Adam Gase – November 1, 2016
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Tuesday, November 1, 2016
Head Coach Adam Gase
(The window for CB Chris Culliver is one week left. He says he’s ready to play in the locker room today. Just curious of where you see him right now in practice?) – “We have time still. We’re still going through our process and he understands that. He understands that we don’t have to make any decisions right now. We’re just going to keep going through practice and seeing where he’s at (and) see how he feels. Every day is a different day as far as how well he feels, how well he moves. I feel confident as far as where he’s at with the knowledge of the defense and things like that. Being as sharp as he is and the experience he has, that was never really a concern. It was just getting him as close to what you can be in the NFL of 100 percent, which is tough to do, especially when you’re going through what he’s been going through, trying to get his body completely back together. We’ve got time to make any kind of decisions that we need to make and obviously we’re going to take the full amount of time that we need to take.”
(Do you talk big picture with your team about if you win this game you’re back at .500, you’re in the race and then do you mention the word playoffs around the team?) – “I think we’re more focused on one week at a time right now. We’ve been talking that way since before we even started the season. It’s about winning one week – being 1-0 at the end of the week. (This week is) a division game, a team that obviously has a lot of really good players and a well-coached team. We’ve got a big-time challenge ahead of us.”
(That being said, did you watch the game yesterday and do any math in your head when you see some of the results?) – “No. You don’t worry about it. It’s a long ways to go.”
(You put together the front four that you thought were going to be the strength of the team. The guy that leads in both sacks and quarterback hurries is your defensive tackle. How would you describe the season that DT Ndamukong Suh is having?) – “Unique. I think it’s been pretty consistent as far as what he’s done over his career. When you have a guy that plays the position he plays and gets double- and triple-teamed as much as he does and still somehow finds a way to get through, it says a lot about him as far as one: his preparation, work habits (and) the way that he prepares his body throughout the entire year. His knowledge of the defense is really a benefit to him because he knows all the ins and outs. You talk about a guy that’s scheme sound and does his job a lot? He’s probably the guy that does it better than anybody. That’s why he has success. That’s just taking away his physical talent.”
(Has DT Ndamukong Suh’s play been consistently good throughout the season from game to game?) – “Yes. Unbelievable.”
(With DE Mario Williams and DE Jason Jones, they both move inside to defensive tackle from time to time. What is the downside to moving them, not moving them there full time, but playing them more instead of just pass situation?) – “It’s just the different … It’s like o-line, the same thing. It’s these different angles, different vantage points, views, how you set things up as far as your movement, patterns and things like that. I think sometimes it’s good to move those guys around. It’s hard to … Who’s doing what? Who’s going to be the guy that we would want to run around in stunts? Who’s picking? Who’s the guy wrapping around? Things like that. Who’s penetrating? Any time that you can grow the menu of things that you’re guys do, it makes it tough for the offense to get ready for. Hopefully you can try to pigeonhole them into a little box there to where they always have to do something the same. ‘Hey, we have to run this type of protection because at least we know we can pick everything up.’ When you have guys that are as flexible as that whole group is – I mean those guys can move all over the place – it makes it tough on the offense. I know (that) from the other side of the ball, just going through training camp and OTAs and just trying to figure out where everybody’s at. They do everything different but they can do a lot of things the same. It makes it really tough protection-wise to consistently pick up.”
(You guys have struggled pretty much on defense most of the season, but there’s one area – third down efficiency – that you guys are pretty dominant. How is it that you can struggle in so many areas but be so dominant on third down? That doesn’t make much sense to me.) – “I know (Miami Herald columnist) Armando (Salguero) is going to disagree with me on this, but I think if we would’ve done a better job on offense, we wouldn’t have been in the situation that we put our defense in where they’re having 75(-plus) plays a game. It changed the whole dynamic of why we put the defense together the way we did. We built it to play with a lead; we built it to where they can pass rush. Those first four or five games, all they did was play the run. The last two games, they haven’t had to do that. They’ve been able to get after it. Fifty-five plays to 50 plays makes a big difference for those guys, because their energy level is high. You get into the third and fourth quarter, and all of a sudden they’re still flying around, when you’re on the other side of the ball and every possession counts like that and you go three-and-out, it stings. All of a sudden you start pressing and you’re trying to pass the ball more to get bigger plays and score at a rapid rate so you can get the ball back. It makes it hard on the opposing offense. We didn’t do a good job earlier in the year on offense, which put our defense in a bad spot. That’s why you’ve got to take the full 16 games. You can focus on one thing right now, but we’ll see what happens over the rest of the season and see basically where we’re at, at the end of the year.”
(How much did TE Dion Sims do today?) – “He can do … basically he could do individual, and then he can’t have any kind of contact.”
(The NFL trade deadline is about 45 minutes away. Is there any chance that you guys do anything? Or is this the team you’re going to roll with?) – “I don’t know. When I get back in there, then I’ll have an idea of what’s going on. Obviously, it seems to be different than most sports, right? You don’t see (trades in the NFL) as much. It’s rare to be involved in trades in the NFL, it seems like. When something happens, it’s an explosion of news. Right now, we’ll see what’s going on in there, but I haven’t heard anything.”
(The Jets are rated last in pass defense and CB Darrelle Revis is uncharacteristically giving up a lot of big plays. Just curious of what you see of him on film compared to the Darrelle Revis we know of the past few years?) – “Well, last year I didn’t see him. Actually the year before, he was a nightmare, at least when we played him. I mean, he shut down a pretty good group of receivers that we had and the guy I see on tape is still a guy that plays physical and when he figures out what you’re doing concept-wise, you better be careful because he’s a smart player. He has seen a lot of things in his career. You put that ball anywhere near him, he’ll have it. So I know when you’re in a position he is and you go against a number one every week, it’s not always going to look the way everybody wants it to look – zero catches for zero yards. I mean, there are good players out there and he has won his fair share. I know that. And over his career, he has been one of the best ones probably ever to do what he does and play that position.”
(How has the frequency of eight-man fronts you guys see changed, say maybe from even the first quarter against the Pittsburgh Steelers to all the way through?) – “It hasn’t changed. I mean it has been pretty much the same. We’ve seen the same stuff throughout the entire season.”
(Your offense is among the league leaders in yards per play and yards per rush. You’re last in the AFC in first downs, which would say lots of big plays. Is that what this offense is or do you think it’s going to change?) – “I would say it was a lot of three-and-outs early in the year. I mean, we got … we were so bad early. The last two weeks have been different. You have 25-plus first downs the last two games, it makes a big difference. We went through some growing pains. We had some things happen that obviously we wanted to be better at what we were doing (and) we weren’t. So we made improvements, we’ve made changes. We’ve got a couple things going that has put us in a better position to be in third-and-manageable and then convert on third down. You just want to keep that going as much as possible.”
(Has DT Earl Mitchell been practicing and what could his return mean?) – “Yes, today is the first day that he could actually go out there and practice; but I think we still have some time here before he can actually have a chance to be activated. So we’ll go through our process on that just like the rest of those guys as far as the date that he can come back and everything’s good to go and we don’t have any setbacks.”
(How much did DT Earl Mitchell do today?) – “We just tried to get him going. I mean, I don’t remember the last time he practiced. You don’t throw him out there and say, ‘Hey, take every rep at practice.’”
(DT Earl Mitchell can’t play until two more weeks right?) – “Yes.”
(You’re going to London next year. So philosophically, is that something you like, hate, don’t care about?) – “I’ve been involved in it one time. To me, it happens so fast it’s just kind of part of what you’re used to in this league. Whether it’s flying to the West Coast, going to London, you just know you’re going to travel. Obviously being down here, anytime you go near the West Coast, it’s a hike. We went to Seattle this year. I mean, whether we stay here or go to London, it’s just part of what the NFL is now. It’s more worldwide and we’re one of the teams that are going to go over there. So we just do as told.”
(Does it bother you to lose a home game?) – “I think looking at this (with) us having the Super Bowl here and things like that, there are certain things that we ended up … We’re going to London. It is what it is. That was … We know that was possibly going to happen. For us, like I said – players and coaches and staff – we just roll with the punches.”
(Panthers QB Cam Newton complained about taking a lot of hits and treatment of quarterbacks. Your quarterback has taken a lot of hits. Has there been anything excessive? Do quarterbacks in general need more protection in this league?) – “It has changed since I started, and it hasn’t been that long. But I do remember when it seemed a lot more violent, so I guess it has toned back a little bit. That’s a tough job. You can’t always see everything (when) you get all those guys around the quarterback. I know he’s in a position where being a bigger guy sometimes, he takes some shots, and he hangs in there. But at the same time, when they miss it – when you’re in that position and you get hit, whether it be around the knees or you get hit late – it frustrates those guys, because there are certain rules in place, and you just want them enforced. It’s a tough position to play. You take some shots and eventually your body … You start feeling it.”
(With LB Kiko Alonso, is there anything about his game that, maybe, you didn’t know – or about his preparation – that surprised you?) – “I think the intel that we got before that whole trade went down was pretty solid. We had a good feel when we made that deal as far as what we were getting. It was about keeping him out there and figuring out what was the right position for us at the time. I think that was the biggest evaluation process we went through is, ‘Is it Mike or Will (linebacker)? What do we want to do with it? What do we want to do with him?’ That was really our biggest thing we had to go through with him. But he has been pretty much as advertised of what we thought.”
(With the linebacker unit, you’ve made some changes where now LB Jelani Jenkins is now exclusively the nickel and LB Neville Hewitt and LB Donald Butler are the base guys. Has that altered how that unit has performed?) – “I think it has helped us as far as we feel confident as far as trying to spread those snaps out. I know Jelani is coming off of a few injuries here, and we just want to make sure that we have him for the rest of the season. If that means we take a few snaps off of him – and he’s not banging around in base defense – I don’t think that hurts us to the point where we’re deficient. The guys that have stepped in, in that base unit have done a great job, and they’re assignment-sound, and they’re making plays. (Linebackers Coach) Matt (Burke) has done a good job as far as getting those guys ready. Whoever’s available … He has had a couple situations where we’ve gone into some games where we’re one guy away from really having some issues in a game. Those guys have toughed out some things that a lot of position groups would be frustrated with and a lot of coaches would struggle with.”
