Adam Gase – September 29, 2017
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Friday, September 29, 2017
Head Coach Adam Gase
(So what does the body feel like today after that travel?) – “Mine or theirs? (laughter)”
(Both. Let’s start with you.) – “I think I’m good. I don’t have to play. I think a lot of guys did a good job. It seemed like everybody was sleeping for most of the trip. It was good to get them out here and move them around. That was a really big emphasis, not necessarily what we were doing just more get the body moving.
(On the decision not to travel until Thursday night…) – “Without us having a bye week afterwards, we’re trying to keep it just as short as possible, because we’re going to have to transition after this game. We’re going to have to go back, got to get ready for the next game, so we’re looking at it big picture and just felt like that was the best thing for us.”
(Is there any concern about the body not adjusting to the UK time clock?) – “No, I think our guys have been doing a good job, whether we’ve been on the West Coast, East Coast, back home, wherever we’ve been, out here (in London). Really, they’re listening to what (Sports Performance Director) Wayne Diesel is telling them and (Head Strength and Conditioning Coach Dave) Puloka is telling them. It’s good to see these guys really taking to the advice they’re being given.”
(Some of these international flights have sleeping cabins. Did you guys have that for some of your players?) – “Yes, I think most of the guys that are playing were in them.”
(That’s a huge help I’d imagine.) – “They’re still not big enough for most of those guys (laughter). “
(How is WR Kenny Stills’ hand? I saw it was wrapped up outside.) – “He seemed to be good. We were just being a little precautionary this week. He played and finished the last game (against the Jets), and I know it wasn’t easy for him; but we just thought we’d take a few shots at catching balls. Ultimately, that was really the main priority. He ran a ton of routes. We just didn’t throw any balls to him.
(With all of the Trump/NFL stuff, has it been a distraction for the players?) – “That’s something I don’t get into. I’m worried about coaching the game.”
(On Ravens Head Coach John Harbaugh not wanting to come to London again.) – “Well, I just got here so we’ll see how it goes I’m sure; but if we win, I’ll be one way, if we lose, I’ll be another way.”
(Have you been to this city before?) – “Yes.”
(When?) – “2010.”
(The forecast for Sunday is supposed to be pretty nasty. How are you guys preparing for that?) – “We have certain ways that we’ll play for any kind of weather, so we’ll implement those game plans when we have a better idea of what it’s going to be. We’d move a few things around. When we’re in Miami, we get all kinds of rain, wind, humidity or heat, really nice, you just never know. Our guys do a good job any time we’ve had to adjust, they’ve handled it.”
(With RB Jay Ajayi being one of the marquee players for the NFL’s international brand, how much pressure do you think that he feels approaching this game?) – “I don’t think he feels pressure. I think Jay’s more about playing, and he’s done a good job with everything we’ve asked him to do. I think he’s excited to come play in this game. I think he wants to play well. He’s worked hard this week and had a good day the one day that he went. I just think he’s ready for Sunday to be here.”
(You’ve been resting RB Jay Ajayi for the past couple of weeks. Obviously it’s just a precautionary thing, but is it just for his long-term durability?) – “I think we’re looking at the big picture. His style of running is very physical and we are going pads on Wednesdays a lot of the time, and it’s just a couple of more hits that he probably doesn’t need to take. We feel like he gets good work on Thursdays. That’s really a big third-down, pressure-type day for us, where he can get the reps he needs to get live. We’re not so much worried about him getting a rep of outside zone or inside zone or whatever it is. We’re just trying to be smart with him.”
(When you planned out this travel, because we’ve talked a lot about it, was there someone in the organization or somebody outside you talked to about how to best manage big bodies during this time?) – “A lot of our coaches were involved in this – our sports science staff, our strength staff, the entire crew. We talked to everybody. We had people reaching out. Obviously this organization’s been here before, so there’s a lot of people in-house that have done this before. We just felt like this was our best plan at the end of the day, not only for this week but for down the road.”
(The plan basically started when the schedule came out? Is that when you started thinking about this?) – “Well we knew we were coming. We asked not to have a bye week after we really felt like we knew we were going to be here early. We were hoping that we wouldn’t have a bye week so that we could just go back and play another game and it kind of fell that way for us. Unfortunately, we had our bye week already in Week 1, so it is what it is.”
(What’s the one thing that you told your players is most important during this stretch?) – “Really the big point of emphasis has been, for us, the hydration and making sure that everybody’s taking care of their bodies, putting the right things in their bodies, getting rest. Like I said, the big thing was for us to just get out there and move around and really get out minds going, get our bodies going and just get ready for this game.”
(With DT Jordan Phillips, he missed last week’s game. What’s his status for this week’s game and how do you feel the young guys performed when they were in there?) – “I think the young guys did exactly what we were hoping they’d do. They did their jobs, for the most part. They made some plays here and there. Jordan was playing really well before he got hurt. I feel like he’s making strides and we’re close to where we want to be. We’ll really talk about that the next two days to see where we’re going to be for Sunday. I want to really be smart about this because we do have to think long-term a little bit, instead of thinking about just this one game. We don’t want to have a setback, so we’ll figure it out here in the next couple of days.”
