Adam Gase – December 12, 2018
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Wednesday, December 12, 2018
Head Coach Adam Gase
(How did QB Ryan Tannehill look out there today?) – “Good. He did good. He moved around well, so that’s positive.”
(What do you need to see from QB Ryan Tannehill going forward? Is this a day-after thing?) – “No. He’ll be all right.”
(So you saw the mobility that you need to see from QB Ryan Tannehill?) – “Yeah. He’s good.”
(So QB Ryan Tannehill is playing on Sunday?) – “Yeah. Unless something crazy happens.”
(Where is CB Xavien Howard in his recovery now?) – “He’s running, which is good. We’ll just kind of see how the week goes. You’re always hopeful, but at the same time, we’ve just got to make sure … The lateral movement is really the key to everything.”
(Is CB Xavien Howard in a situation where he could play at less than 100 percent?) – “I think it’s more about the mobility. I don’t think anybody is really going to be 100 percent at this point, but at the same time, I want him to be able to play the way that he needs to play.”
(It was reported that CB Xavien Howard had his knee scoped. Was that an accurate report?) – “I’m not going to talk about anything like that. We’ll leave that in house.”
(Do you need to see CB Xavien Howard practice this week to even get an idea about game time?) – “I think it’s more about to see the mobility that we’re looking for more than anything.”
(So you could see CB Xavien Howard work out with a trainer and possibly tell?) – “Yeah.”
(You have a group of running backs that are all playing well right now. How much of a challenge is that for you as the play-caller?) – “We have a lot of packages to be able to try to get all of those guys in. It’s just getting it called, getting the amount of plays that you need. We had a lot of first and second downs last week compared to third down, so you can get two guys on the field at the same time. Those guys are all explosive. They all bring something to the table. They all have different things that they can do really well.”
(Do you recall facing a team that just changed their coordinator that week, either offense or defense, and if it was widely different than it had been?) – “It’s probably happened a couple of times. There’s one I remember when we played Baltimore in 2012. There was a little bit of difference but not like a huge swing.”
(Do you guys try to do some sort of deep dive on the guy who took over in Minnesota this week?) – “We’ve got to be careful with that. You don’t want to start chasing a bunch of stuff that doesn’t exist.”
(Is playing on the road mostly a matter of mindset?) – “No. Some of it has to do with who you’re playing. We’ve played some pretty good teams on the road. We’ve had a couple of opportunities to win some games and we didn’t finish the game the way we needed to. We had a couple of games where we just got smoked basically. Personally, I felt good going into a lot of those games when we were healthy and we either didn’t play well just on Sunday or we just got beat. I think our guys have the right mindset. We just need to play well on Sunday.”
(So you don’t see a team that’s been dramatically different home versus road?) – “Well, the results, yeah. But I don’t see a difference in the way they prepare, the focus. When we’re in our meetings when we’re on the road at the hotel, guys are wired in. When we’re at the opposing stadium, the energy and the attitude, I don’t see a drop-off in that. There’s two games we didn’t finish. That’s a big swing.”
(So in your mindset, it’s the opponent that you’re playing more so than the team’s level of execution?) – “Don’t get me wrong, we’ve screwed things up. We didn’t help ourselves. But there’s two games. That’s what it comes down to. If we win those two games, it’s a different deal.”
(You’ve changed like the day that you go a couple of those games. Is there anything else that you’ve fiddled with to kind of see if that helps?) – “Over the last three years, we’ve tried as many different things as we can. We kind of spitball things around the staff and what other guys have done, or if we’re doing something that just seems out of the ordinary. Even talking to some of the veteran players to see if there’s something strange about why we haven’t won on the road. The two-day trips, does that something positive? Negative? It seemed like the Houston game, at least we were competitive for a little bit and other Thursday games, we just got smoked right out of the blocks.”
(Are you going to Minnesota Friday or Saturday?) – “Friday. We’ll leave Friday.”
(When we talked to you the other day, you had mentioned how you more or less shut off your phone. Since then, I’m curious if you’ve gotten any memorable reaction from people, whether it is Mike Martz or the Boise people wanting royalties or anything like that?) – “Yeah, I had a lot of people text me, a few people call me. Mike is always going to … He’ll always send me something good. I’m still a ways away from answering a lot of them.”
(When you say send you something good, you’re referring to what? Funny?) – “Yeah.”
(Example?) – “No. I don’t have one. (laughter)”
(Because of the way the game ended Sunday, was it more difficult than normal this week to get your guys to turn the page and look ahead instead of behind?) – “No. There’s too little time. They understand what we’re playing for. I see guys ready to get to this one, understanding that we better be prepared. We know what we’re going against. We know that this is a really good defense. It’s a well-coached defense. We know that the players on their offense are very talented and they’ve had games where they’ve been very explosive. They’ve scored points and they’ve done a lot of good things in a lot of their games. This is going to be a tough one for us.”
(One last question on that ‘Boise’ play, the video of that play from Boise State has one lateral and most of them are one lateral. Was it supposed to be two in ‘Boise’ or did you add a second one?) – “It was DeVante (Parker) and then (Kenyan) Drake … DeVante is just supposed to run as long as he can until he can’t go anymore and then Drake is just supposed to stay in like option phase.”
(Did you add the second lateral into the play?) – “I don’t know. I think we saw when — I want to say — (Boise State QB) Jared Zabransky, he was trailing the play and it was the quarterback. And when we put it in, I think the first time we put it in might have been when Peyton (Manning) was the quarterback, so we didn’t think that was smart on our part. (laughter) So we used a running back.”
(Have you learned anything new about QB Ryan Tannehill’s toughness?) – “It’s the same thing I’ve seen since I’ve been here. I really was shocked that he came back in. I mean that looked bad. At least from where I was standing, then when I saw the replay, I really thought it was a lot worse than what it ended up being. I know when we went in at halftime, I was asking, ‘Do we need to go a series and get you out there and moving around first?’ And he was like, ‘We’re good. Let’s go.’ And I was like, ‘All right.’”
(Do you feel comfortable with the play-action stuff that you have for QB Ryan Tannehill?) – “We’re good. We’ll be all right. As long as we don’t have any kind of weird setback or all a sudden Friday he doesn’t feel right … He’s tough, man.”
(How do you explain the rushing yards that the Patriots had, I think it was a 2.6 average this game. Which compared to some of the other games was so much better. What was the…?) – “I think guys did a really good job of staying in their gaps and played disciplined. I think everybody … we didn’t have guys mis-fitting. We have to be more consistent doing that. We didn’t have the threat of a running quarterback. That kind of helps when you take zone read and all those type of things out of there.”
(Monday you said you think you know what you have in that locker room, referring to this team. What are the characteristics of this team? What comes to mind with this team?) – “Tough. The work ethic is as good as I’ve been around. They’re relentless. There’s kind of that never-say-die attitude in there.”
(Do you take that as a reflection of you?) – “I don’t know. I think it’s really the guys that we put together. That’s kind of who they were when we got them, whether it be through the draft, free agency, even some of the guys that were just added. A couple of these guys I’ve been around before and that always helps when you’ve been around a guy and you kind of know who they are and what they’re about. We’ve got a lot of guys that are really … The majority of the guys are so just team-oriented and focused that whatever they can do to help us win.”
(This is your third year. Your fingerprint is pretty securely on this team. Do you like what you see in that?) – “My only complaint is I wish we could stay a little healthier. It just seems like we kind of run in and lose some good players. It would be interesting to see what Albert (Wilson) could have done and some of those other guys – (Josh) Sitton and (Daniel) Kilgore – just kind of how much that changes everything. William (Hayes). But the guys that we’ve got in there right now, they’re battling, just trying to do everything week to week to give us a shot.”
(One guy that comes to mind is RB Frank Gore. Over 700 yards now, 4.7 yards per carry. Is that even beyond what you kind of hoped for?) – “No. I trust Frank when he told me he was ready to have a good year.”
(What can you attribute that 35 year-old RB Frank Gore put up those numbers?) – “That’s him. He doesn’t know he’s 35. He doesn’t believe it. We kind of tailored some things to make sure that he was comfortable and he’s able to run the plays that he’s run his whole career. That’s why you see some of the stuff look a little different. When he gets an opening, he hits it and he gets to that second level fast and it’s hard for those guys to bring him down. He’s still Frank Gore. He has a powerful lower body, runs through arm tackles. Multiple guys have to tackle him to bring him down.”
(Can you think of another running back at RB Frank Gore’s age being able to do what he’s able to do?) – “Not that I’ve seen, but I’ve only been around 15 years so there’s probably somebody somewhere.”
(What stood out to you about C/G Hroniss Grasu when you were together in Chicago?) – “Smart. Tough. He picked up that offense fast. He had to come in and play right away. He knows enough of what we’re doing right now to be able to jump in there and get himself ready to go. He’ll battle.”
(You’ve had a couple of NFC North battles against Vikings Head Coach Mike Zimmer. What do you remember about coaching against him?) – “It’s tough. It’s a very challenging deal as a coach because he does a very good job of playing sound defense. He gives you a lot of problems with his pressures. He has really good players. When you take a coach that’s really good at X’s and O’s and then now you say ‘Here you go, let’s have six Pro Bowlers’ or whatever they have, that makes it even worse. And they’re smart.”
