Adam Gase – October 22, 2018 (Conference Call)
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Monday, October 22, 2018
Head Coach Adam Gase Conference Call with Houston Media
(It sounds like QB Brock Osweiler is going to start on Thursday. How would you assess his play the last couple of games?) – “He’s done a really good job. The Chicago game probably was one of the best games I’ve ever seen him play. Yesterday, he played really well. We didn’t take advantage of it. We played really poorly on defense and we missed some opportunities to where we could have gotten off the field, and we wasted a good performance by him.”
(How would you say you’ve been able to get QB Brock Osweiler up to speed and playing well so quickly after kind of not seeing regular action for the last year and a half or so?) – “He knows this offense as well as anybody. Next to myself, he probably has the most knowledge of the offense, knows all the ins and outs. This is what he grew up in, this is what he knows. He knows how to operate in it, work quickly, make the right decisions, get the ball out of his hand. It’s not something that he has to think a whole bunch about.”
(Did you give QB Brock Osweiler any extra talk about not trying to do too much this week against his old team?) – “The only thing I care about that he worries about, is trying to make sure that we’re in a good position to play well and he prepares the right way, and when we get to Thursday, he does a good job of just keeping that group together and focusing on one series at a time.”
(It seems like your receivers are pretty banged up. Will WR DeVante Parker be back in the lineup this week?) – “Yeah, I mean whoever we have on the roster is probably going to play because I think we’re down to two or three (wide receivers).”
(I’m sure you admired RB Frank Gore from afar previously. What’s it been like to work with him and see his work day in and day out?) – “I was with Frank 10 years ago (in San Francisco). It’s like going back in time. He hasn’t changed. He looks the same when he plays. He’s such a professional. The way that he takes care of his body is really one of those things that younger players should take a look at because he does it the right way. He loves playing this game. He gives everything he has. He’s one of those guys that on Sundays, he sells out. Every ounce of energy he has goes into the game.”
(You’re probably not surprised at his work ethic. Are you surprised maybe as good as he’s been in flashes this year?) – “No. That’s what we saw on tape heading into this season. For a guy his age, he’s probably one of the few running backs over 30 that his yards after contact have gone up the last three years. That tells me that he’s still running strong and running through contact. We’ve opened up a few holes for him, which has allowed him to get going and then there’s been a few times where we haven’t had anything and he makes it work. He’s really kind of brought a different element to what we’ve had here in the past and I think him and Kenyan (Drake) do a good job of playing off each other.”
(When you look at this Texans defense, what do you see from guys like DE J.J. Watt and LB Jadeveon Clowney? Does it make it difficult to match up against them?) – “Everything. They’re horrible to go against, let’s just put it that way. When you have both of those guys on the edges, they just make it very difficult to do anything, whether it be running or passing the ball. You have to account for both of those guys, which is hard to do. Usually if there is one guy, you can at least say ‘Here’s what we’re going to do this game. We’re going to make sure that he doesn’t wreck the game.’ But when you have both of those guys in the lineup at the same time, it’s all kinds of issues. People forget it makes it really difficult to run the ball on those guys because they’re fast to penetrate. It’s like a hand grenade goes off in the backfield to where your back’s always under duress. It’s never going to be nice and clean like it looks like on a piece of paper. Our guys just have to do a good job of using their help when they have it and we just have to try to make sure that those guys don’t create turnovers.”
(What have you seen from Texans QB Deshaun Watson on tape?) – “I think he’s a difficult guy to go against because not only can he throw the ball, him being able to use his legs is always an issue. When you have an elite wide receiver too, that doubles everything because now all of a sudden, he starts hooking up with him and they start getting hot, then there’s issues for us on defense. Then when he starts moving around and his eyes stay down the field, that can cause some problems because now your cover is going to be loose. They have two receivers that are very difficult to deal with. Lamar (Miller), he’s played well and did some good stuff last week. There’s a lot of issues for us that we have to take care of and make sure that we keep these guys in front of us and make sure that we’re not giving up explosive plays like we did yesterday.”
(Is there anything you’ve learned in the last couple years on dealing with your team on a short week?) – “I’m the wrong guy to ask on that considering that I think we’ve scored about seven points and given up about 60-something. We’re trying something new this year. We’re going to head out earlier and just try to really piecemeal this thing together and just kind of get our guys to get out there and be able to just play as fast as they can. We need to just put ourselves in a position where when the fourth quarter comes around, it’s a ball game.”
(You guys are coming on Tuesday, is that right?) – “Yes.”
