Adam Gase – November 16, 2017
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Thursday, November 16, 2017
Head Coach Adam Gase
(Didn’t have a chance to ask Defensive Coordinator Matt Burke this, but without calling out individual guys, do you think the division that we’ve seen defensively as far as against the run and pass rush the past few weeks, do you think it’s equal parts ends, tackles, linebackers or has there been a particular area – without naming names – a group that needs to particularly play better?) – “We’ve talked about this before: when you play defense, it’s a group deal, it’s 11 guys. Really at the end of the day, everybody has to be on the same page. Everybody needs to do their job, because it’s hard to be successful on defense if guys are trying to cover for other guys or doing things that aren’t meant to be done in that particular call. Really, the quickest way to get things going in the right direction is getting 11 guys doing their job and everybody trusting each other as far as what they’re doing.”
(The package with LB Rey Maualuga offensively, has it exceeded what you thought? Obviously, it has been limited. It has just been a handful of plays. Is two or three plays pretty much the realistic max you can do that offensively in your eyes?) – “You can do it 30 plays if you want. That was just kind of the situation that we felt like it was good for us with what we wanted to do, what we had in. We didn’t get to a couple things that we liked. We’ll just kind of keep seeing where that goes.”
(Offensive Coordinator Clyde Christensen was talking about WR DeVante Parker not having the same, “edge” is the word he used, now as what he did maybe in training camp or coming out of training camp. Why is that? What’s he missing? What’s his problem?) – “I think a little bit of it is when you miss that time and you’re away from that group, you miss some value in the reps, game experience, those type of things. With where we were at before he got injured, we were relying on him heavily in a lot of different situations. Some of it we never got to it, what we would be practicing. I think him coming back, he’s trying to feel, ‘Alright, what’s my role?’ Offense has changed throughout the season, and you start getting into a flow and guys start getting better at certain things that they do. I think he had a really good target as far as what he was doing, and now he’s trying to feel his way out a little bit. I think he has got a better feel. Last week we started really seeing him get going in practice. He made some plays for us this last game. I think we’ve just got to get him going a little more, whether it be giving him more opportunities earlier in the game to see if we can get him to make a play, whether it be down the field or in that intermediate area. Some of it is on opportunities. I think if we give him some more opportunities, we’ll see what we were doing earlier in the season.”
(I don’t mean to disparage WR DeVante Parker or anything, but an alpha receiver will say, “I’m the guy. I’m the guy before I got injured, and I’m going to be the guy after I got injured.” Shouldn’t he be – instead of waiting for someone to give him a role – imposing himself?) – “You always want that, but you’re still dealing with a very young player. You’re dealing with a guy that has missed time in his career, early in his career. I’ve been around this before. I’ve seen situations like this where you’re kind of waiting for a guy to take that step. Sometimes it takes longer than other guys. Some guys just grab it right away and take it over. He just has to keep getting better and then get that feel of, ‘I can dominate, and I can consistently make the plays that we need to make.’ It really starts with growing that confidence in practice, being consistent every day, giving that quarterback that reliability of when he puts that ball up there’s one guy coming down with it.”
(RB Kenyan Drake has quite an impressive yards per carry average based on two runs. Can you explain to the average Dolphin fan who looks at RB Damien Williams’ average and sees RB Kenyan Drake’s average and explain to them why you value two backs and why Damien is the starter?) – “We look at it as really they’re both starters. They’re both going to play. Who’s out there on the first play of the game is really irrelevant a lot of the times, because we go three wide receivers, one tight end or two tight ends and two wide receivers. We could put them both out there one game. What does that mean? It’s really irrelevant. We have a good feel of how we want to roll those two guys. Damien’s value, whether it be in the run game, pass game … We look at everything very closelu. It’s all equal to each other. It’s about getting yards, putting us in position to get third down conversions. I think that’s one of the things that both those guys have done a good job of is we’re converting more on third down, because we’re in third-and-manageable. That’s really the whole goal – which we set at the beginning of the year – of how many times can we get in third-and-6 or less, give ourselves run-pass options, make it hard for the defense to defend us. Last week was a good example. We had a lot of third-and-shorter distances. This last week was the first time that we were converting on third-and-7-to-10. That’s what we needed to do. The value that both of those guys have, we like, because they can do multiple things.”
(Defensive Coordinator Matt Burke talked about the challenge of regrouping defensively after Monday night. With the personalities you have on this defense, what sort of response do you think you’ll get from them?) – “I expect that group to come out ready to perform and play well. That’s the best thing about playing defense. It’s really about a mindset of 11 guys doing their job and playing with energy and emotion and playing fast and physical. It’s sometimes less about … On offense, it’s about lining up right and all those type of things and doing all pre-snap stuff before you even really get the play off. Sometimes it just takes a guy shooting up the middle and stroking somebody. That’s the (most fun) part about defense. That’s what I think our guys need to get back to doing – having fun and playing with emotion.”
(This is the first time you guys have seen Buccaneers CB Brent Grimes since obviously you guys moved on. Are you surprised at age 34 that he’s still playing at the level he is?) – “No. He does a good job and makes it really, really tough on the quarterback. The thing he does best is he makes quarterbacks feel like somebody is open. That’s why you see guys throw the ball at him and all of a sudden he has the ball. It happened last game. They were playing a coverage and the concept they ran, I’m pretty sure almost every quarterback would’ve thrown that ball. He was in such good positon. The toughest thing he did was make that catch. He does that consistently. He makes it tough, because you think a guy is open. He has a really good break on the ball. When he plays with vision, it’s a tough throw to make. You better be very accurate. You can’t miss by much.”
(Several of QB Jay Cutler’s throws from the last game seemed pretty far off target. When he is far off target, what are some things you notice that he needs to be aware of?) – “A couple of them, we weren’t on the same page. We took the wrong angle on one of the routes. He thought one of the guys were going high and he flattened it out. That was just one of those ones where he saw it one way, they saw it a different way. Some of them are not setting your feet properly, alignment and just some basic stuff. That’s one of the things that we’re consistently working on is trying to keep him in that … make that pocket firm, let him sit in there, work his feet and when he’s ready to turn it loose, have his proper mechanics. That’s when we get accuracy. There were some throws there in the second quarter, some in the fourth, that were really, really nice, especially to Kenny (Stills), that were 12-yard out routes that were very accurate. A lot of it is just mechanically being in the right position.”
(You guys have predominantly been a zone blocking team, outside zone; but some of your larger runs have been gap scheme. What’s your thought process on that – gap scheme versus zone – at this point in time?) – “It’s really what’s best for that game. This last game, if you want to run sideline to sideline with Thomas Davis and (Luke) Kuechly, have at it. It’s always going to be … It’ll be fun. We had a good mix. We were just trying to do everything we can to not let Kuechly just point out where everything was going, which when you watch his film against other teams, he’s pointing where the run is going. It’s really amazing to watch him play, because he’s a tough guy to play chess with. For me, I’m on the sideline and he’s on the field, so it makes it really tough. He makes it hard and we had to keep mixing it up. That’s really what we’re trying to do every week is what’s best for that game.”
(Defensive Coordinator Matt Burke was saying this defense hasn’t been able to really cut it loose. If they were given 14-, 17-point leads, 10-point leads, how different would they look?) – “That’s what we built it for. We haven’t really come through on offense in two years. That’s the part that has really been more disappointing for myself is we haven’t been able to put those guys in the position that we wanted to. That needs to be something that … If we get anything clicking, getting off to a faster start and having some consecutive drives early to where our defense doesn’t feel like they’re in four-minute mode for the entire second half, that’s really what we want to do. The hard part is going out there and executing early. Instead of feeling the game out, let’s be right early and not wait to the third quarter to actually do something.”
(We saw DT Ndamukong Suh pop up in the injury report again. Is that just last week carrying over?) – “Every week could be different for him (based on) how he’s feeling and whether or not we practice him. I know whatever he has, he’s giving it. When you play inside there, you’re going take some nasty hits and get cut all of the time. It’s a tough position to play. He gets doubled almost every play. He’s trying to fight through some things and hopefully, as the season goes on, we can get him a little healthier and healthier every week. That’s why we try to give him as much time off from practice as we can, just to take a little bit off of him.”
(Not to act as a jinx, but DT Ndamukong Suh hasn’t missed a game since 2011. What does that say for a player in that position to have that kind of durability?) – “I think a lot of it starts with the way that he trains. It starts in the spring when he goes up to Oregon. He’s unbelievable in his preparation during the week. You see him around all of the time. He’s always doing something. The day off, he’s the guy here early and he’s here for so long just doing things to make sure that his body’s ready to go on Sunday. It’s very impressive to witness.”
(Not every running back can run behind an upback. It’s difficult for some guys. What are the qualities of a running back that can have that vision for creases in the defense…) – “Running behind a fullback you’re saying? What are you asking?”
(For a running back, not every running back can really run that well behind an upback. What are some of the qualities that RB Kenyan Drake possesses that allows him to do that?) – “Really both of those guys (Drake and RB Damien Williams) can do it. I think Drake probably had a little bit more experience in college doing it, because they did multiple things (at Alabama). They had those fullback looks and they had those spread looks. I think Damien was probably a little less in what he did. It’s a different vantage point, it’s a different view and contact happens a little closer to the line of scrimmage. It’s tight, it’s a bang-bang deal and you’ve got to make a decision and roll with it. I think it’s just an instinct thing. Some guys can do it, some guys can’t. It’s no different than gun-run type things.”
(How’s the plan gone to try to get guys days back losing the bye? You guys obviously didn’t practice yesterday, right? So that’s one less day of practice this week. How do you feel the whole plan is?) – “We were going to do this anyways. This is what we do with Monday night games. We’re trying to get our guys recovered instead of rushing a plan in and rushing guys onto the field. We had set something up to where today and tomorrow we load it up pretty good. We look at it as when you play on Thursday night, for some reason you can get everything put in there and do all of these walkthroughs and then throw it out there on Thursday. We planned it the way we needed to plan it and we felt like giving ourselves time as coaches and then giving our players the proper amount of time to recover for the next game was important to us. I think that after the Thursday game, what we did was good for our guys to recharge a little bit. It went quick; but really, at the end of the day, we’ve got four days, which is what they normally get off that bye week.”
(I’m sure you’d like to see more numbers, obviously, tangible numbers from DE Charles Harris if you had the lead more, for reasons that you talked about. That said, how would you assess his rookie year?) – “He’s doing a lot of things good and anytime he’s ever had any kinds of struggles, it’s things that he’s never seen before. In this league, every week, you get the full gamut of plays. Coaches have a lot of time to put things together and try to take advantage of certain defenses and certain ways guys play. It’s just always going to be a learning experience for him and that’s why some of the veteran players … If you watch William Hayes, he does a great job. He’s seen so much and he knows how to play so many different things, it’s a little easier for him because it’s more of a reaction than thinking about, ‘This is coming so I’ve got to play it like this.’ That’s time. You try to get the process going as fast as possible and get him caught up as much as you can; but at the end of the day, he’s got to see it and react to it. The guys that are good players usually react a little quicker than others.”
