Adam Gase – September 28, 2017
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Thursday, September 28, 2017
Head Coach Adam Gase
(What did you see from LB Lawrence Timmons? Anything stand out yesterday?) – “He looked good. Running around. He looked excited to be out there. Great energy, which he always brings. Put him on the football field, he’s happy to be out there.”
(Your run defense – I think I’ve asked you about it before – but do you trust what you’ve seen with it so far as far as the numbers? Are they reflecting what you’re seeing on the field?) – “I try to stay away from getting too caught up in any numbers right now. It’s early in the season. When we watch the film together – when I watch it with the defense – I’m listening more to the details of what we’re doing and where we may need to clean some things up. I think those guys have a great sense of urgency to continue making this about team defense and making sure everybody’s doing their job, to where we don’t have those long runs, where we don’t have a game where we slip up and a team can run the ball on us. We want to be the type of team that every week, the opponent is going, ‘We’re going to try to run the ball; but it’s probably going to be really tough for us.’ That’s really my biggest thought process week in and week out is hearing (Defensive Coordinator) Matt (Burke) talk about the things that they want to correct and how they want to clean things up.”
(I’m sure, obviously, you think about everything this week about how to jump start your offense – every possible option. Have you given much thought – without compromising any game plan stuff, obviously – have you given much thought (to) your second-year, talented players you have in WR Jakeem Grant and RB Kenyan Drake. You have quality veterans ahead of them but in terms of incorporating them more, has that been a thought) – “The first two games, we’ve had some … We’ve put some packages in where we’re trying to get guys involved in the game. Like the first game, when you get crunched down to – I think we had eight possessions – then you see how the game is going. You’re kind of like, ‘Okay, if I do that and it doesn’t work, is that going to throw us off?’ You start thinking of the next step. The last game, it’s kind of the same thing. We’re not really going anywhere and we’re not feeling it. We didn’t have a great rhythm, so it’s like do we put different guys in there and see if that jump-starts us or is that going to hurt us? You’re trying to think through everything, and it’s happening … You can’t predict what’s going to happen two series down the road. Sometimes you’ve just got to say, ‘Alright, pull the trigger and we’re going to do this.’ You’re hoping guys will execute the plan correctly. It is hard sometimes to pull ‘23’ (Jay Ajayi) off the field, ‘14’ (Jarvis Landry), ‘11’ (DeVante Parker), ‘10’ (Kenny Stills). That’s a tough pill to swallow, because you know those are talented players. The fact that we do have some guys that are behind all these guys that have the ability to make explosive plays, that’s really a benefit to us. We’ve just got to figure out a way … What’s the best way for us to get them involved?”
(Do you sense from your players this week, an anxiousness to right all the wrongs from last week?) – “Yesterday, what I saw was a group of guys that were ready to come out to practice and do what they’ve been doing all year. Yesterday I saw great intensity. I saw guys moving fast. I saw guys trying to execute things the right way. Really, at the end of the day, if we do that, that gives us our best chance to win the game.”
(Along those lines, you come in Monday and yesterday and from what I read, frustration, anger. Do players take a cue from their coach? Did you sense anything like that from your team?) – “They got a good feel for me, especially the offensive guys who are around me a lot. I know the defensive guys know that I want the offense to be stronger than what we’ve been the last however many games going back to last year, because I feel like I owe that to them. I watch these guys play. I watch the effort that they play with – guys like Cam Wake, (Ndamukong) Suh, Kiko (Alonso), guys like Reshad (Jones). I feel like I owe them a, ‘I want to get you guys a lead, so you guys can go rush the passer.’ I feel like I haven’t come through for them yet to where they get a lead and are able to have a 10-, 14-point lead in the fourth quarter to where they can really go to work. They know that’s how I feel about that. Sometimes where my frustration comes from on Monday, if I don’t feel like we played well enough on offense (is) because I feel like (the) offensive side of the ball – which I’m in charge of – isn’t performing to the team’s expectations. That’s really why we’ve got to go back to work. We can put a good plan together Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and come out and coach as hard as we can and make sure that we do everything we can to get ready for the next one.”
(Are you anticipating using the two guys at left guard again Sunday?) – “We’ll see how it goes. We’re going to see how today goes. Usually we don’t make it that big of a deal. (Offensive Line Coach) Chris (Foerster) does a great job. He reps so many guys in practice because he has got to have contingency plans. If somebody goes down, we might have to shuffle some pieces around. By the end of the week, we usually have a great idea of, ‘Alright, here’s what we’re going to do,’ and then we’ll see, play off of that. If one guy is playing really well, we’re not going to take him out.”
(Regarding RB Jay Ajayi, he’s going back to London, nursing a knee – however big a deal that is – getting his brand launched, he said he thinking about kneeling during the national anthem. Any concern that he’s got too much on his plate or have you talked to him about time management?) – “The one thing I know about Jay is that when the ball’s kicked off, he’s going to be ready to go. When I look at the way that he’s performed since I’ve been around him, he hasn’t let any of his teammates down yet. I just know when it’s go-time, he’s ready to go.”
(The Saints defense looked much improved last week. They had a good showing against Carolina. What do you see in those guys?) – “Sometimes when you play a division game, it’s what you want to do. You know them, you’re familiar, you’re not scheming them so much as ‘Hey, this is how we’re playing.’ They played fast and they played well and they did a lot of things that disrupted what Carolina was trying to do, and that’s probably what they needed. Obviously, we’re coming off the game we did and they’re coming off the game they had and it’s probably one of those things where they’re looking at us saying, ‘Okay, how are they going to play us?’ And our guys are looking at them the same way. Really, it’s going to be about emotion, attitude, really who wants it more in this game, because we’re both taking long trips and we’re playing on neutral ground, so it’s going to be what each team is going to bring to the table.”
(Managing this trip, the front end you guys practice today, leave tonight, fly, you get there, you’re going to practice when you land, I believe. How do you manage the back end of the trip? Do you get back on a regular schedule next week?) – “Our thought process was, ‘We’re playing the next week.’ Right now, we feel like we’ve got a good schedule for the rest of the week and then next week. Our guys are just focused on this stuff right now. If you ask one of our players, ‘Hey what are you going to do on Monday?’ they’re trying to make sure, ‘When we land (in London), where do we go now?’ They’re not thinking too far ahead.”
(What’s your overall message to the players in terms of logistics and time management for Friday and Saturday, leading into Sunday’s game?) – “Really, we have a pretty tight schedule with what we’re doing with when we land and getting to the hotel and moving on and going to practice. We have some things that we’re going to do with the guys to make sure their bodies good and hydration and all those types of things. The biggest thing is getting sleep and making sure that when Sunday comes, we make them feel as normal as possible. Our guys have been doing a good job, especially these first two weeks. We’ve been talking about it. This is going to be an interesting little bit of a run for us. It started with that first week in LA of making sure you do all these little detailed things right because it’s going to carry over week after week after week. I feel like our guys have done a good job of hearing what we’re saying and trying to do what we’re asking them to do. When we get to this game, we’ll see. We’ll see how much that’s paid off for us.”
(When Defensive Coordinator Matt Burke was in here, he was talking about how he was preaching to the cornerbacks, ‘One step closer, one step closer’ in order to get more pass breakups. What are you seeing as far as the cornerbacks as far as getting a little bit closer to receivers and being able to influence plays a little bit more?) – “It’s one of those things that’s easy to say, tough to do, because you’re on an island a lot. You’re exposed. (When) you get beat, there’s no doubt who got beat. It takes some – you know what I want to say – but to go up and challenge a guy and play one-on-one and be aggressive and challenge balls, you have to be right in your technique. You have to understand what the scheme is, you have to understand what you’re doing on defense. There’s a lot of variables that go into that, but really the guys that are the best ones I’ve ever been around, they are aggressive and they don’t have a conscience about anything. If they get beat, they don’t care. ‘Hey, I got beat, I’ll fix it,’ and they go on to the next one. I mean they care at the fact that they just got beat, but they’re not going to hang on it and they’ll learn from the experience. The best ones I’ve been around have done that. That’s what we’re encouraging our guys (to do), ‘Hey, be aggressive.’ I like that. That’s one of the qualities I really like about Matt is he’s trying to instill that in our defense of if we want to be a great defense, we’ve got to be aggressive.”
(With the cornerbacks, how much does it go into being confident in what you’re seeing on film, recognizing splits and formations?) – “I think a lot of this profession is confidence, and when you think you’re good, that’s sometimes all you need. Then you add that extra element of understanding the game, understanding what you’re doing, understanding what they’re doing, what they’re trying to do, what their philosophy is. If you put those two things together, that’s going to give you your best chance.”
