Adam Gase – September 10, 2018
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Monday, September 10, 2018
Head Coach Adam Gase
(With all the crazy things that have happened in the last year-plus, various curveballs you’ve dealt with, how do you process it?) – “I think as a coaching staff and players and staff, everybody does a good job of trying to figure out the solution and then trying to execute it the best we can, and then move on from it. We look for ways to improve with whatever we went through. Really, a lot of these situations, I’m not sure if we’re going to go through again. It’s probably the kind of exercise that we’ll go through to make sure if something comes up again, how can we do this better?”
(Is there something in common there so that the experience that you have…) – “I think I have a really good feel of who I’m going to and who I am going to talk to when some things come up. I know that (Associate Head Coach/Special Teams Coordinator) Darren (Rizzi) is one of the first guys that … We really get together a lot of times right away when something comes up to where we kind of can spitball some things and figure out where our starting point would be if we don’t have necessarily a plan in place. It’s one thing to have a lightning delay, it’s one thing to have multiple hours you have to burn in the game. I think that’s rare and I don’t think that’s happened a whole bunch.”
(Can you take us through the 75-yard pass to WR Kenny Stills? I’m not sure I’ve ever seen QB Ryan Tannehill throw a better deep ball, do you agree?) – “It was nice. He put it right where we really talk about. It’s almost a joke when we say ‘Put it 45 yards right down the hash,’ and he put it about 47 (yards) right down the hash.”
(It was covered pretty well.) – “It was. Kenny (Stills) was moving. It was a good play between those two. A lot of trust there.”
(The two interceptions – the one to TE Mike Gesicki and the other one – what did you observe?) – “I think on the second one, that was really a play call of ‘If you throw a pick here, it’s about as good as a punt,’ so it’s not really a big deal. I do understand what he was thinking. He and Jakeem (Grant) just weren’t on the same page, which, that will come through time. It’s one of those things where something popped free that we really haven’t seen happen a whole bunch, and that’s just experience of running some of the plays that we run. The first one to Mike, I want to say the ball kind of slipped out of his hands. It wasn’t really the type of throw we were looking for there. I think Mike was a little caught off guard, that’s why you saw the defender being able to step in front of that ball. I think when we go back and talk to him about it – well, we did talk to him about it during that time – he wish he had thrown a better ball.”
(What did you see from your wide receiving crew yesterday?) – “I felt like they really did a good job of playing multiple spots. When we had personnel changes, those guys were in and out quick. There was good communication with that group. They made plays when they were asked to. Albert (Wilson) did a really good job of making plays that were really nothing into something, making defenders miss. Those guys bring a variety of skill set. Each guy’s got a different strength, but those guys are fun to coach. It’s fun to call plays for those guys. You get the ball in any of those guys’ hands and they all can do something different. I felt like we were in a really good rhythm and then we take a break and then come back and then I felt like we had another one, then we take a break, and we actually started scoring some points there toward the end.”
(There was some fun, creative ball plays. One that jumps out was when WR Albert Wilson did the end around and he had sort of an option to pitch to RB Kenyan Drake. How much do you enjoy the process of researching and drawing up unique ball plays?) – “Some of that might be copied from somebody else that I used to be with. (laughter) I’ve got a pretty good library of things that I can lean on. Having him (Mike Martz) in town a couple of weeks ago was nice. Being able to go through a lot of things, he had a great crew of wide receivers. He was able to be creative. I feel like we have a good crew that we can do a lot of different things with those guys. We kind of historically have always gone back and when we get a new guy, we check out what they’ve done in the past. At the same time, we’re not afraid to go back and check out their college tape and see what they did a long time ago – why they either didn’t get drafted or why they did get drafted. So, it’s fun to do. You try to stay within the framework of the system and be creative at the same time. When you have good players, you’re able to do that and it’s fun to call those plays.”
(So was the WR Albert Wilson play a Mike Martz play?) – “That was a Martz play. It was an old Az(-Zahir) Hakim play.”
(The two breaks, I guess left time to re-assess how things were working – 12 minutes of halftime is enough time for adjustments, but two hours and then another two hours are. Is there something that you were able to identify during that time?) – “No. Really, we were just worried about ourselves. We just kept talking about trying to organize some series, some drives. How could we get things going and be consistent? Really, it was how we make sure our guys are ready to go back out there. It’s dead time and then you get a 10-minute warning and you have to juice it right back up. That’s what a lot of our conversations were about.”
(WR Jakeem Grant talked about the kickoff return and the changes in the rules helping him. There were two in the last game. How does that change the way you guys, particularly Associate Head Coach/Special Teams Coordinator Darren Rizzi, game plan knowing that you can either burst or have one burst against you?) – “One of the things that we talked about when we were kind of put our team together in the offseason – this being something that the league was going to go to – and we talked about having speed and being a fast team, and it really can work against you, it can work for you. We feel like in kickoff return, it 100 percent works for us to where we get athletic guys getting guys covered up and have a guy like Jakeem that can take one back. At the same time, with the rules, it’s not as easy on our kickoff team. We have a lot of guys that are playing on starting units on our offense or defense and towards the end of the game, we have to stay aggressive in our tackling and what we’re supposed to do. Everybody doing their job. There can’t be any ‘I’m tired, I can’t do this.’ We have to do a way better job on that.”
(Do you teach it differently since they changed the rule?) – “What the rule is and how we kind of approach it and how aggressive we want to be, it changes from game to game. We have a good feel. We have one of the guys that was on that committee (Darren Rizzi) that kind of came up with all this stuff. We have a really good feel for what we’re supposed to do.”
(Your defense gave up 13 points. How would you assess their play?) – “I thought there was a lot of good. I know (Defensive Coordinator) Matt (Burke) and those guys want to make some improvements. We want to do some different things as far as how we can stop the run game and just be more efficient and consistent, really. I think there were times where we did a really good job and you could see it and there was good tackling. Then, we just had some missed tackles that we just can’t afford. We can’t have as many as we did. We have the right calls on, we just have to execute and everybody needs to do their job. We have to be able to tackle one-on-one in space, in the hole. We can’t miss those. There’s a reason why guys like Reshad Jones go to the Pro Bowl year in and year out, because when he’s in space and he has a guy in front of him, he makes the tackle. We have to be consistent as far as doing that game in and game out, and we have to work on it every day.”
(S Minkah Fitzpatrick is pretty good with that, isn’t he?) – “He does a really good job.”
(It seems on the surface that the secondary was good at making plays – S Reshad Jones’ interception, CB Bobby McCain had a pass breakup in the end zone, S Minkah Fitzpatrick had a crucial tackle. How did they play as a unit?) – “I thought those guys were good. I thought Bobby made a couple of really nice plays. Probably one of them that wasn’t really his responsibility but because he’s aware, he saw it. They tried to target him about six times and they didn’t have any completions. The only one, I don’t even count the one they say was completed on him because we’re in Cover 2 and he’s sinking and the back gets the ball. That’s not on him. I thought he did a good job. It was good to see him have success. That was one of those games where there’s some bigger guys there and it was going to be a challenge and he did a good job of covering those guys up.”
(How about S T.J. McDonald?) – “T.J. had a lot of good. We just have to keep doing a good job as far as being consistent on our tackling. I know that historically he’s been a big hitter and sometimes we’re asking him to be the guy that’s saving the day when they get into open field. We just need to be consistent on that. I think that will just keep coming the longer we go.”
(What did you think of what happened in the fight and the penalties, were you alright with the number yesterday?) – “I mean I’m never going to be alright with the number. We just need to clean up a few things. I think we had pre-snap penalties in all three phases, which we can absolutely control. The fight, it just drives me nuts. I’d rather our guys celebrate with the guy that just intercepted the ball instead of doing what happened there. We’ll address it. We’ll handle it and we’ll make changes if we have to.”
(What went into the choice to go with QB Brock Osweiler as the No. 2 quarterback for the first week?) – “That’s what I felt was best for that game. We’ll see how it goes going forward. It’s just one of those ones where I like both of those guys and that one is not an easy decision each week.”
(What impact did you see having QB Ryan Tannehill back in the huddle and with his team?) – “It’s just that he knows this offense well enough and he’s been in it for three years now. He’s played with some of these guys – the two tackles (Laremy Tunsil and Ja’Wuan James), Kenny (Stills) and (Kenyan) Drake. He’s been with those guys for multiple years now. I think those guys are all comfortable together. And then some of the new guys, when they’ve come in, they’ve embraced what we’ve been doing. I just like the way that we’re operating. I think there are some things that we’re going to clean up and we’re going to feel better about probably four weeks from now, and we’ll look back on this game and wish we would have done better; but it feels right. It feels like we’re headed in the right direction. We’re going to have to make the corrections on this one and then get to the next one.”
(It seems like WR Kenny Stills, at this point is a veteran receiver, but it seems like he still has ascension or ceiling. What do you think he still can do in this offense, especially that it’s more wide open?) – “I think the more variety we give him … We know he’s a vertical threat. He showed that again, that he’s still able to do that. I think there’s more underneath and there’s more as far as receptions per game go, to where maybe instead of four catches for 100 yards, it might end up being like seven or eight catches, where there might be a couple of shorter throws in there. I think that’s something we’re going to keep working on and improving. He’s aware of it because we’ve talked about it as far as trying to make sure that teams can’t just say he’s only going to do this. We’re just going to keep spreading the ball out, move some guys around, have them do different routes and have variety.”
(It seemed that first touchdown you threw to WR Kenny Stills out of the slot, he seems to have a lot of success in that area. Is that kind of an example of what you’re talking about?) – “Yes, he can move all over the place. I think he’s been the most productive slot receiver the last two years in the NFL. That’s nothing new to us. Sometimes he’s in the right place at the right time.”
(Have you noticed a difference either in personality or output from G Josh Sitton that he makes on that offensive line? It seemed like Titans DT Jurrell Casey wasn’t a huge problem yesterday.) – “Yes. I’m sure he wouldn’t … he’s not going to say anything is going to be easy. Those guys work hard to keep Ryan (Tannehill) clean and they take a lot of pride in it. I also think they take a lot of pride in our backs having success and the run game means a lot to those guys. We just need to keep doing a good job of mixing up our calls and putting the right stuff in per game to where our line has enough to where they can do what they feel like we’re really good at, and at the same time we have some things to where we can pop some things free without those guys having to exert a lot. I think yesterday there was a lot of good that we did. I think there’s some things that we can improve on – what we present to the players as coaches and at the same time, how we execute things. I think it’s headed in the right direction. I like that group up front and it’s nice to see our quarterback be able to stand in there a little bit and make some of the throws that he did last night.”
(To get where you want to get to, you’re going to have to win games like yesterday. Did you make that point to your team that ‘Hey, there’s going to be 50-50 games that if we want to get to the playoffs, we have to have success…’) – “Our guys aren’t going to worry about anything past this next game. We don’t talk like that. I know that’s how everybody else in the world talks but in this profession, you better focus on what you’re doing now, because it’s hard enough as it is.”
(TE A.J. Derby had a pretty big role yesterday. How did he do and what went into that decision?) – “It was just kind of how the game played out. We had 58 plays, I think. We want more. We kind of were trying … It was one of those things where we were trying to give Mike (Gesicki) a series here and there. I just have to be aware of who is in the game at the time because there are certain things I know A.J. does well and then Mike does … Mike has a different skill set, obviously. It’s just kind of a back and forth. Me and (Tight Ends Coach) Shane (Day) are trying to talk through what we want to do each series. It’s going to take me … I need to get used to it because it’s a change for me of rotating the tight ends as much as we do.”
(Did you have any injuries coming out of the game?) – “Right now, we’re still evaluating John Denney. Past that, I haven’t really talked to the trainers that much. I do that on purpose so I don’t have to talk to you guys about it. (laughter)”
(I was actually just going to ask about LS John Denney. When that situation comes up, is that one of the more unsettling replacements you have to make during a game?) – “It’s one of the ones that I wish nobody would tell me. (laughter) I found out right before the ball was snapped. That was interesting.”
(Who is the backup?) – “I’m glad you were paying attention. (laughter)”
(Did TE Durham Smythe take one?) – “Yes. (laughter)”
(Did you get worried before or after the one-hopper?) – “They told me before.”
(How much do you prepare for that?) – “They work on it. There’s times where … Well, Mike Hull has always been the guy that we’d throw in there. We do things … In the spring, (Darren) Rizzi and ‘Moof’ (Assistant Special Teams Coach Marwan Maalouf), they do that to where they’ll pull John (Denney) out of there and they’ll be like ‘Mike, you have it,’ to try to create a sense of … We’re trying to almost create panic to see how everybody reacts. We’ve had to kind of make some adjustments since Mike’s not playing right now. It just happened to be the first game of the year backed up.”
(Did TE Durham Smythe do it in college? How do you…) – “It’s one of those things where guys kind of volunteer for it. (laughter) They have experience doing it. (Darren) Rizzi and ‘Moof’ (Marwan Maalouf), they know. They can tell you if a guy snapped in middle school or something. (laughter) They always have an idea.”
