Adam Gase – October 23, 2018
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Monday, October 23, 2018
Head Coach Adam Gase
(How would you describe the Texans’ commitment to the running game?) – “When you have a quarterback like they do and they have an elite receiver, they’re always going to make it difficult on the defense as far as being able to run the ball – especially some exotic runs – looking to build that play-action off their run game. That’s kind of Bill (O’Brien’s) history over time to where he’s going to set things up throughout the game. I think since Deshaun (Watson)’s been there, it makes it really difficult as a defense to really know what’s coming (and) how to defend it. Their running game, it’s not super exotic but they have enough stuff to where it really can cause us some problems.”
(Do you have any update on WR Albert Wilson?) – “I haven’t … I think he’s right now, he might be at his appointment or about to go to his appointment. So I don’t have any update.”
(Do you have one of those practice squad guys in mind to elevate or are you going to wait until tomorrow?) – “I’m going to wait. I’m just trying to make sure that we’re all set as far as what we’re going to do.”
(On TE A.J. Derby, is he out? How is his foot situation?) – “I think right now it’s kind of a wait and see thing for us. I know last week he practiced. He got sore there towards the end of the week. We’re trying to buy as much time as possible. I almost put him up last game because I was feeling good on the first two days; but the third day he was a little more sore than what we anticipated.”
(Do you have any update on DE Charles Harris?) – “He’s progressing. It’s just one of those … That’s one of those injuries you have to be very careful on because you can really reset the whole process if you push too hard too fast.”
(So you don’t expect DE Charles Harris to play this week then?) – “No.”
(Some thoughts on QB Deshaun Watson coming out of college?) – “We weren’t looking at the quarterbacks too hard but through the draft meetings and the little time I spent on the guys that were coming out, the guy won a lot of games and did a great job, especially in clutch situations of finding a way to get his team into the end zone and winning games. I always thought it was interested when a guy like Nick Saban, who had faced him a couple of times, had such high praise for him and talked about how difficult he was to defend. I don’t think you hear that a lot. Our scouts really thought he was going to be one of those guys that was going to be a good quarterback in the NFL. It was all about do you have the right system or do you use him the right way to where he can use all of his skillsets to his advantage. I think in this offense, we’re pretty flexible, so a guy like that can actually do both things in the run game and passing game and move him around and things like that, I think our offense kind of fits.”
(Yesterday WR DeVante Parker told us that he didn’t feel the way that his agent may have felt and he wants to be here. Is that what he expressed to you when you guys talked on Monday?) – “He’s never changed as far as what he’s said to me with his whole goals for this year. A couple things haven’t gone his way. Some of it is out of his control. It’s just kind of been bad luck in training camp. He was having a good week of practice and then he had the quad in practice. I think he’s focused on getting ready for this game and making sure that he’s dialed into what we’re doing. He’s just looking to go out there and make as many plays as possible.”
(Not a lot of teams have guys who are as explosive as WR Albert Wilson and WR Jakeem Grant, so with Wilson being out, do you see Grant as being able to do some of the exact things that Wilson did?) – “We’ll see. I’d really rather not give away like what we’re looking to do. We’ll see how everything takes us from here on out. Albert had been working on a lot of that stuff since the spring. He had a good grasp of what we were doing, with what we were asking him to do. Some of that stuff was creating some exotic formations, which was a little different than anything that we had done before, so we’ve got to kind of figure out what’s best for us for this game and then what’s best for us moving forward.”
(Can you tell us anything, schedule-wise? I don’t know what time you guys get in today, but can you tell us anything at all about what you’ll do later and tomorrow?) – “Yeah, obviously the last two years, what we’ve done really hasn’t paid off. So we just felt like it was a good opportunity for us to change it up. Talking with some of our players, they thought it was a good idea with how we scheduled it with our workouts, meetings, leaving early, just doing something different. Tomorrow we’ll be able to do a walkthrough. We have meetings kind of all over the place between today and tonight and tomorrow. We’re just trying to get our players all of the information throughout the week and have as many walkthroughs as possible and just keep talking and covering things all the way up to the game.”
(RB Frank Gore after the Lions game said the offense kind of started late and he wished it would have started a little bit faster. You guys have been kind of split down the middle this season in the first quarter and halftime whether you’re leading or trailing in both. What are your thoughts on getting off to an early lead and getting off to a fast start with the offense in the first quarter? – “I’m all for it. That’s what you’re trying to do every game. If we make plays then we’ll score points.”
