Adam Gase – September 20, 2017
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Wednesday, September 20, 2017
Head Coach Adam Gase
(Why did LB Lawrence Timmons go AWOL?) – “That’s one of those … Everything dealing with that, we’re just going to keep in-house. We’ve handled it the way we feel like we need to handle it. And really, I don’t have anything to add to that.”
(Will LB Lawrence Timmons have a chance to come back to the team?) – “It’s going to be something that I’m going to keep in-house and I’ll decide on that later.”
(LB Stephone Anthony, the thinking there? How did this come about? Did you have your eye on him for a bit? How did this go?) – “Yes, this has been going on for a while. It just finally happened and we’re excited that we had an opportunity to add somebody to our roster that we feel like can help us.”
(Saints Head Coach Sean Payton has stated that LB Stephone Anthony has explosiveness and speed but that he needs to improve his mental game. In general, when you have a player that has outstanding athleticism but might be prone to mental errors, what are some ways that you and your coaches can help?) – “It’s hard because for me, personally, I haven’t had a chance to meet him yet. We’ll just kind go through our process and determine what we feel he fits for us and the right way for us to coach him and teach him and kind of make our own assessment of how we want to use him. It’s hard for me to say anything right now when I really don’t know, because I haven’t been around him.”
(Do you even know so much as whether LB Stephone Anthony fits more in the inside or outside? Have you even gotten that far yet?) – “No.”
(So is it fair to say that LB Lawrence Timmons will not practice and play this week?) – “Yes.”
(Getting back to the trade, so that it pre-dates anything of what’s been going on in the last week then with LB Lawrence Timmons?) – “Correct.”
(Regarding LB Lawrence Timmons, do you guys have all the information on what happened?) – “I mean, we’ll keep everything in-house. I’m not going to get into all this.”
(You established a certain culture over the last two years as it applies to everybody. When guys step outside the bounds of that culture, can they be forgiven? Or is it a ‘You’ve been on your own, you’re not part of us.’) – “I think every situation’s different and I would say that you can be forgiven if the right steps are taken.”
(It’s the Jets week. What worries you about the New York team?) – “Well, they’ve got some new faces. Really, that’s going to be the No. 1 thing we’ve got to sort through is some of the guys that we haven’t really played before. There are still a lot of familiar faces and we’re going to have to get ready for a veteran quarterback and a veteran running back. Defensively, they got pretty young in the back end this year and they’ve got two guys that can really roam around and run at the safety positions. It’s going to be a challenge for us, especially with (Jets Head) Coach (Todd) Bowles. He stops the run and that’s one of the things that we really like to hang our hat on and he does a good job of stopping them and he did a good a job against us last year. I know statistically it looked good on paper; but the first game we played against them, that was not easy sledding. We popped two runs right at the end of the game that kind of made it look like we had a better day than what we did. When we play these guys, it’s a physical game. It’s a division game. It’s one of those games, this is a tough game. This is one of those ones where you throw everything out of the window because it’s going to be slug fest.”
(Are you optimistic at this point that LB Rey Maualuga will be ready on Sunday or is it still too early to tell?) – “It’s too early for me to know that right now.”
(I used a calculator to determine that after one game, RB Jay Ajayi is on pace for 448 carries.) – “That’s great. (laughter) I was happy that we were balanced. That was good. It was one of those games where it easily could have become … you start throwing the ball too much, especially towards that last six minutes. Our faith in (Ajayi) is obviously very high. The guys were doing a great job of getting guys covered up and he was really hitting them. Hopefully as the season goes on, we can kind of start moving some guys in and out. He’s a hard guy to take out of the game because every time he touches the ball, it seems like good things happen. But I am aware that that was a lot of carries. He played a lot of snaps but he was a hard guy to get out of the game because he wasn’t really willing to come out of the game. I think he felt like it was tight and we needed him in that first game. I feel like we have a good plan going forward. We’ve just got to … We’ll keep an eye on him. We’ll have some days where we rest him and just make sure that he’s getting back to full strength for the next week.”
(How did C Mike Pouncey come out of this game?) – “He played really well. It’s really amazing, the fact that he doesn’t practice very much and he goes out there and grades out the way that he does. It’s hard to put into words when you watch him play. He just knows the right angles. He has an unbelievable feel for the game. The way he gets guys covered up on the second level, it doesn’t matter where their locations is, he seems to get it done. It was great having him back out there, just seeing him play, the attitude he has, how excited he was to get back on the field. A lot of people doubted him. Just him stepping on the field, that was goal No. 1 for him. Now it’s … We talked about it before, nothing less than 16-plus (games). He’s got that mindset. I think he’s looking for people to doubt him.”
(Does T Laremy Tunsil need some time to re-adjust from all of those guard reps to the speed he faces at tackle?) – “That sack was on me. That was supposed to be a quick-game type play and nobody was open. He was setting for the ball to come out quick. They’re not going to put my name on the stat sheet and say that I gave it up; but that was my fault. He did a good job the whole game. He battled two pretty good guys. The same thing with Ja’Wuan (James). Ja’Wuan did a really good job. Those two guys, going against them snap after snap, is not an easy task.”
(We’re only getting this obviously third-hand but it seems like LB Stephone Anthony has been dealing with a high-ankle issue out in New Orleans. Did he have a physical? Are you worried?) – “Yes, he had a physical. He was good.”
(So you think LB Stephone Anthony will be available this week?) – “Mhm, possibly.”
(You said you have to do a better job with the game plan. The first half was pretty conservative. Does that include letting QB Jay Cutler be more aggressive or is that just a game-by-game basis?) – “I think it’s just really how we feel like a team is going to play us. I was definitely going to account for the pass rush (against the L.A. Chargers), especially because I didn’t know what the noise level would be. I didn’t know if we would have to go silent count. There were a lot of unknowns there. We took a couple of shots early. We just didn’t connect on them. Jay made a couple of good plays to kind of move the pocket a little bit on his own and push the ball down the field. It was more of me just kind of feeling out how we were going to fare against them with Melvin (Ingram) and Joey (Bosa) on the edges and just kind of getting those guys used to real-life game speed in a real game. Both of those guys haven’t played since the third week of the preseason. That was more really the reason for us kind of getting the ball out quicker and leaning on the run a little bit.”
(Calling plays for QB Jay Cutler, is it like riding a bike again or is there a process of just finding out what works well with him and this team?) – “I know I’ve said it before but the system that we’ve kind of come to at this point really fits him better than what we had in Chicago when I was there the first time, because I was coming from an offense that was predominantly drop back. We didn’t have the play-actions that we do now because we weren’t running outside zone. We were running more inside zone, gap-scheme type team. This system really kind of fits him better. Really, it’s a continuation of what we were already doing. The biggest thing for me is just kind of knowing when to shut up when I’m talking to him. He does a good job of tuning me out. (laughter) When you’re with a guy for a full year, it’s a little easier to jump right back into.”
(DT Davon Godchaux didn’t start but he wound up playing quite a few more snaps than DT Jordan Phillips did. Was that a result of what you were seeing on the field?) – “No. Jordan actually got an ankle (injury) last game. It really was a credit to him. He kept trying to go back in there and take some snaps off those guys but that was one of the reasons that happened. When Jordan went in, he played well. He did a good job. He did his job. It was good to see how he tried to fight through that.”
(What did you think of DT Davon Godchaux?) – “I thought that whole front did a really good job. Obviously when you (play) a team that wants to run the ball and basically force them out of it, and make them pass exclusively because they don’t want to run it anymore, that’s usually a big plus.”
(Staying on those tackles, Chargers Head Coach Anthony Lynn mentioned DT Ndamukong Suh and how he was blowing up running plays early. What did you see from Suh on film?) – “I saw a guy that was not going to be blocked. When they were trying to run the ball, it didn’t matter if there was two guys on him or one guy, he was penetrating, creating negative plays (and) causing chaos. Basically the same thing I’ve seen every week since I’ve been here.”
(Did the focus on the run game maybe affect the lack of pass rush?) – “No, the ball was coming out fast. (Chargers QB) Philip (Rivers) was not holding onto that thing. For us to allow our pass rush to really get going, we either need to get a lead earlier, so it makes them one-dimensional in the fashion where they have to push the ball down the field, and we’ve got to tighten up outside a little bit. We’ve got to understand, we have to cover them tight and make it hard for the quarterbacks. We’ve got to not allow them to throw the first progression, and that’s something that we keep talking about and we’ve been working on. That’s part of the growth of the season. You’re trying to get better every week and that’s one of the things we just need to get better at.”
(Your team seems to do well with that next-man-up mentality, adapting to that, buying into it. What can you say about that? How would you rate that skill? Is it above average, average for the NFL?) – “(It’s about) the kind of players we have. It’s each guy, whether they’re here or somewhere else. If that guy is built that way, where he feels like ‘If I become the starter, I’m going to do as good a job or do my job as well as I can,’ then it’s going to be good enough for what we need. I just think a lot of it has to do with the guys that we’ve got on this roster.”
(You mentioned outside zone in conjunction with play action. How does that lend itself to play action as opposed to inside zone?) – “It’s a tougher protection probably to defend, because the way that the outside zone run game is, when a guy sticks his foot in the ground and goes vertical, you’re closing down on the edge. You’re really unblocked. If you make that play in the run game, great; but if all of the sudden we’re booting out or we’re setting up and you’re doing that, then all of the sudden you’re blocked, there’s nothing in the quarterback’s face and he’s got a lot of time. I understand, the more I’ve been in this, why we saw Atlanta have the success they had last year. (Falcons QB) Matt Ryan really took advantage of that, him and (Falcons WR) Julio (Jones). Seeing a lot of these teams, like the old Denver teams, just watching a lot of these types of play actions, it makes sense to me why it’s worked.”
