Adam Gase – November 6, 2017
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Monday, November 6, 2017
Head Coach Adam Gase
(What was your take on the penalties after looking at the film?) – “I think some of them are preventable, obviously, with just better technique. When you get tied up with a guy sometimes we just have to learn how to disengage at the right time, when a guy’s going away from you. You can’t keep tugging at him. Some of it is we have to find that balance with when we make our cuts sometimes, where the line feels the running back is going to be kind of going in a certain direction. If we cut too fast and we don’t press it enough, then all of a sudden there’s a quick jerk back and the d-linemen disengage with the offensive linemen and it’s just unexpected for them. That’s why that whole running back and o-line is kind of tied together. You have to work together really well to really have a good running game.”
(They always hurt but it seems like they really costly last night) – “Oh, it just was at the worst times. We’d start a series out and Damien (Williams) has a huge play and we get a holding call and we’re on the 20(-yard line). I mean who knows. Maybe if we don’t get the holding call, he gets tackled for 10 yards; but you’ll take it because it’s not first-and-12 or whatever we ended up being.”
(What, if anything, would you tell S Reshad Jones to do differently on the last one?) – “I don’t know. I’m still kind of trying to figure out what happened on that one. I’ll talk to the guys that I need to talk to just to get clarification on that. I haven’t heard back from them yet.”
(You did some good things offensively. The deep passing game is still not there. It looked like there were a couple time where QB Jay Cutler looked deep yesterday but it didn’t happen for whatever reason. What were those reasons and do you think you can win in the second half of the year without much of a vertical passing game?) – “Well, I mean we were running a vertical passing game but I don’t know what …”
(In terms of balls 25 yards or more?) – “Yes, I mean if they’re playing 2-Man, you’re not going to get those throws. Why do you think the backs were getting 10 yards a clip? That’s what drives me nuts is that nobody knows … stop. I mean we’re calling it and we’re doing what we’re supposed to do with the ball versus the right … like the coverages we’re getting.”
(Has that been the case or year? I wasn’t talking specifically about last night.) – “Yes.”
(Would it be fair to say now you look at the running backs more of yards from scrimmage as opposed to rushing yards total under RB Jay Ajayi, right?) – “Yes, pretty much. It doesn’t matter however you get the ball. If you throw a swing pass out to him and get 8 yards, it’s as good as a run.”
(When C/G Ted Larsen was put on the 53 man roster Saturday and then not active Sunday, can you just go through that and what happened?) – “Well Wednesday we did individual with him and we were in pads. We went individual. Then Thursday he practiced. Friday, he practiced and we felt like it was in our best interest to wait until he actually got a full day of padded practice to where we actually were able to practice him, because when you have that long of a layoff, to just get thrown in there into a game and you haven’t had padded practice work in practice versus a defense, it’s going to speed up real fast. I know we can think just throw him back in there and we’ll be good to go, but it’s professional football. This isn’t Pee Wee. I mean it’s going to be moving pretty quick.”
(Do you feel like C/G Ted Larsen’s getting pretty close?) – “I hope so. I mean we’re going to need him.”
(Can you assess where your team is at midseason?) – “I think we’re probably not exactly where we want to be. We’ve had just too many ups and downs. We haven’t played together yet. It seems like when we finally get moving on offense, we stub our toe on defense and then when they finally have a couple of good drives to where they’re three-and-out or a short drive, we don’t get anything going on offense. The defense has really been keeping us in the games all year, where we were trying to find our way on offense. This last game felt a little more normal of what it should feel like and we just couldn’t get on the same page. I thought Oakland did a good job. They stuck with their game plan and did a good job of some of the matchups they got against us, against our coverages. They finally started busting a couple of runs there on that one drive. There were probably like 36 yards came on one drive. I feel like we’re close to clicking. We just have to find a way to play together. If we can play a good game of complementary football, that’d be really what we’d like to see.”
(T Ja’Wuan James did not look good when he left the locker room yesterday. What is the story about him?) – “I don’t (know). I haven’t talked to the trainers yet, so we’ll find out.”
(What is the plan for this week regarding S T.J. McDonald?) – “We’ll see where he’s at when we throw him out there. It’s not like he’s coming back from an injury, so we can put him into practice on Wednesday. I expect him to be out there ready to go. He’s been chomping at the bit for a while now.
(How ready do you believe S T.J. McDonald is to just jump right in?) – “I don’t know. Run across the middle and you’ll find out. I think he’s pretty ready. (laughter)”
(I’d probably rather not. S T.J. McDonald’s been in meetings, he’s been in film with you. He seems right there in step with everybody else?) – “Yes. I want him to play. I can’t wait to watch him play.”
(When you talk about this team at the midpoint and how you assess it, you’ve got C/G Ted Larsen and you’ve got S T.J. McDonald coming back. That’s kind of an unusual situation when you’re usually losing guys this time of year.) – “Yes, it was well planned. (laughter) The Ted (injury), that hurt us, because it just threw everything out of whack. It was on the same day that Ryan (Tannehill) did his ACL. Just a lot of things spun out of control. We felt really good about our o-line and it just threw us out of flux there for a second. (With) T.J., we knew what we were getting into with the suspension. We knew it was going to be about this time and we were just hoping that we were trending upward when this happened, to where we could have that push over the top that could maybe make a difference for us. We’re not exactly where we want to be. We’ve been worse. Last year it felt different, a little bit. I know really it’s the same record. This year, it’s more of we’re not horrible in the injury department – we’re not in a bad, terrible shape – but I feel like our guys last week, they prepared the right way. That’s what has me somewhat excited moving forward. We’ve got a stretch here (where) we’ve got tough road games, we’ve got tough home games, division opponents. Everything’s up for grabs and it’s really, ‘Who wants to do it right? Who wants to keep doing it right week in and week out?’ Our guys have a great opportunity and this is what the NFL is. This is when you want to be playing. You’ve got a shot. You’ve got eight games to see what you’re made of. If you play well and you prepare well, you’ll find yourself in a good spot at the end of the year.”
(Just looking at the run game, you guys were able to mix some things up. Were you satisfied with the timing of the play calling and the execution of what you guys were doing?) – “I don’t know about the whole timing thing. There was a couple of times where I was going back and forth trying to figure out what was the best thing for that situation, just trying to get a feel for what they were doing on defense. They did a good job. They were a little bit all over the place. They kept changing it up. It was a little bit different for them. I thought our guys handled a lot of the things that they were doing fairly well. A couple of those runs where we ended up having penalties, you wished we didn’t, because we had some good runs. We cleaned that up. I like where our running game is heading. We were able to do a couple of things where we popped a big one, which was good to see, and there was an earlier one where we were really close; (Kenyan) Drake got tripped up in a pile of guys. I like where that’s headed. I think it makes a difference. I think those guys out of the backfield in the passing game really made a big difference.”
(Will you continue to use both RBs Damien Williams and Kenyan Drake or maybe just see whose got the hot hand after a few series?) – “We’re going to have to use both of them because it felt like those guys were exerting a lot of energy there. Damien is still doing special teams stuff because he’s one of our best guys. Whatever Damien had, he left it on the field., I know that. Both of those guys did. They sold out and gave us everything they had.”
(What did you think about RB Damien Williams’ touchdown? What did you observe about the blocking, any of the setup for that play?) – “Obviously, it wasn’t as clean as everybody sees it because we were running all over the place, guys lined up on the wrong side. We got it straightened out and just seeing Jarvis (Landry) turn around and just know that he was going to get crushed and he didn’t care. He was just all about getting into the end zone. That’s that selfless attitude we’re always searching for of guys just selling out for each other. Damien did a great job of staying in bounds and then getting into the end zone. (It was in) slow motion, but it was a great play to watch on film.”
(I know there’s obviously a lot of football in it, but you had personal investment in RB Damien Williams. He’s a guy you’ve been really close with. A big breakthrough for him getting his first start and having that game, what did that mean to you to see that happen for a guy you obviously care a lot about?) – “I just know he’s a guy that cares about one thing and that’s winning, whether he’s the starter, backup, playing every special teams, catching 100 balls or catching five. He just wants to do whatever he can to win. He wants to be on the field to help and when he is on the field, you get everything he has. Just to see him be able to get the opportunity was great. We want to just keep moving in the right direction and keep giving him chances, keep giving (Kenyan) Drake chances. If Senorise (Perry) gets a crack at it at some point … I want to see those guys do well. They put in a lot of time, they put in a lot of effort, and they want to do it right.”
(How did you feel about TE Julius Thomas last night and do you think this could be a launching?) – “That’s where we finally got some of the coverages we were looking for. That’s what happens.”
(The two or three things you liked best about QB Jay Cutler’s performance?) – “I thought he was really good, just demeanor-wise. He did a good job of staying the same. He never got too high; he never got too low. There were a couple of situations there where it just kind of felt like we weren’t trending in the right direction and we ended up putting something together and getting some points. I thought he did a good job of buying some time. He was good with the ball. I thought a couple of his throwaways were smart. There were a couple times where he knew he had to make a play and he did. Really at the end of the day, if we can just clean the pocket up just a little bit to where he can set his feet, especially early, that kind of helps him throughout the game. If we get him drifting away and he can’t set his feet, you just don’t want that to be a consistent thing. You’ve got to keep fighting to try to keep that pocket clean.”
(Why the change in opinion in the players kneeling on the sideline as opposed to the locker room?) – “I’m going to worry about football. I’m not going to get into all of that.”
(On the question earlier about long passes, obviously, your point well made about coverages. That said, you haven’t had a play from a receiver longer than 34 yards this year. Is it entirely over a body of work because of the way teams are defending you deep, or is it also a function of the offensive line not holding up enough for some of those plays that were called to actually go forward and materialize?) – “It just depends what I’m calling. I could’ve done something, rolled out to the right and watch (Khalil) Mack just blow Jay’s (Cutler) lungs out; but I didn’t feel like doing that. It’s all about timing and protection as far as what you’re calling versus what they’re doing and what they’re playing on the back end. Sometimes they call the right stuff. It’s a chess match. There are times I’m calling shots, but nobody knows I’m calling shots.”
(Right, which is what I was bringing up…) – “It is what it is.”
(It appeared as though that might have happened where we saw QB Jay Cutler’s eyes go downfield a couple of times in the fourth quarter, but was it just not open at that point as opposed to the line breaking down?) – “When you got three guys on two and then you’ve got a linebacker on (Kenyan) Drake or Damien (Williams), we can force it in there but I don’t think we’re going to like the result. It’s tough. They did a good job. They were spinning the wheel pretty good. It wasn’t like it was easy to say, ‘It’s second-and-7, this is what they’re always doing.’ It wasn’t easy.”
(What did you see regarding coverage on TE Jared Cook last night and how much of a concern might that be with tight ends going forward?) – “We just gave him too much air. There were a couple times where we talked about getting our hands on him (and) we didn’t. A couple of the zone coverages that he caught balls in, we should’ve had tighter coverage and we didn’t. I wouldn’t say that was … One time we were playing man. The rest of the time we’re playing zone. We just can’t give him so much air. We’ve got to make sure we do a better job in those first five yards.”
(How do you look at the fourth quarter last night. You guys had some costly penalties. You had the turnover that gave you a chance. Missed opportunities?) – “Yes, I’d say so. What was that was the first game we’ve lost in how many games by seven or less or three or less? Normally it doesn’t happen. It’s one of those things where we’d rather not have the penalties and capitalize on the plays that we’re making; but that’s not what happened and we just have to find a way to clean a few things up and get back to work.”
(You mentioned in the past about scaling back the offense. Do you feel that yesterday you were able to open it up a little bit?) – “No, I didn’t (scale) it (back) yesterday. We ran the game plan and they figured it out.”
(You mean you didn’t scale it back?) – “No.”
(When you look at what you did with RB Kenyan Drake and RB Damien Williams, do you feel like this is the starting point on how you would like to operate the backfield?) – “Probably. We’ll see how far we go with it. We’ll see what else we can do. It’s hard to say, ‘this group, this group.’ It’s 11 guys. There’s a lot of factors thata re going on, whether or not who you’re playing and who is upfront. That’s kind of where it starts. How well can we protect? What do we have to do to help, when you’re playing a guy like (Khalil) Mack and you’ve got Bruce Irvin on the other side? That’s where it starts and then you filter out after that. What’s the best in the running game? What’s the best type of passing attack? There’s a lot of things that go on with this and trying to focus on one group is hard because it’s a huge puzzle and you’re trying to put it together during the week.”
(Obviously losing the ball is never a good thing. Aside from the fumble, do you like how RB Kenyan Drake ran?) – “Yes, I did. The fumble, it was a tough one because he kind of got spun around and kind of hit weird. It’s one of those things where we emphasize it so much – which we talked about the other day – about we never put the ball on the ground because I was asked that on Friday. It was a tough hit, but we got to hold on to the ball.”
(What did the tape show on the DT Ndamukong Suh forced fumble?) – “It was an unbelievable play. Just seeing it live, it really was a great play. It was an unbelievable individual effort. I was just hoping he would get there just to make it hard for him to throw it; but for him to get a hand on the ball, that was unbelievable. Just the effort by everybody after that play, that was us. That’s how we should play. It was 11 guys with their hair on fire trying to do something good. We’ve just got to clean some things up. I feel like we’re close to doing a lot of good things. We’ve just got to figure out a way to play together as a team.”
(Was DT Ndamukong Suh in the clear health-wise? Was he ok?) – “Yes, I’m going to find out. He obviously came back. I haven’t met with our trainers yet.”
(K Cody Parkey’s onside kick, the first one. Was that something he brought to you guys or is that something you’ve been working on with him?) – “No, they’ve been … It’s been up. Every once in a while it’ll be up for games. That was just the first time that we’ve called it.”
(Do you leave any discretion to K Cody Parkey on when to do that?) – “I mean it’s called and we decide to do it before the kickoff.”
(You guys are calling it, not K Cody Parkey?) – “Yes.”
(The thinking in that moment, for that kick, was what? Why at that time?) – “Why not? It just felt right.”
