Adam Gase – November 9, 2017 (Conference Call)
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Thursday, November 9, 2017
Head Coach Adam Gase Conference Call with Carolina Media
(Can you give us a quick scouting report on the Panthers defense?) – “I think their ranking pretty much tells a lot of the story. It’s probably the best defense that we’ve played this year, so far. The talent level up front is as good as you can get. I think the linebackers, I don’t know if we’ve ever – in our two years (in Miami) – played a group like this before. The back end has done a great job of staying as tight as they need to and contesting on throws. The safeties have done a good job just making sure that they’re staying in front of things and then when they get their opportunities, for the most part they’ve made plays on the ball. The linebackers always are going to be the toughest guys to go against just because of the way (Luke) Kuechly plays and Thomas Davis. It really makes it tough offensively to match the kind of speed that they have.
(Where do you think your offense is right now? I know it has been up and down this year.) – “That might be an understatement. (laughter) It’s been strange, those first eight games, just being where one game, we feel like we play well and we do a lot of good things and then all of a sudden, you get shut out really two weeks in a row, which is a little surprising. We bounced back and then we had another poor performance. Really, we’re looking for consistency and it really has to start with the execution from the beginning of the game. We just need to make sure we’re doing it right at the beginning of the game just so we can have a faster start and gain that confidence. I think in some of those games, we didn’t do a very good job of rebounding from negative plays that happened early in the game.”
(How important is a guy like DE Cameron Wake to your defense?) – “He’s extremely important. One, being a guy that’s been around for a long time, he has a veteran presence. Obviously he’s really the heart and soul of what we’re about as an organization. He’s a guy that we want to basically retire here. He shows up every day and comes to work and does his job at the highest level, whether it be out at practice or on game day, whether it’s a meeting or walkthrough. You wish you had a whole bunch of guys like him. He’s a rare guy. For a guy with his years in the league, it’s really unbelievable how he goes about every little detail that he does in his life.”
(Obviously LB Luke Kuechly and LB Thomas Davis are stalwarts on the Panthers defense. Is there anyone in particular that impresses you up front? I know they rotate guys but DT Kawann Short or DE Julius Peppers or anyone that flashes to you when you watch film?) – “Well, Short is probably … We’re lucky enough to have one of the best guys in the league playing defensive tackle and I think they’ve got one of the best guys in the league. There’s probably like two or three of these guys that exist in the world and we’ve got one and they’ve got one. Just to watch him play, when you turn on the field and watch how much he penetrates and how disruptive he is, he’s a special player. Those guys do an unbelievable job up front of keeping those linebackers clean and letting them use their ability to run to their advantage. When I watch Peppers play, it’s unbelievable. Just being in Chicago for a year and going against him and then a couple of times in Denver when we went against him, it’s unbelievable just to see that he’s still playing at the level he’s playing at. There has been some really outstanding plays he’s had this season where it just flashes like he was 25 years old again. It’s been an impressive thing to watch.”
(I read that you like the way your new rushing offense looks. What in particular do you like about it?) – “I think our guys did a good job. They’re two different styles of backs and any time you can kind of change it up on the defense, I’ve always looked at it as a good thing. They’re not seeing the same things over and over again. Those two guys, they’re hungry to play. They’ve been kind of sitting back there for almost two years now. The fact that they got an opportunity, there was a little excitement there for those guys to come out there and play well. It was great for a lot of the guys that have been invested in those guys and put in the time to help them get better. To see those guys get an opportunity to perform was fun to watch, and they did a great job. They really try to do every little detail right. We’re obviously always going to have a few things to clean up after the game but if we can continue to get performances like that out of those two guys, that’s going to help us tremendously.”
(I know QB Jay Cutler played well for you last week. How would you describe his season as a whole?) – “Really, every game that I’ve got to grade, I keep going through and seeing how he did to start the season. We had an extra day this week just to kind of go back and then playing a Thursday night game, going into this last one, I was able to evaluate a lot of stuff. Just looking at how he’s played, when he’s had time in the pocket, he’s done a really good job of finding the open guys and getting the ball out on time. The games that we’ve struggled in were where things were collapsing quick and we weren’t getting open quick enough. It was hard for him to get in a little bit of a rhythm. I always say this about quarterbacks: it’s the toughest position because you need 10 other guys to do their job before you even have a chance to do yours. I think the good thing with what Jay has done is that he’s gotten better every week. The last two games that he’s played, with the Jets and the Oakland game, those are two good games back to back. This is going to be an extremely tough team for us to play, not only the personnel but the scheme that they’re running. This is going to really kind of tell us where we’re at.”
(Yesterday in QB Cam Newton’s press conference he spoke about how special it is to play on Monday Night Football. Does playing on Monday Night Football have any extra meaning to you and your team?) – “I’ve tried to think how many Monday night games I’ve actually been involved in. It seems like every one I’ve been involved in, it’s been some kind of crazy game at the end of the game, where something happens. The one that sticks out to me was in 2012, we were down 24-0 at halftime against San Diego and that was like the first time I actually got to see Peyton Manning take over a game. The fact that it was Monday night, it just made it that much more special. It was one of those games where so many people probably turned their TV off and the next thing I know, we win the game 35-24. There is something about playing in this game. It just has a different buzz to it.”
(You mentioned their defense and that their personnel was difficult and then you said something about their scheme. What exactly about their scheme makes it hard?) – “I don’t think you see too many teams where they’ll stay with their base personnel when you put three wide receivers out there. Basically Shaq Thompson goes out there and covers the slot receiver, and he’s done an unbelievable job out there. Just to see how athletic those guys are, I think it makes it tough on the offense. It’s tough to run the ball and then it’s tough to throw the ball. If you try to push the ball down the field, you have to have great protection and it’s tough to hold up against that front. They can rush four or five and it’s going to feel like an avalanche. They just cause a lot of problems. There’s a lot of different pressures that they run that come from every different direction. They keep you off balance.”
