Adam Gase – September 9, 2018 (Postgame)
Sunday, September 9, 2018
Postgame – Tennessee Titans
Miami Dolphins Head Coach Adam Gase
Needless to say, a bizarre game. You come away with a win. How did you manage it during those down times so that you were ready to come back and play the couple of times that you had to do it?
ADAM GASE: I thought the guys did a good job of transitioning from when we came in. They knew we had some time, guys just being able to take their shoulder pads off, just trying to get up every once in a while, move around. Guys stayed … they were hanging out and stayed engaged and talking about the game. There was a lot of time to burn.
When you go back before the first stop, they’re moving the ball down the field, and they go for it on fourth down. S Minkah Fitzpatrick comes up and makes a big play to keep them out of the end zone, and then you were able to go 98 yards and put it in the end zone. It speaks a lot for your football team being able to make that turnaround.
ADAM GASE: Yeah, that was good to see that we actually played off each other. That was the one time we did. We just … we need to take more … offensively take advantage of when our defense puts us in scoring position. We didn’t do that very well except for that one where they had the stop and we actually scored on it. We’ve got a lot of room for improvement, but that’s what the whole exercise is about.
Talk about QB Ryan Tannehill, what you saw out of him, his performance coming back for the first time after a year and a half away.
ADAM GASE: I thought he was good. We had it rolling there for a little bit. We’ll clean up some of the turnovers and maybe some of the mistakes. He didn’t make too many. It was good to see him back out there. He got knocked around a little bit, but did a good job of bouncing right back up.
A couple big plays from WR Kenny Stills, but S Reshad Jones with his interceptions really changed the course of the game for you I think at key times in this football game.
ADAM GASE: Yes, I mean, that’s why he’s a Pro Bowler. He seems to make the timely play, and he made a couple of them tonight. He made some big hits, and they had their run game going a little bit, and he made a really good play where he jumped in the hole there and had a really good tackle. You know, it’s good to see our better players really stepping up in those key moments.
Did guys eat during the break?
ADAM GASE: Yes.
Did they change jerseys?
ADAM GASE: No.
Did they shower?
ADAM GASE: I don’t know. I wasn’t watching.
What were the coaches doing?
ADAM GASE: We were working on our game plan stuff, trying to figure out kind of like what our next step was. A lot of conversations, sat around with the rest of those guys just talking ball.
What was your communication with the league or officials or anything like that?
ADAM GASE: I had none. Somebody would run down and tell me. I just figured they’d tell me 10 minutes before we were going out, and we’d be ready to go.
As a coach, you prepare for any situation, but do you ever in the back of your mind think of something crazy…
ADAM GASE: I mean, I won’t be surprised by anything. I think we’ve almost covered everything. (laughter)
Did that help you or hurt you? Could it have been better if.
ADAM GASE: I don’t know. We won, and we’ve got a lot of things we’ve got to improve on. We know that, but that was the team that was in the playoffs last year, and that’s — we knew they were going to be a tough opponent, even though we’re at home. We played like it was the first game of the year. We had some mistakes that we’re going to go back and say this can’t happen anymore, and we’ll improve from here.
Your young rookies, from what you’ve seen, what you saw, how did you think they handled themselves?
ADAM GASE: I felt like they were all very loose before we started the game. It seemed like everybody was playing fast. It’s going to really probably take some time to just kind of see how everybody fits in and really what their roles become. We’ve got an idea, but I don’t think we really got as good of a flow offensively as we wanted to, and defensively I think the young guys did a good job. It seemed like they were around the ball quite a bit.
Did you expect to have more opportunities for TE Mike Gesicki, or was it about what you expected?
ADAM GASE: I don’t want to say … it’s probably not what I expected, but it was just kind of how the game went.
How would you describe the chemistry between QB Ryan Tannehill and WR Kenny Stills?
ADAM GASE: Well, that’s trust. Those two guys trust each other. They work a lot. You know, Ryan and him always seem to spend extra time. Kenny and him really do a good job of using kind of that downtime when we’re going scout team with the defense, and they work on certain routes, and it seems like that one they got down pretty good. That was one of those plays where it was the right coverage versus what we ran, and they made a good play together.
Did you realize pretty quickly that WR Jakeem Grant was gone?
ADAM GASE: Yeah, I was standing … he was coming my direction. I just saw it was him and the kicker. I was just going, ‘please run by him.’
You see QB Ryan Tannehill almost every day; it’s different than what people here see after 600 days. Is what they saw the Ryan you’ve been seeing for the last 600 days?
ADAM GASE: As far as what? (inaudible) I mean, I think it’s been a steady climb for him since we got here and where he is now where he has more control of the offense. There’s still some things he’ll want to clean up. I know he’ll be mad at a few decisions he made where he might have had some better plays, and that happens. That’s part of playing the position. The longer you play and the more times you get in those situations and don’t make the same mistake twice, that’s when you really start having good things happen, and now instead of two touchdowns you have four or five. I think there’s a lot of good things that are going to come out of this game, and we’ll just keep trying to find ways to get better.
Talk about the attitude and QB Ryan Tannehill’s enthusiasm with the playbook and the offense, does that lead to you guys trying to go for fourth-and-1?
ADAM GASE: Well, the fourth-and-1, we’ve been talking about it really through since the spring that when we get in those situations that if we feel like it’s going to be the right coverage versus what we’re going to call, we’re going to go for it, and we felt like that was one of those situations, and it didn’t work out, but we’ve got confidence that our defense is going to try to find a way to stop them and keep them pinned back there. That’s just kind of the flow of the game. You have a good feel. You just know where you’re at. I felt like the defense was in a good place at that time. It would have been a different situation if I would have had a different feel. Maybe I would have kicked a field goal. But at the time the defensive guys wanted us to go for it I could tell. They wanted us to try to pop one there or maybe score a couple plays later.
There was RB Frank Gore with that long run.
ADAM GASE: Yeah, it seemed like we had some momentum going there. It didn’t work out this time, but we’ll keep attacking it.
Is that the recipe for you?
ADAM GASE: Yeah, I think that’s always been the recipe. It’s just got to be the right situation.
You kicked off seven and a half hours ago; how do you feel right now?
ADAM GASE: I’m ready to go home. You’ve got to stop asking questions. (laughter)
