Adam Gase – October 23, 2017
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Monday, October 23, 2017
Head Coach Adam Gase
(Have you guys signed a backup quarterback or do you plan on doing that?) – “We’re kind of going through the process right now. We’ve got to figure out what we’re going to do and the transaction we need to make. We’ll kind of work through today and figure it out at some point.”
(Can you give any update on QB Jay Cutler’s status?) – “He’s got multiple cracked ribs. We’re just kind of taking it day to day right now and we’ll just kind of see where it goes from there.”
(How much can a quarterback play with cracked ribs?) – “It really comes down to … It becomes a huge pain tolerance thing once you kind of get everything calmed down. It’s not an easy injury because it’s tough to breathe and then let alone throw and all of those type of things that you have to do as a quarterback. That’s when yesterday, just watching when he stayed down, I knew it couldn’t have been anything good because he’s not one to really stay down after getting hit.”
(Is QB Jay Cutler out Thursday?) – “Yes, I mean right now it doesn’t look real good.”
(Do you have an update on T Laremy Tunsil?) – “Yes, we’re kind of going to get through the next couple of days and see how he feels. It’s more positive than initially we thought. We were a little … We were concerned a little bit. Any time a guy goes down and he is kind of limping around, you start thinking the worst; but I think we have a good chance that he’ll be okay.”
(And DE Andre Branch?) – “Yes, we’re still going through that process right now and just trying to figure out our next course of action, and how he feels today and then tomorrow. It’s probably going to take the duration of the – what do we have 48 hours or something like that?”
(How did you spend last night after the game?) – “I mean (I was) just up here (in the office), just kind of getting ready for today and the rest of the week.”
(Clearly you have a plan for last night to get ready for the Ravens, but how much did that change with the events of the game?) – “I didn’t start anything on the Ravens until last night. To me, when you’re a play caller, you can’t move ahead. I get messed up if I do that. You start thinking about two different teams.”
(Have you possibly looked into something like QB Jay Cutler wearing a flak jacket or some kind of protection?) – “Well, he kind of had … I mean it didn’t matter. The way he got hit and the way he kind of came down, I mean he has like custom-made pads. He had pretty good protection. It just didn’t matter. The force of the hit and the ground, it just was a lot.”
(I meant more so moving forward, will it …?) – “We’ll look into that when the time comes. I know there’s not going to be a shortage of investigation on anything with (Equipment Manager Joe) Cimino. He’s going to make sure whatever Jay (Cutler) needs, he’s going to get him.”
(Without giving up any strategy can you give us the difference between calling plays for QB Matt Moore and QB Jay Cutler? What do you do as a play caller to play to Matt’s strengths more perhaps?) – “We were in kind of a little bit of a desperation mode. We were just … we were trying to keep the run game going – at least trying to get it going still – but that didn’t really do anything. I mean nothing really changed for me. We just started trying to find ways to move the ball and get some first downs.”
(At any level, have you ever lost two quarterbacks in two and a half months?) – “I don’t think so.”
(The challenge that presents?) – “It is what it is.”
(Was WR DeVante Parker close at all yesterday to being able to go?) – “I mean that’s hard for me to say. We kind of backed off and just kind of let him heal there towards the end of the week. We just kind of knew we weren’t going to do it.”
(DE Cameron Wake has six sacks in six games now. He’s 35 years old. Can you explain it?) – “He’s a physical freak, just the way he takes care of his body, the way he eats, the way he sleeps. Everything he does is all about this, and anything else is irrelevant to him. He sells out 100 percent. He’s put himself in position to do what he’s doing and that’s why age is really irrelevant to him right now.”
(Does your offensive mindset or play calling mindset change when QB Matt Moore is the quarterback?) – “I don’t think so. It doesn’t feel like it to me. Last game, we really stuck with what we were going to do from the beginning. We had some issues on third down. We felt like we had a good plan going in. There were some things we weren’t doing correctly early in the game. We finally got it cleaned up towards the end, and we were able to make some plays. Really, that’s what it comes down to. They pressured us a couple of times and (we had) good plays by Matt (Moore), Kenny (Stills) and Jarvis (Landry). We blocked a couple of things up and then Matt bought time on one of them where they brought everybody and hit Kenny for that touchdown. We were running the same things, we just finally got it blocked up.”
(With QB Matt Moore, obviously, you mentioned something yesterday that you called the plays that you know he’s comfortable with. When a guys does not practice for long stretches, do you have a Matt Moore package of things that you just know he’s good at?) – “No, because we’re not very complicated right now. The stuff we’re doing is basic. Defenses know it. We’ve just got to do a good job of moving things around and trying to hide a few things here and there. We’re counting on the fact that we have good wide receivers, we have good tight ends and good running backs to get open, and just have enough changeups to where guys can’t always predict what we’re going to do. We have enough changeups to where we can really practice and get good at certain things and then build off of that.”
(QB Matt Moore has a lot of support out here and there’s a perception that he brings an energy to his teammates, that they’re energized by him. What do you see in that regard?) – “I think anytime you’re the backup quarterback and you go in there, there’s a sense of urgency increase. I’ve noticed that the last two years – going back to the Arizona game (in 2016) and then this last game – of guys realize the position he gets thrust into. You’ve got to do a great job and everybody has to execute at an extremely high level because there’s not much margin for error. Especially this last one, we were down. Last year (against Arizona), we were up. Last year my thought process was ‘We’ve got a ways to go and I don’t have another quarterback.’ This year it was more, ‘Alright we’re down. We don’t really have a choice.’ We tried to play with a great sense of urgency. The good thing that he did was he got the ball out quick and made sure that he did what he was supposed to do. He threw a couple of balls away where he felt like it wasn’t right. He made smart decisions, but I think the sense of urgency really picked up from all of the other positions as well. I thought the line did a great job of just trying to get him feeling good early in his time in there. When that happens, that’s when you start playing some better ball. We had a great sense of urgency that first drive and then we kind of fell off there on the second and third drive. We just were a little all over the place this last game.”
(How did G/T Jesse Davis play?) – “He did good. Early in the game, it wasn’t easy for him. I think once he got to the point where he realized that there is nobody coming in here to save me here, he got real comfortable. He really did a good job of just getting his guy covered up and fighting and trying to finish every play. It was good to see because when you’re spot playing, it’s hard to get in a great rhythm. I think he finally got in a little bit of a rhythm there towards the end.”
(Why were the tight ends more involved in the passing game?) – “We’ve been trying to do some of the things that we did yesterday. We just weren’t getting the coverages that we were looking for. A couple of those were off-scheduled throws. The one catch that Julius (Thomas) made, that wasn’t really an ideal coverage for that play; but Matt (Moore) got flushed to that side and gave him a chance to make a play. The first play of the game was good to see. (Thomas) just popped open there. When you open up on an explosive play, that’s always a positive for us. Anthony (Fasano), we’ve been trying to get him more and more involved every week. We feel like we’ve got three really good tight ends and we want to keep those guys all involved, mix them in and out, both in the run game and the pass game, and I think it helps keep those guys fresh and it helps our running game. It helps our passing game because those guys are moving a little quicker because they’re not playing 70 plays or 65 plays. They’re all getting mixed around in there.”
(How delicate of a balance can it be as a play caller, sticking to what works and then also making sure that you’re breaking tendencies?) – “It’s a fine line. It’s tough because you know what your tendencies are. A lot of times, you don’t know what they are looking for. Just because I know I have a tendency, they might not really care about that. Everybody has a little different spin that they like to use as their scouting report on us. Plus you don’t know what games they’re doing. They could do the last three or four games. They could say ‘Hey, we’re going to take games one, three, and five.’ You don’t know. They could take games from when I played (New York Jets Head Coach) Todd (Bowles) in 2014. You just really never know. You just kind of go off of what you think might be some games that they’d look at and try to build your self-scout off of that; but overall, we’re constantly talking about it and we’ve got enough people reminding me in-house of how predictable I am.”
(Yesterday, QB Matt Moore said that he wasn’t seeing any first team reps at practice going into yesterday’s game. Did you feel that there was still timing there left over from training camp?) – “Yes, because we do enough in individual. When we do our routes versus air, he throws to everybody, because sometimes Jarvis (Landry) and Kenny (Stills) go at the same time, so he does get some throws to those guys. The good thing when you have a guy that’s a veteran and he’s been around for a while, he’s played with these guys, obviously, it’s one of those thing (that) he has a knack for it. He has a knack to come in and get into a rhythm on his own and remember that feel. I know when he got in, he was fired up and he wanted to find a way to win that game.”
(How did LB Rey Maualuga lining up at fullback come about?) – “He said something to me like three weeks ago like, ‘You know I can play fullback.’ I was like, ‘Great.’ (laughter) Then it got brought up again and I was like, ‘Well, I know he’ll hit somebody.’ He was working a lot of areas in the building trying to get in there; but he did a good job. That’s a big man. He’ll come and hit you.”
(How many routes does LB Rey Maualuga have out of that formation?) – “I can’t tell you everything. (laughter)”
(Tight end maybe?) – “I don’t know. We’ll see.”
(How are his hands?) – “I don’t know. (laughter)”
(However long QB Matt Moore ends up playing, is this a chance for him to compete for the job long term or is this automatically QB Jay Cutler’s job when he comes back?) – “You’re getting way ahead of me, because with us with this quick turnaround, I’m really focused on this week. When we get through Thursday, we’ve got our bye weekend. (laughter) Then I’m able to sit back and see where we’re at, the total picture with the health status of a lot of different people. I’m not even ready to go anywhere near anything at quarterback. I know who’s available this week, possibly. It looks (like) what I’m going to do, so after that, then I’ll move on from there.”
(You mentioned earlier that you were just doing basic calls. Was that because – you sounded disappointed – maybe I’m reading into it…) – “Yes, we’re in Year 2 of the offense. I always feel like it should always grow, not shrink; but it is what it is right now. We’ve just got to keep getting better. The thing is, we do have good players and we do have guys that can get open and can win one-on-one matchups, and we’ve got guys that can get them the ball. When our running game’s going and whatever we’re doing, play action works. That’s where sometimes I always have to just lean back and realize we have good players and just let them go win, and those guys do.”
(The Jets, their other opponents have run pretty well on them, and yet both games against you, they’ve done something.) – “When you watch them – when you watch their full game tape – they’ve been getting burned on one or two plays per game. The rest of them look like a lot of the stuff you saw yesterday. For whatever reason, we’ve struggled to pop the big one. That’s why I’m saying their numbers aren’t correlating to what you‘re seeing on tape. I don’t know. It’s a division game. Those guys, they played physical and they’re well coached. It’s a tough battle for us. That’s a tough matchup for us.”
(How do you assess your offensive line play this season? There were a couple of instances in the Jets game where you guys were being rushed by four and they were still getting pressure. How is the offensive line performing at this point?) – “I just think we were a little inconsistent. Sometimes we’re losing straight one-on-ones, sometimes we’re not passing off some kind of interior stunt. Really, it’s just all about consistency, and sometimes we’re losing at the wrong time. We are holding onto the ball a little bit and we need to be good at what we’re doing and we lose there. Other times, we’re nice and clean but the ball is coming out quick and we’ve got everything passed off. It’s been a little bit of timing, right place right time, and some of it’s been we just physically got beat or we’ve had a mental mistake. I think the longer we go, the better we’re going to get. I do like that group up front. They’ve shown a lot here, especially the last two weeks, especially the fight, the finish, the strain. They’re trying to do all of the things we’re asking them to do. Really, it’s just about, every day, trying to find a way to get better.”
(Is G Ted Larsen getting closer to being able to practice?) – “I think so. Everything sounds positive. I just don’t want to get ahead of myself knowing how we’re going to go this week. We’ll see. Obviously we signed him for a reason. Once again, I just don’t want to get too far ahead.”
(Back to T Laremy Tunsil quickly, there is a chance he could play Thursday?) – “Yes.”
