Adam Gase – December 27, 2018
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Thursday, December 27, 2018
Head Coach Adam Gase
(Since it has been a topic of discussion, can you definitively say, knowing what is on the line financially, if WR DeVante Parker will play Sunday?) – “He’s going to play. I don’t see any reason why (not). Every game we go out there is an evaluation and I know he wants to have a good game. We’ll just keep trying to correct the things that need to be corrected and keep working on trying to get him the ball and get him to play fast. That’s all we’re trying to do.”
(DT Davon Godchaux has been a mainstay at that defensive tackle position this season. Where has he improved and what would you like to see from him moving forward?) – “He has a really unique ability to remember things that have happened in the past. He can recall things and recall it in real time. So the more he’s seen over his career, the better he’s gotten against those types of plays. You just see such a variety. Every team you play is so unique compared to what you saw the week before, most of the time. I think the more he plays, the better he gets and the more effective he is as far as what we need him to do.”
(How is DT Davon Godchaux against the run this season?) – “It’s not like we’ve been dynamic at any point. We’ve just been inconsistent. Really, everybody would look at it the same way: we’ve had some good games and we’ve had some bad games.”
(As you’ve thought of ideas over the course of the season about how to jump start you guys, did the idea to ever play hurry-up at a higher-level, was that something that you gave much thought to? Or was that difficult once you lost guys like WR Albert Wilson and WR Jakeem Grant because it’s difficult to get a lot of big plays going at that fast pace? Or was that just not realistic after you kept losing offensive personnel?) – “We scored on the first drive in the last four of five games.”
(No. I mean during the course of the game.) – “Yeah, you’d love to do that; but we have a lot of different personnel groupings so you have to stay in the same one (to run plays that quickly). I think we’ve done it sometimes, but it hasn’t really worked out the way that we’ve wanted it to. I think our play count has been very minimal, so we have to make sure that … The 30-second drives don’t help us out.”
(You’ve scored on four of the last five first possessions. So now I’m going to hit you on the second drive. Why the drop-off from drives one to two?) – “It just comes down to executing what we’re calling. That’s what it is. I’m sure there are a couple of calls in there where I didn’t like it and it didn’t work out. Last week, everybody did their job (on the first drive). We got the ball out of our hands, the run game was good, we got guys covered up. Then after that, it was all over the place. We just didn’t do a good job anywhere.”
(Do you feel like CB Bobby McCain is one of those guys who is maybe a little better off if he’s just in the slot and left there? Obviously he’s had to do multiple things.) – “It’s survival mode. We don’t have a lot of guys that we can really say ‘Alright, we’re doing this. Bobby, you’re always in the slot and this guy is going to replace you outside.’ We don’t have that option.”
(How would you say CB Bobby McCain has performed overall this season?) – “There’s nobody I can really say, ‘Hey, this guy was…’ Well, there’s one guy: (Xavien Howard). He’s had consistently good games. He’s had a couple of rough ones but I think it was like the fifth or sixth week (before that happened with) Xavien. For the most part, everybody has just had … There’s been good and then there’s been bad. On defense, it’s telling because you get exposed. Everybody knows that guy messed that up. Offensively, you might be able to screw up and get away with it and nobody will really notice.”
(Why do you think it’s that inconsistency?) – “That’s a good question because when you don’t see it in practice, that’s where it can get a little frustrating. I do think sometimes … We do it. We’ll roll out things that teams haven’t seen and then we’ll get a couple of freebies here and there just because they screwed it up. They didn’t realize what we were doing and they cut somebody loose. I think that happens a little bit with us. It’s about playing your rules and just trusting what you are doing (and) trusting your teammates, making sure everybody is just doing their job. That’s what you’ve got to lean on when you get those looks you haven’t seen before. We just haven’t done a consistently good job doing that.”
(Did WR Danny Amendola pretty much give you what you expected or did anything about him surprise you?) – “Are we going Week 16 evaluations right now? Or Week 17? Didn’t we cover this on Monday? (laughter) I think Danny, the first thing that comes to mind is just his work ethic, leadership (and) the way that he practices every day. You can’t tell if it’s a game. It’s the same. It’s just so consistent with him. That’s why it translates to the game as much as it does. He doesn’t make a lot of mistakes. When we go to him, he’s been reliable. The guy is as tough as they come. He plays through anything and doesn’t want to miss anything.”
(Can you say after watching G/T Jesse Davis that you’ve found a quality starting NFL guard or do you need to go back this offseason and really look at it? I know he’s had some good moments, obviously.) – “Yeah, you always want to go back to re-watch the season, really. I mean that’s why we try not to jump right in on the evaluations after the season because you almost want to walk away from it. Your thoughts are always those last couple of games and you can really get caught up on those. What we like to do is actually go back and go through it and start at the beginning of the year and see how they’ve progressed. When things got tough, how did they react there? When we were doing some different things, how was that? There’s a lot that goes into that. You have time. That’s the one thing you do have. When you’re done playing, you have time between the end of the season until the Combine starts. That’s a lot of time to get those evaluations on point and being able to go back through and say who do you want to move on or keep? All of those little types of things.”
(With G/T Jesse Davis, I believe Offensive Coordinator Dowell Loggains said last week he may have been your second-best linemen this season. Is that something you agree with? I mean he’s played every snap for you guys.) – “It’s hard to say because the last game is fresh in your mind. I do think he’s improved in some areas. I think he’s done a better job of using his hands. I think sometimes he falls back a little bit in that d-lineman mentality. He just tries to go for a street fight. We’ve got a young player that was basically on our practice squad that is trying to get better every week.”
(With LB Raekwon McMillan, he’s on the verge of having a 100-tackle season. Do you view this as a successful second go-around at a rookie year?) – “I think so. Once again, it would be nice to go back and watch everything; but I do know there’s been some games where you’ve noticed him a lot. Then there were some games early in the season where you didn’t really see him a lot. He kind of disappeared. But I do think that was a little bit of not having played that whole year and now all of a sudden, you’re thrown in there and you’re expected to be the leader of the defense and be the guy that has 10-12 tackles and makes some plays on the ball. I think he got caught up in that a little bit. Then, as the season has gone on, he looks like a different guy to me.”
(How have you decided who works in nickel? Obviously last week with LB Kiko Alonso out, it was different. And LB Raekwon McMillan and his role in the nickel package? Is it team-based?) – “That’s what it ends up being. It’s how are our matchups? If we think ‘Bake’ (Jerome Baker) is the best guy to go out there and we want him to cover a tight end or a back and we think he’s the best guy for it, that’s when you’ll see ‘Bake’ get out there. When we feel like it’s a team that’s going to get into a three wide receiver package and try to pound the ball and run it, then you’ll see the other two guys out there.”
(In managing DE Cameron Wake, are his snaps managed based on we need to keep him healthy for 16 games or he can’t play more than 20 plays in a game anymore?) – “I think it’s more seasonal. That’s kind of how we looked at it, in the beginning of the year, especially. A lot of it has to do with practice. We really have to be smart in practice so when he does get to the game, we don’t feel as much of ‘we have to keep him under this many snaps.’ A lot of times, he’ll feel really good going into the game and he just wants to roll, and we’ve got to be smart. There have been a couple of games where we’ve been stuck. I think there was one game we had four guys. It was the game that (Akeem) Spence got ejected. We had a couple of other guys get hurt and nobody could come off. We’d like to say ‘Hey, it’s the many snaps per game,’ but it just doesn’t always seem to work out that way. I know in 2016, we tried to say ‘this is what we’re doing. On first and second down, we’re giving him this many series and then he’s getting all of the third-down (snaps).’ The next thing you know, he’s got 16 snaps in the game and that’s not what you want. It’s just a fine line. (Defensive Line Coach) Kris (Kocurek) really has to stay on it and know where he is each game and then just keep working through the season.”
(This is it. You don’t have to save DE Cameron Wake for anything.) – “Yeah, I mean once you get to these last six games, it’s just how is his body feeling and then if he’s healthy, you just roll. You try to keep him on the field as much as possible because he’s probably one of our best run defenders. He does the best job setting the edge. Obviously he still does a great job as a pass rusher. You still see guys just struggle to even try to keep up with him, especially at home, getting off the ball.”
(How would you assess the job Defensive Coordinator Matt Burke has done this year?) – “Are we going full-season evaluation again? (laughter) Can we do this next week? How about one question on the Bills. (laughter)”
(You talked about WR DeVante Parker playing. You know if he gets hurt…) – “Yeah, I’m aware. I’ve got you.”
(You’re good with the risk?) – “We’re going to play. We’re trying to win the game.”
(What did you get from the tight end position this year?) – “(laughter)”
(Leading into the Bills game, how do you feel about your tight ends?) – “I think Durham (Smythe) has done a really good job of improving throughout the season. Mike (Gesicki), we started off thinking one thing as far as we’re going to get single coverage early and we’re going to have some chances in the red area to get him one-on-one, and that didn’t happen. The first time we came out and tried to get him in a one-on-one matchup, two guys walked out with him. For whatever reason, it’s probably one of the first times I’ve ever seen a rookie get respected like that from defenses when we started out, and that kind of got us away from some of the things that we like doing with him. Then we started running the ball more in the red area. That was probably one of the main reasons. I do think there’s been some big-time growth especially in pass protection and his run blocking. It’s nowhere near where we want it to be. He knows that. I love the fact that he works at it and that he tries to make sure that he’s one of those guys that’s accountable to the rest of those guys to where if he’s in – (as you always say) it’s always pass (and) that’s not true. (laughter) He’s done a good job of improving. I think Nick (O’Leary) has been one of those guys that’s really helped us because he’s flexible. You have a guy that can actually line up at fullback (and) can do things in protection. He’s as tough as they come. His hands are unbelievable. You never see a ball on the ground … I probably just jinxed ourselves. In practice, the ball never hits the ground. He fights. He goes against some guys that are – the size and length and all of those things he doesn’t have compared to that guy, and he finds a way to block him.”
(So why no more I-formation?) – “We’ve done it a little bit. Not a lot. We just did it in the Wildcat.”
(I want to ask you about QB Ryan Tannehill and the movement plays and the play-action stuff. It’s kind of not been part of the repertoire. Is that more ankle-related or just game plans?) – “Well, we’ve done some movement stuff (but) we haven’t protected it very well. We’ve cut some guys free. It happened again last week. We didn’t block those two safeties coming off the edge. That was one of those ones where right when we saw it, we knew what the defense was. I think everybody on the sideline was like ‘Okay, here we go. We’re going to have Kenny (Stills) wide open,’ and then we have two guys come free. That one hurts us. We can’t miss on those types of protections. Leading into the Minnesota game, we knew we had to be limited in what we were doing because we knew the ankle was going to be an issue. It was all week in practice. He felt way better last week, so we tried to get back to some of that stuff. There’s only so many things you can do when you do the sprint-out stuff. There’s just not a lot of routes. Anything with the naked (bootlegs) and stuff, teams are playing it really well right now. The ends either go up the field or middle-ground it when he comes out of it, and these guys are getting on him pretty quick.”
