Adam Gase – December 7, 2017
Monday, December 7, 2017
Head Coach Adam Gase
(With the first game you played the Patriots, obviously it was two weeks ago, what in that game that you like that you think you can build on? I’m not talking game plan-wise but obviously what did you see from that first matchup that you said okay I like this?) – “I think there were some stretches where we did a good job of executing things to where it either made it very difficult for them offensively or we moved the ball on a few series the way that we were looking to move the ball. We just didn’t do it very consistently. So we’re able to at least pulse really kind of the mistakes we’ve made, and really for us it’s about not duplicating those and not putting ourselves in a bad position, which I thought we’ve done all three times over the last two years where we get behind and it’s the wrong team to get behind as much as we have.”
(Following up on my question. Obviously I’ve talked to you about how difficult it is to play the Patriots because they just pretty much force you to play perfect. Are there any other teams that do that? I know everybody wants to do that but have there been other teams that put pressure on you to play a perfect game and when you do have that pressure, how difficult is it on players?) – “I think anytime you play a team that has – and there’s not a lot of them, not a lot of them left it seems like; the guys are either getting older or they’ve retired – but the guys that have the Hall of Fame quarterbacks, it makes it very hard. New Orleans obviously right now is rolling pretty good. A game, looking back at it, we were playing it well enough defensively and we just didn’t really match it offensively. When you play a team like Green Bay with Aaron (Rodgers), that makes it to where there’s not much room for error. Just being in that division and playing those guys two times and seeing him play when he was younger, it was even tough then. You have to … you can’t give them free possessions and you’ve got to make every one count. You can’t turn the ball over. You can’t have a special teams error to where you’re giving a guy like Tom Brady an extra possession.”
(Your three primetime games prior have been some of your worst performances this season. Can you put a finger on why and have you put any thought into the switching up the game plan going into this fourth one?) – “It’s hard to really put a finger on exactly why. Usually when you’re playing in those games, you’re playing good teams. They’re not going to just have you play anybody. We’ve played some … playing at Baltimore has never been easy and at Carolina, and then we had Oakland here. It was a game where we’re right in the mix and we didn’t do it well enough there at the end of the game on either side of the ball to help us get a win. I’d say two of those games weren’t the kind of performances that we want. The slightest error puts you in a bad place, and really the Baltimore game stands out on its own as we did not play well in any phase. Carolina, we’re right there right at the end of the half and then it just kind of snowballed on us.”
(How were the Patriots able to sack your quarterback seven times when they’re not really a ‘get after the quarterback’ type team?) – “They’re a little bit more difficult than people give them credit for. There’s a reason why they haven’t let up more than 17 points since about the fourth week of the season. They force you to get the ball out quick. We had a couple of protection errors. That really put Matt (Moore) in a bad spot where a few times he thought he was good and all of a sudden somebody came free in his face, whether it was o-line, running back, tight end – we all took our turns – play calling. There were a couple of those in there where I didn’t really give him a good chance and kind of put him in a bad spot. We’ve just got to do a better job of making sure that we handle that up front. They make it difficult because those guys, they do a good job game planning. They find your weakness and they try to maximize using the information they have.”
(How different is prepping for the Patriots without TE Rob Gronkowski?) – “It’s still going to be … It’s always difficult because (Patriots Offensive Coordinator) Josh (McDaniels) will do a good job of using the guys that he has and putting them in different positions and really forcing your defense to try to figure out where everybody is. He even did it last time by moving some of those guys around and showing some looks that our guys … You don’t necessarily see that exact formation and he makes you put stress on your defense that way where it’s just a constant adjustment on the sideline. A lot of times, he doesn’t even go … He won’t go back to it. So, you see it one time and then you’ll never see it again. A lot of times you’ve got one shot to try to make a good play. That’s why he’s really good. That’s why they’ve had a lot of success. They have good players; but at the same time, he puts those guys in really good position.”
(They didn’t play a perfect game against you. Their quarterback got hit a lot. They gave up a touchdown on offense. You had a turnover. So is that good news or bad news, because they scored 35 points?) – “Well, it was bad news because we didn’t come through on the other side of the ball. We turned the ball over when we were down in the red area. We didn’t score touchdowns. We have to … When we get our opportunities, we’ve got to make it count, and we didn’t do it last time, for sure. We didn’t play very good complementary football. All three phases we were just one side of the ball did well, then the other side stalled out. We were kind of hit or miss. To have a chance to win this game in the fourth quarter, we have to be on it in all three phases. If we get a short field, we’ve got to take advantage of it. If we get them backed up, we’ve got to try to hold them back there and flip the field position to our advantage. Until we do that, it’s always going to be difficult against these guys. We need to put one together.”
(I was trying to think of a good RB Kenyan Drake comp. I know you had RB Matt Forte in the past. Are there some similarities there or do you even have a better guy?) – “I don’t really have a good comparison. Him and Matt (Forte), really, they’re two different … I can’t speak to when Matt was younger though. I had him when he was like 30. I think Drake has got him on speed a little bit. I know Matt probably won’t like that. I think the versatility of being able to run the ball both inside, outside and be effective in the passing game is probably really as close as you can get to comparing those two. I think Drake is a unique guy. I’ll never forget before we drafted him, one of the first things out of his mouth was, ‘I’m still allowed to play kickoff, right, if I ever become the starter?’ The fact that that’s kind of his mindset, I love that. That special teams, that’s important to him.”
(When you watch the film of RB Kenyan Drake in that first showcase game, where are the areas that you say, ‘I like this, and this needs to improve?’) – “I think just getting used to being on the same page as the line. I think the more reps he gets, the more he understands when he should press the ball up, where he can help our o-line with some of the holding calls. When you have a guy with his ability to jump laterally and really get guys pulled off of the offensive linemen and they don’t expect you to do certain things, that’s where you have that miscommunication. That’s the good and the bad of having a guy with his ability. It’s really going to be reps of just understanding how much he has to press the heels of the offensive line to help them out and keep them on their blocks. I think over time it’s only going to get better. I thought he did a great job with his ball security this last week. I saw a different guy when he got into traffic, making sure that he protected the ball. You just have to keep growing from that. Any time you have a running back that you can count on down-in and down-out to make sure we have the ball at the end of the series, that’s what you’re looking for.”
(Are you expecting either RB Damien Williams or DT Davon Godchaux to practice today?) – “Damien, I would say he’s not going to practice. Godchaux, we’ll see how it’s going. It’s looking like we should have a chance for him to practice today.”
(Where are you at with the quarterback position right now, with QB Matt Moore, particularly?) – “Matt won’t practice today.”
(Is this looking like a long-term thing with QB Matt Moore?) – “Yes, I have to see how he feels after this week.”
(After this week, you said?) – “Yes, he got banged up pretty good.”
(What has LB Stephone Anthony brought to the table since being active?) – “I think he’s a guy that hasn’t really had a lot of opportunities this year. When you get this late in the season and you’ve got a guy that’s really, pretty much, been fresh and waiting for his opportunity, I think you’re seeing a guy that plays with a lot of energy and he’s played before. He (doesn’t have) that many years in the league, but he’s had a season where he was productive and I think he’s excited to be out there. I think it’s good that we can throw some other bodies out there and see how many times we can put him in a position to make plays. I’ve really been impressed with his overall attitude from the get go. It’s not easy sometimes to come in, and you think you’re going to jump right in and be part of it, and you have to wait around a minute. He never wavered. He just kept grinding.”
(From a speed element or athleticism, is there anything that you see there in LB Stephone Anthony that helps him out?) – “Obviously, he has really good speed laterally and he can cover a lot of ground. I always like a guy with that size that has the athletic ability. He really caused us a lot of problems on our side of the ball when he was on the scout team. He really turned a lot of people’s heads. He’d get his hands on a lot of balls. That’s one of the reasons why we wanted to elevate him and make sure that he was playing on Sundays.”
(With DE Charles Harris, do you feel him pressing at all? You say what he does goes beyond the sack numbers, why aren’t those sacks coming though?) – “I’ve said this before, I never really pay attention to sacks. I always look at pass disruptions. How many times are you hitting the quarterback? How many times are you putting pressure on the quarterback where he has to move off the spot and he has to get rid of the ball sooner than he wants to? As long as he keeps doing that, that’s all that really matters to me. Just keep getting better as a young player. I’ve said it before, he’s seeing a lot of things he’s never seen before, in the run game especially. His job is to get better every week and keep finding ways to just create pressure on the quarterback.”
(So you’re pleased with DE Charles Harris’ rookie year then?) – “Yes. I’m not going to complain about what he’s been doing.”
(I think you guys are averaging 25 points per game at Hard Rock Stadium. Is that all about execution or is there something to the comfort and familiarity of home?) – “Every game is kind of its own story, so it’s hard to really correlate anything when it comes to that. I think our guys have done a good job when we’ve played at home, especially the back half of the season, where we’ve moved the ball a little better. We need to eliminate the turnovers. That’s really the thing that’s holding us back. Some of the penalties really hurt us; but there is something when you don’t have to travel. I’m sure guys’ legs feel a little different, but the good teams always find a way to win, whether it’s at home or on the road.”
(When DT Jordan Phillips is at his best – and it looked like on three or four plays in the last game, he just destroyed someone – What challenges does he pose for the opposing offense?) – “He’s a big, athletic guy that when he’s rolling and he starts building confidence, especially early in the game, he’s a hard guy to block because he feels dominant. He feels unstoppable. I think he really brought a great attitude last week. He was a guy that you heard on the sidelines from the get go – the locker room, during the game, halftime. He’s been feeling it the last few games. I think he’s excited that we’re kind of at that part of the season where it’s do or die. We’ve got to get it going and he’s been a guy that’s stepped up and I think he sees what’s going on where some guys are banged up and he’s got to step up, and he’s done that.”
(The 42-yard touchdown by RB Kenyan Drake, was the kind of more of a freelance type deal where it happened off kind of a broken play or did it happen as designed?) – “When we called that play, I didn’t think he was going to do what he did; but when you call those plays … He knew there was going to be one guy unblocked. We kind of set it up that way and he did a good job of setting that guy up and then making him miss, and then the o-line had the rest of those guys taken care of and gave him a big enough crease to where once he got to that second level, he’s a tough guy to catch.”
(How reasonable is it to expect a big play from RB Kenyan Drake every other game?) – “I don’t think it’s unreasonable. I think it just happens. When you’ve got a guy with that much speed and he has the quickness to make guys miss in the open field, it’s something that you hope to expect, especially as his career goes on; but right now, I don’t want him pushing to try to do that. I want to let the play come to you. I think he’s trying to do that.”
