Adam Gase – December 28, 2017
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Thursday, December 28, 2017
Head Coach Adam Gase
(What’s your experience with late-season games where one team is in a spoiler’s role? On either side of it, the other team it’s a must-win game. Are they more unpredictable than any other game?) – “I mean every week’s unpredictable. I don’t know. I haven’t been in this position too many times. I don’t think we’re really worried about that. We’re just trying to get ourselves ready to play a good game here in our last chance and make sure that we head into the offseason with a better feeling than we’ve had the last two weeks.”
(We asked you yesterday about G/T Jermon Bushrod’s future. If this is it for him, how would you reflect on his career?) – “I mean I don’t know if it is so I don’t want to reflect on something I don’t know if …”
(Your experience with G/T Jermon Bushrod has been…?) – “It’s been good. He’s done everything … He’s played a lot of different roles in the offenses that I’ve been in charge of – playing left tackle, tight end, right guard. He’s always done anything I’ve ever asked of him.”
(Your conclusion watching G Isaac Asiata in practice for the last six months and what does he need to do to be a factor next year?) – “I mean we’ll see. I’ll worry about that in a couple of weeks. I’m not going to worry about it right now.”
(I noticed you like to wear the throwback stuff. I kind of like it …) – “It’s the only hat that fits me. That’s why I wear it. (laughter) I don’t know, some hats fit me better than others.”
(Can you just pretend for the sake of this story that you…?) – “No. (laughter) There’s no chance. (laughter)”
(Do you understand that we have to have stuff to write about this week?) – “(laughter)”
(What do you think of the throwback ensemble?) – “It’s a good change-up for us. I think any time you have change in uniform, every once in a while, I think it’s a fun experience for the players, especially when the other team does the same thing. I wear what fits me so…”
(What has WR Jakeem Grant showed you these last few weeks about how he can be used from scrimmage?) – “He causes a lot of problems for the defense because you can put him in the slot, you can put him outside, you can put him in the backfield. We’re not afraid to give him the ball as a running back. The speed obviously is his … something that really is a challenging thing for the defense. I don’t think guys realize how quick and how fast he can accelerate until they get in a game. Even the last time we played Buffalo, there was one time where we threw him the ball and it looked like he was blanketed and he gets 10 yards. He’s really done a lot of good things. It’s good to see that we finally could get him going and get him involved. I wish we would have probably put him in there more, earlier in the season; but we just never really got rolling to where it was easy to kind of switch up personnel groups.”
(With WR Jakeem Grant, could you take us through, in your mind, positives of the occasional time, in spots, when you go four receivers with the three top guys and Jakeem? Obviously that’s one less tight end or one less back, but what’s the plusses and minuses to that sort of grouping?) – “It’s an unusual thing for a defense to see when you do that. Some teams, when we haven’t shown it and then when you throw it in there, they’re not really prepared for it; they’re not really sure what we’re going to do with it because we start moving guys all over the place and different guys in the backfield, different guys in different spots, the slot outside. I think when we have multiple guys that can play inside between Kenny (Stills), Jarvis (Landry) and Jakeem (Grant), that just causes issues where guys are. It’s hard to focus on one player and it’s fairly easy for our guys to move around when we’re in that package.”
(I believe you guys have allowed 32 sacks, which is like the 11th fewest or tied for 11th fewest in the league. How do you think pass protection has been this season?) — “I think we’ve been a little streaky. It seems like we’ve had some games where the ball has been coming out on time, we’ve been getting open quick and guys have done a good job of blocking. I think there’s been some games where it’s just been a … It’s been really tough for us. The one thing we talk about as an offense is it’s really on all of us – from play call to quarterback getting the ball out, receivers getting open, being in the right spots and then the line doing a good job of blocking and then if we’re pressured, making sure everybody’s on the right guy. It seems like we’ve had games where we’ve had zero sacks and then the next game we’ll have six. It’s not just the line’s fault. It would come from a couple of different areas. For us, it’s just like anything else, we just need to be consistent.”
(Is that kind of the plight of a six or seven win team? That kind of inconsistency in areas such as that, do you think?) – “That’s exactly what it is.”
(To piggyback on that, from a non-expert, non-film watching standpoint, you lost your entire right side of the offensive line and the guys who are there now, the backups [T Sam Young and G/T Jesse Davis], seem to be better than the guys who were there before. It’s certainly not been any decline. Why is that or am I wrong?) – “I don’t want to say you’re wrong because I feel like that’s something that I do need to look at hard of how much change, did we change play calling? Did we change … Was it the personnel of the backs? What were we doing schematically? The overall picture I need to take a look at to see if it’s an individual thing we’re looking at or if it’s a whole offensive thing; but I would say that those two guys, for whatever reason, seemed to connect quickly. (They) play well together and they did a good job of learning quickly of how to handle what they were going through because they’d never played together and most of the time when we were practicing, Jesse was at right tackle and Sam was at left tackle. So it’s not like they were working in individual or anything like that. Whatever it is, they just clicked really quick. I know Sam’s seen a lot more than Jesse has over his career and I think Jesse’s been a quick study. They’ve done a good job. It’s hard to compare because I guess I just keep thinking there were a lot of different circumstances going on early in the season where we were having a lot more mistakes than just two guys. But I do need to take an overall look at what was going on from early to late and just kind of really move from there.”
(How do you assess the year WR DeVante Parker has had and the fact that now three years in, he hasn’t had a big season? How do you assess going forward?) – “Once again, I’ll figure that out in a couple of weeks. I mean he’s been healthy and then hurt and trying to recover. Things happen during a season. It’s hard to control when you feel great and you feel like you’ve recovered from an injury and then all of a sudden you catch a screen and you’re running and all of a sudden a guy falls on the back of your leg. I mean we can ask him not to do that; but there’s nothing you can do about it. That’s not his fault. Things like that happen and sometimes you have these injuries and it just seems like it keeps compiling. All of a sudden one year it doesn’t happen and then things look different.”
(Do you still see WR DeVante Parker as that number one going forward?) – “I don’t know. I never look at it like the one (and) two (receivers). Whoever is open, catch the ball and get some yards. That’s what I’m for.”
(LB Lawrence Timmons, how would you describe his season, his year?) – “I think he’s done a good job when he came back. He’s very quiet. He works every day at practice. (He gives) everything he has. He’s been a model citizen since he’s returned. For a veteran player, I haven’t been around too many guys that does not miss snaps in practice. He is going game speed every day. He’s been very impressive to watch. (Now) I understand why his career has been what it’s been over time.”
(How would you assess the linebacker core in general this season?) – “We’ll figure all of that out after the season. Obviously we haven’t … Nobody’s done anything great. We were one of the worst offenses in the league and in the back half in defense. We’ve got a lot of work to do.”
