Adam Gase – October 4, 2016
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Tuesday, October 4, 2016
Head Coach Adam Gase
(On looking at third down and what he’s seeing) – “(We’re) a little bit off on some things. We’ve had a couple of chances as far as … we’ll look at the whole thing as far as what our misses were, where we had a couple of chances to make some plays – whether it was (a) throw (or) catch. That was a good amount of them where we could have basically taken care of business on our own, minus schematics. (We had) probably one too many protection breakdowns. That’s probably where it comes down to the most. If we could: 1) Just make the plays that are there. That’s going to help us a lot, and then if we can just clean up some of the protections, just make sure we don’t have any free runners at the quarterback. We’ve got some guys open. They’re doing the right stuff outside. We just need to clean up some of our protections.”
(On how much of a difference just doing a little better would make) – “A lot. I mean we went through them this morning. I think (Offensive Coordinator) Clyde (Christensen) put on 15 clips and he’s like, ‘If we make seven of these, you’re looking at a completely different offense as far as time of possession, first downs, all of those type of things that can keep our drives going.’ If we can just get some of this stuff cleaned up, and I think we will, especially the way I’ve seen these guys working today. That was good to see.”
(On C Mike Pouncey returning to action on Sunday and what difference he can make) – “(A) big difference. Not only, as far as a player – obviously he’s special at what he does – but attitude. He’s a different breed. He brings the kind of confidence you want as a coach. You know he’s a guy that you can always rely on. He’s a guy that rallies the troops when things aren’t quite going right and his mindset is exactly what you want – a guy that puts his head down. He works. He’s a true pro all the way. Guys like that, you want around – especially on game day – as much as possible.”
(On if C Mike Pouncey is one of those guys that can communicate a message to his teammates that coaches cannot) – “Absolutely. We need as many guys stepping up as possible and obviously getting him back, that would be a big deal for us.”
(On how C Mike Pouncey looked at practice) – “He seemed good. We’ve got to get through this week. I keep telling him, ‘If you feel right at the end of the week, then we’ll give you the green light; but if there’s anything that doesn’t feel rightm then we’ll be on hold.’”
(On what he wants to see from CB Tony Lippett this week) – “Just consistency. Just keep doing what he’s basically been doing all through practice, and then it’s another chance for him to prove himself. (It’s) another opportunity for him to go out there and compete against some good receivers and a good scheme they have going on there. The challenge for us is going to be we’re going to need our secondary guys to do a good job of tackling too this week. It’s going to be the full gamut as far as the DBs (are) concerned of using all your skill sets to your advantage and basically, at the end of the day, stepping up and making some plays.”
(On if he was happy how CB Tony Lippett competed last week) – “Absolutely. That’s never been an issue with him. At the end of the day, he’s fairly new to the position. We just need to keep growing him as fast as possible.”
(On how the threat of Hurricane Matthew is affecting plans) – “I’m more staying away from it and just focusing on what I need to focus on. That’s why (Executive Vice President of Football Operations) Mike (Tannenbaum) and (General Manager) Chris (Grier) do such a good job as far as telling me what I need to know (and) if we need to make any kind of changes. There are plans in place already. We had discussions before we took off for summer break. We had discussions after we got back as far as certain situations and what we would do. We went to the extent of if we ever had to go somewhere else – those types of things – if we would have to leave early within a week. So we have protocols that we have in place. It’s just now kind of a wait-and-see for us.”
(On TE Jordan Cameron) – “I don’t know a timetable. We’re going through the correct steps. We’re trying to make sure we’re putting him in position to where he feels right, as far as not only health-wise, but mentally where he’s at. Sometimes it takes a second. We haven’t really gone through every process as of right now. Our trainers are being smart with it and working with the doctors and the NFL people. We’re trying to make sure we go through exactly what we need to go through. At the end of the day, we got to make sure he’s alright.”
(On whether TE Jordan Cameron visited a specialist and if it’s alarming) – “I don’t think it’s alarming. I think it’s a guy that’s trying to make sure he’s checking all his boxes and making sure that things are right with him. That was something that we really encouraged with him as well. We’ll play this thing out and figure out where we are. Really, we’re day-to-day right now. He knows how I feel about him and the support that I have for him as far as, we need to do everything we can to make sure he’s right and feels good. His health is the No. 1 priority.”
(On whether he knows how the running backs will be used this week) – “Yes, I do. That’s all you’re getting. (laughter) That’s the one time, I’m not giving you that one this week.”
(On why he thinks the running back rotation is important) – “I think I’ve got to get … Whether it’s one or two guys, I need to create some kind of flow for these guys. I feel like last week, I probably should’ve done a better job as far as if somebody got hot, keeping them in the game instead of moving guys in and out. That was some bad coaching by me, as far as rotating those guys. Going forward, hopefully we can target a couple of guys a game or one guy a game and let that guy get in the flow of it and see what happens.”
(On whether S Isa Abdul-Quddus and S Michael Thomas will rotate at free safety) – “We’ll see how this week plays out. We’ll see how practice goes. Every week, we go in and there are certain positions that we do that with. Sometimes it goes noticed, sometimes it goes unnoticed. Mike has been playing well. We felt like he could help us back there, and part of the reason is Bobby (McCain) has been playing well (in the nickel/slot position).”
(On the biggest thing that stood out to him about S Reshad Jones) – “The one thing I didn’t know about him is that, (I thought) he is kind of the guy that is somewhat quiet and wasn’t really vocal. He’s probably been one of our most vocal leaders. He’s done a good job of trying to step into that role and help the younger guys develop. To see a guy do that, kind of go outside of something that he’s never done before I appreciate that because you talk about taking something off my plate, taking something off ‘VJ’s’ (Defensive Coordinator Vance Joseph) plate – he’s done that. (We’re) not even talking about the fact that the guy is an unbelievable player. I don’t know if I’ve ever been around too many safeties like him. The only one that comes to mind that I’ve been around is Brian Dawkins, and that was the back-half of his career, or the back part of his career. He’s a special player. The toughness he plays with – his ability to do everything – is rare. I appreciate what he brings to the table.”
(On having success stopping the Bengals running game and what was the difference between that game and the first three games) – “I think our guys did a good job of taking the coaching that (Defensive Coordinator) Vance (Joseph) did as far as making sure that we were playing team defense. And they executed the plan higher that we had probably since the Seattle game. I think we had a little misstep there in the New England and Cleveland games. They did a really good job of helping each other. The defensive line did a good job, which protected the linebackers and allowed them to make plays. Then the secondary did a good job of coming up – if something did leak through – of getting up there and making sure that we got them down. If we can keep building off that, that’s going to be key. Obviously this week it’s going to be key, because we’re playing a team with two very good running backs and a good offensive line and a quarterback that’s also a threat. We just need to keep building on being assignment-sound, playing fast and rallying to the ball. That’s going to be the biggest thing.”
(On how frustrating it is to be a play caller and the offense keeps going three-and-out) – “You try to work through the game of understanding that it is four quarters. When you’ve been through it enough where you’ve had first halves where it doesn’t go quite right, and then all of a sudden you catch fire in the second half, that’s what you’re kind of hoping for. Maybe it takes one first down and all of a sudden you’re rolling. So far, we’ve kind of shot ourselves in the foot a little bit too much and it’s continued and rolled over into the second half some games. I think for us it’s basically getting back to some of our basics and doing a good job on first and second downs. Let’s get into third-and-manageable, get inside third-and-5 and let’s convert those. We have a good a number of third-and-5s and we’re in the right position, we’ve just got to finish some of these plays. I think the more we’re together and the more we’re getting used to … I think our guys are getting used to my play-calling style. I think our guys are getting used to our scheme and they understand the why. We’re doing it right. We have to take it to that next step. We have to make plays. If the ball’s a little off, make the play. If we throw a good ball, we have to catch it 100 percent of the time. If we can eliminate some of those little things … Same thing with the protection – when we have the blitz picked up and we’re in the right spot, let’s finish the blocks. Let’s get the throw off. If we clean up a couple of those things – hopefully this week, we’re heading in the right direction, as far as what we did in practice today – those numbers will turn around.”
(On if his point of emphasis is getting the first, first down) – “Yes, I guess that’s just my history as far as a lot of the offenses that I’ve been a part of, if you get that first, first down, you just feel like, ‘Alright, we’re going to score now.’ When you have that kind of confidence, you can feel it amongst the coaching staff (and) the players. Right now, we’ve been stalling out there on that first third down we have every time. What we need to do is we have to do a good job of staying third-and-manageable and get that first, first down and then let’s roll.”
(On if your reputation as a play caller is made on third down) – “Yes. A lot of times as a play caller, you’re putting it on yourself as far as let’s get up, get a good scheme drawn up, the right play called and try to pop somebody free. If you can call the right play versus the right coverage, sometimes your players just have to be in the right spots to catch the ball or finish the run, whatever it may be. That’s why sometimes as a play caller, you get frustrated because you’re like, ‘I need to hit the right number here and call the right play versus the defensive coordinator.’ Sometimes when it’s all not quite going right, you’re calling the wrong play at the wrong time, we’re not finishing (and) we’re doing this wrong, so it just kind of snowballs on you. We just need to get back to some of the little things that we were doing right earlier, especially in training camp. There have been a couple of games where we’ve actually done some good things on third down. I think if we just keep working on this and doing the right things and putting ourselves in the right position, it’ll start turning for us.”
(On why there hasn’t been more movement on third downs) – “It just depends. Last week we had third-and-1, we do it and we don’t hook up. Some teams are better at playing them than others. If you play our team, every time you go into a naked (bootleg), you feel like Mario (Williams) is right in your face. You’ve just got to know who you’re going against, what’s the right scheme – if they zone everything up, sometimes it’s not ideal; if you catch somebody in man and all of a sudden a guy doesn’t take the right angle, you might get a big play out of it. Sometimes they’ve been good; sometimes not so good. The down and distance does make a difference because playing run over ‘Hey, it’s going to be pass.’ You’ve got to pick your spots when you start moving them around.”
(On how helpful this weekend was to hit the restart button after the first four weeks) – “It was good. It was tough leading up to that game (last Thursday at Cincinnati) because everything is so fast and everybody is working so hard to try to get ready for that game. When that’s over and you’re able to come back to the office and look at what you’ve done and where you need to go to get better, that is very helpful. It’s nice to be able to come in today, point out a few things, say, ‘This is what we need to fix. Here’s where we need to get better.’ And like you said, hit the reset button a little bit, which is good because now it’s right at the right time for us – end of the first quarter, heading into the second quarter, we’ve got four home games and a bye week. Right now we just need to finish doing what we’re doing every week. We’ve got to go out there and we’ve got to work. We have to figure out a way to get a little bit better every day and then on Sunday we have to put out the right product.”
(On an example of something he did this weekend with the extra time) – “Just going through what we’ve done. That’s basically what you do. You check out formations; you check out tendencies. You look at, ‘Are we putting guys in the right position? What are we good at? What are we struggling with?’ Basically, we’re doing what the opponent we’re going to play is doing. They’re looking at us and we’re looking at ourselves to say, ‘What do we need to do to help ourselves on third down? What do we need to do to help us on first and second down? What’s our best running game? What’s the best completion as far as getting the ball out quicker? How do we help our own guys?’”
(On T Branden Albert not practicing today) – “He was sick today. He was sick so we sent him home.”
(On if T Branden Albert’s absences from practice today was ankle related) – “No.”
