Adam Gase – September 18, 2017
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Monday, September 18, 2017
Head Coach Adam Gase
(Do you have any updates on LB Lawrence Timmons and his situation?) – “No, not currently.”
(Do you expect that LB Lawrence Timmons will play next Sunday or way too soon to know that?) – “I haven’t even gotten through Step 1 yet. We kind of got in a little late last night so I’m kind of dealing with the guys that played.”
(Have you talked to LB Lawrence Timmons?) – “No.”
(Is LB Lawrence Timmons in the building?) – “No idea.”
(One of the things you guys did very well yesterday was stop the run, which had been such a focus throughout the offseason. What pleased you most in terms of what you did to accomplish that?) – “I felt like we had very few missed tackles. I thought the entire defense did a good job playing off each other. We had one that kind of got us for a longer run; but for the most part, everybody was in the right gaps, playing fast, a lot of gang tackling, a lot of guys around the ball just collapsing everything. It was really good to see.”
(S Reshad Jones said after the game that he would’ve liked to do a better job of getting hands on receivers and not allowing them up the field as much. What is your assessment of the secondary and their performance in the game?) – “It’s a tough matchup. Philip (Rivers), these last – the Denver game and then our game – those are two of the better games that I’ve seen him play in the last couple years. He was really on it. He did an outstanding job with getting the ball out. It really took our rush away by the way he was finding guys open quick and letting guys make plays in shorter, intermediate areas. We keep trying to get tighter and tighter in coverage, and he does have playmakers. It’s tough. They’re going to win some battles and they’re going to get open. We just got to keep trying to find ways to get our hands on guys and be as tight as we can early so that rush can get home and make them get off the first progression. But yesterday, he was getting the ball out quick.”
(Play calling, obviously, offensively for you was more aggressive in the third quarter. Do you think that’s fair to say? Was that something that QB Jay Cutler good-naturedly encouraged you to do at halftime or entirely your thinking?) – “No. I thought the first drive was really … I called a wide receiver pass and end around in the first drive. (laughter) We just had those three-and-outs. I didn’t like … I felt a little lull – off rhythm – in that second quarter. I felt like I was holding our guys back and that third quarter really put it on getting Jay Ajayi the ball and finding ways to let the receivers win one-on-one opportunities. We didn’t really get the opportunities we wanted with Julius (Thomas) because of what they were playing. Then letting Jay (Cutler) make some plays with his feet, scrambling. Those guys really took over that game. We kept it fairly simple and they won their one-on-one matchups. That really changed a lot of it for us.”
(LB Mike Hull ended up playing every defensive snap, led the team in tackles. What’d you see from his performance?) – “(It is) what he has done since really we got here. Every time we put him in the game, he knows how to play football. He has a knack for finding the ball. He anticipates probably better than a lot of guys. I think he can see things different. Anytime anybody tries to run anything that just seems like a misdirection play, he never falls for it. He’s always going the way the ball carrier is going. He’s one step ahead of most guys when it comes to anticipating run plays or pass plays.”
(CB Bobby McCain played like three quarters of the game. I assume you guys were in nickel. Was that an adjustment because of…) – “They were playing three wide receivers, so that was … That’s really the NFL now. Last year I think Bobby had close to 700 snaps maybe out of 1,000. That’s just kind of what it is now.”
(Had you and Defensive Coordinator Matt Burke gone in with the thinking yesterday of letting CB Byron Maxwell play every play as opposed to letting CB Alterraun Verner come in for a couple series?) – “Yes, I don’t think we … He had a good week of practice. I think they both had a good week of practice. Byron was a good matchup for us. We felt like he matched up against those guys well. We liked him to get his hands on those guys and try to grapple with them a little bit. We’ll just keep working on getting better at certain aspects of how we want to play defense. That’s part of the process of the season. We’ll keep making adjustments and trying to find what this group of guys will do best.”
(Now that you’ve had the chance to look at the tape, LB Chase Allen’s performance, what did you think of it? And do you feel like you need to add some depth at linebacker?) – “I though he did a great job. I love the fact that the first play of defense (Defensive Coordinator) Matt (Burke) brings everybody, which I thought was aggressive. I love that. (Allen) gets in on the first play and made another play, just anticipating what was going on up front, shot to the sideline and knocked the guy out of bounds. Whoever we got here, we’ll get guys better and we’ll feel good about it entering Sunday.”
(I know you said you didn’t have an update on LB Lawrence Timmons, but how is that going into a game with just a handful of linebackers at your disposal?) – “We’ve had a lot worst situations at other positions before. We’re used to adjusting. It’s not a big deal for us.”
(I know you’re not in position or willing at this point to talk about specifics with LB Lawrence Timmons. Can you just say from a general standpoint or are you willing to say if you expect him to be on the team going forward? Is that something you’re willing to say at this point?) – “No. I have nothing to add for what I have right now. I’m really just gathering a lot of information. I’ve got a few other things I’ve got to deal with, with the guys that played yesterday.”
(I don’t know if it came out in the postgame since I wasn’t there but the timeout with 10 seconds left, what was the…?) – “Well, we were trying to leave enough time to where if he made (the kick), we could run another play. Philip (Rivers) was stopping all of those guys trying to run on the field. With a quarterback that has been doing it for about 15 years, stopped them and was going to clock it with 2 seconds left. That’s what was going on there. We tried to call it with 12 seconds left, but we got 10. So if he kicks it and makes it, at least we got a chance. Maybe you start running around and throwing the ball around and see if you could get something going.”
(Just overall thoughts on QB Jay Cutler?) – “Jay did a good job. He executed what we asked him to do. He was good in the run game. He threw the ball well and made some great plays off schedule. Those guys just seem to … They are learning each other. He keeps everything calm. He doesn’t get too high or too low. I know he wishes he had that one throw back to Jarvis (Landry) in the red zone. We were just a little bit off on that one. I know we were excited about having the opportunity to run that one and that was something we had been working on. I think we had that up in 2015 and I think that’s the first time I got to call it. We were close on that. That would’ve been a great one to have, but we still got points out of it. I thought he did well though. He made some … That throw he had to DeVante (Parker) was a really good play, just on that scramble drill. Those guys do a good job when things start breaking down. We’re finding guys now.”
(WR Kenny Stills gets that mismatch with the linebacker and QB Jay Cutler hit him for a touchdown. Is that a byproduct of going up-tempo and not allowing them to sub in and sub out?) – “No, that was really just the coverage they were playing. They played it a little different than we had actually thought. Kenny did a good job of staying on course and Jay got flushed and Kenny saw that matchup. That’s a tough one. It’s one of those deals where you’re hoping the rush gets there and he broke the pocket. It made it tough to where that linebacker has to try to at least shield that guy off. The extension of the play really helps that.”
(You guys have been focusing on the game so much. Now that you have the time to step back and be individuals and join your families, things of that nature, was anybody affected that you know of by the hurricane?) – “I’m sure guys … there are still a few guys (without) power and things like that. We were trying to gather as much information as we could. I’ll probably know more of everybody’s individual status by the end of the day. As of right now, really anything that I’ve been told has been guys without power. I know driving home last night, just the debris on the sides of the road was really, where I live, that’s what I saw. It was pretty late so I was just trying to get home.”
(Initial shock at all of what you saw?) — “I guess I didn’t know what to expect. So I was just more focused on just going to bed.”
(Did you and Run Game Coordinator/Offensive Line Coach Chris Foerster go into yesterday planning to play G/T Jesse Davis at left guard or was that based on how C/G Anthony Steen was playing?) – “No, that was … We were going to play them both.”
(How do you think G/T Jesse Davis and C/G Anthony Steen did?) – “I thought both of them did well. They’re not making it real easy on us to make any kind of decision long term so that’s good. I think having competition like that and two guys that really want to be out there, I think that’s a good thing.”
(I don’t know … That Sunday morning after the roster was cut down – Labor Day weekend. I don’t know if you were sitting with Executive Vice President of Football Operations Mike Tannenbaum and General Manager Chris Grier that day, but when K Cody Parkey became available, this is no disrespect to K Andrew Franks, who did good things here; but was that a no-brainer for you guys sitting there when K Cody Parkey became available?) – “He was really the guy that we were going to target. We didn’t know how it would shake out. We had a list of guys that … ‘Rizz’ (Associate Head Coach/Special Team Coordinator Darren Rizzi) and ‘Moof’ (Assistant Special Teams Coach Marwan Maalouf) did a good job of kind of building cases for where Andrew (Franks) was compared to other guys and where we could have gone. We felt like he was a guy that really would help us and they felt good about it. He helped us out yesterday, I know that.”
(I assume the prime thought in signing him was long kicks like that. Right? I mean he’s 6-for-6 in his career from 50-plus.) – “To me it was just make them. I don’t care where it is.”
(Did K Cody Parkey pop on your radar when the Browns drafted a kicker?) – “Yes, I think … ‘Rizz’ (Darren Rizzi) and ‘Moof’ (Marwan Maalouf) do a good job of just making sure they know the league and understand where competitions are going on and what the possibilities are. You just never know what anybody else is going to do. You just keep preparing and if a guy pops available that you like, you just have to be ready to make a move and make an adjustment.”
(How do you assess your linebacker position now going into the next game?) – “Well, right now those guys did a pretty good job. They did what they were asked to do and made a lot of tackles between the three of them. We’ll kind of figure that out over the next few days, what we’re going to do and kind of how we want to play. Possibly, if we have to make some adjustments to what we want to do versus certain personnel groups, we will. That’s what this game is all about. You just kind of figure out who you’ve got on the roster and make adjustments.”
(What did you think of tackle just before the half that WR DeVante Parker thought was a low hit?) – “Yes, I mean that’s how guys are going to hit. It was tough play on the sideline. (Parker) is trying to get his feet down. They guy is trying to prevent him from getting his feet down. It happened so fast. I guess I was more concerned of whether or not he was alright. I didn’t know if he was alright because he kind of stayed down for a second. It was hard for me to see exactly what happened until I watched film today, but that’s kind of … I don’t know. That’s football. You don’t want him to stay inbounds. They’re going to do what they have to do to keep him inbounds.”
(How from a TV standpoint, when you guys … How un-football like was the environment like? You’ve got 27,000 seat stadium that wasn’t full.) – “I mean I wasn’t paying attention. I was worried about what was going on on the field. I don’t know. I’m in a different world.”
(Do you consider yourself to be a coach who has a lot of rules or just a few pretty basic ones?) – “Be on time and play hard. I don’t know if that’s real hard.”
(With those being the rules, when those are violated in your mind, what’s your tolerance level generally?) – “What do you think? They’ve got two rules. It’s not hard.”
(Sorry if you addressed this in Oxnard, but when you found out that a few of your players had paid for the Miami Central Football team that was stranded in Vegas and helped them get back. I mean you’re the leader of these guys. What does that say to you about the group of guys that you lead in that locker room?) – “I think there is … That’s a great example of something that people found out about; but I do think those guys in particular, and other guys on the team, do a lot of things that kind of go under the radar. Our guys do a great job of always looking to reach out and help. I’ve noticed that it seems like we have more and more guys doing that, especially this last … since this spring on, since we really kind of restart up. It just shows you the kind of character our guys have. I think it shows kind of when you see them on Sunday, kind of that no quit attitude. Just kind of the toughness they have to fight throughout an entire game kind of translated off the field, to where it’s about more than just themselves. Those are the kind of guys we want.”
