Adam Gase – December 15, 2017
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Friday, December 15, 2017
Head Coach Adam Gase
(We talked about this with DE Cameron Wake. You obviously manage this throughout the year, the 14 games in 14 weeks. How do you block that out at all mentally and physically, I guess?) – “I don’t know. I haven’t thought about it until you just brought it up. There’s nothing we can do about it. We just keep going. Hopefully we’ll just keep that mindset that our guys have had. I haven’t really worried about it. They prepare each week, worry about that one game and try to find a way to win.”
(Have they handled it well?) – “Yes. Our guys have done a good job. We’ve probably had more guys this year than we did last year as far as in the building, trying to do things for recovery, making sure they use all the things that are available to them through (Sports Performance Director) Wayne (Diesel) and (Head Strength & Conditioning Coach) Dave (Puloka) and the training staff. They’ve tried to maximize everything they’ve got.”
(What kind of challenge is there for CB Bobby McCain going from the slot to outside within the same game?) – “I don’t think it’s hard for him. He works at it all the time in practice. Bobby does a good job of preparing the right way. So, when he gets out there, he plays with no fear. He plays with no hesitation. He goes out there and does his job.”
(When you look at the defense’s third-down success the last two games – 1-for-24 holding the opponents – what’s repeatable? What do you see and what’s repeatable there?) – “I think it’s just the whole group working together. (Defensive Coordinator) Matt (Burke) has done a good job of making sure that guys understand that it can’t just be the front, it just can’t be the linebacking group, it can’t just be the DBs – it’s got to be all 11 guys on the field. We’ve got to make sure we have tight coverage. If we can get the quarterback to have to progress from one to two, more times than not our d-line is going to be there. It’s happening fast. If we can just do a good job of staying tight in coverage and if they do catch the ball, get them down and get them short of the sticks, we did our job.”
(Have you guys really looked into it as far as it’s a symptom of third-and-long or a symptom of how you’ve done on first and second down?) – “It has been a mixture. Anytime you can get them in third-and-long, which has happened quite a few times, that makes it a little bit easier, because that ball, you’ve got to hold onto it a little longer, which is to our advantage up front. We’ve had some really good stops on some of the third-and-shorter distances we’ve had.”
(You just played the Pats twice late in the season in a three-week span. You’re about to do the same thing with Buffalo late in the season in a three-week span. Is there anything from that previous experience with New England that you can kind of take into … Anything you learned from that you can take and do the same?) – “Really, it’s the second game that you play. I like it, because whatever you didn’t use you’ve practiced a lot of it. It’s actually fairly fresh in their minds. When you go Week 2 and Week 15, that kind of changes it to where you might bring some of the stuff that you didn’t run, that week down the season, and they’re not going to remember all that, what you were doing. It comes back quick for these guys. Offensively, I like it. I know defensively it’s probably a little tougher because they just saw you, so they know a lot of the things that you like to do.”
(You threw a lot of wrinkles at the Pats the second time. Was that in the game plan the first time you just didn’t get to it?) – “Some of it was, but we just didn’t … It didn’t work out. We got in a different situation.”
(Going back to the third-down success that you’ve had and getting everybody to work together in the way that you have, how do you explain that? Is it just as simple as hard work or is there something more you did to facilitate that?) – “I think guys really have been doing a good job in meetings communicating, kind of talking to each other about how they’re going to either fit things up in the passing game and the rush schemes and linebackers playing off the d-line and safeties playing off the linebackers and d-line. I think it just comes down to guys just getting … It’s that part of the season where everybody is really comfortable with each other. The communication goes up as the season goes on. Guys get more comfortable playing off of each other. Hopefully we can just keep it clicking in the direction we’re headed right now. It’s a good time if we can just keep being consistent game in, game out.”
(With CB Cordrea Tankersley, do you give a little bit more, I guess leeway, in his decision knowing that things worked out pretty well last week filling in for him?) – “We were playing fairly well with him in there, too. I like when he’s out there. I like when ‘X’ (Xavien Howard) is out there. I like when Bobby (McCain) is out there, (Alterraun) Verner. We need them all, because you never know what’s going to happen within a game.”
(When it comes to WR Jarvis Landry, have you ever seen a receiver who has a better feel than him with settling down in the zones or knowing where to be to present himself to the quarterback?) – “It’s kind of that position … It’s hard to play that position if you don’t have that. I’ve been lucky enough to be around (Brandon) Stokley and (Wes) Welker, so I’ve seen some guys with differences. Jarvis, he’s a different style, because he can do all that and then he has almost that running back mentality of when he catches the ball, he’s not going to make you miss and if he doesn’t go down, he’s going to go through you and enjoy it. That’s where he brings a little different type of player than what those other guys were.”
(Can you see with CB Xavien Howard, his confidence just grow by the week?) – “Yes, I think when you have two picks and one for a touchdown, it doesn’t take much. He was confident when we kind of first started this thing. This year going into the spring, I felt like he was really feeling good about it. There were a couple bumps in the road. It probably didn’t go exactly the way he wanted to at some points of the season, but that’s football. You’ve just got to keep coming back and battling.”
