Adam Gase – October 12, 2017
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Thursday, October 12, 2017
Head Coach Adam Gase
(With WR DeVante Parker a question for Sunday, last week the thinking going with WR Jakeem Grant for a lot of snaps compared to WR Leonte Carroo? Was it because of what Jakeem showed preseason, practice recently? And how did he do?) – “Looking back at it, I wish I would’ve mixed them both in there a little more. When you have a guy go down and you’ve kind of tailored the game plan to those three guys and all of a sudden you … It’s like the third play of the game. I was trying to go through and fix a lot of the formations. I didn’t want to mess Kenny (Stills) up either, because we had certain things in the game plan for him. We felt like Jakeem gave us as good a chance as Carroo. I probably should’ve just mixed them in there a little more. That probably would’ve helped us.”
(You guys are 10-0 when RB Jay Ajayi has 18 or more carries. Does that number have any significance, and if so, what does it tell you about what’s happening or what could be happening?) – “It’s hard for me to say that’s the only reason. I think it helps when your defense doesn’t allow a team to move the ball and special teams plays well. If we have a high amount of carries, there’s probably good reason behind it. We’re either ahead and we’re trying to finish the game out by running the football or things were going really well that day. I don’t know if that’s the only thing that correlates to winning and losing. If it was, it’d make it a lot easier.”
(Last year the success was run game, play action, big play. This year, no big play. What has happened to the passing game where that has just been non-existent?) – “Just kind of our opportunities have come up a couple times, whether it be something that hasn’t gone right. Even this last game, we had a couple shots and called them at the wrong time. They brought a pressure one time to where Jay (Cutler) couldn’t break the pocket and tried to get it to Jarvis (Landry). We’ve got Kenny (Stills) running down the field by himself but there’s nothing he can do about it. He basically had no laces and tried to throw the ball as well as he could on that one. The opportunities we’ve had, we hit a couple in that first game; but ever since then, we really haven’t been able to get too many guys downfield.”
(As talented as WR Jarvis Landry, WR Kenny Stills, WR DeVante Parker – as talented as those guys are and it’s ideal to have them on the field at the same time – are you seeing a little bit of a difference in the run game when you’re able to get more tight ends in the game as well?) – “It has been hit or miss for us. You go through everything and you’re looking gun, under center, how’s your play-action game, with personnel groupings, all of those type of things. Every game has been such a different story of what has been successful for us. Really, at the end of the day for us, it’s all about not having negative plays. When we have second-and-12 and we’re leading into third-and-7-plus, that’s what hurts us more than anything. Those are hard down and distances to convert. That’s why the league average is what it is when it comes to (third and) 6 to 9 (yards) being 25 percent or whatever and (third and) 10-plus being 10 percent. We’ve got to put ourselves in third-and-2-to-5. That gives us a chance. If we can do that and have success there … We just haven’t had a lot of opportunities.”
(RB Jay Ajayi only has three carries of 9 yards or more on 76 tries. Is it actually more important that he eliminate or lessen the runs for loss? Is that actually a bigger point of emphasis?) – “That’s an ideal situation. The less negative plays you have, the better. That’s what puts us behind the sticks. Obviously, we have some work to do on third down. I’ll give up some of the big, big plays for the consistency of positive plays and putting ourselves in third-and-manageable.”
(We hear from coaches so many times – you, others – over the years, ‘Don’t turn a bad play into a catastrophe.’ So, even though the optics – which you wouldn’t care about in this case – of QB Jay Cutler just throwing the ball away several times per game it seemed, even though that doesn’t look good, is that what you want him to do?) – “Yes. If you would’ve known what happened on a couple of those plays … We had a couple opportunities and we didn’t execute certain things. He did the right thing. What he did when he threw the ball away, he was right. When things happen unexpectedly, when your eyes start to go somewhere, and there’s nobody there, it doesn’t give you a lot of options.”
(Are defenses playing you any differently as the season has gone on, because of the lack of big plays?) – “I think last game was … What we’re seeing is what we’re getting really early. It just seems to be different with what a lot of teams have done in the past. What we’ve seen on film, we’re not necessarily getting that all the time. So we’re making in-game adjustments quite a bit. I think teams are kind of testing us to see if we’re going to start to be able to get the run game going. We saw a little bit more of the middle-field open. That was a good defensive front, which I can understand. You’ve got DeVante (Parker) and Kenny (Stills) outside, you don’t always want to go middle field closed and load up the box and let those guys test it out and see if this is going to be the game they break out. Coach (Dick) LeBeau did a great job as far as mixing it up and calling some pressures at the right time and playing a lot of middle-field open. It surprised us a little bit, and then we adjusted and started making some hay there towards the end of the game.”
(Is it fair to say that time of possession will be a huge stat this week’s game, because you want to keep that offense off the field?) – “It probably wouldn’t hurt us. I know that. Points will probably help us. That’ll probably be something that would be very nice to have against an offense that you know can get hot at any moment. If we do a good job of controlling the big plays from them and then finding ways for us to consistently move the ball, stay third-and-manageable, get in the red zone, score points, that’ll give us a good shot.”
(I was interested in something you said last week about QB Jay Cutler learning to play as a 34-year-old quarterback instead of playing like he’s 25. I know you have experience with him and other players in that regard. So, what’s the difficult thing … That seems like a challenge for all athletes: learning to play at your age at this point. So, what’s the process for working with him on it?) – “I think the biggest thing you try to get used to is in the past, he has been able to hop left, be off balance and throw the ball across the field and the ball would get there with good velocity. The older you get, the more you have to be able to set your feet, get aligned, make sure you’re using your entire body, because your arm eventually doesn’t give you the juice that you did five years ago, six years ago. Sometimes it’s that reminder of, ‘I have to do a good job mechanically – set my feet – to throw an accurate ball with good velocity.’ It just doesn’t happen like it used to. When he sets his feet and he’s aligned, that ball comes in there pretty good. He had some really good throws that we just didn’t come up with. The one he threw to the sideline and Jarvis (Landry) … That thing was moving. When I see him do that, and he’s able to set his feet and be in the right alignment, he has made some really good throws.”
(Players usually don’t want to believe – or maybe don’t believe – coaches when they tell them – not just in football, but in all sports – when you tell them that this isn’t there anymore. Did you have to show him … ‘You have to understand your new reality?’) – “No, not really. We’ve talked about it. The throws that he has made in those positions, not a lot of guys could make them to begin with. Most guys actually do have to set their feet to throw the ball. He does have like a freak gift of being able to really put some juice on the ball. It’s still there. It’s just not always going to come out as clean as he wanted. It’ll be a little inconsistent. That’s just kind of the reality of getting old.”
(I have a question for you about the play clock. So, I’m hoping you can teach me something. Is it really that big of a deal when you guys snap the ball with 1 or 2 seconds left? What’s lost doing that as opposed to snapping it at 10 or 12 seconds?) – “It’s just mixing it up for the defense … Some guys will watch the play clock – defensive ends. And when that clock gets down to 3, 2, 1, they try to time it up to where they know it’s either we’re snapping it or it’s a delay of game, so they just go. There are some guys that are special that are able to do that. It causes some problems. You can vary when you’re snapping the ball. I think that always makes it tough on the defense. You can kind of tempo it up sometimes. You can slow it down. You don’t want to be the same every time.”
(If you got up there at like 12 seconds, then there’s a little more guesswork for the defensive ends than if you’re getting up there late in the clock. They know it’s coming?) – “The faster you can get out of the huddle, the more things you can do – shifts, motions, cadence. You’ve got more options. You’re able to see a defense, you might be able to check out of something. The closer you get to 0, now you’re limiting what you can do.”
(So, was it better in your opinion this past week than it had been?) – “I still think we have a long ways to go. We’re not doing a good enough job of getting back to the huddle, getting in the huddle, getting our substitutions in there, getting the play call, getting to the line of scrimmage. We’re too slow. It’s something that we’ve really made a big point of emphasis on of just being better in little, tiny details of huddle mechanics, getting to the line of scrimmage, not walking around, come out of the huddle with a little sense of urgency. I know our guys, they’re working on it. They’re very aware of that’s something that we need to improve on.”
(Are you surprised at all with the number of veteran players you have on this offense – obviously, you have some young offensive lineman – that the no-huddle wasn’t more effective with this group, and is it still in the back of your mind?) – “When you do it, it just can’t be like two or three guys. It has got to be the entire group. All it takes is one guy that doesn’t know what to do and now you’re going to get thrown off.”
(You talk a lot about just that, a handful of guys every play do something wrong? Is it focus, is it attention? What is it?) – “That’s always a question that no matter what year it is, you’re always trying to figure out … There’s always something that goes on that you’re trying to fix. This is a sport everybody is trying to be perfect and the reality is it’s tough to do. You’re always trying to fight to get to that point where your execution is flawless. That needs to be your mindset. You’re always going to try and figure out, ‘Where’s my weak links? Who’s struggling with what and why are they struggling?’ That’s really the biggest thing you’re trying to get answered is why are we having problems with certain things. To me, it goes back to we have to do a great job of communicating and then the players have to do a great job of executing on the field; but it does take some extra time. What you do in the building, it’s not going to be, ‘Hey, I got it.’ Because once you think you’ve got it, you’re probably in trouble. Our guys are trying to do more. They’re trying to make sure, ‘Okay, I’m clean on third downs. I’m clean on red area. I have a really good sense of everything going on. If something else comes up, and I have to adjust, that’s a whole different animal you’re dealing with.’ So I think the guys are putting in the work. I noticed it, especially yesterday in practice. I felt like our focus was good. Our sense of urgency was good. We’re giving ourselves a chance to really compete on Sunday.”
(How many incompleted balls did you count as catchable from the last game?) – “I think we said we have five drops. They were big plays; and then we probably had a couple busts that were we’re talking about those throwaways. There was one in particular that we felt like would’ve been a big play that we busted on.”
