Adam Gase – November 22, 2017
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Wednesday, November 22, 2017
Head Coach Adam Gase
(Is QB Jay Cutler still in the concussion protocol?) – “Yes.”
(So your plan at quarterback this week will be?) – “Matt (Moore) is going today and Jay’s in the concussion protocol. That’s really all I have for you right now.”
(Do you have any sense yet on whether G/T Jermon Bushrod and LB Stephone Anthony could be long-term things?) – I’m not sure if it’s long term. Really, I’m just trying to figure out this week. We’re going to kind of take both of those day by day right now, see how they feel at the end of today and we’re just going to keep progressing, trying to get those guys better.”
(Can you talk about the importance of making QB Tom Brady uncomfortable in the pocket?) – “I mean really, that’s what I think everybody tries to do. It’s a difficult task. When you have the experience he does and can see what he sees. He’s been in the same offense for a really long time even though it’s kind of evolved over the years. He knows exactly where to go with the ball. If something breaks down, he knows how to get rid of it quick and not putting their team in a poor position, field position wise, and down and distance. We have to have a lot of guys doing the right thing.”
(Did you hear back from the league on the near safety?) – “Yes, I mean I’ll really kind of stay out of that because it doesn’t really do me any good. So I mean I just … I don’t really ask anymore.”
(What went into the decision to go back WR Rashawn Scott and de-activate WR Leonte Caroo?) – “We just thought Rashawn was having a good week of practice and just kind of get him up and get him that game experience to see how it went. I think every week it’s just going to be keep those guys competing and whoever has a good week, we’ll look to put that guy up.”
(How much will you change what you’re doing this week because of the penalty issue?) – “That is probably more of the frustrating part is we made some changes last week. Maybe we put too much of an emphasis on it. We’ve just got to go back to work and the good thing is we get a chance to start over and improve in that area and it’s something that we can fix. We’ve got to back and do kind of what we’ve been talking about, which is executing in practice, because that’s really what’s going to translate to the game.”
(I know Offensive Coordinator Clyde Christensen was bullish in the offseason on WR Jakeem Grant being a greater part of the offense and of course you have three veteran receivers you want to play a lot. There’s not a lot of opportunity for a fourth; but has Jakeem not playing a ton of offense surely been because of that or has practice not shown you what you want to see?) – “No, it’s interesting you ask that because I was just talking to him about how things didn’t quite go as planned early in the season. We did some things to try to just calm everything down and get us moving the ball a little more consistently and that really kind of took away from some of the packages that we were doing with whether it be him, or when (Kenyan) Drake was kind of just going in at certain points. We had some personnel packages that we liked with a few of those younger guys and we weren’t getting enough plays in the game to where we could kind of start messing around with that and see how it works. It was really more about our entire offensive performance early that kind of probably got us away from it and we just … I like the way that he’s been working. I like the way that he keeps trying to prepare himself. If something happens, he’s ready to go. It’s nothing with him.”
(The last time QB Matt Moore played I think he got a short week of practice. It was the Thursday night game. If he is the starter, how much does a full week of practice help him from a backup quarterback perspective?) – “I think anytime you’re a quarterback, whether you’re a starter or a backup, when you get the reps and you’re trying to show the looks that you think you may get, it’s beneficial. It’s like anything else, if you practice it, it gives you your best chance to execute when we hit Sunday.”
(Are you going all the way to Sunday with waiting to see if QB Jay Cutler’s back or is there a point at which you’ve got to make a decision?) – “I’m sure there’ll be a point before I make a decision. I don’t really know what the timetable is right now. I’m just kind of taking it day by day right now. When you’re in the protocol, as coaches, we remove ourselves and let that process kind of take care of itself. Really, at the end of the day, the protocol tells us what the right thing to do is.”
(You expressed a lot of confidence in QB Jay Cutler but would you be comfortable playing him if he goes all week without practicing?) – “I mean we’ll see. Right now I can’t do anything about where he’s at in the protocol. I mean it just is what it is.”
(Getting back to QB Tom Brady for a second, I mean thus far he’s defying age. Are you sometimes amazed that a guy that’s older than you is playing at such a high level?) – “I guess I’ve been on the other sideline so many times and watched him just consistently get better, and how he works and my experience being with Peyton (Manning). Just seeing how that type of player, the work ethic, I guess it doesn’t surprise me as much because if you could stay healthy a lot of times, that’s really the key to everything. If you start getting banged up, it’s just harder to recover quickly. He does a good job of making sure he’s not getting hit and a lot of it has to do with play calling and how fast he gets the ball out. He’s got a lot of guys on the same page that know exactly what to do and where to be. They know their outs and that’s what makes him unique is he just, he knows how to protect himself within the offense.”
(In the times you have faced the Patriots defense, is there a common denominator?) – “(Patriots Head) Coach (Bill) Belichick, (Patriots Defensive Coordinator) Matt Patricia.”
(I’m talking about how they play.) – “I just gave you those two things that are the common denominator. That’s about it.”
(Because the faces change but the styles …?) – “You never know what you’re going to get. They’re going to do what they need to do to take away your best players and it could be the same calls as you played them the last time, it could be a completely different defense.”
(I completely admit that year we asked you this opposite question. This year I’m going to ask you the opposite on DE Cameron Wake. Last year we asked you if he should be playing more. This year it’s going to go the other way because he’s had no bye week, 40 snaps two weeks in a row. Do you think that it might benefit him to take a few less?) – “I guess we just … I think it’s hard to take a guy that’s still disruptive and doing his job in the run game. He’s doing what we’re asking him to do and he’s executing things still at a high level. Sure, would we like to be able to play it the way that … We all think it’s easy to say ‘Hey, take this series off’ or ‘We’ll just get you on pass rushing downs.’ Then all of a sudden, it’s Week 2 last year and he plays 16 snaps and it’s ‘why isn’t Cam playing more?’ It’s a tough thing to manage with a player like that because you really never know what the situation in the game is going to call for. ‘T’ (Defensive Line Coach Terrell Williams) tries to do everything he can to kind of plan it out but you have to adjust and I don’t think he really wants to come off the field a whole bunch. When you see him come off the field, it’s not great body language.”
(This week concerns … What do you have to be thankful for?) – “We’re playing this week. That’s a good thing for us. We’re just going to keep grinding and keep trying to find ways to get better.”
(Is it different coaching against Bill Belichick than any other coach? Do you maybe get more drawn into a chess match with him than any other coach?) – “I guess for me it’s … I don’t think of it like that. I think we try to do everything we can to get our players ready to go with what we think we might see. Really, I mean just like we have done in the last two years. we make a lot more of this about us than our opponent. We know we have certain things that we have to prepare for but a lot of times that we’ve lost games, it’s been self-inflicted things that we’ve done that have prevented us from giving us a chance in the fourth quarter. Really, at the end of the day, we just have to make sure that we’re doing what we’re supposed to do and not so much worry about the other team.”
Adam Gase – November 22, 2017 (Conference Call)
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Wednesday, November 22, 2017
Head Coach Adam Gase Conference Call with New England Media
(I was wondering what you have seen from Patriots RB Dion Lewis of late, over the past five weeks. His workload has increased and he’s starting to run the ball a lot better.) – “I think it’s probably more about opportunity than anything. They do a good job of rolling those guys (in) and defining the roles that these guys all have, having as many guys as they do have. Sometimes, I can’t explain exactly why a guy for them would get more touches. It could be hot hand, it could be game plan that week. From my perspective, whoever’s really back there, whatever they ask them to do, those guys just do a good job.”
(The Patriots defense has looked quite a bit different over the last several weeks or so. Have you noticed anything specific that’s stood out about why they’ve improved so much?) – “A lot of it probably has to do with chemistry, practicing. I’m sure that they’ve done a few things schematically, subtle little changes that most people don’t notice; but at the end of the day, for them, it’s probably coaching. They just found a few things where they started doing well and they started leaning on that more and help put those guys in good positon, then guys started executing better than possibly earlier in the year. It could be a number of reasons. Competing against these guys as many times as I have, it seems like as the year goes on, they usually get better the longer the season goes.”
(We saw Patriots QB Tom Brady and WR Brandin Cooks connect on a few long passes against the Raiders. What’s the key to containing a guy with that kind of quickness and deep speed?) – “It’s tough. You’ve got to make sure you stay on top of them. You’ve got to do a good job of defending multiple routes. You have to do the best you can of not letting him get going too much. It all starts at the line of scrimmage and really it has to be a team effort, because you have to do everything you can to make sure that Tom doesn’t hold onto the ball forever and is able to pick you apart that way. It’s really got to be connected throughout the entire defense to where everybody’s doing their job. You try to stay as tight as you can on coverage and compete when any kind of ball is thrown to him.”
(WR Danny Amendola hasn’t been quite an every down player for the Patriots this season. It seems like he’s usually on the field when they need a key play or a key first down. What have you seen from Danny Amendola this season and just as a player?) – “A lot of times it just has to do with the personnel grouping that (Patriots Offensive Coordinator) Josh (McDaniels) is using, down to down. You’re right, when they do need a play, his number gets called a lot. Sometimes it may be coverage dictated to where that’s why the ball ends up going there. The thing that he does is when he gets an opportunity, he makes the play that really is asked of him.”
(You guys have dealt with a lot this year in terms of the hurricane and the injuries and RB Jay Ajayi. How difficult is it to keep things together in the locker room when there’s that much turmoil?) – “I guess it’s probably, for people outside, it seems like it’s a lot to deal with; but I guess this is just like normal things that happen in an NFL season. Normally, you have probably 10 or 11 opportunities that actually occur where you’ve got to make some adjustments and find ways to fight through some adversity. That’s what the NFL is. There’s going to be distractions and when you get to this part of the season usually, if you’re good enough and have an opportunity to get a chance to play in the tournament, that’s all it is. It’s distractions and things going on and injuries occurring, that’s what it is. The teams that handle it and can keep moving forward and not sit there and wonder why something’s happening, those teams usually have success. The teams that get consumed by that, they fall off.”
(What are the challenges of essentially not having a bye week? How is your team doing physically? Does this limit at all the opportunities you guys had to maybe do some self-scouting?) – “I think we were lucky enough to have a Thursday night game where we had the Thursday night game and we were able to kind of throw in, basically, a little mini bye weekend for our players to where they were able to get four days off. It gave us a chance as coaches to take some time off, but at the same time, I don’t think any of us went too far away. We were able to comb through some things and make some adjustments over that time. Really, that helped us out a little bit. I haven’t really noticed fatigue in any way with our players. We’ve still got six games left, so I don’t know if down the road I’ll notice anything. I think our guys have been good. Our practices have been energetic. It’s not like we’re out in pads or anything. Our guys, I just haven’t seen really any kind of drawback from us not having a bye.”
(Is there any update on QB Jay Cutler and how confident are you in QB Matt Moore if he is playing again this weekend?) – “Jay’s in the (concussion) protocol, so really it’s out of my hands and we’ll listen to what they tell us and what we should do. As far as Matt goes, I have a lot of confidence in Matt. Calling plays for him last year, we had a couple of situations where he’s had to go in the game and we’ve been able to have success. One game we didn’t play very well as an entire team. He’s an easy player to call plays for and he does a good job. He gets himself prepared and guys have confidence in him and he always knows what to do.”
(Patriots LB Trevor Reilly was on your team the last couple of years. Are you surprised at how many opportunities he’s seeing on defense with the Patriots over the last three games?) – “No, I wouldn’t say I was surprised by it. Sometimes it’s just about getting an opportunity and getting a chance to get in there, whether it be by injury or doing things at practice right to where you flash for the coaches enough to where they want to start getting you playing time. He did a good job for us here and whatever we asked him to do, he was 100 miles per hour. He gave us everything he had. For us, we had a couple of other guys that we liked at those spots and really we just ran out of room.”
(What’s the key for you guys to have a strong end of the season and make a playoff push?) – “I think we have to eliminate the turnovers. That’s probably our biggest thing. The turnover margin, we have to do a better job of getting them and we have to eliminate them. Really, for us, we’ve had a lot of self-inflicted issues when it comes to pre-snap penalties. That’s something that we’ve been really working on trying to fix and making sure that we’re not putting ourselves in a bad position, because what ends up happening is we have a pre-snap penalty on offense and we put ourselves in a bad hole when we’re in third-and-7 or more. A lot of those have been on third-and-10 or more. It’s the same thing on defense, just not helping out the offense by doing something we can control, by giving (the opponent) an advantage by putting them in a third-and-manageable position. I think if we can correct the turnovers and get that thing going in the right direction and really grab a hold of this pre-snap penalty little issue that we’ve had, that could really help us out.”
(How impactful have RBs Damien Williams and Kenyan Drake been for your passing game over the course of the last two weeks?) – “They’ve done a good job. They are two guys that when they’re not accounted for, you get the ball in their hands and it seems like they do a good job of making that first guy miss and giving us an opportunity for some explosiveness in the passing game. There’s a lot of different things that they can do. Having those two young guys back there, you can tell that they feed off of each other. One amps up his game when the other breaks one off. It’s a good combination of two guys to have back there that are both competitive, they work well together, they talk to each other and let each other know what’s going on during the game. It’s really been fun watching those two guys grow and get better as football players.”
(How has Defensive Coordinator Matt Burke been in his first year as coordinator and how do you see his command of that unit?) – “His command of the unit has been outstanding. These guys here, they respect him a lot. A lot of these guys have been with him in other places, so when he was elevated, I think a lot of those guys were excited for him because they’ve known him for a long time. I think guys were excited that we were able to keep the same system and really just build off of what we were doing last year to fine tune some things. It always gets tough because when you’re a first-time coordinator and you’re trying to deal with all of the things that really come along with that and that job, it’s a lot of things that come up that you’ve never experienced before. He’s done a good job of coming up with the solutions and trying to put our guys in the best position possible. I think guys have, for the most part, done a good job of executing it. We’ve got a few things that we need to clean up to help ourselves out.”
(How do you compare Defensive Coordinator Matt Burke’s beard game to Patriots Defensive Coordinator Matt Patricia? A couple of defensive coordinators with some serious beard action this weekend.) – “Yes, Patricia has him beat, hands down. (laughter) It’s not even close. I think Matt (Burke’s) is groomed a little better. I think Patricia’s, it looks like it’s getting a little out of control (laughter).”
Darren Rizzi – November 22, 2017
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Wednesday, November 22, 2017
Associate Head Coach/Special Teams Coordinator Darren Rizzi
(How can you guys help out the offense this week or help out scoring?) – “Special teams-wise?”
(Special teams-wise, yes. Field position, what’s the best way for you?) – “That’s always our goal, whether we’re covering and preventing the opponent from getting good field position … That’s where it starts, really, with coverage. I think everybody would maybe think the other way. I think that coverage-wise, the best way to prevent your opponent from getting field position, that’s the best way to swing the field position battle. Obviously, in the return game, you could always swing the battle by popping a big play and it starts with not getting penalties. That’s really been our (Achilles heel) the last couple of games. We were really good in the beginning of the season with preventing penalties in the return game and then last week we had, obviously, a really poor week. I can promise you it’s not an emphasis thing. Between (Head Coach) Adam (Gase), myself and the rest of the coaches, it’s been an emphasis thing. I thought we had a couple of really good returns last week. Jakeem (Grant) had like a 20-something yard punt return that gets called back for a holding. We had the Jarvis (Landry) punt return when they were punting out of the end zone. Both of those plays hurt us with the penalties. It’s certainly not a lack of effort. Those guys are trying their tails off; but we’ve got to make better high-speed decisions and that’s really what we’ve been emphasizing. Like I said, it’s certainly not a lack of emphasis between myself, Adam, (Defensive Coordinator) Matt Burke, the coordinators, (Offensive Coordinator) Clyde (Christensen). It’s something we’ve been really, really harping on. Obviously, special teams is about setting the table, either setting the table for the defense or setting the table for the offense, one way or the other. You’re preventing or creating big plays and in any game, it doesn’t matter who you’re playing, that’s going to be important. ”
(Looking back, I think there’s like six cases, just to be extreme, where this team played a game and had zero penalties, so obviously it can be done. How do you, as coaches, coach a team to get fewer penalties?) – “When you look at the penalties, you kind of break them down into categories. I know (Head Coach) Adam (Gase) has talked a lot about pre-snap penalties. Those are things that have nothing to do with the opponent. That’s us. That’s the Miami Dolphins. What can we do to take care of the pre-snap stuff? That, to me, is more of a mental thing, a discipline thing and an accountability thing. There’s going to be some penalties sometimes when the ball is snapped that – I don’t want to say they’re unpreventable, but they’re understandable, if you will – during the play. Then there’s post-snap penalties, which, again, go back to more of a discipline thing and being smart and just playing good football. We kind of break it down into those categories. Where we need to dramatically improve, I think everybody – being Captain Obvious again this week – is in the pre-snap stuff and the pre-snap penalties. We can be better in all phases in that category. Certainly post-snap penalties are something you, obviously, control yourself as well. The penalties that occur during the play, I’m not going to say they’re completely unpreventable; but sometimes in an effort to make a better play – if you’re grabbing – some of that stuff is going to happen. We understand that. I think, for us, square one is getting rid of the pre and post-snap penalties. Anything that we can prevent ourselves, that’s where we’ve got to start. That’s a great starting point. If we get that done, we’re going to be on our way to … There’s going to be some in-snap penalties that we’re going to have weekly. From a special teams standpoint, like I said before, it’s more of a high-speed decision thing. We have tremendous effort. I haven’t found a guy yet that hasn’t been giving great effort and that’s a positive that we’ve got to keep doing and grow from; but we’ve got to make better high-speed decisions. Blocking a guy in the back at the point of attack in front of the returner is not a very good decision. Grabbing a guy and bringing a guy to the ground is not a very good decision. In this league, if you spin guys and bring guys to the ground, you’re going to get holding calls, period. So that’s what we’ve got to continue to emphasize. So going back to your original question, when you look at those three categories, I think the first and the last – the pre and post-snap – we’ve got to eliminate those period. Then we’ve got to really try to minimize those in-snap penalties.”
(From a game management perspective, the safety that wasn’t a safety that was really a safety, that lost a challenge. How much did that affect you late game trying to manage getting back into that football game?) – “Once they determined it wasn’t a safety and they were punting from the 1, you just move onto the next play.”
(Timeouts-wise though, you lost a timeout.) – “We did, we did. We just felt like, as far as the challenge itself goes – I’m not going to get into what they ruled, you can talk to (Head Coach) Adam (Gase) about that and what the league decided and all of that, I’ll defer to Adam on that one – but as far as the in-game decision making process, we thought we had enough video evidence. We thought it was at least close enough. It was a scoring play. It changes the game, it’s going to change … The risk-reward of that challenge is … You’re going to challenge that play because it’s close enough where it’s going to swing the game. You’re obviously going to get 2 points, you’re going to get the ball back, a safety and all of that. The actual process of challenging it, I don’t have any second guesses on that at all. Losing a timeout, obviously, it hurts you in the end; but the risk-reward, like I said, is a process where you feel like the reward, if you get the challenge and you win the challenge, is going to certainly swing the game. If it’s going to swing the momentum that much, then it’s worth it.”
(As you look back at seven years standing on the sideline in Foxborough, obviously it’s deflating for any team when the opponent goes down the field and scores on the first drive on the game; but do you sense anything different from your sideline’s standpoint against them? Has it been more so deflating when Patriots QB Tom Brady drives down, puts you all in an early hole? I don’t know how much you recall standing on the sideline there the last seven years, during those games.) – “Yes, it’s been nine. (laugher)”
(Nine, you’re right. Forgive me.) – “That’s okay. Really, regardless of the opponent, you always want to get off to a good start. I think back to the games that we’ve had in Foxborough, we’ve had a couple of really good starts up there. Talking about the times I’ve been here, we’ve had a couple of times where we’ve gotten the lead up there, as well. I think that’s going to be our emphasis this week is getting off (to a good start). It seems like we’ve been talking about it all season, and unfortunately, we haven’t played the football that we want to play in the first half; but regardless if it’s at Foxborough, in Hard Rock Stadium or against anybody, we’ve got to start better as a football team. That’s something that, regardless if it’s Tom Brady and the Patriots or if it’s any other team, we feel like we’ve got to get out of the gate stronger.”
(Are you ever aware of the point spread – you or the players – and if so is there ever a time when you take that personally?) – “No. Points, the last time I checked, the Russians were supposed to beat the Americans and the USA hockey team.”
(That’s the last time you checked?) – “(laughter) I watched Miracle over the summer. so I know they were a heavy favorite. Are you trying to say I’m an Italian guy from New Jersey so I should know what the point spreads are? (laughter). No. Honest to God, I can’t remember the last time I checked one. I have no idea.”
(And you would never take it personally if it was a big point spread?) – “No, only because I’ve seen it way too many times in my lifetime, in any sport, where there’s been a heavy favorite or a heavy underdog, it’s been different results.”
(Coaches don’t use that as a motivation thing, ‘Look at how they’re downgrading us?’) – “No. I’ve never heard of anybody getting into that before. Actually, might be the Georgetown, Villanova (game) might have been the last time I checked. (laughter)”
(Great game.) – “That was a great one.”
Mike Pouncey – November 20, 2017
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Monday, November 20, 2017
C Mike Pouncey
(Can you just talk about this event?) – “This event is awesome. To be able to give back to the community, a community that supports through good, bad and ugly, to be able to put a smile on their face for such a great holiday means the world to us to be out here for however long we’re going to be out here handing out turkeys.”
(We know when it comes to you, family is everything, just to see the families that you’re putting a smile on his face. It seems like you’re happy to do it as well.) – “Well, of course. Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. I’m a fat guy. (laughter) I love to eat and this one I look forward to every year; but to put a smile on these families’ faces, it’s awesome.”
(I think I heard you say kids love you?) – “Kids love me, especially my two. They get everything they want. (laughter)”
(Is it tough after an outing like that? Does this put everything in perspective?) – “Yes, I mean at the end of the day, we’re all here to play football. The way we played these last four weeks is just unacceptable. We pretty much beat ourselves, even though you can’t take away the credit from any of the other football teams. They came out and they got the job and we haven’t. It’s a lot to learn from. Fortunately for us, no one in the AFC is playing really good football right now, so there’s still a fighting chance for us. We’ve got a big-time coming up this weekend, a division game with a team that’s been playing really well all year, and we’ve got to go out there and figure it out. It’s what our team needs to find that game to where we get on a roll.”
(How would you describe the mood with the players?) – “The mood is awesome. The guys come in and obviously everyone’s pissed today, especially the way we played in the game. We had every opportunity to win that football game and it came down to the very last play and it was just disappointing because when we play those teams, you’ve got to win those games and win those kind of football games. We just didn’t take care of business and now we put ourselves in a situation where we’ve got to keep fighting out of. It seems like this is a must-win game for us coming up this weekend.”
(Being one of the leaders of this team, when you see five turnovers, I’m sure that’s got to be like, golly?) – “The five turnovers, they suck; but it was really four of them. The last one was kind of a desperation one. The four turnovers hurt us on offense because we were really moving the ball up and down the football field and we’ve just got to find a way to protect the football and stop having these stupid penalties that are keep killing our drives. I had two of them in an area of the field where we can’t have those kind of penalties. It just hurt our football team; but we’ll learn from it. We’ll get better. We’ll practice at it. The best thing … I mean not the best thing, but the one thing about it is that we can fix the snap-count issue, the false starts. That’s something that takes no time at all. It’s just locking in at the right times during the game and we’ll get it fixed. There’s no excuses, but that team came out and they played really, really well. We didn’t.”
(With you understanding that there’s a lot to play for, if you can you put your finger on one thing that’s gone wrong this year, what would it be?) – “Just too many mental mistakes, honestly. If it isn’t this game, it’s the last game or the game before. It’s just we need all 11 guys doing their job on every play and if we do that, we have all the talent in the world. We’ve got the right coaching staff. If we just start playing together as a football team, we’ll win games, because when the offense is playing good, the defense isn’t. When the defense is playing good all year, this offense has to just carry our own weight and help our defense out because if we can ever get a lead in the game, we can really see how special our defense is. That’s what they do. They get after the quarterback and every game this year, we’ve down in football games and our defense has kept us in football games, and we’ve just got to figure out a way on offense to put points on the board and give our defense a lead so they can go out there and get after the quarterback.”
Adam Gase – November 20, 2017
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Monday, November 20, 2017
Head Coach Adam Gase
(Is there any update on QB Jay Cutler?) – “He’s in the concussion protocol. That’s really all I can say. It’s in the hands of all that, that whole process.”
(Do you have any feel for whether QB Jay Cutler might be able to go this weekend?) – “I have no idea.”
(Has QB Jay Cutler expressed any concern about continuing to play at all?) – “I haven’t talked to him.”
(Any update on G/T Jermon Bushrod’s foot?) – “I don’t. I don’t have an update on that. I still haven’t met with the trainers yet. That’s something I’ll do this afternoon (and) kind of get everything sorted out. ‘Who’s available? Who’s not?’ I’m not really sure how bad either one of them is right now.”
(If QB Jay Cutler is healthy, is he your quarterback Sunday?) – “Obviously, with him being in the concussion protocol, I don’t know how long this will be. I mean Jay’s really done everything I’ve asked him to do and there’s no reason for me to say he’s not.”
(So 17 penalties in the game. That’s got to be a little vexing to coach. What can be done to not let that happen?) – “Yes, I mean it’s correctable. It was disappointing that it really increased when we kind of made the switch at halftime. For whatever reason, we got a little out of sorts, as far as what was going on with the cadence, which is something we can easily correct. We try to do the best we can to make sure that all the quarterbacks really use the same cadence Jay (Cutler) does, because each guy can have a little bit different rhythm, and that can throw a couple of things off. Not to the extent that … I’ve never seen it to the extent I saw yesterday, which that’s pretty obvious. Some of the other calls that occurred, some of the holding calls, it’s just going back to fundamentals and just doing those little details individual, making sure that we’re doing them clean in practice, just kind of our hand placement, feet, understanding what we’re doing in the protections, who has help, how to use it. I think some of those calls, we end up putting ourselves in poor position and that’s when we get those calls. The way for us to clean it up is to make sure that we’re doing all the little details right in practice. We really try to put an emphasis on the pre-snap stuff last week. We hadn’t had it that bad. Now over the season, it’s tallied up to be not very good. That’s why for us to really put an emphasis on that, we felt like the total number was getting ridiculous. It has to start in practice. We have to be better there and if we do it right in practice, that gives us the best opportunity to do it in the game; but that’s very fixable. All of these things are very fixable and it’s just about making sure that we do it right in practice and carry it over to Sunday.”
(What role did WR DeVante Parker play in two of the interceptions? The one off his hands and then also I wasn’t sure what happened in the end zone?) – “I wish his route was a little bit cleaner in the one in the end zone; but I think it’s kind of like one of those things where I wish Jay (Cutler) would have thrown a little bit sooner. It was just probably the look we got in practice wasn’t exactly like that, but it was pretty close. We had the look we wanted. We’ve got to hook up on that and both of those guys can be a little better on that and then it’s unfortunate, usually DeVante’s been pretty reliable when it involves hitting him in the hands as far as catching it. That was just kind of how things were going for us at that moment, where it hits him right in the hands and it pops up and of course they’ve got a guy right there. I thought our defense responded fairly well to being thrown in some of those short fields. We’ve done a better job. I think after the Tennessee game, we talked about it a lot. We weren’t catching catchable balls and we were worst in the league, and we’ve really cut that thing in half. We’ve moved up to about 18 or 17 and we’ve been pretty good catching the ball both in practice and in games. You just wish we would have got that one.”
(You had the big run that popped for 69 yards early in the game and then, all of a sudden, so much then so little as the game went along. What was the turnaround?) – “Some of them, we had some runs called that we ended up flipping the ball outside, where we just had premier looks. Sometimes when you can take those short throws where you get Devante (Parker) or Jarvis (Landry) a chance to run with the ball and it’s one-on-one, I think we’ve got to take those. That’s why you can’t get caught up too much in attempts over carries and all of those types of things, because really, we’re calling runs in those situations. There were a couple of times where we had some opportunities and we just didn’t quite execute the run play as we practiced it. I think ‘93’ (Bucs DT Gerald McCoy) did cause us some problems. He was very disruptive yesterday and that shows why he’s one of the best ones in the league. We were trying to get four hands on him as much as possible, but you’re not quite sure where he’s always going to be. We tried to set it up the best we could to handle him, but he’s a tough player to go against.”
(Considering that QB Jay Cutler’s been knocked out of a game twice now and QB Matt Moore takes some hits, how do you evaluate, going forward, whether you need to dress three guys?) – “It’s a good question. You think about it. When there’s that much time left, it’s hard to be too protective, especially when you’re down. I think last year when it happened in the Arizona game, we were actually up and I was very cautious; but when you’re down, you just call it and you’re hoping for the best. I try not to say too much to Matt as far as, ‘Hey, be smart and don’t take any hits,’ because then that’s just one thing that he doesn’t really need to think about. It’s a tough position to be in when you get to your backup quarterback, when you really don’t have anything behind him. It’s always going to be a thought; but at the end of the day, we’ve just got to figure out what’s best for that week.”
(S T.J. McDonald seemed to have a few good run stops. What did you notice from him in the game?) – “One, his range always is going to help us. He can cover a lot of ground when he’s in the back end. He makes us interchangeable at safety that he can come down and really fill in; really him and Reshad (Jones) can both play in the middle of the field and come down in the box and really stop the run. When (T.J.) hits somebody, he lets you know he’s there. It’s nice to have him out there. I think it really makes a difference when guys are doing the right things in the run game and everybody’s fitting it up right, and he’s the last line of defense really when he’s the unblocked the guy and he’s going to make the tackle, and he’s going to do it with some force.”
(How did LB Chase Allen do?) – “He did good. He’s a reliable guy. He knows what to do. The biggest thing for him is always going to be just playing time – experience. There’s always going to be one or two things in the game that he’s probably never seen before. They’ll do some creative things. Offenses, they’ll do one or two things where a lot of times when you watch the other side of the ball, being an offensive guy, you take a look at it and be like, ‘Oh, that was good.’ Guys in this league, they’re always searching for new things to try to do. It makes it tough when you’re a young player and you’ve never really seen some of these blocking schemes before.”
(Is LB Chase Allen your starter in the middle moving forward?) – “We’ll see how it is. I think, right now, we’re playing the guys that are available.”
(Early thoughts on going up to New England on Sunday.) – “I haven’t really gotten there. We’re still cleaning up this last game. I’ll probably be there a little bit more tonight, but we’re just going to have to prepare the right way this week and make sure that we focus on this game only. We can’t be looking ahead and wondering what everybody else is doing. That’s irrelevant to us. We have to focus on what we need to do to get better this week to make sure that we can clean up the things that we’ve talked about already today and give ourselves a chance. When we get to the fourth quarter, put ourselves in a position to where we’ve got a chance to either stop them or go ahead on some kind of drive at the end of the game.”
(You said last week you worked on a lot of pre-snap stuff. Why haven’t things necessarily translated from practice to the game on Sunday?) – “If I had that answer, we wouldn’t have pre-snap penalties. It is just one of those things where we have a change at quarterback and a couple things got a little out of control there with whether it be guys jumping or him and Mike (Pouncey) not being on the same page. That’s football. You’ve got to battle through that stuff. You’ve got to find ways to get better. You’ve got to find ways to fix it. Sometimes during a game, it’s tough to figure out … Everybody is trying to communicate to figure out why we’re going haywire there. This week, we have to do a better job of making sure that we’re on the same page. If we can clean some of these things up … We had a ridiculous amount of lost yardage, not just pre snap; but some of the other penalties we had. If we get some of these things cleaned up, we’ll put ourselves in better position.”
(What’s your confidence level in the ability to clean things up?) – “I know we’ve got workers. I know we’ve got guys that are going to go out on Wednesday and they’re going to work hard and make sure that they do everything they can to get these things fixed.”
(This is the second year of this offense. You’re the play caller. What is the identity of the Miami Dolphins on offense?) – “I think right now it’s, really, we’ve got to use those receivers to our strength. We have three guys that I have a lot of confidence in. I feel like some of the things that we’re doing where we can get to the backs in the passing game has really helped us. Yesterday, they did a good job of taking those guys away, but that’s why we were able to get so many chunk plays on the outside. If you give Kenny (Stills), DeVante (Parker) and Jarvis (Landry) one-on-one matchups, I feel really good about us being able to move the ball. If we can just clean up some of our turnovers and we can clean up our pre-snap penalties, I think that group is a tough group to stop. We have to be able to execute our run game a little bit better to where we can get those 4-, 6-, 12-yard runs. If we can get those two backs to the linebacker and safety level fairly clean, those guys can make you miss and hit some home runs.”
(What is missing with the run game? And how difficult has it been – this is the second straight year where you’ve had to change the offensive identity in season?) – “That’s what football is. It’s a constant change. You’re always going to see what you’re doing well and then you start adapting to that. The run game, last year we leaned on the outside zone so much. It worked out for us. It put us in some weird positions where we were getting third-and-long probably a little bit (too) much, because we had so many negative runs; but then we had so many explosive runs. So, it was kind of a feast or famine deal for us. This year, we’re being a little more consistent, at least staying ahead of the sticks a little bit more often. Now we’re starting to convert some of the third-and-longer situations. Guys have figured out a way to solidify the protection a little bit on these third-and-long situations to where we can push the ball down the field a little bit. If we can make sure we keep those efficiency runs going and then occasionally let those running backs get to the second level, that gives us a chance for some explosive plays.”
(How would you describe the challenge of turning things around this week against this team?) – “We can’t worry about who we’re playing. We’ve got to worry about getting ourselves better. We’ve got to worry about getting better during practice and cleaning up the things we need to clean up. If we’re going to worry about who we’re playing, where we’re playing – all those type of things … One of the things we talked about earlier in the season is it doesn’t really matter who we’re playing, it doesn’t matter where we’re playing. We’ve got to go through the week, make sure we prepare the right way, get ourselves ready, make sure we know what we’re doing. We’re going to understand what they’re doing. Then we have to do a good job of going out there Sunday and executing, and put ourselves in the right positon and take what we did Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and execute it on Sunday.”
Cameron Wake – November 19, 2017 (Postgame)
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Sunday, November 19, 2017
Postgame – Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Miami Dolphins DE Cameron Wake (transcribed by Max Lerner)
(What was your perspective on the safety?) – “I thought it was a safety.”
(Did you hear a reason why it was called that way?) – “Nope, they didn’t talk to me very much. They showed it on the replay and it looked like a safety to me; but it wasn’t, so (I’m) moving on.”
(Do you think defensively you played well enough to win this football game? They had 17 points off turnovers, numerous penalties, turnovers that put you on a short field many times in the first half.) – “Not really, to be honest. I feel like when you sign up to play defense, like I’ve said in the past, there is no script. It’s first-and-goal from the 10 or it is first-and-goal from the minus-10; you really don’t know. Whenever the ball is put down, you have to go out there and keep points off the board. We had opportunities to make plays and even all the way to the end, (it was a) tie game and you feel like we can go out there and get a stop and change the whole course of this game, and we didn’t do enough. I really feel like it’s on our backs. There are no excuses about where the ball was or where they got the ball. If you have an opportunity to make a play, it’s on us.”
(Four straight losses, is there a way to salvage this season through the remainder of the six games?) – “We have to keep fighting. I’d like to think that, through the second half of the game, obviously we want to play a full game. Guys showed that we can come out there and we can continue to fight, regardless of the situation, put the past behind and move forward. We were just one play too short and I think moving forward, we have to have that same mentality. If we can build off that and put a whole game together – not just a half – I think that moving forward, things will be different. But again, you have to make the plays from start to finish and we let a couple slip through our fingers today.”
(I don’t think effort has been an issue for this football team. Does that make the situation you’re in right now more frustrating?) – “Frustration is not capitalizing on opportunities. I feel like effort hasn’t been a problem and we did a lot of good things; but again, all phases have to play complementary football for the entire game. It can’t be half to half or quarter to quarter. It has to be all together for 60 minutes. Effort hasn’t been a problem. I think we shot ourselves in the foot obviously on both sides of the ball from doing silly things, things that we are in control of. It’s not talent, it’s not effort, it’s a lot of self-inflicted things and those are the things that are most frustrating; but also the easiest to fix. So moving forward, I think that’s something we need to focus in on.”
(I don’t want to be a smart aleck but can you think of a game this year where you guys have put it all together like you just mentioned?) – “I don’t know. There are probably a few games you asked me about a couple of weeks ago and I couldn’t tell you any of the details. I focus on the next play. Obviously our record shows that we have not done what we wanted to do. The games we’ve won, we probably player better and the games we’ve lost, we probably didn’t play so well, not to be a smart aleck.”
(This is probably one of your longest stretches without a sack. How do you explain what’s going on?) — “I have high expectations of myself. Again, it’s probably not one thing; but at the end of the day, I’m not a guy to make excuses. Whatever the scenario of the game, whatever the blocking situation is, I’ve always been a guy who feels like it doesn’t matter. You have to go out there and you have to get your job done. If it’s getting to the quarterback is my job, then I have to do it, and all of those other factors that contribute to the issues or the frustrations of not getting there, you have to put them aside and go out and do your job. I’ve done it in the past and I have to do it going forward.”
(What was Head Coach Adam Gase like after the game?) – “Disappointed.”
(Was there a lot of yelling or was it subdued?) – “Next year, you make the team and then you’ll be able to figure out those things. It’s a members only (thing).”
(As a leader on this team, do you kind of talk to the guys about these penalties?) – “Yes, I mean I probably would say that is one of the most glaring issues is the self-inflicted things – the pre-snap or penalties or whatever it may be because on defense it kills drives, on offense it kills drives. Being detail-oriented and like I said, doing your job, whatever it may be – offense, defense, special teams –that is the only way you’re going to sustain drives, score and obviously on defense, sustain drives and get off the field. Again, some of that creeped up today. Some of it got fixed later on; but overall, if you take a few of those away and I think this game is a different game. You never know what play it’s going to be or what penalty it’s going to be. You have to focus in on whatever the situation is and execute. That’s been an issue but again, probably the easiest to fix. Moving forward, hopefully that is not going to plague us going forward.”
(Obviously teams take on different personalities each season based on new players on the team, but last year you guys found a way to make that play when in the past, you guys didn’t find a way to make that play. What is happening this year in terms of the missing ingredient?) – “That’s an interesting question. If I had the answer, I wouldn’t be standing here talking to you. I’d be upstairs making those changes; but I feel like it’s probably not one thing. It’s probably a few different things that all come into play; and again, I’ve spoke about it before. There have been games where we’ve turned around and done it and ‘Yay, everyone is happy. We won the game,’ but there are games like today where we literally are one play away from having a win. It’s hard to win in this league and most games are going to come down to one play here or there. Today, we didn’t make it; but I have confidence in the guys we have in the locker room that the same things we’ve done in the past going forward, we will be able to make that play.”
(It’s pretty strange to lose a starting linebacker the day before a game. Did LB Rey Maualuga let this team down?) – “Well, it’s always unfortunate to have somebody who isn’t up – whether it’s off the field, on the field – whenever you’re not playing with a guy you’ve counted on in the past, it’s tough; but honestly, I don’t know the details about what’s been going on to say whether he’s let us down or not. But shoelace, hamstring, off the field, all of the above, when you have to make a change the day before a game, it’s going to be difficult; but I have faith in the guys. (It is) next man up and you have to go in there and we expect you to play the same way as the guy he’s replacing.”
(You have six losses with six games left to play. Can the season be salvaged? Do you have zero margin for error to do so?) – “I’ve always been a guy that thinks we always have zero margin for error, from the time the first ball is snapped at the beginning of the season; but obviously as we get closer and closer (to the end of the season), the math starts leaning away from you. If our ultimate goal is to be champions and do things in the postseason, then obviously it’s more and more urgent is the word I’ll use. I always felt like this whole ‘must win,’ every game is a must win, and if there is more effort and energy next week then you gave this week, then you let me down this weekend. I’ve said it in the past, I’m a proponent of throwing a fast ball 100 miles per hour every play, every week – whether it’s playoffs, Super Bowl, preseason – you have to give it your all. We have to focus on winning one game and I feel like if you’re looking six weeks down the line, you’re going to miss the one right in front of you. So we have to focus on this game coming up, correct the things we didn’t do so well this past game, and we’ll take it one game at a time.”
Damien Williams – November 19, 2017 (Postgame)
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Sunday, November 19, 2017
Postgame – Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Miami Dolphins Running Back Damien Williams (transcribed by Paige Jefferson)
(On that run – your career long – in terms of production, what did you see?) – “The line … We started off with a pass and it went straight to a run. The line, they did their jobs. After that, I got to do something for them.”
(What’s it like when you’re involved in a game where you’re moving the ball and there will be a turn over, you’re moving the ball and there’s a penalty. How frustrating was that today?) – “It’s frustrating. I feel like we’re just beating a dead horse over and over and over with the penalties. It’s starting to jump on our back. We came back, but at the end of the day, that’s what jumped on our back were the penalties.”
(You feel like you had the spot on fourth-and-1?) – “Oh, yeah. For sure. I felt like I did. I felt like we had the push. It was a bad spot for me.”
(What happens to this offense when QB Matt Moore is in there at quarterback?) – “I don’t know. It’s just something … Matt is just … He knows how to get to us, I guess. He has been around us a lot. So he kind of knows how to work guys, who has the motor. He knows how to get guys going.”
(I may have missed this, but WR Jarvis Landry said at halftime there was no signs pointing to QB Jay Cutler not coming out.) – “No, it wasn’t. We all knew he was going to come out there and he was going to be there. But when he wasn’t, we knew we had another guy who was ready to go.”
(How frustrating was it to rip off that big first run and then not really be able get the run game going?) – “It’s frustrating, because I’m a running back. At the end of the day, you got to keep pounding it. You got to keep pounding it. You got to keep pounding it and keep pounding it and hopefully one of them pop. I feel like we’re moving forward. We’re trying things out. I feel like we’re going to get it done.”
(How frustrating were all those penalties? 17 of them.) – “It’s very frustrating just to see how we move, big play, oh no, it’s coming back. It’s frustrating. It drains you. That’s something we need to eliminate.”
(How do you regroup now with a big game coming up against New England?) – “It’s going to be one of those games. At the end of the day we’re going to – like our coach said – let this one soak in. You should feel this one. But when we go to work, it’s time to go to work. You’re going against a great team.”
(What makes this one so painful to have it sink in? Is it because of where you guys are now?) – “Just where we are, how we’re moving as an offense, and then just to have a stupid penalty. At the end of the day, it’s frustrating.”
(Is it an encouraging sign that despite turning the ball over as many times as you guys did today that you were still in there to win the game in the end?) – “At the end of the day, we have a great defense. We have a great team. The only thing that’s holding us back are the penalties and those are self-inflicting. As soon as we get that out the way, the sky’s the limit.”
(Do you feel like some of the penalties may have been borderline questionable? Because from our vantage point it just seemed that way.) – “Yeah, but at the end of the day, that’s not my job to decide if it’s questionable or not. At the end of the day, everybody needs to be clean on their techniques and how they do things, and we’re going to move great. What you see is what we got.”
Ndamukong Suh – November 19, 2017
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Sunday, November 19, 2017
Postgame – Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Miami Dolphins DT Ndamukong Suh (transcribed by Ted Leshinski)
(Where do you go from here? I know you get ready for next week with six games left and any hope for the playoffs you’ve got to win five of the six games. It seems like a tall order for any football team.) – “It’s definitely a tall order. We understand the position that we’re in. We knew this was a big game and I think we made mistakes that we obviously have to go back and watch and clean up and not repeat them to next week and focus on the next game. At the end of the day we can’t do anything about it. We’ve got 24 hours to turn around and get prepared for going up to New England.”
(It seemed tough to put pressure on QB [Ryan] Fitzpatrick throughout the first three quarters of the football game. Anything different that you saw?) – “I think they had a good plan. They had a lot of triple protection as well as max. He was getting the ball out a lot faster than he was typically doing in weeks past. You’ve got to give them credit for changing their game up a little bit. I think we did fairly well in the run game. I don’t know the exact stats but I think there was only one long run over five yards, or something to that nature. We just got to continue to find ways to get off the football field and give our offense chances.”
(You got handed a short field a number of times in the first half of the football game. I know you expect to stop everyone but that really puts you in a tough situation.) – “Yeah, sudden changes aren’t the best but we’ve got to find ways to get off holding them to three points and not allow touchdowns and compete.”
(Hey Ndamukong, you had 17 penalties for well over 100 yards. Is that just a case for a team that’s playing undisciplined?) – “I wouldn’t say we’re playing undisciplined. I’d say we’re making mistakes in tough situations. I think guys are playing hard. The one thing I would say if I remember all the penalties, which I don’t, a lot of them were in game, not pre-snap. At the end of the day we’ve got to clean it up no matter what. We can’t have that many and continue to compete.”
(Having that many penalties this far into the season, is it a bit surprising?) – “At the end of the day we can’t have mistakes. They’re going to obviously kill drives on the offensive side of the ball and extend drives on the defensive side of the ball. We’ve got to try to eliminate as much as we can.”
(You guys had kept them at bay in the second half up until that last drive. How disappointing is that when you look back on that?) – “Very disappointing. Understanding how well we played against them all in the second half and the last drive we allowed them to move and get the ball and get over the 50-yard line is definitely disappointing, especially understanding what they wanted to do in a crucial situation. We got to find a way to get off the field and get the ball back to offense or let the clock run out.”
(What did you see on the safety that was not called a safety?) – “Watching the replay, my personal opinion is that it should have been a safety but I don’t make the call. It’s not my business to worry about that.”
(The impact of that call on the game seemed to be pretty huge.) – “I don’t know. I think we still had an opportunity. They were backed up … I think we got the ball at the 50. So we had an opportunity to go put points on the board nonetheless.”
(Last year you guys pulled out games like this, you know, close games decided in the last minute. Why do you think it’s kind of flipped the script a little bit this year?) – “I would say in some respects teams aren’t making mistakes (and) being fairly vanilla and trying to move the ball systematically, especially on the defensive side of the ball. If I go back to probably the San Diego game, a similar situation. QB Phillip Rivers made mistakes in that game and we capitalized on them. We’ve got to find ways to go out there and get turnovers. If I remember correctly, in the last two or three games, or how many games we played, we haven’t got many turnovers. So we’ve got to find ways to get the ball out, create turnovers, put our offense in great situations and go from there.”
(I know you guys pride yourself on getting pressure on the quarterback with four guys. Would maybe more blitzes help?) – “I think we have blitzes and we have ran them, and I think we get pressure. But teams, I think they sell out to not allow us up front to create havoc. You’ve got to respect that but at the same time you’ve to be creative and find ways. I think defensive coordinator (Matt) Burke does a great job of it. At the same time we can’t blitz every single play. So, you’ve just got to find a nice niche between the two to go out there and, one, get pressure with the front four but at the same time when we do blitz – get home.”
(You told us earlier this spring and it’s pretty clear to you its important a leader of this defense. You lost Rey Maualuga yesterday. Your thoughts on what happened? Were you really disappointed in the position he left you guys in?) – “I don’t know the whole situation. The whole story. I’ve heard bits and pieces of it. I think Rey is a great guy. I’ve known him really since, I think we met each other in 2004 at the All American game in San Antonio so I’ve known the guy for a long time. I think he’s smart. Unfortunately some people make mistakes. But like I said I don’t know the whole situation so I can’t really comment on it.”
