Adam Gase – November 7, 2018 (Conference Call)
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Wednesday, November 7, 2018
Head Coach Adam Gase Conference Call with Green Bay Media
(What’s the status at quarterback? I know obviously QB Ryan Tannehill has been battling some stuff and you’re never quite sure what you’re going to get day to day with how he’s feeling. Is there anything to update there?) – “He’s going to be out this week. Brock (Osweiler) is going to be the starter. With the bye week being after this, we’re going to kind of get a rest plan ready for (Tannehill) this week and then be able to kick it back into gear at some point during the bye week.”
(How has QB Brock Osweiler handled all of this?) – “He’s been good. He’s just been going week to week and just preparing like he always does. He just waits for me to say ‘you’re rolling’ or ‘you’re not.’ He just focuses on his job.”
(How amazed at how RB Frank Gore is still pushing on, pushing past – I’m not going to guess his age, but you know where I’m going with that?) – “It’s kind of sick to think about this, but we were together 10 years ago and he just looks the same to me. Just the way he works, during a game, just everything he does, it just doesn’t look any different to me. I know when you’re 35 years old, it should look different, but he’s a freak of nature. His work ethic is off the charts. We’re going into our 10th straight week during the season and this guy is practicing in pads and finishing plays 50 yards down the field. He’s an unbelievable player and person to be around.”
(How much of an adjustment is there going from South Florida to northern Wisconsin in November? Is it going to be a culture shock for some of your guys?) – “I don’t think so. We have so many guys that have played at schools that played in cold weather. Whether in the Big Ten or anywhere on the east coast where they’ve had to travel to some spots. To me, it’s three hours. You have heated benches, they have everything under the sun to keep you warm. I’m just going off of my experience. I’ve been up there when it’s been really cold with a nice strong breeze to where … That’s been when I’ve been like ‘you feel this, there’s a difference here.’ That’s when I think they really have an advantage. Those guys really understand what an advantage that is for them.”
(Back to age questions, what has made DE Cameron Wake so productive? I think he’s 36?) – “Since I’ve been here, I’ve been amazed. Just what his age is and what you watch him do and watch him prepare – he makes you feel really (expletive) as a person when you watch him eat compared to how probably everybody else does. The guy eats nothing but fish and salad. That’s all he eats. He won’t put anything bad in his body. His work ethic is off the charts. The guy is relentless with his conditioning and lifting. He just does all those things that you hear people should do to stay in great shape and health and all that stuff, but he actually does it and his regimen is flawless. He does not break from it.”
(Your secondary is getting their hands on a lot of balls but they’re facing a guy that just doesn’t give secondary’s a lot of chances to get their hands on balls. How are you looking at that?) – “Maybe he’ll change his mind this game? (laughter) It’s tough. We have to try to stay as tight as we can on coverage. This has to be the ultimate 11 guys playing together. It just takes one guy to not do his job correctly and you’re going to have an issue. I’ve seen it too many times. I’ve been against him too many times, watching him from the time he first started playing until now. He’s a fun guy to watch when you don’t play him; but when you play him, you just want him to go away. He is unbelievable to watch and to see him play.”
(Have you done anything differently or are your guys just being able to capitalize on plays with the pick numbers way up?) – “I think guys have done a great job as far as the rush and the coverage have worked together. I think we’ve done a good job of finishing the plays and catching balls. We had drops last year, we had missed opportunities last year, we didn’t put ourselves in a good enough position. We made a big emphasis on it in the offseason. We really focused on a lot of different types of drills and carved out a lot of time in practice to work on, whether it’d be fumbles, tackling, stripping the ball, tip-balls, JUGS work. Whatever it is, we’ve kind of mixed it up so players can constantly try to work on when we get our opportunities, we don’t miss them. We felt like the year before, that’s what hurt us in a lot of games. We had a chance to swing a game and we’d drop a pick and then they’d score a touchdown. We felt like if we can figure out a way to make sure we finish those plays, maybe they’ll swing the other way.”
(When you look at Green Bay’s season and where they’ve been the last couple of weeks with close-ish losses to the Rams and then the Patriots – obviously two very good teams on the road – but their record overall is still 3-4-1. They’re coming home for really their only home game within a month-long stretch. I don’t know if desperate is the right word, but certainly the importance of this game for Green Bay can’t be more magnified here in Wisconsin. Is that part of your message to your guys at all? Obviously, every game is important for you guys, but for the Packers it seems like this game has that much more importance even though it’s a non-divisional game.) – “Our guys know this: we’re going on the road in a place that’s a very difficult place to play with a Hall of Fame quarterback that is still playing football at a … I don’t want to piss Tom Brady off, but he’s probably the top guy. When I see him play, the guy doesn’t make a lot of errors. He looks like he’s playing jayvee football compared to everybody else. He looks at a different level. It’s just unbelievable how effortless he makes the game look. Our guys know that. They know when you play a guy like this, you better bring your A-game. You better make sure that everybody is on the same page. Throw the records out. It doesn’t matter because of who we’re playing.”
(What has LB Kiko Alonso done so well? He has numbers in basically every category.) – “Last year when we got into the season, he was recovering in the offseason from … He had surgery on his hand so he wasn’t able to do a lot of the things in the offseason that he was used to. This year, he had the offseason. He was able to practice all the time in the spring, training camp. Hopefully he can stay healthy because you know how this game is, it’s day to day. You can see his experience is really starting to pay off because he’s getting a step ahead and he’s anticipating things. He’s running to the football as well as I’ve ever seen him do. The hits that he’s making are causing turnovers. He’s doing a good job of getting his hands on balls, whether it be interceptions or stripping them out.”
(I know it’s kind of the way the NFL is and you don’t make excuses, but how difficult has it been for you as an offensive guy when you don’t have your quarterback, you don’t have G Josh Sitton, you lose WR Albert Wilson? That’s a lot of really good football players that you don’t have.) – “You had to bring up Sitton. (laughter) That one hurt because it was early. He did such a great job for us, starting in the spring. He mentored (Laremy) Tunsil and we’re receiving the benefits of that with him being out of how he helped Laremy really kind of turn the corner as far as being a pro. I see it every day. I’m like ‘this guy is like a different guy.’ I give Josh so much credit for that because Laremy really respected him and those two guys playing together were … He watched what he did and learned from him. That hurt us. When (Sitton) went down, that hurt us. Like everybody says around here, when the big guy went down, that stung us pretty good. Then we lost Albert. He was kind of the guy where it was like you never knew when it was going to happen, you knew it was a matter of time where he would catch something at 3 yards and it’d be a 70-yard touchdown. We lost one of our explosive guys, which when things aren’t going right and somebody can do that for you, that’s a game changer.”
