Adam Gase – December 2, 2018 (Postgame)
Sunday, December 2, 2018
Postgame – Buffalo
Miami Dolphins Head Coach Adam Gase
Crazy game.
COACH GASE: Who cares? It’s a win.
You guys get outgained 415 to 175 and win. Do you feel fortunate?
COACH GASE: I don’t care. It’s fine. We didn’t turn it over. We left too much out there on offense. We had opportunities. It’s a good defense, one of the top teams in yardage. But we knew if we won the turnover margin that was going to give us a good chance to win.
What was going on in your mind that last play with QB Josh Allen and TE Charles Clay getting open?
COACH GASE: I was just thinking, ‘Get him down,’ and the longer he extended it, then you start getting concerned, because you just figure somebody’s going to free up. I know both sides were gassed. It was just going to be who was going to keep fighting. I think both teams did everything they could today until the end.
As far as rookie quarterbacks go, it seems like he keeps you on your heels a little bit, keeps you guessing a little bit more than normal.
COACH GASE: He’s a big guy that can run and obviously (if) somebody shakes free down the field he, can throw it a long way. So, he causes a lot of problem in that area. You’ve got to stay in your coverage when he starts scrambling around. That’s why it’s hard for guys to just take off and start chasing him because they know if they leave their guy and he sees them, it’s going to be a touchdown.
I know you watched them in the pre-draft lead up. This is the first time actually playing against him. Were you impressed?
COACH GASE: I think it was what I would expect. I think last week he played well. He’s only going to get better. He’s going to be a tough guy to go against for a long time.
You guys are still alive I guess in the playoff race and what you guys want to accomplish. What does that mean to you?
COACH GASE: I think it’s one game at a time for us right now. We’ve got to focus … When it hits Wednesday, focus on the next week. Just worry about that one and do everything we can to win that game. These guys should enjoy this one for the next 24 hours and then we’ll move on.
How do you think QB Ryan Tannehill played?
COACH GASE: I thought there was a lot of good. There were a couple things that right away, he knew that he missed. But we ended up scoring on those drives anyways, which was good. It didn’t hurt us. The interception, I thought he threw a pretty good ball, it gave us a chance. I think we go back and watch that one and Kenny (Stills) will probably think, ‘Maybe I could have stopped and went up and got it,’ and Ryan will probably say he should have probably put it out there a little more.
What does this win mean for your football team? Keeps you alive in the postseason.
COACH GASE: I think our guys were excited we won a tough game, a division game. It seems like, against those guys, it’s always, it’s just tough. It’s tough to play their defense. They have a tough scheme and they do a good job executing everything. Their offense, it’s a little different than what we’ve seen the past couple of years. The young quarterback and his ability to move around, that causes problems.
You’ve got a quarterback last week that was staying in the pocket and throwing, you got a guy here that rushed for 135 yards. Got to be some frustration level with that knowing that you’ve got good coverage and guys figured out how to get a first down.
COACH GASE: I’m not frustrated about anything right now. We won. That’s all we cared about this week. We’ll correct the things we need to correct. We’ll have to make adjustments next time we play them to make sure that he can’t do that to us. I thought we did a good job of trying to bottle up (LeSean) ‘Shady’ McCoy and keep him contained. We did a decent job there. There was a couple times where it got a little scary seeing him in the open field. We just got to do a better job of making sure the quarterback can’t run for that much on us and that’s a couple weeks away, next time we play them.
They came in with a good defense. Go down, score easy. After that, it was tough. Was it the defense exerting their will or was it breakdowns? What did you see?
COACH GASE: Probably a little bit of both. They are a good defense. We hurt ourselves sometimes. We get a first down and then we get a holding. We had two holding calls. So we hurt ourselves a couple times. We just need to clean up some of those penalties, because it just goes back to technique and fundamentals, all the things that we work on every day. The day that we get a lot of that stuff cleaned up and avoid those type of penalties, it’ll help us a lot.
Two more interceptions from CB Xavien Howard and he’s just playing at a very, very high level.
COACH GASE: I just wish we could turn those into points. Those are game-changing plays and he’s doing a good job of making it hard to throw to his side. We need him to keep doing that. We need whoever is on that side that he’s covering, just lock that guy down and the rest of the guys just got to keep getting better.
On the last touchdown in the corner of the end zone, when you saw him throw into double coverage – tell the truth – when you saw QB Ryan Tannehill throw into double coverage, you wanted to kill him. And then when WR Kenny Stills caught it, you wanted to hug him.
COACH GASE: I wasn’t sure … That safety was kind of flatfooted, so I was hoping at worse it was going to be an incompletion. I didn’t think any negative thoughts at all.
Was WR Kenny Stills open on that play?
COACH GASE: He caught it.
Was he open on all the plays?
COACH GASE: He might have been.
You played WR Brice Butler more than we’d seen. What exactly has happened there? Was it to the point you were trusting him to that extent?
COACH GASE: I think he’s done a good job learning the offense. He’s had two weeks of full practice to be able to get a lot of reps. He’s picked everything up really fast. There’s a lot of cross-over (with) what he’s done before and here. He’s just a guy, he’s been around for a minute, so he understands what we’re trying to do for the most part. He’s a big guy that can go get the ball if we throw it to him. There’s something about that size that makes it comfortable for the quarterback.
How did it work out today?
COACH GASE: I thought he did a good job. I don’t remember looking at … I know he had one chance for a ball down the field to where he didn’t like his release and Ryan (Tannehill) got off and we got to a check down.
