Adam Gase – November 17, 2017
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Friday, November 17, 2017
Head Coach Adam Gase
(We noticed that WR Kenny Stills was not practicing.) – “Right.”
(Is WR Kenny Stills out for this week?) – “I’m not really sure but things are looking better than they were yesterday. We kind of got going into practice (yesterday) and he wasn’t feeling right, so we pulled him out; and then today we’re just being … trying to just get him feeling a little bit better. So we’ll kind of see. We’ve got a couple of days still.”
(What kind of season has WR Kenny Stills had? His numbers are better in recent weeks.) – “He’s been doing what we’re asking him to do. There’s been a lot of times where his job has been to clear things out to get other guys the ball. We’ve tried to work downfield on a few things. We just haven’t been getting really some of the looks that we want heading into the game. We haven’t been able to take advantage of really his vertical speed. I think it’s pretty well known that he can get behind guys. We did it a lot last year. He’s done in the past. It’s just they’re aware of him. It just makes tough. You’ve just got to call things at the right time.”
(What is your best experience with RB Damien Williams in the two years you’ve spent with him?) – “I think just watching him improve. The attention to detail that he has, the pride he has, to make sure that he’s doing things right. If he makes a mistake, you’re probably not going to see the same mistake twice. I think that Oakland game was one of the better things I’ve seen him do in a game. I think last year against Buffalo when he went about 9 yards for a touchdown in a mosh pit. He’s a relentless runner and he’s a fun guy to watch and he’s a fun guy to coach. When he goes to practice, it is full speed all the time. It doesn’t matter, or in a walkthrough he’s going a little bit faster than everybody else.”
(Do you have to have a few guys like that on your team to kind of kick start the rest sometimes?) – “I think it’s always good to have as many of those guys as you can find. It’s just one of those things where this is it. This is what he loves doing. He doesn’t want to do anything else. He has no interest in anything else and it’s fun to be around a guy like that.”
(If WR Kenny Stills can’t go, does WR Leonte Carroo step into that spot?) – “I’ll worry about that if that’s the case. I mean we’re always going to have contingency plans on what to do.”
(You were talking about RB Kenyan Drake in the offseason and I think you said that he makes you crazy. Does he make you less crazy now?) – “I think he’s done a good job of …”
(What are some things that have changed?) – “He’s made a lot of improvements. A lot of improvements.”
(Such as?) – “Just being … the mistakes are way, way down and I don’t know if it’s … He’s playing so much more and he’s getting more reps. It helps him to where he gets to take all the walkthrough reps and he’s getting so many more reps in practice and then he’s getting the live action reps in games. (I don’t know) if that’s just kind of made everything kind of make sense to him. I see a guy that’s very attention to detail in meetings. He’s always taking notes, good eye contact, asking good questions. Sometimes it’s just when you get thrust in that role, it seems like you know what to do real fast.”
(When you’ve lost three straight, do you rely on the vets to keep the mindset positive and upbeat to guide the younger players how to navigate through this?) – “I mean this is, it’s kind of the NFL. It is ups and down. Every week is like either disaster or you’re the best team ever. You just keep plugging along. You have so much time. You want to just keep getting better and doing things right. That’s the key to everything and if you do that, that gives you your best chance for the next week. The hardest thing for anybody is just realizing once that game is over, you make your corrections and you better move on quick. If you sit there and linger and think about things, what went wrong, what you needed to do and you either don’t like play calls or guys aren’t executing, if you keep worrying about it, one loss becomes two. We’ve had certain things we’ve done better. We just need to put a full game together with all three phases.”
(Do you find the young players, that if they make an egregious mistake, they tend to dwell more than say a veteran and let that linger?) – “Sometimes. I think every guy is different. Some guys, they start over real fast. I think vets have a better understanding of how to do it because they’ve been through it so many times. I think anybody’s that been in the NFL long enough has had some really rough years and had some good years. I know I’ve had my fair share of seasons where it wasn’t very fun. So at the time, going through it, it’s a terrible, terrible feeling; but it helps you. It helps you down the road because when you hit (a skid and) lose a couple in a row, you know to handle it. You know what you need to try to do to get better.”
(T Laremy Tunsil can be very hard on himself when he’s not playing up to his standards earlier in the year. Have you had pep talks with him this year and how has he played the last couple of weeks?) – “He’s played better. He’s been getting better throughout the year. I do think he is extremely hard on himself, but we have very high expectations for him and we’ve made that known to him. He’s always been very confident since he got here, especially when he got bumped out there (to tackle). I think one of the first things he ever told me was, ‘Don’t worry about my side.’ That kind of confidence is what you want and it’s the same thing as when we talk about corners or wide outs if you have a drop. You better have a short-term memory because every guy you go against is good. They’re all good. Every defensive end you face, there’s probably an elite guy that’s going against him. So if he gets beat, you’ve just got to have short-term memory and come back. That’s why it’s a full group effort. Everybody’s got to be doing their job, quarterback getting rid of the ball, guys getting open fast. If you do that, that gives us our best chance as a full group.”
(Did you see DT Ndamukong Suh being hindered at all by that knee when you watched the Carolina game? Did he seem any different?) – “I don’t know if I’ve ever talked to him after a game where he said he played really well, so every game he’s going to be very critical of himself. When I look at it, I always see a really tough guy to block, you see a guy constantly getting double-teamed. You rarely see one guy trying to block him. If you can imagine, that’s your whole day is going against two guys. It’s just a tough way to make a living and he still finds a way to shake free, get in there and be disruptive. I guess I just don’t see anything that’s … It’s hard to see visually. I just know he wasn’t feeling great. He gave us everything he had. He was trying to do everything he could to help us stop those guys.”
(Your defensive line as a whole, when you look at things that need to change on your defense, is that group playing to the level of expectation or do you need more from that group as well?) – “It’s tough to point out one group because on defense, it takes that whole unit. You have to do a good job of taking that first progression away in the coverage, because it’s hard when the ball comes out as fast as it does usually on us, we’ve got to make that quarterback get to the second progression for those guys to really have a legitimate opportunity to affect the quarterback. It’s hard to just win when the ball comes out that fast. I think those guys are working to affect the quarterback as much as possible. There’s only so much they can control. They just have to make sure that we stay in that group mindset of, ‘Everybody do their job,’ because even if they’re not getting home, that means the ball’s coming out quick. We’ve just got to get tighter in coverage. When we do that and start batting balls down and try to create some kind of turnovers, whether it be fumbles or interceptions, that helps everybody. It helps the back end, linebackers and the front.”
(What does CB Xavien Howard have to do to improve his confidence with turning his head and locating the football and challenging vertically?) – “Some of those are tough plays no matter who it is. It’s a feel thing. You’ve just got to have that feel of the receiver’s body language, route concepts, splits. There’s a lot of factors that go in it. What’s your responsibility at the same time? A lot of it is experience. Just keep going through this process and when you see something, you understand how to fix it and how to make tighter coverage or when to turn your head around. It’s one of those things when you try to gamble one time and all of the sudden they double move you, now it’s worse than what it was before. I think he’s doing a good job. Every time we come out to practice, he’s trying to find a way to get better. He stays tight on coverage. He’s right there. I know there was a time when I think we were talking about body last year. He had tight coverage and hadn’t gotten his hands on any balls and this year we’re seeing him knock balls down. We’re seeing him … Quarterbacks are forced to throw the ball outside because he’s doing such a good job staying tight inside. It’s the same thing. Just keep playing. When you get on that run when you get your hands on the ball, it just kind of avalanches.”
(A lot of coaches have their stats or their numbers that they think are very telling or that they put a lot of value on. Where do you put giveaway/takeaway? I think you guys are -4, if I’m not mistaken. How has that affected the season?) – “That is something that’s important to us. I think part of the reason we haven’t had as many takeaways is it feels like – it’s just reality – we haven’t had any leads, which we can’t use our pass rush to our advantage. Instead, teams are able to stay balanced, able to run the ball throughout the entire game instead of giving our guys some kind of lead so our pass rushers can get after it, the quarterback has to hold onto the ball a little bit longer because he needs to try to make up some yards in some chunks. If we did that, you’d see more sack fumbles, you’d see more forced throws, you’d see a better chance for interceptions. It’s really an offense-defense thing. At the end of the day, both sides have to do their job and if you get some kind of a lead, that’s when you can really start forcing turnovers.”
(I liked your idea about 30 plays a game for LB Rey Maualuga at fullback. Have you explored other avenues in the offense where he can help you?) – “No, we’re just trying to find somebody to play a little bit of fullback for us. It’s good. It’s a good change up for us, something that we really hadn’t done a whole bunch of.”
