Adam Gase – January 2, 2017
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Monday, January 2, 2017
Head Coach Adam Gase
(Are you any more optimistic today about LB Jelani Jenkins and CB Byron Maxwell being able to play this week?) – “Once we hit Wednesday and start going through practice and see what they can do, we’ll have a better idea. We’re still really doing their rehab things. It sounds like Jelani is at least moving around a lot better than the last time we were going through this process. We need to see really where Byron is when we’re really getting him moving around against somebody else because that’s the biggest thing for him is being able to cover somebody, change direction, start and stop, things like that.”
(You said you were going to speak with the doctors today about QB Ryan Tannehill. Has that conversation taken place?) – “Not yet; but I’ll have a better idea whether it’s tonight or tomorrow. I need to know what his movement skills are, where we are as far as really the structure of his knee and things like that. So once I get that update, I’ll have a better idea of what we’re going to do moving forward.”
(A little life for this team obviously if they’re able to get their starting quarterback, it would be huge. Would you agree with that?) – “Yes, anytime you get a starter back you’re going to be … No matter what position it is. That’s what you want; but I know since Matt (Moore)’s been in there, he’s done a really good job and he’s done exactly what I need him to do.”
(Are you expecting QB Ryan Tannehill to practice this week?) – “That’s what I want to find out, so I don’t know. I don’t want to say yes or no. You guys all know that guy is a freak of a nature. I mean the amount of hits he’s taken over his career … We’ve all seen him take worse hits than (the one that injured him) during the season. That one was bad but there were a couple of other ones that were pretty bad. His body is unique and the way he heals, the same way. So we’ll just take it one step at a time. I’ll have a better idea, especially once we hit Wednesday, but probably Tuesday I’ll have a good idea, so game plan-wise we can figure out what’s going on.”
(Has QB Ryan Tannehill been knocking on your door about this?) – “He knows I really don’t … I’m not going to really listen to him saying he wants to play. I know he wants to play.”
(You’re not going to take his medical opinion?) – “No. Even though he’s … I’m pretty sure he had some medical classes in college but I know he’s not … He doesn’t have a degree quite yet.”
(How would you feel about the possibility maybe even going up to game time not knowing for sure who your starting quarterback is?) – “It’d be an option, but I’d highly … I mean I doubt it, just because I need to know where he’s at. I’m going to have to see him practice. I’m going to have to feel really good about this.”
(The idea of giving him a playoff experience I would imagine would be a huge boon for him as well?) – “That’s everyone. We don’t have … You look at our roster and you go start tallying up the playoff experiences. It’s very minimal.”
(So is it important that the players, the few players that do have playoff experience, to advise the ones that don’t just to give them an idea of what lays ahead?) – “Really, it’s more about those guys leading by example and showing them how it’s done and trying to allow those guys to understand it picks up. It’s another level. They’ll know it. They’ll know it when they hit the field. Trust me.”
(Describe what that ratcheted up intensity is like?) – “It’s adrenaline for the entire game and you feel it. You feel the speed of the game changes. I mean really you look at it, every guy is playing for the same amount of money and really, at the end of the day, it’s about who wants it more.”
(For you was there a different feeling walking into the building today because it’s playoff week?) – “Not really. I’m still a little irritated at yesterday, so I haven’t quite got over that one yet.”
(What was your evaluation of the pass coverage yesterday? Where were the breakdowns or how bad was it?) – “We had some errors as far as what was going on and what our guys were doing. We got loose a couple of times where we just need to be more competitive and tackle the catch. We have to be tighter on our coverage to try to squeeze the windows as much as possible. We have to do a better job with the rush. We can’t be up in the line of scrimmage in some of their play action things. Offensively, defensively, special teams, it didn’t matter what phase we were in, they beat us in every phase. They beat us in everything – coaching, players, everything.”
(On the long touchdown to WR Julian Edelman where LB Kiko Alonso dropped back. Is that a similar play to what he did in San Diego when he took the interception back?) – “It wasn’t the exact same thing, but it was close to it. But we’ve got to make that tackle there. (Defensive Coordinator) Vance (Joseph), that’s a good call. We’ve got to make that tackle. They’re going to be short of the first down.”
(With Defensive Coordinator Vance Joseph, I understand a lot of people talk about the yards that the defense has had put up against them. Can you just kind of give an idea of what Vance Joseph has meant to the defense?) – “He’s done a good job with putting those guys in the right position. Really from where we started and how we’ve grown through the year, guys being in and out, losing some key players. He’s done a good job trying to make the necessary changes throughout the year. We’ve tried to play together offensively and defensively and with the special teams, trying to do the same thing to where we play more complementary football. I think we were a little off-kilter early in the season. The fact that we’re able to have those discussions and try to play this game together, each game together, that’s been very helpful. There is not that division of offense is just trying to do this and defense is just trying to do this. We’ve really tried to play this … play every game together.”
(Defensive Coordinator Vance Joseph’s name has been linked to a job. You’ve been that guy. How do you handle it when you’re that guy and how will you handle it as a head coach?) – “It’s good that I’m just recently coming off of two years of this. It’s a great experience to be able to go through. You have an opportunity to do something that is one of 32 jobs. There are going to be a great opportunities for him and whenever that time comes, there are certain protocols the league has you go through: when you can interview and where you can interview and if you’re still playing or if you’re not. He’ll get opportunities and that’s a great thing for not only him, but our players on defense should be proud because one of the reasons why he’s getting that opportunity is they played well. They did some things that people didn’t really expect us to do and they were on board with what he was trying to accomplish this year with the defense and it’s a credit to him and the defensive coaches, and then our players. Our players went out and they played hard and they executed well enough to put us in a position to where we’re getting to play this week.”
(Directly on Defensive Coordinator Vance Joseph, have you been contacted about him by any other teams so far?) – “I didn’t ask specifics, but teams have sent in some requests to be able to talk to him.”
(You have no restrictions? Whenever Defensive Coordinator Vance Joseph is able to talk, you’re willing to let him talk?) – “Yes, when the right window is for him. I’m going to put it more in Vance’s court when those times are good for him. Vance is somebody that I trust a lot. I know what his focus is. I know he’s trying to get corrected some of the things that went wrong yesterday. He’ll have the right approach to being able to handle this.”
(Your thoughts on some of the challenges the Steelers present?) – “Offensively, it’s the same thing we saw last time. They’ve got three very elite performers at critical positions on offense, and their defense historically has been what we all know it has always been. They’ve been tough. They do a great job of tackling. They stop the run. I know last game wasn’t ideal for them, but that happens (when) you don’t have exactly the game you want. They play great team defense. It’s a very tough team to go against, especially on their own turf. They’ll absolutely be ready for us, especially the last time we played, I’m sure they’ll be ready to go after what happened last time.”
(Without being arrogant, does the team have an added confidence, because they were 4-1, you were 1-4 and yet you beat this 4-1 team?) – “I’m not sure about that. When you get to this point of the season, everybody is 0-0. If you’re still playing, whoever shows up and plays well that day that’s all that matters.”
(You’ve had so many injuries this year. When you look at the replacement guys who have had to step up – when you look at them as a whole – how important a role would you say they played in your success? Are there any guys you can single out as especially key?) – “I look at it as a group, the guys that have come in, they’ve done a very good job. There have been moments of inconsistency, and that’s where sometimes you miss the guy that was the starter, because one game it’s good, one game it’s bad, where some of these high, the elite performers … What’s the one thing we always talk about? Consistency. It’s the same every week. You know exactly what you’re going to get. But as a group, when we play together and we do it right, that’s when we’ve had our best games. We’ve kind of fallen short of that, especially these last two games. We haven’t played well together. That’s where we have to make some corrections and we have to get this thing right very quickly.”
(Defensively, when you give up a franchise record in yardage against the Bills then 35 points against the Patriots, where can the improvements be made?) – “We just have to play better team defense. I feel like we’ve been a little off here the last couple games. It’s not guys going off on their own. We’re misfitting on certain things. We’re using the wrong techniques. We’re not getting the call in as far as where (Defensive Coordinator) Vance (Joseph) calls the defense, we’re not getting it communicated fast enough or correctly. We have to do a better job in that area. We have to be smoother in what our operation is, and then we have to be smoother as far as making sure all our guys are good and we’re doing the right things. When we do our job, that’s when we have success. When somebody is wrong, it’s really throwing things off to where we’re not just giving up a 3-yard gain, we’re giving up 8-, 10-, 12-yard gains. We’re really putting the play caller in a bad situation, because now it’s first-and-10 again instead of second-and-8. We have to do a better job of doing our jobs. That’s really our starting point.”
(Are you curious to see what kind of playoff team this is, or do you feel like you already know that?) – “I want to see us play better than we played this last week, yesterday. Yesterday was awful. For us to show up and look the way we looked against a team that has dominated this division for the last … What have they won it, 15 out of 17 (years), whatever it is? For us to show up and get smacked around in our own stadium is terrible.”
(Have you gotten an opportunity to watch the film? There was a play there where one of the receivers went streaking down the right hand side of the field.) – “We busted the coverage.”
(Has leverage been an issue?) – “It’s not a leverage issue. It’s a communication issue. We have to … When guys communicate, we have to react. Sometimes, when things happen fast, we don’t react as fast as we need to.”
(I don’t know if it’s something you want to weigh on or not, but RB LeGarrette Blount kind of popped off yesterday about DT Ndamukong Suh. When you watched the film, was there anything that looked dirty to you?) – “I didn’t see that. Maybe there is something from the past that I don’t know about. I know since I’ve been here, Suh has done everything right. He’s played hard. He has tried to do everything he can to help our defense play well. It’s hard for me to comment on something that I’m not really sure exactly what (Blount) was talking about or what incident he was talking about. I can’t say I really understand what he was getting at there.”
(On WR Jakeem Grant, can you talk about the punt return that he fumbled and then his carry and what you saw there?) – “We were trying to get him involved a little bit on offense. He’s an explosive player that we can get him the ball more than what we’ve been getting it (to him). With the kickoff returns, everybody is trying to bang it out of the back of the end zone. They don’t want him or (Kenyan) Drake touching the ball. We were trying to find ways to get him the ball and see if he could make a game-changing play. We need him to hold onto that ball. We need him to be consistent, consistent catching the football. You know what I’m going to say: we’re going to put him back there again. The guy is too explosive. He’s a game-changing player. You never know. This might be a good week for him to have one.”
(To go back to QB Ryan Tannehill for a second. When you go to the doctors, are you expecting them to say, “Yes, he has a clean bill of health?”) – “I don’t know what to expect. Like I said, we’re going to play the Jets and everybody was telling me, ‘Kiko (Alonso) is not going to go,’ and then all of a sudden he’s going. So, I don’t know.”
(WR Leonte Carroo, you’ve been playing WR Rashawn Scott over him. What’s the thought process there?) – “We felt like we wanted to give (Scott) a shot and see if he could bring something to the special teams. When you’re in that position where there is a chance they could play wide out, but we don’t think they’re going to get in the game on offense, really it’s special teams. (It is) really an opportunity for him. We’re going to keep developing these guys. I know everybody will look and say, ‘Draft pick over an undrafted guy,’ but I really don’t care about that. I care about guys competing and trying to do it right and seeing if guys can contribute. That’s part of what happens in that back half of the roster sometimes. We’re trying to find as many guys as we can to (where) we trust them and they can do the right thing. This week will be a different week, and we’ll see what the inactives (are), what we do with that.”
(DE Mario Williams has been fighting some injuries. Is him being inactive yesterday injury [related]?) – “I made the decision I wanted to play (Terrence) Fede instead of him yesterday. We only went with eight defensive lineman and Fede has been playing really well. It was really a numbers thing. We have nine guys that we like and we have five defensive ends. We like all those guys. It’s hard for me to justify not playing Fede when he gives us something on special teams and the way that he’s playing on defense. It’s nothing against Mario; it’s (that) Fede gives us some snaps on special teams as well. He’s a big man that can move, he can run, he can do things on punt return or punt. We want some … If you get some special teams value out of a defensive lineman, that’s good for us. It helps us a lot.”
