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Adam Gase – December 20, 2018 Download PDF version

Thursday, December 20, 2018

Head Coach Adam Gase

(Did you see what you needed to see from CB Xavien Howard today? Is he progressing?) – “Yeah. We didn’t do as much on the turf. If we would’ve been outside, he probably would have done a lot more than what he did. We wanted to be smart being inside. Things are looking positive heading into the game. We’ll just keep going day to day.”

(S T.J. McDonald this week hasn’t practiced at all. I know he re-aggravated an injury during the game but he came back. What do you think about him?) – “I think it’s a different deal than what he’s had. It’s the same thing – day to day. I don’t know really the exact time frame of it but I know he was fighting through it during the game. He probably shouldn’t have gone back in but he was going to finish.”

(How is LB Kiko Alonso?) – “I mean, he’s hurting; but the longer the week goes, the better he’s going to feel.”

(If LB Kiko Alonso doesn’t play, what are your options there for the three linebacker package?) – “We’re going to have to either say play nickel … If we go base, we have Mike (Hull) and we have Steph (Anthony), so we have two guys that have been here (in) multiple positions.”

(DE Charles Harris, what can he do better?) – “I think he just keeps working with that group. There’s been some good stuff that he’s done on first and second down as far as getting better from last year. Then third down, I think a lot of the stuff is set up for some of those other guys. It’s a tough position to really break through when you have multiple pass rushers. With him being out, he kind of lost some time there to where those guys had gotten in a decent rhythm together. You’ve just got to keep working, which he does. I mean that’s all he does.”

(DE Robert Quinn has 4.5 sacks in the last five games. What do you attribute that to?) – “I think he’s just not getting frustrated from earlier in the year. He keeps doing the same thing in practice and in games. I think he’s done a better job of working his run game stuff. We’re always looking to get better in that area, obviously. As far as pass rushing goes, he’s tightened the corner down a little bit. He’s used some different moves than probably what I’ve seen in the past. He just kept at it. I know that can be frustrating for a guy that is anticipating his numbers being higher than what they’ve been, but he’s stuck with it and he’s disruptive at the right time, for the most part.”

(Statistically the defense is struggling in most categories except for turnovers. You guys are on pace again to set a franchise record for rushing yards allowed. Is this a problem that’s systematic or can it be fixed?) – “I think the one thing that I always look at is yards per carry. We have a lot more attempts than a lot of teams as well and that’s why you look at the yardage and you see that it’s high. Our yards per carry isn’t great but it isn’t like those back four or five teams. If we eliminate the explosive plays, that helps us. Obviously the New England game is a great example of everybody doing their job. We didn’t allow explosive runs. That’s when your yardage goes down and your yards per carry is where it needs to be. Being at 2.6 (yards per carry) for a game, that shows you that we can do it against a team that was hot coming into the game rushing the ball. It’s such a team deal. We just can’t have anybody off-base.”

(You mentioned yards per carry. On the other side, you guys have been doing pretty good. What do you think the common theme is since you’ve had three different backs throughout the season who have kind of carried the load at some point?) – “We’ve had explosive plays from whether it be (Kalen) Ballage, (Kenyan) Drake, Brandon (Bolden). Frank (Gore) was just as steady as you can get. Frank was the kind of guy that if you got zero yards on first down and give it to him again on second down, you’re probably going to be in third-and-manageable. I think that’s when we’ve had some kind of success in the game on first down – first, second and first down again, or third-and-short – because Frank did a good job of just making sure there were no negative plays and he was getting us back to efficient runs and keeping us in manageable down and distances.”

(Does RB Kenyan Drake understand that dynamic?) – “Yeah. We talk about it so much because it’s not like I’m keeping a secret from anybody that we’re not very good on third down. We talk about it all of the time about let’s stay out of it.”

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