Dowell Loggains – September 27, 2018
Download PDF version
Thursday, September 27, 2018
Offensive Coordinator Dowell Loggains
(Head Coach Adam Gase was mentioning on the play to WR Albert Wilson that you were egging him on to make that call. What’s that sound like on the headset? When you’re egging him on, what’s that sound like?) – “In that moment, we wanted to get that play called. We’d been talking about it for a couple series. It just popped up and I was able to remind him in the moment.”
(You spent a season – or part of a season – working with WR Josh Gordon during your time in Cleveland. What do you remember of his physical skills and what do you tell Defensive Coordinator Matt Burke or any of the defensive players about covering Gordon?) – “What the tape says: extremely talented player. Great size, great speed, intelligent (and a) good football player.”
(With the run game, some of the struggles that we’ve seen – at least last week, it was obviously good in the opener – would you say combination of lack of blocking at the level you want from the offensive line, some tight ends, some backs, mixture of the three?) – “Some credit to them, as well. It’s something I think we talked about it in here a couple weeks ago that there’s going to be games like that, when you guys asked about the success the first two weeks. There’s going to be some games where it just doesn’t match up as well and they’re doing stuff schematically that’s advantageous, so now the ball needs to go up in the air. It was a combination of all those things. We didn’t block as well as we could at any position. You have to give those guys credit, they did a good job. So we were able to do some different stuff in the passing game.”
(What’s your confidence level in the two rookie tight ends if TE A.J. Derby can’t go?) – “It’s high. I think both those guys will step in and do well if they’re needed, if their role gets expanded because of injury or because they’ve earned time. I expect both those guys to go in and play and play well.”
(Do you also expect the Patriots to kind of attack them considering they’re young rookies?) – “I can’t speak on that. I expect those guys when they’re in there to do their jobs.”
(You guys are 11th in scoring but 30th in time of possession. How do you explain that?) – “I think it’s a lot of different things. It’s not being good enough on third down is an area we need to improve on. It’s a credit to some of the other offenses. The Raiders did a good job staying on the field and kept us off. The most important thing is we score one more point than those guys. To this point, we’ve scored more points than our opponent. It’s so early in the season. I don’t think stats are really relevant. You start to figure out more as it goes on but it’s too early to talk about stuff like that right now.”
(What are things that need to happen for the jet sweep to work?) – “You’ve got to call it at the right time versus the right defense. We actually hit the long touchdown – the 74 yarder – it was into a double-corner blitz, so the guys executed it well. It’s something that … We’ve been a good outside zone team to this point, the first two weeks especially. It’s really just a chance for us to get our playmakers the ball in space.”
(How often do you talk to Head Coach Adam Gase about run-pass balance in game?) – “It really depends on the flow of the game. As that game was going on, we weren’t running the ball the way we wanted to. You could feel like the pass protection was good and Ryan (Tannehill), he had a good feel on what was going on in that game. And I do believe each game is played differently. Sometimes you can run it 35, 40 times a game, and sometimes you have to throw it. When we had discussions during the game, I felt really good about where Ryan was at, what he was seeing and the pass protection. I felt very confident about having the ball in his hands.”
(Do you recall the first time when you guys asked WR Albert Wilson to throw, thinking in the back of your mind and Head Coach Adam Gase’s mind this could be something you go to? Was it back in May where off to the side you said, “Let’s see you throw it?”) – “As soon as we made the decision we were going to go after him, we started diving into stuff. Adam started watching Georgia State tape. We started watching all the stuff he’d done in his career to that point. As soon as we got here, it was like, ‘Let’s figure out what this guy can’t do and how far we can push these limits.’ Obviously, he’s thrown a touchdown, he’s caught touchdowns, he’s played running back, he’s done a lot of different stuff. It’s a credit to him, because not only is he a good playmaker, but he’s very intelligent. You have to work really hard to understand every position to be moved around that much.”
(How much tape did you have of WR Albert Wilson throwing?) – “There wasn’t much, but there’s a trick play here and there. But it was mainly getting him here and finding out what he could do.”
(What did you think when you first saw WR Albert Wilson throw the ball?) – “That he was able to do that stuff. It’s just one more weapon that we could utilize at the right time.”
(What was this offense missing that you thought WR Albert Wilson could help fill that need?) – “I don’t know what it was missing, but what we saw when we watched him on tape was a dynamic playmaker that could help us score points.”
(What’s the best way for a receiver to not get called for offensive pass interference when there’s a chance he could?) – “Execute the play with the proper fundamentals. Understanding the distribution and having a great understanding of the roles.”
(There are guys like with WR Albert Wilson’s situation – they can throw it, they obviously have the arm, but since he hadn’t done it in an NFL game, you don’t know what’s going to happen when the time comes. You start reading into the personnel, what about that part of it? How much is your gut churning wondering whether he would underthrow it by 20 yards?) – “That’s a great question. I think that’s the key to it all, because there’s a lot of talented players in the NFL that have multiple sets of skills, but it’s (about) trust and it’s earned from demonstrating ability on the practice field. He’s executed plays, everything we’ve asked. Nothing has been too big for him, whether it was playing running back, slot, outside, quarterback in a Wildcat situation and he’s just built trust among his teammates and coaches. Everything we ask him to do, we have faith in him that he’s going to execute the play. The other thing is when you ask someone to do that, you also have to play through the scenarios of what if it’s not the exact look or will he make the proper decision in space if it wasn’t the defense we were expecting or anticipating and we trust Albert to do that stuff.”
(I guess there are many head coaches that are adamant on not doing trick plays. Is it pleasant for you to have a head coach that attacks and says, ‘Let’s do this,’ or be open to this sort of thing?) – “Yes, that part, it’s awesome having an offensive head coach that’s willing to try anything, willing to be aggressive and do those things and has a big part in coming up with those creative ideas.”
(Does QB Ryan Tannehill run faster than you realized he could? He seems fast, pretty fast.) – “I think he’s fast. He’s fast for a quarterback. Having a big part of his game is being able to extend and make plays with his legs, the zone-read stuff, all of those things he can do. That skillset makes it tough on defenses.”
(Besides getting the touchdowns off those trick plays, how much do you think you might benefit this Sunday as well as down the road in giving defensive coordinators something to think about?) – “That’s a great question, a great point. Every time you do those things and every time you use all these personnel groupings that we’ve been using, those guys have to go and they have to prepare for them and they have to prepare not just (for) what you’ve done, but they have to rep every one of their blitzes, every one of their coverages into five wides into 20 personnel to 10 personnel to 11 personnel to 12 personnel and all those different groupings we’ve been doing. It takes away time that they have to work on your core concepts and they have to make sure they can fit every one of the runs, everyone of their blitzes versus each one of those of those personnel groupings.”
(Is there anything about WR Danny Amendola that you’ve learned that you didn’t realize since you’ve met him?) – “I don’t know if there’s anything I’ve learned. I would say I’ve really come to have a great appreciation for his competitive spirit and just the way he works. You guys hear him at practice, in training camp and OTAs, how intense he is and how important every rep is. I think our receiver group has done a really good job to this point of the season and I give Danny some of that credit too of helping some of these younger guys develop and become pros and showing what it’s supposed to be like to work. That little chip on his shoulder, he has a competitive spirit that is infectious.”
(Do you have a series of trick plays in mind that you remind Head Coach Adam Gase? Obviously, there are some non-trick plays in there too, but how often is it for you to remind him during the course of a game, ‘Maybe we want to get to that.’) – “Those things happen as far as trick plays, run game, pass game, as we design stuff during the week. ‘We have a play off this or a play off that.’ The constant communication going back and forth of when’s the right time to use it. That’s the most important thing as the play caller is that he calls it at the right time to make sure you get the look you want, because most times you only get one shot at those things and if it doesn’t work and you have to have tremendous trust in the guy doing them. But the timing is a very critical thing and make sure for two or three series we’re talking to our guys about a play like, ‘If this comes up, be prepared.’”
