Adam Gase – November 16, 2017 (Conference Call)
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Thursday, November 16, 2017
Head Coach Adam Gase Conference Call with Tampa Bay Media
(How do you feel RBs Kenyan Drake and Damien Williams have played in place of RB Jay Ajayi? Are you getting what you expected out of them?) – “Yes, I think they’ve done a good job. They’ve really exceeded my expectations with how easy the transition has been when one guy takes a series and then another guy comes in. I wasn’t 100 percent sure of how smooth that would go, if things would change up for us; but those guys do a good of playing off of each other from series to series. They’re both looking out for each other because they still have some special teams responsibilities. Damien does a little bit more on special teams. They pay attention to that throughout the game, so if one of them is a little bit tired, the other one will pop in there for a few plays and give the guy a rest.”
(RB Kenyan Drake has had a couple of real break away runs the last two weeks. Does he give you that on a consistent basis, you think, that threat?) – “We saw it off of our kickoff return team, that speed he has. The thing about him that makes him unique is that for a speed guy, he hits the hole extremely hard. If he pops through that secondary, that’s where he becomes an issue.”
(Are you planning to continue with a committee there at running back, using both guys evenly because of the special teams issue? Or do you see one guy emerging as the lead back?) – “No, I like both of those guys being in there. I feel comfortable with both of them in there. I know the quarterback feels comfortable with both of them in there. Really, the way that we’re playing it right now, we still have a long ways to go and both of these guys really haven’t had that kind of work as running backs in the NFL, so I’m just looking at this as we’re probably going to need them both to stay involved.”
(Last year you guys got off to a slow start and then turned it around and had a great season, and I know you’ve had a few losses here now; but in the NFL, how difficult is it to reverse momentum during a season?) – “It’s really not that hard because if guys just focus on one week at a time, it swings so fast. If you put one good game together, it’s really easy to carry that over. The confidence can really pop for you just from one week to the next. I just see our guys that have experienced a little bit of not playing so well and then we have one good game, and all of a sudden we go on a run. If we can just somehow put it together as a team … We keep picking our spots where one side of the ball plays okay and the other side doesn’t, and we’ve kind of flipped roles here so far in the last couple of games. If we can somehow play some complementary football with each other, that’s going to give us our best chance to have some consistency.”
(From what you’ve seen of him on tape, how does LB Lavonte David look to you for the Buccaneers? If just seems like he’s making plays all over the field. Are you seeing the same thing?) – “Yes, he’s a tough guy to go against. He covers a lot of ground. He’s physical. Last game you saw some looks where they had some two-back, bringing the fullback out of the backfield trying to lead up on those guys and he was taking those guys on, getting rid of them and still making plays. When you start going sideline to sideline, he covers a lot of ground. He’s good in the passing game. He’s just one of those guys that you have to be aware of. You have to make sure that you have a plan for him because he can really disrupt both your run game and your passing game.”
(I know it was a scary situation when QB Ryan Tannehill went down, but how has QB Jay Cutler adapted to coming back and playing and doing the things you hoped he would do?) – “I think we started off well in the preseason, feeling good about things. In that first game, we really felt like we were going to be able to move the ball this year and then we had a couple of games where we really struggled. It just seemed like we started pressing there for a little bit and then finally got a little more back on track against Oakland. This last game, we did some things better than we did the week before, and it wasn’t really the result we wanted as a team; but we made some little strides there. The biggest thing for our guys is just keep working and find ways to get better and I think Jay’s just trying to be a part of that solution. He’s done a good job of just trying to develop and work on little things to improve his game.”
(You had LB Rey Maualuga as a fullback on a few plays last week, is that something you’re going to continue to do? What does he bring for you there?) – “I think with a guy that size that’s willing to go in there and lead up on linebackers, that’s something that a lot of teams really have gone away from and we’ve been one of them. I like that fact that when you have a guy that can do it and play both ways and contribute for us on offense as well, it’s really a benefit to us. It’s one of those situations where a lot of teams don’t get to work on that a lot. If we can kind of use that every once in a while and have some success with it, that’s all we are looking to do.”
(There’s a lot of great corners in this leagues. As an offensive play caller, what do you think of CB Brent Grimes and certain guys, whether they’re guys not that you don’t go at them, but do you try to be aware of where they’re at?) – “Yes, when I watch him … I think the last time that I actually played against him was in 2014. He was hot going into that game when I was in Denver. I remember we were really cautious about certain routes that we threw and how we wanted to attack when we did go to his side, how we wanted to attack him route-wise, because he does such a good of both playing with vision and being able to play in man coverage as well. The thing that is always scary about him is when the ball is near him, his ball skills are outstanding. He does a good job of putting himself in a position where the quarterback thinks he has an open throw and then all of a sudden he gets his hands on the ball. A lot of times if that happens, he ends up getting the interception. You saw that last week where most quarterbacks would see exactly what (Jets quarterback) Josh McCown saw where you think you have the right coverage for what they were running and he goes to throw that post and Brent played it perfect. That was really all him because he baited him into throwing that thing and he made a really nice play by catching it.”
