Adam Gase – September 21, 2017
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Thursday, September 21, 2017
Head Coach Adam Gase
(Every season is different, every team is different. How reasonable is it to expect some carry over from last year to this year in the team’s ability to close?) – “I think we have enough guys that have been through those type of situations. That’s kind of the learning aspect of the game. When you’re trying to keep a core of guys together – which we were able to really do for the most part from last year – I think that is something that can carry over. When you get to the fourth quarter and there’s that belief that guys are going to make plays, you’re counting on the guy next to you to do his job so you can do yours instead of worrying about, ‘Can I trust this guy to do this?’ Just watching that fourth quarter, when you watch it from special teams, offense and defense, you see a lot of good things. You see a lot of different guys stepping up and making plays.”
(And where does the belief come from? Is it talent, leadership, coaching, experience?) – “I think a lot of it is experience. Sometimes it takes one guy to make one play that gets guys believing. Thinking back, as interesting as the Cleveland game was, (we) found a way to get into overtime and then Jarvis (Landry) makes a play. Jay (Ajayi) ends up scoring. And then going into the Jets game last year at home, where a guy like (Kenyan) Drake who’s a rookie, takes a kickoff return back. It might take one or two guys that do something special at the right time that gets everybody thinking that you can win those games in the fourth quarter.”
(Any serious injury concerns about RB Jay Ajayi or WR Jarvis Landry?) – “No, I wouldn’t say serious. They both got banged up a little bit in that last game. I know Jay … There was a couple where he was off his feet one time where he got spun around in the air there and took a pretty vicious hit. Jarvis had a couple where he took some shots. It’s probably a little more preventative than anything.”
(With this, obviously, losing the bye – or taking your bye in the first week, let’s put it that way – as a challenge, do you have to have a game plan as a coach to sneak those extra days of rest in?) – “Yes. That was probably the first thing we started doing was looking at the calendar, kind of seeing where we can make some adjustments. We might lose some of these Mondays where you’re used to meeting and going through the game. It might be, ‘Let’s get in here, let’s get our lift in, let’s get our run in,’ and then send them off and maybe you make Wednesday a little longer just so we can cover what we need to from the game. You try to steal some days here and there if you can. There are ways to do it. You’ve just got to try and figure out what’s the right way for us.”
(A couple of unrelated questions: he asked about WR Jarvis Landry and RB Jay Ajayi. Do you expect them to practice today?) – “I think right now, we’re just going to … I know Jarvis is going through individual. I’m not sure where Jay (Ajayi) is at right now. And then we’ll see how he feels. It’s really just more of, ‘Is he still stiff? Does he feel like he can really get going?’ Plus with us being on the turf, I don’t know if that’s going to affect him at all. I’m going to wait and see for myself, as well.”
(I asked this to Offensive Coordinator Clyde Christensen: In the red zone, do you have a go-to guy in the red zone and should you have a go-to guy?) – “I’ve never really had a go-to guy in the red zone. Spread the ball out and make it tough. You want them to have to cover everybody – run, pass, whatever we decide to do, different formations. You want everybody to be effective down there. Everybody has got a little, probably, a little something that they’re better (at) than the other guy is. You lean on the things you know they’re really good at. We had some opportunities. I had some bad play calls. They did a good job.”
(Speaking of that, you’ve been hard on yourself about the play calling. Have you figured out why you might’ve been off according to you?) – “It was one of those situations, it was almost like I wasn’t believing how they were playing us. I was waiting for (Chargers Defensive Coordinator) Gus (Bradley) to take the next step and he stuck with what he was doing. That probably really … I should’ve just believed what I was seeing and just got to the things that we could attack, the coverages they were playing. I think I was just waiting for him to take whatever he had off of that, if it didn’t work. I think it wasn’t … I wasn’t giving our guys good chances. I was doing things in the first half that were … Just didn’t let them just go play and win one-on-one matchups. We were doing too schematical crap instead of just saying, ‘Alright, DeVante (Parker), go win. Jarvis (Landry), go win. Kenny (Stills), go win.’ I think we got to that in the second half. That’s really probably the biggest thing was I felt like I held our guys back.”
(As a follow up to that, you have two hats that you wear. You’re also the head coach. A lot of things were happening to this team in the days prior to the game. And in the hours prior to the game, you had a player go AWOL. Is it possible that, that stuff was also on your plate and you were juggling all these things?) – “I think the one thing about this profession is you’ve got to be able to compartmentalize things and focus on what you’re doing at the time. I felt like the play-calling was more not necessarily from that. It was more trying to be too cute after that first drive. We had some success and then kicked a field goal and stuck with some of the other things that we had game planned, that maybe they hadn’t seen yet, instead of just letting our guys go win their one-on-one matchups. That’s really where I felt like I wasn’t very good at, to where in the second half, it was more allow them to go play and get the one-on-ones and win.”
(I’d like to get your assessment in two areas: the hurry-up offense or up-tempo offense and the pass defense. What do you think about how you guys did?) – “I think in the second quarter, we were a little fatigued there for a second; but they got their second wind there, especially late in the second quarter. I thought the tempo was good. Time of possession was good. I don’t remember the last time we won time of possession, so that was kind of nice. I thought they executed it … The guys did a good job and the communication was great. They were passing things along. We didn’t have to signal. They operated well. Our pass defense, we’ve been talking about it for a long time about tightening things up and helping our pass rush out by making the quarterback get off the first progression. We feel like if we make that happen, our rush is going to get there. That’s why we’ve invested so much in that front, whether it be the starters or the guys behind them, to where if we stop the run and we make it a one-phase type game, where they’ve got to throw it all the time, we have to be tight on the outside so our pass rush can get there.”
(When you were selecting this organization to become the head coach, how important was the whole set up – the ownership, the GM – in terms of factoring in that you can be successful?) – “I think looking at the roster, I felt good about that. You had a young quarterback, wide receivers. I felt like there were some good pieces on defense. Once you get past that part of it, then you start … It’s really about meeting everybody, because I didn’t know (Owner) Mr. (Stephen) Ross. I knew (Executive Vice President of Football Operations) Mike (Tannenbaum). I didn’t know (General Manager) Chris (Grier). It was more about getting in front of them and seeing how it worked and seeing the chemistry there. It’s hard to do, because it’s fast. You better make a quick assessment and be right. I felt good about … When I was going through that whole process, the longer I was around everybody, the better I felt about it. It was probably good that I didn’t know Chris, because it was somebody that I could sit down with and talk to and hear his opinion about what he has seen from teams I’ve been on and vice versa. That was really the biggest part of the job interview that you go through is seeing if you’re compatible with everybody that’s in the front office or ownership.”
(Earlier today, Defensive Coordinator Matt Burke said about LB Lawrence Timmons, ‘I’ll be there for him whenever Adam decides he’s back on our team.’ Timing aside, is the decision already made that at some point he will be back on this team?) – “I haven’t made any decision. I’m going one day at a time right now. I know there are steps that are being made with what’s going on with him. (Executive Vice President of Football Operations) Mike (Tannenbaum) is really taking the lead on that. I’m getting updates as we go. My biggest thing is I’m trying to focus. My sole focus is this week, guys that are here, focusing on the Jets, making sure that we’re ready to go. These weeks come quick. There’s more downtime when you get to that Friday, Saturday to where if I needed to look at something, research something, talk to somebody, it’s better for me to do towards the end of the week than right now.”
(It’s interesting sometimes when you talk about players in the sense of being different behind the scenes than what we might see. You talked about WR DeVante Parker before. With LB Kiko Alonso, he’s another guy that seems very quiet in media sessions. What’s he actually like behind closed doors and on the practice field?) – “He’s fairly quiet if you’re speaking English to him. If you’re speaking Spanish to him, he changes a little bit. (laughter) He’s not too talkative. I always try to mess with him and he looks at me like I’m crazy, so I don’t do it too much.”
(You should try in Spanish then.) – “I’m not fluent right now.”
(Defensive Coordinator Matt Burke said he’s the alpha dog of the group, but LB Kiko Alonso does that in maybe a non-conventional approach?) – “I think a lot of it has to do with the way he prepares and the way he practices. If you ever watch him practice – and you guys have seen enough between OTAs and training camp – it looks exactly like he plays in a game. There is no three-quarter speed. There is no half speed. When we do walkthroughs, you’re a little nervous, because you’re not sure what speed he’s going to go. Watching him prepare … Like when you walk downstairs and everybody else has been gone for two hours, he might still be down there. He spends a lot of time in this building. He prepares about as good as any player that I’ve been around that’s not a quarterback. He is the ultimate lead by example guy. I think he says things when he needs to say something. It’s not really what he likes to do. He doesn’t like to talk a lot. He’d just rather go for it.”
(From a conditioning standpoint and from a hamstring standpoint, how close is LB Rey Maualuga to being able to help you?) – “I don’t know the exacts on that. Every once and a while I’ll just stop down and be like, ‘Good day or bad day?’ My biggest thing for him is I just want to make sure he’s healthy. The few times that we’ve had him out there, I was a little nervous for him. The linebackers are working on wrapping up and things and he’s popping guys pretty good. I’m excited to see when he does get out there and he’s healthy and ready to go, just a good piece to the puzzle.
(What did you like about what you saw in T Ja’Wuan James’ tape from Game 1?) – “Probably the best game that he’s played since we’ve been here. I can’t speak for before that. I thought he was physical in the run game. He did an outstanding job in the run game. That’s why we had a lot of those big runs (that) came on his side. He did really well in pass protection. He fought. He was battling the entire game. He was very sound execution-wise. As far as things that he has been working on technique-wise, things went really well. If we get that from him game-in, game-out, I’ll feel really good about our tackles.”
