Adam Gase – October 27, 2017
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Friday, October 27, 2017
Head Coach Adam Gase
(The whole issue of players maybe not being able to retain and execute information where you’ve had to sort of dumb down what you’re doing, should this be happening with a team that’s … I mean you’re not playing a lot of rookies on offense. Should it be happening? Do you need players who can retain information and do what …?) – “I don’t think it’s a retain information thing. It’s we’re not putting the work in. That’s what it comes down to. If you can’t remember it, you shouldn’t be in the NFL. At the end of the day, guys have got to actually take this stuff home and study it. They’re not going to just learn it all in meetings. We’ve got to find guys that will actually put forth effort to actually remember this stuff and really, it starts with our best players.”
(You said last night that you think that maybe the offense has become too predictable?) – “Oh, it is. Definitely. One-hundred percent.”
(So where are you at on this now? Are you looking to expand it again or…?) – “Yes, we’re going to have to figure something out. We’ve got to kind of figure out really what’s best for us to do, how we really want to approach it; or I guess I’ve got to figure it out. I’ll look into it, but I’m done compromising with anybody. I’ll do what I think is best and those that want to come on board, great. Those that don’t, we’ll get rid of them.”
(The ongoing struggle with the offensive line, do you see it as fixable with the current group?) – “To me it comes down to more than just the offensive line. The majority of the time, the offensive at least knows who to go to and knows what to do. You’ve got to get the other guys to know what to do too. (The offensive line) can’t block the running back’s guy. The running back, we never block the right guy. I don’t even know if we know who we’ve got. We’ve got to get that fixed. They can’t block their guy too. (The offensive line is) trying to do what they can and they’re fighting. There’s times where I wished they would do things better, but at least I’m getting effort.”
(With QB Jay Cutler, obviously you addressed it after the game last night, but are you cautiously optimistic he’ll be healthy to play against Oakland?) – “Cutler, you’re talking about? Yes, he’s playing. He could have played last week.”
(I noticed, as you said, the mental breakdowns are not happening from the offensive line. That being said, from a run blocking standpoint, do you expect more from those five? I know that includes tight ends.) – “We’ve got to stop trying to hit home runs all the time. How about take the 4 or 5 yards that we’re going to get? It comes down to everybody doing their job. If we actually start doing that, it might help.”
(And with the home runs, is that responsibility then on RB Jay Ajayi?) – “It’s on the running back. Do your job. That’s what you’ve got to do. It’s not hard.”
(Players are off until Wednesday?) – “Until Tuesday.”
(How do you hope they use this time?) – “I hope they get their minds right and try to figure out why they’re here. Hopefully it’s to win some football games.”
(How long have you sensed issues with studying or not studying enough?) – “Two years. Yes, I’ve been addressing this for a while, so I’m kind of fed up with it.”
(What was your impression of the defense’s performance after you looked at the film? What were the problems?) – “We didn’t tackle very well. It’s hard to explain because we’ve tackled so well for so long and we just had some of those breakdowns. We’ve got to have guys make sure that they stay responsible with their gaps. I think when we get a little leaky, guys try to compensate for each other and then it becomes worse. It’s a fine line on defense when you have guys that can make plays and they start going outside, really, the box that you’re trying to stay in with your responsibilities, and they don’t make those plays. Then all of a sudden that 4-yard run becomes 12. We had some of that going on. It is surprising when we’ve tackled so well for the majority of the season, to have those kind of breakdowns. I don’t know if it’s that place. Both years we’ve gone there, we’ve not done well against them. We’ve just got to find ways to regroup on defense, just clean up the little tiny things of … Just do your job, keep your responsibility, keep your gap integrity and things have worked out. Our defensive front does try to maintain their responsibility and at the linebacker and safety level, if we stick with what we’ve been doing, we’ll be alright.”
(How did you think S Michael Thomas did at strong safety?) – “He’s always ready to go. That’s the thing about Mike, he’s a true pro. He gives you everything he has on special teams, makes a ton of plays; and then when he gets thrown on defense, he always knows what to do, whether he’s playing safety or nickel. It’s a tough role to get thrown into when you don’t get as many reps during the week. For him to go in there and be able to do his job and make sure he’s doing the part of his job that we need him to do. He did a good enough job for us to have a chance. When he gets a full week’s worth of work, that’s going to help a lot to where he’ll really understand what’s going on.”
(Does that mean S Nate Allen could be…?) – “Yes, it could be a minute with him. I’m not really sure the exact timetable, but right now it doesn’t look promising for us in the next week.”
(You had another look, obviously, on film, on the LB Kiko Alonso hit. What did you see?) – “It’s a tough one. I know Kiko was … He’s in a tough spot, because he’s (Joe Flacco) running for the first down, and I think he’s (Alonso) kind of waiting to see, ‘What’s he going to do? What’s he going to do?’ When he’s sliding, his body is kind of … It’s not like a true slide that you normally see. He’s kind of half in, half out. It’s a tough, tough play to tell a guy what to do. If he completely stays away from him, and all of a sudden he keeps running and goes head first and gets the first down, then we all go, ‘What are you doing? Finish the play.’ He comes in like that and Joe slides. I don’t think Kiko was trying to do anything maliciously.”
(Could WR DeVante Parker have played last night?) – “He wanted to play. I held him out. We didn’t have a full week’s worth. He didn’t get work like a normal practice. He was running around with more tempo than everybody else. He looked pretty good, but I just knew that it was going to be a game where it was going to get physical outside and he hadn’t really been challenged in practice yet. I just thought it was the right thing to do to keep him out for one more week.”
(Regarding C/G Ted Larsen, do you think it’s realistic that he could practice and play next Sunday?) – “There’s a possibility of him practicing. I can’t say about playing though.”
(Quick two-part question: How did G/T Jesse Davis do at guard and could C/G Anthony Steen’s injury be long term?) – “Steen’s injury is going to be a while. Jesse, I thought Jesse did alright. I didn’t see him being the main culprit for anything that was really causing a lot of issues. The good thing about Jesse is he is strong. That was a good matchup for him with getting his hands on guys and anchoring and not allowing penetration.”
(Did C/G Anthony Steen have surgery or is he going to?) – “Yes, he did have surgery.”
(What was your take on some of the extracurricular stuff towards the end?) – “Obviously it’s stuff that you don’t want to see. I think it all stemmed from when Kiko (Alonso) hit Joe (Flacco) and then Kiko gets hit their twice, (Ndamukong) Suh jumps in and I think it just carried through the whole game. I know the officials were trying to make sure they kept some control and order and when the score gets lopsided like that, it’s a tough position to be in when you’re an official. We’re talking to our guys about keep your cool, play smart and just finish the game the correct way. Things get a little chippy and the next thing you know, you start getting some of those things happen.”
(Was anyone besides S Nate Allen banged up last night that you could be without next week?) – “Nobody that I can think of right now but I could be forgetting something.”
(Was your level of disgust as such last night that you considered shortening the amount of time you’re giving players off?) – “No, because I think this is the only chance we have to at least kind of recharge. From here on out, we’re going for the duration. This is as close as we get to a bye, these next few days.”
(Does the fact that you’re still over .500 give you any solace or are you just so disgusted with how you’ve played that you take no solace in that at all?) – “Well, I guess I look at it like this: Whether you win or lose, the whole process of all of this is about correcting things, mistakes that you make and understanding the why of everything that you’re trying to do. When we win, what happens is everybody brushes it under the rug and just tells everybody how great they are, and then I’m just an (expletive). Well, that’s what happens when you lose 40-0. Now all of a sudden, all of those little things become an issue, that we’ve been talking about. When you win and you address them and guys just think, ‘Oh, he just wants to fix something.’ Okay, well we’ve been embarrassed three times in three losses, so maybe at some point, what we’re saying might make some sense.”
(With S T.J. McDonald coming back into the mix soon, how do you see him meshing with S Reshad Jones? Will they have to each make some adjustments to work together?) – “No, because T.J. can do anything we need him to do. When you put two good players back there, we’ll have no problems adjusting. His is going to be just a conditioning level (to be in) football condition.”
(Back to WR DeVante Parker, is it safe to assume that barring any setbacks, he should play against Oakland?) – “I mean, we’ll see. I hope. It would be good to have him out there.”
(Going back to the whole issue of players and their study habits, how widespread are we talking? Are we talking like everybody or half the team?) – “It’s not on defense. The defense is fine. On special teams we seem to be alright; but maybe that’s because it’s just easy – just run straight and hit somebody. Offensively, it’s a joke. We’ve got too many guys that don’t want to take it home with them. Until our best players actually put forth some effort, it’ll be (expletive).”
(Were you tempted to do at all what you did after the Tennessee home game last year in terms of players?) – “Who are you going to get? It is what it is. At some point, guys have to realize that it takes a little effort outside of this building to actually be good.”
(For a head coach, does this break come at a good time or a bad time? There’s a lot of days off for you to fume about this.) – “Yes, it’s probably not a good time for anybody that’s not me. I’m pissed. I’m tired of this. I’m tired of the offense being awful. Guys need to get their heads right. The coaching staff needs to do a better job because obviously our players not knowing is a direct reflection on them.”
(How tempting is it – and this has to be a very tough call for any coach – when your best players are not doing what you want them to do, to go to players who maybe are not as skilled or as experienced, just to have consequences for your best players not doing what they’re supposed to. Are you tempted to do that?) – “I wouldn’t say I’m tempted to do anything. I’m going to play the guys that know what to do. The fan base might not like it, but oh well. We’re the worst offense in football. It’s hard to go lower than that.”
Cameron Wake – October 26, 2017 (Postgame)
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Sunday, October 26, 2017
Postgame – Baltimore Ravens
Dolphins DE Cameron Wake (transcribed by the Baltimore Ravens)
(on what was the most surprising thing about the game) “Everything was disappointing. Obviously, we’re all very disappointed. It seemed that everything that could go wrong went wrong for us tonight.”
(on the problems with the run defense) “We had a lot of missed tackles. There was a lot of poor communication. We were all very frustrated. We need to get back on the right page, and we need to fix it. We’ll do that over the next week or so.”
(on the Dolphins’ recent comebacks and when he felt this one was out of reach) “I really don’t know when I figured that out. We’ve been coming back from deficits all year, but tonight we just didn’t make the plays. We didn’t make them on defense or offense. Any chance there was for us to turn the game, we didn’t take advantage.”
(on the Dolphins’ 10-day break) “The first thing we need to do is put this behind us and move forward. Whether you lost by one point or 100 points, it’s one loss. We need to fix this and move forward.”
(on Kiko Alonso’s hit on Joe Flacco) “Kiko plays hard. He plays until the whistle blows. Sometimes things just happen. I don’t like to see anybody get hurt, but it’s football. But I hope [Joe Flacco] is OK.”
Ndamukong Suh – October 26, 2017 (Postgame)
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Sunday, October 26, 2017
Postgame – Baltimore Ravens
Dolphins DT Ndamukong Suh (transcribed by the Baltimore Ravens)
(on what happened in the game) “We didn’t play well enough to win the game. This is two years in a row for Baltimore that we’ve come in here and lost, and that’s unfortunate. They did a really good job of finding ways to beat us.”
(on whether the short week of practice had an impact) “I don’t think that had any effect on the game. We’ve done it before, and we’ve won. We just didn’t execute to the best of our ability.”
(on his confrontation with Ryan Mallett) “He came right at me, and he tried to tackle me. I just defended myself.”
(on Kiko Alonso’s hit on Joe Flacco) “I didn’t see it, but I know Kiko’s not a dirty player. He just plays hard all the time.”
(on the chippiness late in the game) “I don’t know about all that. I am always going to play hard, no matter what the score is.”
Jermon Bushrod – October 26, 2017 (Postgame)
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Sunday, October 26, 2017
Postgame – Baltimore Ravens
Dolphins G/T Jermon Bushrod (transcribed by the Baltimore Ravens)
(on the offensive performance) “We just have to be better. We have to start faster. We’ve all got to execute better.”
(on the difficulty of establishing the pass without the run) “Whatever play is called, we have to go out and execute our assignment. It sucked that we couldn’t get anything going today. We need to be able to get it going, and today we did not at all. We have to go back and look at what they did. Why were they successful? We need to figure out why we weren’t successful in the run game.”
(on bouncing back from this loss) “We are a resilient group. At the end of the day, it didn’t show today like we needed it to. We’ve been in that situation where we’re down 14 or 17 [points], and we’ve come back. When we couldn’t put up points at the beginning of the game and can’t help out the other two side of the ball, it was going to be a long day, and it was a long day out there.”
Adam Gase – October 26, 2017 (Postgame)
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Sunday, October 26, 2017
Postgame – Baltimore Ravens
Dolphins Head Coach Adam Gase (transcribed by the Baltimore Ravens)
(on how much physicality played in the outcome) “At the end of the day, they played 60 minutes a lot more physical than we did. We just didn’t match them right from the get-go.”
(on the two interceptions for touchdowns) “The one [C.J.] Mosley had was a good play by him. He was engaged in the line, jumped up, got it. Matt [Moore] got pressured on the second one, tried to go to one of his shorter routes, and Jimmy [Smith] sat on it.”
(on what surprises him most about tonight’s game) “Probably more about the offense. We’re just inept. We’re not doing anything right now. I’ll have to look at the film and kind of see where we’re going. When you play a game like that and get shut out again, you just have to start looking at if it’s one guy, multiple guys. It’s just one of those things, but we have to comb through it. We have a few days to do it, to try to reset everything. We just have to figure out what’s causing us to lose out on opportunities to give ourselves a chance to score points.”
(on if simplifying the offense made it a catch 22 – making it easier for the offense and defense) “Yes, 100 percent. That’s what it is; that’s what happens when you cut back like that. It becomes a little easier to defend. We have to start doing something right.”
(on the Kiko Alonso hit) “I didn’t see it. I just saw a melee of guys, and then just tried to figure out what happened.”
(on how much frustration he sensed) “That’s going to happen every once in awhile. It’s going to get chippy when it gets a little lopsided like that. We’re trying to keep everybody’s tempers down, but frustrations go up. We couldn’t score any points, and I’m sure the defense was frustrated. They had to keep coming out there after three-and-out, so we have to try to keep our composure better than we did tonight.”
(on his emotions at the moment) “For me right now, I’m just trying to figure out the reasons why we can’t sustain drives. You start looking at everything from ‘Are we calling the right things?,’ ‘Why can’t we get it third-and-manageable?,’ ‘Are we using the right people?’ It’s just one of those things where you have to go back, and we have to figure out what we can do to fix this.”
(on chances of Jay Cutler being available for Oakland) “I’m not 100 percent sure. Monday he ran with the team, and then he threw. He felt pretty good. I wasn’t going to put him out there tonight, and I think it was the smart thing to do. I know he’s tough, but I didn’t want to put him in a bad situation, basically, where he could get hurt worse.”
(on what was his message to the whole group) “We have to reset. We have to take this time off that we have, because this is really kind of our bye week and kind of re-focus our mind, get as healthy as we can, and when we come back, be ready to work. We have a lot of football left, and we’ve won enough games so far to at least put ourselves in a position where we get a chance to keep competing. We just have to find a way to get better. Right now, we’re so inconsistent. We’re up and down. Until we actually stack one good week on top of the other, it’s never going to be right. Right now, we’re just all over the place.”
Kiko Alonso – October 26, 2017 (Postgame)
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Sunday, October 26, 2017
Postgame – Baltimore Ravens
Dolphins LB Kiko Alonso (transcribed by the Baltimore Ravens)
(on his version of the hit on QB Joe Flacco) “It was a bang-bang play.”
(on if he will be suspended for the hit) “That’s out of my hands. Like I said, it was a bang-bang play, and I hope he’s alright.”
(on what he said to the referees and the Baltimore Ravens players after the play) “I said it was bang-bang. I thought if maybe he slid a second sooner, I was anticipating him sliding and not hit him. But I think it was like a second late – that’s why I hit him.”
(on not being able to hit him) “I mean no way. That’s the target. When a guy slides, and his target is very small, I just think it’s like a second late, which is why I hit him, to be honest with you. At first I was anticipating him – I thought he was going to slide. And then, I had to hit him, because he slid too late. It was bang-bang. I don’t know what else I could have done.”
(on feeling like there was nothing else he could have done but hit Flacco) “No, I really think if he would have slid a second sooner I would have pulled off. But it was so close, that I had to hit him.”
(on feeling bad after the hit) “I definitely hope he is alright. You hate to see that happen to people. I truly hope that he is OK.”
Matt Moore – October 26, 2017 (Postgame)
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Sunday, October 26, 2017
Postgame – Baltimore Ravens
Dolphins QB Matt Moore (transcribed by the Baltimore Ravens)
(on what happened during the game) “This is tough. We never expected the game to turn out like this. This one really stings. We have to figure some stuff out, and I have to figure out some stuff.”
(on his two interceptions) “On the first one, [C.J. Mosley] made a heck of a play. He just jumped up there and caught it. It was a great play. On the second one, [Jimmy Smith] sat back a little bit and waited for me to throw, and he got me good.”
(on Baltimore doing anything defensively that was surprising) “Early in the game, they broke some of their tendencies. Their pressure came from different spots, but they just beat us. They made it very hard for us to do anything on offense. It was very tough.”
(on the Dolphins having 10 days off before their next game) “We have to learn from this. First, we’ll take the weekend to heal from this, and we’ll look at film. This one stings. We just need to get better.”
