Adam Gase – December 9, 2018 (Postgame)
Sunday, December 9, 2018
Postgame – New England
Miami Dolphins Head Coach Adam Gase
Your reaction to the last play?
HEAD COACH ADAM GASE: We executed it. (laughter) You have to something for those kind of situations. We work on them every Friday and Saturday and it’s boring because you might go three years without calling them and those guys stuck with it, especially this year, and they executed that one for sure.
Was that exactly how you drew it up?
HEAD COACH ADAM GASE: Yeah.
They had TE Rob Gronkowski back there on the Hail Mary. Did you notice that? Did you see that as a vulnerability?
HEAD COACH ADAM GASE: I think it was more … all of us noticed it right at the end because we weren’t thinking we were going that … pushing it down the field like that, so we didn’t really think that was relevant to us.
Is there any comparable moment in your career that you can think of?
HEAD COACH ADAM GASE: I’ve seen a couple of these. I’ve been lucky enough to be on this side of the ball. I’ve been on the other side of the ball before. But as a head coach, this is first time for sure.
What’s the feeling in the locker room after a game like that?
HEAD COACH ADAM GASE: I mean, it’s a lot of excitement. Those guys are fired up. They did a great job the whole game, just sticking together. Things don’t always go your way. The ups and downs of the game, these guys just keep fighting.
What about QB Ryan Tannehill and what he was able to accomplish after he got stepped on?
HEAD COACH ADAM GASE: I mean I don’t think there’s any question whether or not he’s tough. It seemed like after that, he did a good job of just kind of avoiding the hits that he was taking in the first half. He was moving at the right time. We kind of screwed a couple things up. We had a lot of things that we wanted to get to that involved him, but got a little nervous to call them just because he wasn’t moving like he normally would.
How much was QB Ryan Tannehill hurt?
HEAD COACH ADAM GASE: He was in good pain. You saw how his ankle … that probably didn’t feel good.
Special teams, you always pride yourself on strong special teams.
HEAD COACH ADAM GASE: Yeah, I think they got us on obviously those rushes. I’ll have to get those cleaned up. I thought (Associate Head Coach/Special Teams Coordinator Darren) Rizzi did a good job at halftime and at least adjusting the protection, making sure that didn’t happen (again). We probably lost a little production in that unit in the second half, but this is something that at least when we go back on Monday, we’ll be able to fix and get cleaned up and make sure that we can adjust for any other teams down the road.
With the defense, obviously you were shorthanded today going against Patriots QB Tom Brady.
HEAD COACH ADAM GASE: Their job is to fight 60 minutes and try to keep those guys out of the end zone as much as possible and offensively, we have to score one more point (than them). They had some big stops in the game and we didn’t take advantage of them on offense. There were a couple times where they drove the ball down the field but that’s going to happen against Tom (Brady) and his crew.
You went to a more rugby-style punt in the second half. Is that something you had time in practice this week to work on?
HEAD COACH ADAM GASE: I mean we’ve been working on it all year. That was the first time it really kind of came up.
Not sure if you’ve been asked this, but your thoughts on the last play and the emotions that you went through during that?
HEAD COACH ADAM GASE: I think I was really mad at DeVante (Parker) at one point because I thought he had a chance to turn and run but he made a good decision. Those guys executed as well as you could with bodies around. I mean, when we practice that stuff, it’s usually on air and you don’t really know how it’s going to turn out. So those guys did a good job of slowing themselves down and doing the right things as far as pitching when they needed to pitch and then Kenyan (Drake) realized that he had a lane and took it.
What does a win like this do for your football team with three games left, looking forward? It’s got to give you a big emotional lift, I would assume?
HEAD COACH ADAM GASE: Yeah, basically we’re playing one week at a time right now. Any loss for us could be the end. So we just have to make sure that we refocus on Wednesday and get things cleaned up and get ready for the next one.
Where did RB Brandon Bolden fit in your game plan?
HEAD COACH ADAM GASE: We started using him last week. We’ve been kind of waiting to use him. We had some things for him last week. We got him in there on a touch and I think (Kenyan) Drake and him had another play that didn’t work out too well. He runs hard. He was a really good running back coming out of college. We’ve been kind of waiting to use him. He’s so valuable on special teams that he’s getting a lot of snaps there but we’ve got enough packages with him in them that when he touches the ball, he can be explosive.
Did you consider anything else for the last play, like a regular Hail Mary or anything?
HEAD COACH ADAM GASE: No. That was the one.
