Adam Gase – November 28, 2016
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Monday, November 28, 2016
Head Coach Adam Gase
(How are December games different?) – “I think the later you get in the season, every game is very … the importance increases because you’re getting down to the end and everybody’s fighting to win their next game. The stakes go up. Everything starts feeling … It feels different in December.”
(A lot of your guys do not have experience with this. Is that a problem in any way?) – “Not from my experience. I’ve been on a couple of teams where it’s the first time going through this process and they’ve handled well. Guys just focus on … It’s a small focus for most guys. They’re worried about that week. As long as the guys aren’t looking ahead to the next week or the week after that, usually you can be in good shape.”
(Is it a good thing that you’re so young because these guys can probably give you a lot of stress with these nail-biting games? Obviously you’re going to keep playing 60 minutes but it seems like every game is coming down to the end.) – “For myself, it was just more about us being in that situation. There were a few things that we wish we would have done a little different; but sometimes it’s good to be in those situations because as the season goes on, it’s going to keep happening. The better teams you play, the harder the games get, and it usually comes down to the last drive, one side or the other. We’ve been in quite a few of those situations. Last night, just watching the Denver/Kansas City game and seeing Andy Reid after the game talking about that was a little stressful; but, like he said, that’s why you love this game, because those type of situations, when you get into those, that’s why you work and go through those situations you go through in practice, because when it comes up in a game and you execute them and you complete the play, that’s the fun part of this game.”
(Did you know to root for the Chiefs?) – “No, I wasn’t even thinking about it. I was watching a good game and I have a lot of relationships still in Denver, and there’s some good one’s in Kansas City as well. So it was a great game to watch.”
(After the game they put up a graphic that showed the projected bracket with the Dolphins in playoff position. Did you notice that? Will you think about the fact that you are currently in the playoffs?) – “I wasn’t really paying attention. I was working on … I was watching our game from yesterday. I was here. I was listening kind of more with the press conference, Andy’s (Reid) press conference and then I wasn’t really … like some things I hear, and some things I don’t.”
(What did the tape show you on the last play of the game on DT Ndamukong Suh’s [stop]?) – “I thought it was a really good job of him doing his job and then making a play. It just shows his relentless pursuit. It’s something that I’ve heard him say a lot and I hear it a lot in that room as far as running with a purpose. I’ve heard him say it a lot, when guys run with a purpose and understand why you’re pursuing with that effort. What are you trying to accomplish? Are you trying to get in the clip or are you trying to make a play? You always see him. He goes to make a play. For that to happen on that last play of the game, that just shows his conditioning level, his ability to fight through a lot. When you get double-teamed all game, I’m sure that’s got to be frustrating, and he never wavers. He keeps playing hard and he had an opportunity to make a play and did a great job, and the rest of those guys did a great job of just attacking and they finished the play.”
(Is there an advantage to knowing you control your own destiny or is it too early?) – “It’s too early for me. You just keep playing right now. You don’t worry about all that stuff.”
(Talking to the guys, they have nothing but high praises for the way you coach, your cheerleading, the way you go about every day business, but how much pride you take in being so relatable with the guys to the locker room?) – “I think the thing that we try to do as a coaching staff is we try to shoot our guys straight. That’s the biggest thing for us. We want to make sure that we’re honest. If we feel like either somebody’s not doing something right or they are doing something right, we let them know. My experience being in this league, I’ve been around some good coaches, some good mentors, and the good ones I’ve been around have always done the same thing: they shoot their players straight. They don’t tell them something just to try to gain favor with them or pick sides or anything like that. Being around (Chicago Bears Head) Coach (John) Fox was good for me because I really saw a head coach who was very upfront, very honest. (He) didn’t B.S. (He) shot his players straight and they always knew where they stood. I thought that was a great experience for me to have over those four years I was with him. I watched guys really respect him because of the way that he handled certain situations. I think that was a great learning experience for myself.”
(I think they appreciate the fact, a lot have mentioned the fact that you’re just a little bit older than them as well, and you can relate to them on whatever aspect, whether it’s social media … you treat them like men.) – “I think that’s another thing that I’ve learned over the last four years being with (Chicago Bears Head) Coach (John) Fox is that’s how he always treated all of his players. He gave them some leeway on a few things, but if you abused it or you tried to take advantage of that or did something wrong, then it would get it reigned in pretty quick. Once again, that was great for me to see because it was different than anything I had experienced before.”
(When did you learn that G/T Laremy Tunsil would be unavailable and how far away do you think he is now?) – “The night before, we felt like we were probably going to be without him. We held until the next morning to just … I mean he could have walked in and been like, ‘I’m good. I can go.’ He took enough reps to where we felt comfortable. Like we talked about last week, ‘B.A.’ (Branden Albert) could just legitimately not do anything the entire week and walk in there. Laremy, I would want him to at least go through the walkthroughs or just at least have an idea of seeing things from the position he was going to play. So we had enough in there where if he would have said I was good to go, we would have been okay with it. We didn’t feel great about it going into Sunday and we had our mind set that Sam (Young) was going to be the left tackle.”
(What are you hearing or seeing from your players on the sidelines late in games that tells you they have this belief that somehow they’ll find a way to pull out the game?) – “I think there’s just good chatter through the game. If something bad happens, which it does in every game, right? I mean every game in the NFL, it just seems like there are these momentum shifts and you feel like you’re okay and then all of a sudden, something crazy happens and there’s a swing. I just hear that constant positive reinforcement from a lot of the guys on the sideline – whether it’s offense, defense or some of the special teams guys – but there’s always good dialogue and good encouragement on the sideline.”
(Has that increased through the course of the season?) – “I think it’s been pretty consistent. Once (Mike) Pouncey started playing again and we kind of had a lot of our guys back – our captains were all healthy – that’s when it really picked up. It really has been pretty steady as we’ve gone on. We’ve seen some guys kind of emerge as far as being a little more vocal. It’s some different guys that maybe we didn’t expect to hear from. I think a lot of guys have – whether they’ve become a starter and feel as though they can say something; or just some guys that have been veteran players that have been through a lot of this before, to where they feel comfortable saying something.”
(Who would be some of those guys?) – “I think (Andre) Branch is a guy that I’ve noticed. I think Cam (Wake) has been a lot more vocal than probably what I thought. When I first met him, I thought he was quiet. He worked as hard as anybody I’d ever been around and was consistent, but I’ve noticed that especially over the last, when things weren’t going so good, he was really stepping up. He was being vocal and really trying to be an impactful leader.”
(When QB Ryan Tannehill talks about playing with fast feet, can you explain that in layman’s terms and do you guys have like a buzz word that you use to remind him of that during games?) – “The thing that I always just remind him every once in a while is if I feel like he’s getting a little stagnant at the back where you see him kind of sitting in the back of the pocket and his feet aren’t moving or he’s not sliding around, I’ll just say something like, ‘Keep moving,’ or ‘Push up in the pocket.’ Just things like that, just little reminders. I don’t want to overdo it because there are a lot of things going on there. You have a lot of things on your mind as far as hot side adjusts (and) run checks. He’s got a lot of things going on out there. I just try to hit him up with that every once in a while but we try to get him back (in the pocket) quick, get him up quick, keep his feet moving and then, if something breaks down, just be ready to move and run. We’ve encouraged him to get outside the pocket. ‘Don’t wait.’ It’s nice when he can stand in there and throw it. Every once in a while he will and he’ll take a hit, but we’d rather him not get hit.”
(How are you going to grade the improvement on that then?) – “I think he’s done a great job. He’s really bought into the fact that we’re okay with him making, kind of ad-libbing plays. I have no problem with it. He makes good decisions. He’s aggressive, I know that. When I see him roll to the left and throw it 40 yards down the field, I’m sure I’m going, ‘No!’ and then he completes it and I’m like, ‘That was a great play.’”
(Along those lines, nine touchdowns by QB Ryan Tannehill and just one pick during this win streak. He’s accurate on throws when he knows he’s not going to see the completion because he’s going to be on the ground. Is there one or two aspects of his game that just impress you more than others?) – “I think there is a lot of trust there for him with the wide receivers, tight ends, running backs, as far as those guys being in the right spots. I think a lot of it comes from the way that we’ve been practicing. Guys are practicing fast; it’s competitive. I love the way our scout team is practicing right now as far as going against our offense. It’s very competitive, and I think that’s what makes the games at least feel normal for our guys. It’s not a different speed. He’s impressed me as far as his faith in where guys were going to be. I’ve seen him make a couple throws where he doesn’t see it and he puts it in the spot that we had talked about during the week and, whether it’s a receiver, tight end or running back, they’re where they are supposed to be.”
(TE Dion Sims really flashed yesterday, at least in the receiving end. How would you assess the way he played? Also, what did we not see that he had…) – “He’s been pretty consistent as far as when he’s out there, whether it’s blocking, pass protection, route running; he catches the ball well. He has good hands. He’s just one of those guys that you don’t expect it from because he’s a big guy. He looks like he should just be your prototypical leave him protection, don’t release him on the routes, good run blocker (tight end). But for a guy his size, he does have good hands and he can run after the catch. He looks for that, like that one he had yesterday when he got that check down, he was ready to go and he wasn’t going to be brought down. I don’t think he ended up going to the ground that play, because even when he went out of bounds, they tried to take a shot at him and the guy just bounced off of him.”
(You guys are really wide receiver heavy in your offense. Do you think if you get X number of catches from your tight ends, it’s a good day? Do you even go into it like that?) – “I don’t even think about who’s getting the ball, for the most part. It’s about finding the open guy. It doesn’t matter who it is, we just want guys that can catch the ball and then turn up the field and try to make a play.”
(How is WR DeVante Parker?) – “We’re still kind of in the process right now as far as our evaluation. I’ll know more when we hit Wednesday. It’s going to take the rest of today … I was very brief with the trainers today so I don’t have all the details yet.”
(What does it say about WR Leonte Carroo for him to be able to step in and make the play that he was able to make when WR DeVante Parker got injured?) – “Well, the experience that he had probably coming out of – I can’t remember what game it is but when Kenny (Stills) went down – I think that was valuable because we had a few things that he didn’t quite do his job as well as I know he wanted to do and we had a few mental errors there. I think it was a good thing that it happened because we started getting him more reps in practice because we felt like we did him a little bit of an injustice by not preparing him better than what we had. We can … (Wide Receivers Coach) Shawn (Jefferson) and (Assistant Wide Receivers Coach) Ben (Johnson) can do a great job in the classroom, but really, at the end of the day, it’s about getting reps, especially for a young player. They’ve done a great job as far as moving those guys around more in practice. When he got in there, I felt really good. When he went in there in this game, I knew he was going to know what to do, it was just going to be will he get an opportunity to make a play? When I saw (Tannehill) throw it to him, it was kind of one of those things you could sense the way that he turned up that he was not going to be tackled. That was good to see. You saw an aggressive runner. It was basically what we had seen coming out of college.”
(RB Kenyan Drake is making more plays in November than he was in September. What’s lead to him coming around?) – “I think it’s just the development of a young player. That’s part of … you want your rookies to be able to contribute as much as possible. With his skill set, we obviously have a lot of confidence in him. It’s just about assignment, making sure that we’re going as many places we can without doing the wrong thing, which he’s getting better and better at. I know sometimes it’s hard when you don’t get a ton of reps because Jay (Ajayi) takes a lot of our reps in practice. Jay likes to practice and he practices fast. You try to get somebody in there for him and he doesn’t want to be taken out because he wants those reps. Kenyan and Damien (Williams) have to do a good job of watching and listening in meetings, which isn’t always the easiest thing to do when you’re not the one doing it. He’s done a good job of learning what we’re doing and being accountable to what he’s doing. He’s been impactful when we’ve put him in there. We’d always love to get him in there more, all three of those guys. I really like watching those three guys play. They always seem to make something happen. Whenever we give them the chance to touch the ball, they make something happen.”
(Is there an update on C Mike Pouncey?) – “I think we’re still … it’s such a week-to-week thing. I’m going to have to really look into it as far as what are our chances this week; but just in my mind, we’re probably not ready yet. We’re probably not ready.”
(How did C/G Anthony Steen perform?) – “He did a good job. He had a tough one, the way that they were playing. We had some things going on as far as what he had to control in the run game and in pass protection. They gave us some tougher looks there when they did go into some of their smaller personnel groupings and trying to figure out who we were supposed to block up front compared to the back and our hots, stuff like that. They really gave us some tough looks. He did a good job as far as his communication goes. He had a tough matchup, and he did a good job of trying to get his guy covered up as much as possible. Sometimes when you play a 3-4 style defense, you’re on your own at center. It’s not as easy as you think, trying to read some of those shades; it’s not always easy. You try to do the best you can as far as not allowing penetration and sometimes he won and sometimes he lost.”
(We asked some of your guys what they thought of the standings, if they knew about the standings and that sort of thing, and they professed that they don’t pay any attention. Is that what you want to hear?) – “I think it’s hard for us to really worry about anything else. Our focus is so small, as far as we’re worried about what we’re going to do this week. I think guys are still looking at yesterday as far as, what do we have to fix? What do we need to do better? I love the fact that our guys are thinking that way. A lot of the times, that’s how coaches think. It’s hard to look down the road because you have so much focus on what’s going on that week, there’s so much work that goes on just to win that one game. I know it sounds easy to do to just say, ‘Well we’ve got this team after this, and this team after this,’ but you can’t look past anybody. You can’t think too far ahead, because that’s when you get in trouble for the week that you’re preparing for. All of your focus needs to go on that one week.”
(Does it get more important week to week? Do you rely more on veterans that may have playoff experience or been down this road before?) – “I think that we’re going to rely on the guys that are on the field. I think veteran players are great to have. I don’t know if you checked out our roster lately. (Laughter)”
(I meant having someone in the locker room getting the message across to players that haven’t been through this?) – “I don’t know how many guys that we actually have had that have been through this. I think we have more coaches than players, really. I think a lot of our players that have had experience where December is a little interesting is minimal.”
(Going back to TE Dion Sims, in the last three games he’s played all but two of the offensive snaps. What does that say about A) his durability and B) his value to the offense?) – “For a guy his size, he’s in tremendous shape, and that’s why he has the ability to stay on the field. I do think he has the type of mentality to where he takes a lot of pride being on the field as much as possible. I know when he has been hurt with us in the past, if it’s been something that he can play with; we rarely hear about it. He just keeps going. Obviously, the only thing that has really side tracked him is when he had to go through … He went through a tough deal when he had his concussion. That was a tough thing for him to go through because it was not the first one. We had to be very cautious. We had to retool kind of how we prepare him, as far as once he did get healthy and he was cleared, we took one more week. We felt like that was the right thing to do. Our strength and conditioning and sports science guys getting with him and trying to find ways as far as strengthening certain muscles in his body, and the equipment guys just going out of their way to make sure we are completely protecting him. (We were) doing all of these little tiny things to make sure that he’s going to be safe every game and if he does take a shot, are we going to be ok? It’s something that … It’s uncontrollable for him, really. That’s the toughest part. I think that everything else he plays through, but when you kind of get into that concussion protocol, that’s something we have to take a step back and do the right thing.”
(What can you say about his value to the offense? You want to keep him out there.) – “Yes, I think for a guy that has that kind of size and his skill set is just, it’s unusual. You don’t find a lot of guys that can do everything. When you have a guy that can block and pass protect, and obviously he has a valuable role in our passing game, it makes it harder for teams to defend.”
(The running figures yesterday were not what we thought they might be considering San Francisco was last in run defense. Was that a matter of just having eight or nine guys up there, or was it the offensive line?) – “I think they played well, I mean they did a lot of things really well. We … Sam (Young), and (Kraig) Urbik were … (they) really haven’t had a lot of playing time together. Some of the combination blocks, weren’t as good as I’m sure they wanted, and it was just kind of a different feel for us as far as, I kept running to the right and a lot of times that was unusual. We had been probably more to the left coming into this game, the last couple of games. Usually they were backside and they were kind of … I think it was almost like a hash deal. That’s just how it played out. It was just kind of a perfect storm as far as they played well, they have a good scheme, which makes it tough against our running game, and they did a good job as far as challenging us in the passing game, and saying ‘Hey, beat us in the air.’ Their players played well, and I think they had less plays than they’ve had in a long time as far as I think … What did we have, like 53 plays? They were averaging 70 something. Sometimes when you have a lot of plays and you’re on defense, all of a sudden the numbers can look bad. When you get caught in a game like that where you get 53 plays, now all of a sudden it looks different.”
