Adam Gase – November 18, 2016
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Friday, November 18, 2016
Head Coach Adam Gase
(With WR Kenny Stills, obviously he had that one bad moment early, but he’s been kind of nails since. What has he been like for you this season as one of your top three options on the outside?) – “He’s been consistent. I think the longer we’ve gone and the relationship that crew has with the wide outs and the tight ends and the running backs and quarterback, I think they’ve all had pretty good chemistry going right now. We’d obviously like to get him more involved as far as attempts, at least. I know a lot of times his throws come down the field to where the percentages will go down for the completion percentage, but I like the fact that when he is in there, that gives the defense a lot to worry about. They know they’ve got to protect versus the deep ball. We all saw what happened that one game that he goes out; now all of a sudden everybody’s kind of sitting on everything and not really worried anything coming down the field. He’s a key to a lot of things that we do in the game.”
(How much does he clear out for you guys and the underneath stuff opens up?) – “Yes. He does quite a bit of that. I know there’s a little bit of a ‘take one for the team,’ as far as what he has to do sometimes. That’s not easy to do for a wide out because every wide out is the same: they all want the ball and you know sometimes you have to do what’s best for the group.”
(Now that the California experiment is kind of over in terms of practices, what went even better than you might have thought or what was challenging that you guys didn’t really think of?) – “I think guys did a good job as far as sticking with the schedule that we had, bringing the same times we had from Miami with our meeting times (and) practice. I know we lost some time on travel and guys did a good job of taking some liberties of their own of spending extra time together, watching film and studying to where we didn’t have any setbacks as far as guys not knowing what to do. They did a good job as far as making sure that they were on pace for the game … leading up to the game. Hopefully that will pay off for us on Sunday.”
(How close to normal was the week that you were out there?) – “It was as much normal as we could possibly get it. Obviously we lost 20 minutes going to the hotel and back throughout the week; but, for the most part, it was pretty close.”
(With this offensive line, you’re probably going to maybe have three guys starting at different spots that they’re not familiar with or you are not familiar with. Does that force you to scale back anything that you have to do on offense?) – “The one thing, at least in the running game, it’s not like a secret what we’re doing. It’s not like we’re going to be able to do anything different. That’s the NFL for you as far as run game. Once you kind of establish who you are, everybody in the league knows what you are and they’re going to have their base game plan and it becomes more of an execution thing for us than anything. Pass protection wise, obviously versus this group it’s where this is a different challenge for us this week. It’s probably the best defensive line that we’re going to go against – as far as run and pass – and we’re going to have to be on it as far as assignments sounds. But at the same time, our physicality has to be great because these guys are very talented and they play very fast and their scheme’s very good.”
(Did LB Jelani Jenkins hurt his knee during the game on Sunday?) – “I think it was a combination of still (being) banged up throughout the whole year basically and then we got in the game and I think he took a couple of shots to where it just tightened up on him and he became stiff as the game went on. Then after the game, we did our evaluation and he didn’t feel right. The next day out, it showed up to where there was something there to where we had to let him sit out the whole week. Today, obviously, he could do some stuff.”
(With WR Jakeem Grant, he had a handful of mistakes in the game Sunday. Why did you come out so strongly in favor of him afterwards?) – “Because we all know how effective he can be when things are going right. Sometimes it takes a game like that to realize what you can do and what you can’t do. Obviously, when he had that dropped punt return, that was a great example of he had a long way to travel. The guy had a great punt, and he has got to let that one go. That’s a learning experience for him. Obviously, it came at a very critical time for us, and it could have hurt us bad. The defense did a great job as far as going out there, fighting every play. It didn’t go exactly the way we wanted, but we ended up with the ball at the end of the series, and we didn’t give up any points. He has got to learn from that, but at the same time, I have a lot of confidence in the fact that when he does catch the ball and gets going, he has actually got a chance to score. When you have a guy like that, he’s going to have as many opportunities as possible to return balls, whether it’s on kickoff or punt return.”
(With RB Damien Williams, when you were evaluating what you had with him, did you envision when you first got him that this would be such a multi-pronged role, or how did that evolve for you?) – “When I first got here, that was one of the first things Ryan (Tannehill) said to me was, ‘This guy can do a ton of things, and we’re going to have to work some things during the week, because he was specialized in things in the past.’ He goes, ‘There’s more there. And trust me, on Sundays when the lights come on, you’ll see a completely different guy, too.’ The more we’ve expanded our offense, he has been really able to show me he can do everything. It’s about putting him in the right spots at the right time, getting him in the game. When it’s crunch time, he’s the guy you want in there, because he makes things happen. It’s one of those things (where) it’s hard to explain. You talk about ‘it’ factor, he has an ‘it’ factor to him. The ball finds him in the most critical parts of the game, and he makes plays.”
(QB Ryan Tannehill told you that back in the spring?) – “I think it was one of the first times I ever met with him. I asked him … I want to say I asked him about, ‘Is there anybody that you would say that probably might not show up on tape as much that you know of throughout practicing,’ and that was the first name he brought up.”
(WR Jarvis Landry is well known for him fire, and RB Damien Williams has a little bit of that too, doesn’t he?) – “I think it’s different. It’s different. One thing about Damien is (he is) very confident. That’s a guy that loves this sport. He really loves competing. He loves Sunday. He loves practice. When you find a guy that loves practice the way he does, it’s hard to find that combination, because sometimes practice – especially this deep in the season – gets a little monotonous. We try to change things up, but he always seems to be the same guy. He’s always fired up. He’s always competing. He’s always talking – talking a lot during scout team periods, giving the DBs a hard time, the linebackers. He’s a fun guy to be around every day.”
(When you called that play for him on the touchdown catch, did you know it as soon as you broke the huddle that he had it?) – “I was pretty excited when we had a chance to call that play. We knew what we wanted to do if we got that specific defense. It was all about were we going to be able to keep that ball in play? Because I think there were 11 guys on the field and a couple coaches on the sideline that knew where that ball was going. It was about not getting too excited.”
(How long have you had that in your pocket?) – “That’s part of our plan a lot of times is if we get certain defenses and we get matchups that we like. That was one of the matchups we really liked going into that game.”
