. If it’s some guy getting beat, that’s going to happen. They get paid too over there. The frustrating part was we had a few mental errors and sacks and free runners that we shouldn’t have been having free runners (on). Those are the frustrating ones that I think you look back and you’re mad about because we should have had some opportunities and we didn’t get to take a shot.”
(Are you talking about the stunts and stuff like that?) – “Yeah, stunts or secondary guys adding on. The protection has built-in answers for that and we weren’t able to get them. Like I said, it’s mixed around on every group but the mental error ones are the ones that frustrate you the most.”
(How does communication roll with the center pointing out stuff and you? Who has that responsibility and how does it shift off?) – “In our offense, the quarterback handles the Mike points as far as all of the protections and everything goes. That’s on me to make sure it’s set right and picked up either by hot (routes) or by protection.”
(Do you think because of your ankle injury, it’s one reason why they felt they could pressure you so much?) – “I don’t think so. You’d have to ask them. I don’t know. I felt all right. I got outside a couple of times. I think we started the game with a naked (bootleg). I think we showed early on that we’re going to be able to get outside and move a little bit. I wouldn’t say so but maybe they think otherwise.”
(How is the ankle?) – “It’s doing well. It’s progressing, obviously. It still doesn’t feel too good but we’re headed in the right direction.”
Jerome Baker – December 17, 2018
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Monday, December 17, 2018
LB Jerome Baker
(You’re a rookie, so how do you treat these last couple games here coming up?) – “Just finish strong. You never know what can happen. My thing is just focus on the next one, finish strong and at the end of the season, just let it work out itself.”
(You’ve probably been adapting your whole career to game plans and stuff other guys are doing to you. How much more difficult is it in the NFL to do it?) – “It’s definitely a little bit more difficult because personnel – some teams have a fullback, some teams don’t; some teams have three tight ends, some teams only have two. It’s really just adapting to what teams got, what their weapons are. You really just try to focus on our game plan and how they’ll try to game plan us. It’s definitely a work in progress of every week it’s something new, but that’s the challenge and that’s what makes it fun so it’s all good.”
(Each week, the goal of a defensive player is to basically stop the run. You guys are allowing more than 150 rushing yards per game. What has been the issue that’s causing these breakdowns?) – “We just have to do our individual assignment. Sometimes, we don’t execute our individual assignment. If we don’t stop the run, that leads to our DBs cheating up so the ball is getting thrown over their head. We just have to work together as far as executing together. The thing about the league is we still have two more weeks to just finish strong and hopefully we just plan to do that.”
(Can you even think about how much better next season will be for you?) – “I can’t right now, but that’s definitely going to be exciting. Right now, I just (need to) focus on these next two games. Next year will be next year.”
(What was the mood with the players coming in today?) – “That’s a hard pill to swallow. The great thing about us is we still come in and we just go to work. That’s all we pretty much do. Take these next two days off and just relax; but Wednesday you have to come in ready to work and get back at it.”
Kalen Ballage – December 17, 2018
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Monday, December 17, 2018
RB Kalen Ballage
(Your first opportunity for double figures in NFL carries. You obviously had the long touchdown. How would you assess how you played?) – “It was okay. Not to be rude or anything, but we lost. I don’t really care about the 75-yard run and touchdown or any of that. Most importantly is getting back out there this week and working hard and go getting the next one.”
(How many times in practice in recent weeks have you had long runs? Head Coach Adam Gase said there have been several. Do you think a half-dozen or more?) – “Yeah. That’s about right. (We’re reminded) constantly that practice turns into what happens on game days, so I just try to prepare myself for that.”
(Have you felt that you would be getting more opportunities as the season went on?) – “I just wait. I’m patient. I don’t think about those kind of things. Obviously, (we have) two great running backs – Kenyan Drake, Frank Gore. When my number is called, I try to just go out there and do the best that I can.”
(What have you learned just seeing RB Frank Gore throughout the year and what he brought this year to the team as veteran leadership, for you as a rookie to learn?) – “I think most importantly, just his toughness (and) the way he goes about this business. He comes in here every day, he works hard, he takes care of his body and I think he’s just a great teammate ultimately at the end of the day. It’s been nice to watch him.”
(There was a report today that RB Frank Gore is not going to play in all likelihood this season. Have you seen him this morning? Has he given you any indication he’s down?) – “No. I just sent text messages back and forth. I asked how he’s doing. He said he’s doing good. The other extent of that stuff, I’m not sure. That’s all I know right now.”
(What did you see on the long run?) – “Open. Wide open. Those guys did a great job up front. Like I said, we practice this all the time. I saw the hole, I hit it and was fortunate enough to score.”
(Do you think you might have caught them by surprise with your speed, especially at your size?) – “I’m not sure. Maybe, maybe not. Maybe some of them knew. Maybe some of them didn’t.”
(You guys do the two-back set a lot with the run-pass option that you do. How much more comfortable are you now at this point in the season doing that?) – “It just comes with repetition. Obviously, I did a lot of that stuff in college as well, so it translates a little bit. Obviously, we do it a little bit different, but I think that the more that you rep stuff like that, the more comfortable you’ll be.”
(If RB Frank Gore is not able to go these next two games, the opportunity for you for not only more workload but just to be a part of that like you were yesterday – what do you think of that?) – “I’m ready. Just stay ready. That’s how we do things around here. It’s next-man-up. Obviously, you don’t want to lose somebody like a Hall of Fame running back. Scrimmage yards, he can catch it, run. Frank can do everything. Moving forward, I’ll just be ready to step into whatever role they need me to be in.”
Adam Gase – December 17, 2018
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Monday, December 17, 2018
Head Coach Adam Gase
(Have you gotten any indication yet if we’ll see RB Frank Gore again this year?) – “I’m not … I don’t have information as far as the extent of the injury right now. I’ll know something here in the next couple of hours.”
(With RB Kenyan Drake, just to clarify, CBS said during the broadcast yesterday that you were being cautious with him because of an ankle injury. Shoulder has also been reported. Was that the reason for one carry? He was obviously very involved in the passing game. Or was there another reason for having one carry?) – “I don’t remember saying that to them. I don’t know if we were talking about different people but I don’t recall saying that to them. It was just kind of how it went with the carries and touches where (Kalen) Ballage was playing fairly well and we had some protection issues early where they both took their turns. It just kind of worked out the way it did. There were a couple of times where we tried to dial some stuff up for Kenyan but we either allowed a sack or a pressure or something broke down to where we couldn’t get the ball to him.”
(How do you see the situation in terms of workload for RB Kalen Ballage and RB Brandon Bolden going forward?) – “I don’t know. We’ll worry about it when we hit Wednesday. I’ll have a better idea. I have to find out what’s going on with Frank (Gore) and see where we’re at after that.”
(RB Kenyan Drake’s injury wasn’t a factor as to why he wasn’t the primary rusher?) – “I didn’t think it was. I think (Kalen) Ballage did all right.”
(What’s your message to the team at this point?) – “We have to worry about getting ready for this week. That’s our focus and always is and always will be. We take it one week at a time. The different part right now is the next two weeks, we can handle our business but that doesn’t mean anything. You have other teams that can affect our season, good or bad. But none of it matters if we don’t handle the next two games and figure out a way to win.”
(How difficult is it to re-group in this situation with the standings?) – “This is what it is. This is what we get paid to do. This is what all of these guys signed up for: 16 games. It gets tough sometimes when you’re coming off a loss like this. It’s not easy. You go into a game feeling you’re ready, prepared and everyone is doing a good job of playing team football and then we just played poorly.”
(Is any part of you surprised that RB Kalen Ballage had that kind of big-play ability?) – “No. We watch it every day in practice. That long run he had, that’s how he runs every day. That’s how he finishes every day. There’s a reason why he’s able to do that and was confident to just gas it and run by everybody because every day in practice, we watch the same thing. When he gets a carry with the offense, he finishes in the end zone. It’s a good trait to have.”
(Do you want to clutter your mind at all this week just looking at what you need to do to make the playoffs?) – “No. We need to focus on winning this game.”
(As you look back yesterday, is nine sacks solely on pass protection?) – “No.”
(Are there any plays that you look back where QB Ryan Tannehill could have…) – “It was everybody. We all took a part in it, including myself. A couple of the protections, we probably should’ve done something different. The quarterback, running backs, tight ends, o-line, receivers getting open faster, it was the whole group.”
(With those routes and with the pressures that were coming, were the hot routes working?) – “We had one time where we should have had a hot and we missed it. But all of the other ones, we had enough guys to block who they had and we didn’t get it done.”
(With being down three scores as early as you were, how hard was it to resist the temptation of becoming a one-dimensional offense?) – “Not hard with their pass rush. We have so much game left. I wasn’t worried about having to hurry up and start throwing it because we’ve run the ball fairly efficiently over the last few weeks. With Kalen (Ballage) and (Kenyan) Drake, you never know when that one play is coming. We just tried to put a drive together. We got down in the red zone and we had a couple of opportunities there to possibly stick it in the end zone. It would have been nice to get seven there and then go into the half and try to get another seven and see how much we could swing that game. We didn’t get that done. We got three. It was a tight game there for a minute. We had three bad plays, we punt it, they have a great return and then we hold them to a field goal but that seemed to suck the air out of us.”
(I wanted to ask you about the defensive line. You guys have so many resources in it and opponents have nearly been averaging 150 rushing yards per game. At some point, is it scheme? Is it personnel? Is it play-calling? What is at the route of the issue?) – “Our money is on the edges. They’re there to pass rush. Cam (Wake) does a great job of setting the edge on his side. We haven’t been consistent setting the edge on the other side, whoever it has been over there. But it takes a full group to stop the run. The d-line can’t do it by themselves. The linebackers have to fit where they’re supposed to fit. The safeties have to fit where they’re supposed to fit. If we do let them get the edge, we have to tackle at corner. Nobody did anything well yesterday. Minkah (Fitzpatrick) probably had close to the best game out of our group but he still had his mistakes. That was a great play on the pick-six but we didn’t play well enough as a group. We always want to say the d-line, the d-line, but it takes 11 guys to play well in the run game. Just like on offense, it takes 11 guys to run the ball well. It takes the quarterback faking on an outside zone to pull out the defensive end to get the cut back. It takes the whole group. One group doesn’t do anything. It takes all 11.”
(But if the d-line is giving pressure to the linebackers, if they’re not protecting…) – “If they’re giving up their gap, then yeah, that’s an issue there. But that’s not always the case. It’s we don’t fit something right or we miss a tackle or when we pressure, we have two guys kind of popping their head in the same gap. That kills you. We make that mistake too much. We have to go back to work and keep working on it. The New England game is a great example of we did it right. We played physical. Everybody stayed in their gap. We played disciplined and we did a better job of stopping the run.”
(You mentioned S Minkah Fitzpatrick’s pick-six. RB Kalen Ballage had a long touchdown run. The way this rookie has evolved as the season has gone on, your thoughts on that?) – “It’s a mature group. They’ve done a good job of being guys that have come in and made plays. You hate to waste plays like that and not be in a tight game towards the end. It’s almost … you always try to debate are you better off getting blown out or losing in a heartbreaker. No matter which way you do it, it just hurts the same. You just wish those plays would have mattered in the grand scheme of things to where it’s a tight game and you give ourselves a chance in the fourth quarter. We just didn’t do that.”
(Your early outlook, I guess, on CB Xavien Howard?) – “We’ll see how it goes this week. Like I said, no matter where we’re at when it comes to postseason play – which right now I know we’re on the outside looking in – we’re going to do what’s best for him and make sure that he’s in a good position to where he feels good about his lateral movement, his straight-line speed and all of those things to where he can play at the level that he needs to play at. I’m not going to throw him out there just to say he needs to play this week.”
(So you’re saying that RB Kalen Ballage, from what he’s shown you so far in practice and in games, shows that he’s ready to be a lead back?) – “I’m not saying that at all. I’m just saying for that game, that was our best option right there.”
(How is QB Ryan Tannehill physically?) – “I’m sure he’s sore. He’s not going to tell me anything. I’m just going off of what I see. I’m sure his ankle is sore. I’m sure his body hurts. But he never lets you know.”
Torry McTyer – December 16, 2018 (Postgame)
Sunday, December 16, 2018
Postgame – Minnesota
Miami Dolphins CB Torry McTyer (Transcribed by Minnesota Vikings)
Q: What happened on the long touchdown pass at the end of the game?
A: We didn’t get lined up.
Q: So, you’re saying the defense wasn’t in the right formation?
A: I wasn’t lined up. That’s all that happened.
Q: On the defense’s performance today…
A: We left plays out there.
Q: The Vikings had an offensive coordinator calling plays for the first time. What did you notice about what they did, especially on their first three possessions of the game?
A: We knew they were going to try to run the ball on us. Every team is going to try to hurt us with something new, and that’s what they did.
