Dowell Loggains – December 27, 2018
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Thursday, December 27, 2018
Offensive Coordinator Dowell Loggains
(In your experience, how hard is it to get guys up for a non-playoff-type environment like this week?) – “If you have the right guys, it’s not an issue. Whatever you put on tape is your resume in this league. You have to go out and play hard and compete for your teammates. So, I don’t expect anything like that, any let downs that way.”
(It’s a week of uncertainty, obviously, around here. How do you handle … There’s not finality of what’s going to happen with this coaching staff going forward.) – “I’m certain we’re going to have practice tomorrow and a game on Sunday and that’s all I’m worried about at this point.”
(I’m sure you’ve been through instances before where changes have been made. How do you handle those as an individual?) – “You worry about that stuff when it comes up. But right now, the focus is on this week and making sure that we do the right thing by the guys that are playing and competing hard and have done that all year.”
(You mentioned earlier in the season going into the Vikings game probably wasn’t the ideal situation and QB Ryan Tannehill had to perform better on third downs for the unit to perform better on third downs. What are the things you need to see from him on that down for that elevated play to show up?) – “It’s just the ability to make plays. Sometimes it’s different. Sometimes guys are doing a great job creating separation, so number one is open in the progression and you make the throw you need to make. Sometimes the protection isn’t great and you have to extend the play and make an off-scheduled play. Third downs are very unique in this league for that reason, because a lot of them do happen off-schedule. If you can get number one open, it obviously helps, and you protect the right way and everyone executes the play, then your job is simple and you should get the number one. The things you do as a quarterback, we’re judged on third down, 2-minute, on those things. Sometimes that’s where you have to improvise and make plays off schedule and it takes 11 guys doing their job to do that.”
(When you’re taking about off-schedule plays, you’re meaning buy time in the pocket, improvise?) – “Buy time in the pocket. Sometimes it’s (the) one and two (reads) might be covered, so getting to number three and having a good feel in the pocket, pushing up one, over one and finding a lane to throw a ball in. Sometimes it’s extending a play with your legs. Sometimes it’s doing those things. Sometimes it’s being smart and the thing is breaking down and taking a smart sack and understanding that you’re not going to lose punting, even though you want to continue to convert third downs and get more opportunities to have first and second down and create more plays for yourself. It’s just managing the down.”
(Do you think that’s been a reason why this season has taken a turn with the two turnovers against Cincy, not getting a first down in the fourth quarter against Indy and the pick-six last week?) – “I think our third-down production has definitely been a reason why we haven’t accumulated more plays. It’s something that we need to be better on this week and it hasn’t … We haven’t met our goal in how good we could’ve been with that stuff. We have one more opportunity to correct that. We went out and had a good day of practice today and we need to go out and execute.”
(What have you learned about your offense, I guess, up to this point in the season?) – “A bunch of guys learned a bunch of different players because a bunch of things happened. You go into a season and you think, ‘Okay, these are our guys,’ and you know there’s going to be change. All of a sudden, there’s a lot more change than you expect just with the roster and how things went. You learn how resilient the group was, how they stuck together and they battled. There was a lot of mental toughness because this season hasn’t been the season we wanted or would’ve hoped for. We need to finish the right way. We found out a lot about the guys, the makeup of it, and it’ll be another test this week. Everyone is saying it’s a meaningless game, which I don’t think that exists. I think every time … You get (16) opportunities to do this and with injuries in this league, the players, they’re not promised (16). For the most part, your team is. So, you go out and compete and do it for each other. I think we found out a lot about our team that way.”
(What have you learned, I guess, about QB Ryan Tannehill?) – “How resilient he is, how tough he is, how much he cares, how important it is to him. He’s battled through so many things this year as far as injuries, being beat up and the ups and downs of the season, to being 3-0 to losing back-to-back games and doing those things. Found out a lot about his character.”
(Going back to the third-down situation, as you were talking about, I couldn’t help but think back to two instances in Dolphins history: One, when QB Dan Marino was playing, he knew that if he threw to WR O.J. McDuffie, they were going to move the chains. And then more recently, QB Ryan Tannehill had a pretty fair comfort margin with WR Jarvis Landry, where there was a good chance Jarvis was going to be able to move the chains. Does this team maybe need that guy who, whether everybody in the stadium know he’s going to get the ball or not, is the dependable third down move-the-chains kind of guy?) – “I understand the question but obviously I wasn’t here. I was probably three when Marino was playing. (laughter) I can’t speak on Jarvis and that relationship. Obviously, I’ve seen the tape and he was a huge asset on third down and every down. He obviously had a bunch of catches here. I think it’s just the execution and that’s doing a good job of putting those guys in situations to be successful. It’s a combination of a lot of different things. It’s not just one thing. It’s protecting better, doing all those things. There are a lot of things that we need to clean up for this game. When the season is over, you go back, you self-scout, you figure out, ‘Could we have used someone different ways,’ or ‘Going forward, can we use this guy better?’ Right now, the sole focus is to make sure that we use the guys we have with the protection that we have and the quarterback that we have and the tight ends we have to move the chains on third down for this game.”
(The offense has scored one touchdown in each of the last two games. I know that there’s a lot of different reasons for that. One thing, overarching, that absolutely needs to be fixed to make that a different fact is what?) – “Such a broad question. There’s a lot of things. I don’t think it’s one thing. If I had to pin things down on … It’s everyone, starting with the coaches down to the players, down to the … Each position group executing and understanding the plan better. I know it’s a really broad answer and I wish I could give you more on that. In the offseason, you study and dive into self-scout and do all that stuff. It really comes down to … The third down thing is a big deficiency for us, because you limit yourself. You end up playing 50 to 57 plays, 55 plays, instead of playing a game where if you convert on third down … When we won, it’s shown up more. I think the one thing this team has done a really good job on is cutting down on the penalties and the turnover ratio. I think that’s probably kept our record to what it is right now, which isn’t where we want it to be; but I think those are things you can build off of. Definitely the execution of third down, staying on the field in first and second down. And the explosive plays have gone down as well the last five or six weeks. We’ve had a couple big runs here and there, but not like we were getting early in the year when we were getting those chunk plays and doing a good job taking care of the ball and not beating ourselves. We were relying on those chunk plays to sometimes cover up not doing a great job on third down or being deficient here or there. You have those long plays that equal touchdowns and those things get masked for a week or two and then when those things start drying up, that’s when the execution of each play becomes more important.”
(Are there too many personnel groupings that kind of pull people in and out the games where they can’t really get into a groove, like maybe WR DeVante Parker playing every snap against Houston and then trailing off like that?) – “My opinion would be no. I think it’s important sometimes when you have a 53-man roster and you get 46 actives that every person has a role. If they’re going to be active they’re going to … That’s kind of the philosophy we’ve taken here is if they’re going to be up, let’s try to give them a role. Sometimes you get to that package, sometimes you don’t. (Brandon) Bolden has gotten some weeks. Some weeks he hasn’t played at all on offense that way. I wouldn’t say that. I think that’s actually a strength we have is defenses have to prepare for all of that stuff. If they’re repping Cover 4, they have to do it versus every personnel group we have. If they’re going to rep a blitz, they have to do it versus everything we do. I think that’s a strength of ours and advantage we have. Obviously, when players are hot, you want to roll them. You don’t want to take them out and do those things. But I think that’s a strength we have.”
(In retrospect, the real efficiency you guys have had running the football, did you guys run the ball enough this year?) – “That’s such a broad question. We’ll go back and look at it at the end of the season to kind of figure out where we’re at. Sometimes the efficiency thing is … I thought we did a pretty good job with it. Sometimes you usually look at yards per carry and you take out some of those chunk plays and all of a sudden you have to find the median of … Don’t let a 75-yard run, do you average 9.0 yards in a game all of a sudden take that thing out and really figure out, ‘How well do we really run the football? Did we control the line of scrimmage like we wanted? Were we able to play in our terms?’ I think early in the year, we were a little more balanced. I think it was probably better than it has been lately. Our numbers are still pretty decent, I think. I don’t look at the stats much until the end of the season, but I think it’s been better because of a 75-yard touchdown run here or there against Minnesota and those things.”
(Those big plays do happen when you do run the football. Those are a big part of your offense.) – “Right now, the backs are doing a really good job. Guys are explosive. Kalen (Ballage) has done a nice job coming in. (Kenyan) Drake is obviously a playmaker and (Frank) Gore to this point. (Brandon) Bolden has had a couple. It’s definitely something that helps. The efficiency is – when I say that is – don’t look at a 75-yard run and you have a 7-yard average and then all of a sudden, you take that away and it’s, ‘Hey, we really averaged 2.7 yards.’ So, if you run the ball on first and second down, you’re looking at third-and-(long). There are some things where the stats can be manipulated that way. The yards per carry can be manipulated that way a little bit as well.”
(It’s not a secret that Head Coach Adam Gase loves to throw the ball. How often have you had to talk to him about running the ball this season?) – “I think Adam … Does he love to throw the football? Absolutely, yes. I think it’s what we want to be. I do think that he understands the strength of the team at this point right now is the run game for multiple different reasons. I think he’s done a pretty good job balancing that stuff. There’s definitely, in the passing game and run game, there’s definitely things we need to improve, that we need to improve this week, to make sure we play well against Buffalo.”
(Have you done a good enough job on controlling the line of scrimmage this season? Especially lately, the sacks have been piling up.) – “We’ve had too many sacks here of late. The sacks are definitely. When you say on the line of scrimmage, I will put the quarterback in it, I will put the coaches in it, the tight ends, the running backs, the o-line. Have we done a collective good enough group the last two or three weeks? Absolutely not. It’s something that we can improve on at each position group, starting with the coaches from Coach Gase to myself and down the line of position coaches to every positon group. We’ve had way too many sacks the last three weeks. It’s something we need to improve on this week.”
(I know it’s everybody’s responsibility, everybody’s fault, but there seems to be clearly something. It’s not play calling. It’s not the offensive line. What is going on where this has become … Because it’s never been this much of an issue until now.) – “I do think it’s a combination of everything. It’s not one thing. I wish … If it was one thing, you point it out and you get it fixed. The offensive line can be better in the passing game and protecting on stunts. A couple of the running backs can do better a better job in protection and understanding. The tight ends the same way. Ryan (Tannehill), at the very end, he has the ball in his hands and it’s his responsibility on first and second down, ‘Hey, don’t take sacks. Get the ball out.’ Or third down, sometimes it’s better to take a smart sack and punt. We tell them, ‘Hey, If we end every series with a kick, it’s not going to be the way we want, but we’re not going to lose the game doing that.’ We have to take advantage of our plays when we’re there. It really is everybody. I know it’s probably not the answer that we’re all looking for, but it’s not one thing that you can say … I can tell you what each group needs to work on and where our deficiencies are, but it’s still the collective group of 11 players and coaches included in that group.”
(Do you think teams are playing you guys differently because of this issue? Obviously, when you’re struggling with something, teams keep doing it until…) – “Absolutely. You guys know it. You guys watch the tape. You guys see it. There are things we need to improve on, that we have weaknesses on. Like I said, we haven’t protected as well up front in games. The blitz stuff … We had a couple weeks where we had some issues with the backs. There are things like that. Definitely people game plan your strengths and weaknesses off tape.”
(Head Coach Adam Gase has talked about the impact of losing WR Albert Wilson and WR Jakeem Grant and some of the o-line. What impact do you think injuries have had on how the season went?) – “The excuse is there if you want to use it. It’s not going to do us any good. Obviously, those are really good players we lost. The two guys, the two receivers, are guys who score touchdowns. The theme of this interview has been the explosive plays were happening earlier that covered up some things and hid deficiencies. You guys like Josh Sitton and Daniel Kilgore, that’s going to hurt you. It was 17-0 when Laremy (Tunsil) went down the Cincinnati game. Definitely, all those things hurt; but every team in the NFL deals with it. It’s part of the game. That’s why you have backups and everybody has the same amount of players and same cap space. You have to do a good job developing your players and make sure you have quality backups.”
(Getting all of those guys back alone won’t fix the offensive issues?) – “I think any time you get your starters back, all of a sudden you’re saying ‘We’ve got five or six starters coming back off a team that…’ If you lose five or six starters to start the season or Week 3, 4, 5 or whenever it happened, absolutely (getting them back) is going to help a ton. There are also things that we can coach better. There are also things that we can execute better. We need to do a good job developing our players as well. It’s not just one thing. It’s going to be multiple things that we need to improve on in the offseason.”
(How have Head Coach Adam Gase and Defensive Coordinator Matt Burke taken to this week knowing a win could be much different for their future than a loss could be?) – “The same way they do every week. No week in this league is better than the other, whether it’s Week 1 or Week 17. Those guys are professionals. They’re going to work their tails off and prepare the right way and make sure we put our players in the best situations to be successful. It’s not different.”
