Adam Gase – November 10, 2017
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Friday, November 10, 2017
Head Coach Adam Gase
(You mentioned about penalties, obviously, last Sunday being timely. College coaches have the recourse of having their players run steps or something with penalties. Beyond playing time, is there any recourse that an NFL coach has if he’s troubled by penalties by specific players at bad times, are far as consequences?) – “There’s really nothing you can do. You want to do it right in practice. That’s really where it starts. Make sure that you’re keeping clean with everything you’re doing, whether it be pre snap penalties, holding penalties, defensive holding, pass interference – those type of things. You just want to try to make sure you do it right in practice.”
(There’s a report out there that T Ja’Wuan James has a groin injury that will cost him the rest of the season. Can you clarify or…) – “It’s not a groin. So, I guess that’s wrong.”
(A hamstring?) – “That’s what I said yesterday: we’re still going through the process of trying to figure out the main issue. I’m just gathering information when they bring it to me. I’m sure I’ll know something here in the next few hours of the exacts.”
(WR Jarvis Landry is averaging nearly 5 yards less per catch than he did last year. Why do you think that is?) – “It’s nothing that he’s doing wrong. We’re going to take what the defense gives us and complete balls and try to move the sticks and stay in third-and-manageable. That’s really what it’s all about. Earlier in the season, the biggest problem we had was we were third-and-10, third-and-10 probably because we were trying to push the ball down the field too much. That’s why your conversion rate gets down and low. It’s tough to complete balls in that area. Some of the defenses that we’re seeing, they’re going to try to take him away. What does he have, like 50-some catches? (They) kind of know we’re going to go to him. They’re playing tight. We’re not seeing a lot of middle field, open zones where in the slot, that’s where really that guy makes his money. We’re seeing a lot more single-high safety, zone-type defenses. It forces the ball to go outside most of the times. So when we try to get the ball to him, he has to break a tackle or something like that, which he does a lot of times. It’s not easy.”
(With TE Julius Thomas, you’ve always talked about getting the right matchup, which would make him come alive. Has that been what you’ve been getting, or are you seeing him create a little bit more separation?) – “That’s what happened last game. We got the right matchups. We tried to find some ways to get him going a little bit. It worked out. We’ve just got to keep going, and that’s going to help the other guys.”
(Are you expecting WR Jakeem Grant and RB Damien Williams back at practice today?) – “I’m still … I’m not sure yet. We’ve got to see … They both still don’t feel good. I don’t know exactly what it is, but I just don’t want to put them out there if they’re dehydrated and then something else happen (and) make it worse than what it already is. I’m going to keep checking in with the trainers. They’re keeping an eye on it. I know Jakeem is trying to go. I don’t know if Damien is going to be able to.”
(What’s the challenge with Panthers RB Christian McCaffrey and how unique of a player is he?) – “I think when you’ve got a guy that does as many things as he does, it always makes it difficult, because you’ve got to know where he’s all at the time. When you take a guy that can play slot, outside, backfield, then he can run the ball, then he can pass – when you add all those things up, it makes it very hard to really key on what he’s going to do and how they’re going to use him for that game. That’s why when you play this offense, you have to be very sound at what you’re doing. If you’re not, that’s where you can get gashed pretty bad. With my experience, whether it be playing these guys or being on a team that was similar to some of the things that they do, you have to be very sound at what you’re doing.”
(If RB Damien Williams can’t go, can one guy replace him – RB Senorise Perry – or because of scrimmage and special teams, would it take…) – “He’s going to be able to go, he just might not be able to practice. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves here.”
(Were either of those guys hospitalized or anything? Was it that serious?) – “No.”
(Have you kept them away from the rest of the team to avoid…) – “Yes. I can bring them in here. (laughter)”
(Why would you do that? You’re in here too though.) – “I’ll leave. (laughter)”
(Was the snap count and the usage for each last week about what you would consider ideal? It was 37 for RB Kenyan Drake, 30 for RB Damien Williams.) – “We thought it would be close to 50/50. I think Damien’s role, whether it be on first and second down, third down, red zone, we were just trying to make sure we didn’t load up one guy. I thought (Running Backs Coach) Danny (Barrett) did a good job getting those guys in and out, communicating with me who was in. It helped to keep those guys fairly fresh. Damien was doing a little more on special teams. The amount of effort he exerts takes a lot out of him. He’s wiped out after the game, I know that for sure. He gives you everything he has. We’ve just got to keep doing a good job of balancing it out.”
(How did C/G Ted Larsen look in practice and how did he come out of the practice?) – “I think he’s just trying to get it going. All of a sudden you get thrown out there and you’re taking a lot of reps. I know he feels good. It’s really just getting him in the best condition we can as fast as we can, which he has been working on; but when you start going out there and you’re leaning on guys and run blocking, pass pro, all those type of things, going through a full practice, it’s just completely different than just running on the side and lifting. He seems to feel good. An NFL game, that’s a long time to play.”
(But you saw out of C/G Ted Larsen what you wanted to see?) – “Yeah.”
(What does RB Kenyan Drake need to do to elevate his level of contribution for this team and to sort of gain the coaching staff’s confidence a little bit more?) – “I think he has got our confidence. A majority of the things he did this last game is what we’re looking for. I’d like for him to hold onto the ball. We’ve just got to keep improving on all of the things he has never seen before, whether it be third down stuff, a lot of the different looks and coverages when we release him on routes. He’s going to be learning through the rest of the season. I think he has just got to stay on the track he’s on right now. He’s studying, trying to make sure he knows everything to do; but it’s one thing to know what to do and react to what the defense does. We’ve just got to keep working on that. The more reps he gets, the better.”
(What types of challenges does their guy LB Luke Keuchly pose?) – “It’s probably easier to say what challenges doesn’t he pose. The guy is a special player. I don’t think I’ve seen a guy communicate as much as he does on defense. I can think of one other guy (Ray Lewis) and he played in Baltimore for a long time. It’s impressive to watch. As a coach, you just kind of sit back and you can admire what he’s doing, how he runs that defense, how he gets those guys in the right stuff. When teams give him oddball formations or plays and things like that, he seems to iron everything out, get everybody lined up. Everybody knows what to do. You don’t see them make a lot of mistakes. It starts with him, and then he makes a ton of plays sideline to sideline. He does a great job in coverage. He stays as tight as you’ve got to stay, whether it be zone or man. He’s a very tough player to go against.”
(Looking at Panthers QB Cam Newton’s rushing numbers, I think he has got like 28 first downs, which is maybe fifth or sixth in the NFL. Does he get a lot of those on third down? Is it a lot of them against nickel defenses?) – “It’s hard to say, because they do so many different personnel groupings. Whether it’s a run or a pass, he has designed runs. When you get in third down and all of a sudden you spread everybody out and you get the smaller guys in there, he takes off and he’s tough to bring down. I feel like he’s playing extremely smart right now where he knows when it’s time to go get one and when it’s time to get down. He has always been a tough matchup to go against. You’ve got to stay in your coverages as tight as possible and then guys have to do a good job of trying to keep him in the pocket and not let him get outside, because when he becomes … When he has the ability – whether it be to run the ball or pass the ball – that’s where he can get some really explosive plays, especially in the pass game.”
(Speaking of Panthers QB Cam Newton, how big has assignment football been preparing for this game, who has the pitch, who has the dive, things of that nature?) – “The hardest thing about playing this crew is they just don’t do … That’s something they do, but that’s not exclusively (what they do). That’s what makes them tough because they can line up in the shotgun and do normal drop-back passing. They have the full gamut. You’re talking about a guy that won MVP a couple years ago. He knows how to move the ball, whether it be in the running game, the passing game, whether he has got to do it himself. He knows how to put together drives and get the ball in the end zone. That’s what makes him dangerous is he can do everything. I think a lot of people forget that he was rolling really good a couple years ago. Everybody forgot about him last year, but he looks like he’s playing pretty good to me.”
(I don’t know if you can say your offense is in now. It’s less of a power-running offense, but two guys – QB Jay Cutler and TE Julius Thomas – seemed to have their best performance in your offense last week. Was that just the way it happened or was that because you’re closer to what they know?) – “I think Julius, we got some of the matchups that we wanted. Jay, really, the last two games he has played well. The Jets game, that was probably one of the best games that he has had. Then this last game, I think he topped it. I don’t know if that has anything to do with that. We just got finally rolling a little bit last week. We’ve just got to figure out a way to eliminate a couple of those penalties, don’t turn the ball over and we’ll probably have a different outcome.”
