Jarvis Landry – November 20, 2016 (Postgame)
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Sunday, November 20, 2016
Postgame – at Los Angeles
Miami Dolphins Wide Receiver Jarvis Landry (transcribed by the Los Angeles Rams)
(On what it means to come back and pull off a win in the fourth quarter)
“It says a lot about this team, a lot about this team. From everybody that doubted us early on until now and people will still doubt us in the future. We thank you. We thank you, because it motivates us. It motivates us especially in times like that when we got to stick together as brothers out there and come from behind and take one.”
(On being pushed into the end zone from the three-yard line)
“It’s all about will, all about will. I couldn’t get in there alone. (Dolphins T) Ja’Wuan James was one person I saw before I closed my eyes and went for the ride. He was one of the people that I saw that helped me get in there, along with numerous other guys. So, I’m also grateful for those players.”
(On getting the offense going late in the game)
“You know, we told ourselves we have a great defense. We told ourselves just continue to lean on those guys, but at the end of the day, we knew it was going to come down to us to eventually start making plays. There’s never a point in time in the game that we felt like it’s too late. I think we scored right there with about five minutes left. Defense went out, got us the ball back with two minutes to go, and we wanted to be aggressive. We didn’t want the field goal, we wanted the touchdown.”
(On Ryan Tannehill at the end of the game)
“Hell of a job. Hell of a job. He did exactly what big time players do. You know, they make the plays when it counts. He did that for us.”
Ryan Tannehill – November 20, 2016 (Postgame)
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Sunday, November 20, 2016
Postgame – at Los Angeles
Miami Dolphins Quarterback Ryan Tannehill (transcribed by the Los Angeles Rams)
(On where today’s win ranks on his list of comeback victories)
“I don’t know if that’s something to think about right now. I’m just really proud of our guys. The way we battled, the way we hung in there. It was ugly on offense for most of the game. But defense kept us in the football game, made some really big plays for us, and we found a way to make plays when it counted. I told the guys right before that going on that first touchdown drive, hey, everyone take a deep breath, we’re going to win this game, and that’s what we did.”
(On what the difference was in the last few drives for the offense)
“I think the tempo. I think we got off of the ball. Guys made plays, and I think that’s what we needed. We needed guys to step up and make plays. The offensive line did a great job of giving me time. Receivers were getting open down field, and we were able to move the ball down the field. The touchdown to (WR) Jarvis (Landry), just, an exemplary effort by him. He keeps fighting, looks like he’s down on the four-yard line, but just keeps fighting. You see the offensive line come and help push him in the end zone. That just kind of shows the fight in this team has, and I think the entire team showed it tonight.”
(On the last touchdown of the game)
“Yeah, we had one-on-one out there on (WR) DeVante (Parker). It was a great look for it, he ran a great route, and I was able to just put the ball in the outside pocket and he made a great catch, so it was something that we had confidence in going in to this game, and we were able to execute it.”
(On where this win ranks for him personally)
“Yeah, I don’t know where to rank it. I’m just excited and proud of our guys right now.”
(On how they went on to win after being down the whole game)
“As long as there is time on the clock, I’m going to believe that we are going to win. I have a lot of faith, and everyone that steps on that field with me, we put in a lot of work and a lot of time. We’ve grown together over the past three months, so as long as there’s time on that clock and we are within reasonable scoring range, I believe we are going to find a way to win.”
(On if he was pushing on the touchdown where everybody was pushing)
“I didn’t quite make it. I ran up there to get it in, to try to push, and right when I got there Jarvis fell right in the end zone. So, I can’t take any credit for that.”
(On if the Rams defensive unit was the best he faced this year)
“They have a really good team. A really good defensive unit, D-line really tough, they do a great job of creating match-ups up front where they can get their guys one-on-one. They’re talented, and we had a ton of respect for them coming into this game, and I think we leave with a ton of respect as well.”
(On if the no-huddle helped their offense click at the end of the game)
“Yeah I think so, I think the no-huddle really helped us, the tempo of getting on the football. Kind of seeing what they were in, let our guys get up and get set, and like I said earlier, guys made plays. We still have to – even though tempo helped us guys still have to step up and make plays and they did that.”
(On the success of WR DeVante Parker)
“Yeah, he’s growing. Every week he’s growing, continues gets better, and we look to continue that. I gave him a hard time well he could have had an interception to go along with it, but we’ll overlook that.”
(On their struggles up until their game-winning touchdown)
“We just weren’t efficient. We weren’t efficient on first and second down, got ourselves into a lot of third-and-longs. I don’t know the stats, but it seems like probably 90 percent of our third downs were third and nine, third-and-ten-plus, so we knew that situation against a good defense, you know, you’re not going to convert a lot of those, so we have to be more efficient on our first downs. I think we had some big plays in the run game, but I think it was just kind of inconsistent for us, so we definitely have to be cleaner on our first and second down.”
(On the three guys that filled in for the starters on the offensive line effort in the game)
“They came in and they battled. We knew coming in, like I said, they have a really good front, it was going to be a challenge tonight. No matter who was out there. You get some guys that aren’t normally in the line-up out there, and they did a great job for us. Just kept hanging in there, kept battling, and when needed time at the end to make some throws down the field they were able to give me that, and we were able to execute.”
(On the impact of Landry’s touchdown)
“That was a huge play. Like I said, that’s kind of an example of the toughness and the grit that this team has. Just finding a way, find a way. That’s something we’ve said a lot over the past month, is we find a way to win. It may be ugly, it may be pretty, but we just have to find a way. It doesn’t really matter how you get there, as long as you get there, so to have him make that play in a critical situation when we really needed it, it was huge for us.”
(On the support from Dolphin’s owner Stephen M. Ross)
“Yeah it’s nice. I love having his support, I think he shows his support of this team constantly through doing whatever he can to help us succeed. Whether it’s helping us around the building, bringing in certain people to work with us. Whatever it is, he is willing to do, so we have an owner that’s willing to do that, and it’s a huge support.”
(On if he feels like he has grown over the last two years)
“Yeah, you are constantly growing. If you are not moving forward, then you’re moving backwards, I like to think that I am constantly progressing, moving forward. Learned a lot over the past five years, and just looking to continue to move forward.”
(On how he got his offense to click in the final few minutes)
“We have undying belief in each other, and I think, although the first however many minutes it was, it was not pretty, it was ugly, like I said we have undying belief in each other that we are going to get it done. There was no panic on the sidelines, there was no like ‘oh man,’ feeling. The feeling the entire game was, ‘We’re going to get it going, we’re going to get it going,’ and we finally did.”
(On their five game winning streak)
“Yeah, it’s great. It’s been a fun ride for us. I think we just have to keep taking one game at a time. I think that’s what we’ve done. And like I said, find a way to win. We’ve had a special teams touchdown in the last two minutes or four minutes, or whatever that was. Last week, defense, a couple interceptions in the last part of the game. This week the defense had big stops and were obviously able to get touchdowns. So, it takes everybody. I love the way this team plays.”
(On when he doubted he would be able to continue playing when he went down at the end of the game in pain)
“No shot, no shot. I knew I was going to be alright. I just had to shake it off a little bit.”
(On what the Rams defensive front did to keep them on their toes)
“They’re talented. They’re a talented group. They do a really good job of shedding blocks. Even when we think we have a good run, they’re able to shed a block at the last second and stop the running back. Get pressure, affect the passing game, whether they’re getting sacked or not, they’re able to affect the throw, affect the pockets, so they are a talented group and they did a good job today.”
Adam Gase – November 20, 2016 (Postgame)
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Sunday, November 20, 2016
Postgame – at Los Angeles
Miami Dolphins Head Coach Adam Gase (transcribed by the Los Angeles Rams)
(On his offense’s performance during the last five minutes of the game versus the first 55 minutes)
“I don’t even know. Nothing was going right for us. (Rams Defensive Coordinator) Gregg (Williams) does a great job as far as what they do schematic-wise, and they have good players. They execute their scheme well. We were terrible on offense and we’re just lucky that our defense played as hard as they could, they sold out and tried to just keep us in the game. We put a drive together, executed a third-and-3, a couple of plays popped for us and we got a chance to win the game.”
(On his team being able to keep playing until the game is over)
“I just keep thinking about how our defense just hung in there. The attitude that they brought throughout the entire game – they kept encouraging the offensive guys. They were trying to figure out a way to score. It was very impressive to watch those guys – where we’ve started from to where we’ve come in a short period of time. Those guys did a great job of keeping us in the game and we found a way in the end.”
(On Dolphins QB Ryan Tannehill and the receivers being able to make big plays at the end of the game)
“We just could never really get in a rhythm. I think sometimes when we get thrown off on our running game a little bit, it just kind of sends us off into a little bit of a spiral and (the Rams defense) did a good job of doing that. We missed some opportunities in some play actions. We had some issues on third down, obviously. We were in some third-and-longer situations. Against this defense, you’re probably better off punting on third down, because the chances of executing on third down or actually having the chance to get the ball off are slim. Obviously they put some pressure on us and made it very tough for us on third down.”
(On losing his third offensive lineman of the season during this game)
“We’ll worry about that some other time. We’re not going to worry about it, right now. I just know those guys came in, they battled, they fought, and did everything they could to just try and help us win one game.”
(On if this game proves how difficult it will be to keep winning with the injuries to the offensive line)
“Every game is a different game. We really had a lot of breakdowns and it wasn’t just the offensive line. We were having a lot of problems with some of the things we were doing outside, a couple of things that happened in the run-game and in the passing game. Less of it had to do with protection.”
(On how bad Dolphins LG Laremy Tunsil’s injury is)
“I don’t know. I walked in and came back out here.”
(On how effectively he felt his defense challenged QB Jared Goff in his first career start)
“I thought he did a pretty good job as far as what we were bringing at him – trying to pressure him a little bit, give him some different looks. He didn’t really seem bothered by much of it. We were trying to get to him, trying to hit him. He escaped the pocket a couple times and extended plays. He made it difficult for our defense. They did a good job of sticking with it, getting him off the field on third down and giving our offense another shot.”
(On how he will address penalties with his team)
“I’ll look at it this week. I’m not going to sit there and think about the negative stuff, right now. I might be the worst second-and-one play-caller in football, right now, so we just need to call some different plays.”
(On how the offense was able to come to life at the end of the game)
“It happens. This is football. That’s why you play sixty minutes.”
Adam Gase – November 18, 2016
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Friday, November 18, 2016
Head Coach Adam Gase
(With WR Kenny Stills, obviously he had that one bad moment early, but he’s been kind of nails since. What has he been like for you this season as one of your top three options on the outside?) – “He’s been consistent. I think the longer we’ve gone and the relationship that crew has with the wide outs and the tight ends and the running backs and quarterback, I think they’ve all had pretty good chemistry going right now. We’d obviously like to get him more involved as far as attempts, at least. I know a lot of times his throws come down the field to where the percentages will go down for the completion percentage, but I like the fact that when he is in there, that gives the defense a lot to worry about. They know they’ve got to protect versus the deep ball. We all saw what happened that one game that he goes out; now all of a sudden everybody’s kind of sitting on everything and not really worried anything coming down the field. He’s a key to a lot of things that we do in the game.”
(How much does he clear out for you guys and the underneath stuff opens up?) – “Yes. He does quite a bit of that. I know there’s a little bit of a ‘take one for the team,’ as far as what he has to do sometimes. That’s not easy to do for a wide out because every wide out is the same: they all want the ball and you know sometimes you have to do what’s best for the group.”
(Now that the California experiment is kind of over in terms of practices, what went even better than you might have thought or what was challenging that you guys didn’t really think of?) – “I think guys did a good job as far as sticking with the schedule that we had, bringing the same times we had from Miami with our meeting times (and) practice. I know we lost some time on travel and guys did a good job of taking some liberties of their own of spending extra time together, watching film and studying to where we didn’t have any setbacks as far as guys not knowing what to do. They did a good job as far as making sure that they were on pace for the game … leading up to the game. Hopefully that will pay off for us on Sunday.”
(How close to normal was the week that you were out there?) – “It was as much normal as we could possibly get it. Obviously we lost 20 minutes going to the hotel and back throughout the week; but, for the most part, it was pretty close.”
(With this offensive line, you’re probably going to maybe have three guys starting at different spots that they’re not familiar with or you are not familiar with. Does that force you to scale back anything that you have to do on offense?) – “The one thing, at least in the running game, it’s not like a secret what we’re doing. It’s not like we’re going to be able to do anything different. That’s the NFL for you as far as run game. Once you kind of establish who you are, everybody in the league knows what you are and they’re going to have their base game plan and it becomes more of an execution thing for us than anything. Pass protection wise, obviously versus this group it’s where this is a different challenge for us this week. It’s probably the best defensive line that we’re going to go against – as far as run and pass – and we’re going to have to be on it as far as assignments sounds. But at the same time, our physicality has to be great because these guys are very talented and they play very fast and their scheme’s very good.”
(Did LB Jelani Jenkins hurt his knee during the game on Sunday?) – “I think it was a combination of still (being) banged up throughout the whole year basically and then we got in the game and I think he took a couple of shots to where it just tightened up on him and he became stiff as the game went on. Then after the game, we did our evaluation and he didn’t feel right. The next day out, it showed up to where there was something there to where we had to let him sit out the whole week. Today, obviously, he could do some stuff.”
(With WR Jakeem Grant, he had a handful of mistakes in the game Sunday. Why did you come out so strongly in favor of him afterwards?) – “Because we all know how effective he can be when things are going right. Sometimes it takes a game like that to realize what you can do and what you can’t do. Obviously, when he had that dropped punt return, that was a great example of he had a long way to travel. The guy had a great punt, and he has got to let that one go. That’s a learning experience for him. Obviously, it came at a very critical time for us, and it could have hurt us bad. The defense did a great job as far as going out there, fighting every play. It didn’t go exactly the way we wanted, but we ended up with the ball at the end of the series, and we didn’t give up any points. He has got to learn from that, but at the same time, I have a lot of confidence in the fact that when he does catch the ball and gets going, he has actually got a chance to score. When you have a guy like that, he’s going to have as many opportunities as possible to return balls, whether it’s on kickoff or punt return.”
(With RB Damien Williams, when you were evaluating what you had with him, did you envision when you first got him that this would be such a multi-pronged role, or how did that evolve for you?) – “When I first got here, that was one of the first things Ryan (Tannehill) said to me was, ‘This guy can do a ton of things, and we’re going to have to work some things during the week, because he was specialized in things in the past.’ He goes, ‘There’s more there. And trust me, on Sundays when the lights come on, you’ll see a completely different guy, too.’ The more we’ve expanded our offense, he has been really able to show me he can do everything. It’s about putting him in the right spots at the right time, getting him in the game. When it’s crunch time, he’s the guy you want in there, because he makes things happen. It’s one of those things (where) it’s hard to explain. You talk about ‘it’ factor, he has an ‘it’ factor to him. The ball finds him in the most critical parts of the game, and he makes plays.”
(QB Ryan Tannehill told you that back in the spring?) – “I think it was one of the first times I ever met with him. I asked him … I want to say I asked him about, ‘Is there anybody that you would say that probably might not show up on tape as much that you know of throughout practicing,’ and that was the first name he brought up.”
(WR Jarvis Landry is well known for him fire, and RB Damien Williams has a little bit of that too, doesn’t he?) – “I think it’s different. It’s different. One thing about Damien is (he is) very confident. That’s a guy that loves this sport. He really loves competing. He loves Sunday. He loves practice. When you find a guy that loves practice the way he does, it’s hard to find that combination, because sometimes practice – especially this deep in the season – gets a little monotonous. We try to change things up, but he always seems to be the same guy. He’s always fired up. He’s always competing. He’s always talking – talking a lot during scout team periods, giving the DBs a hard time, the linebackers. He’s a fun guy to be around every day.”
(When you called that play for him on the touchdown catch, did you know it as soon as you broke the huddle that he had it?) – “I was pretty excited when we had a chance to call that play. We knew what we wanted to do if we got that specific defense. It was all about were we going to be able to keep that ball in play? Because I think there were 11 guys on the field and a couple coaches on the sideline that knew where that ball was going. It was about not getting too excited.”
(How long have you had that in your pocket?) – “That’s part of our plan a lot of times is if we get certain defenses and we get matchups that we like. That was one of the matchups we really liked going into that game.”
Clyde Christensen – November 17, 2016
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Thursday, November 17, 2016
Offensive Coordinator Clyde Christensen
(We obviously got the word about C Mike Pouncey having the setback he has had. If he can’t go – you’re already without T Branden Albert – what’s the plan for the offensive line?) – “It would be (Anthony) Steen would come back in at center and (Kraig) Urbik would go to (left) guard. We’d have to look at the backups. You always with the center have to make sure that we’re set in case of a catastrophe. That would be the starting point, and we’ll keep messing with the lineup a little bit. We’ll see. The way this year has gone, we still got a couple more showers we’ve got to take and stuff, so there still could be more changes. Who knows? (Laughter) You thought it was coach talk that first week when I said we’re going to have some versatility with our offensive line, because we got guys we’re going to have to play them in different positions, and that has turned out to be the case. We’ve banked some deposits on guys playing different positions, and I think people have to step up and go, whoever that is.”
(You were on such a hot streak with that offensive line – all the starters playing together. How do you try to keep this momentum going?) – “Hopefully, from (Head) Coach (Adam) Gase has set the tempo … The philosophy has always been, ‘Next man up,’ right? It has always been that whoever goes in has to keep playing. That’s the way it is. We have to rely that … I really do think – I tease, but I do think – that those deposits we made playing a lot of people at a lot of different positions, that was frustrating to them and to you (the media) and probably to everybody, but there’s going to be some dividends from that. It’s not a shock that our (left) guard will go out to (left) tackle. He has been playing out there. We repped him. We kept him honed up in there. Urbik and Steen have played both guard and center in there. I think that it’s not ideal – it’s a curveball – but it’s the hand we got, and we’ve got to go. I really do think we’ve prepared that way mentality-wise with Coach Gase and also practically by playing all those guys at all those different positions.”
(C/G Anthony Steen has been banged up. His ankle, he’s listed as a neck. I think he has had a leg. How do you feel about where he is health-wise and ability to perform at a high level?) – “My confidence is really high. I think he has been treating that thing. He’s sore. I really hope that it’s just like every offensive lineman in the NFL in Week (11) that (in) the second half of the season, you’re not going to feel good. That’s part of it. You’re not going to feel good again until February or March, and that’s the way it is. This will be live bullets again for the first time for him in a while, so hopefully it won’t aggravate it. Hopefully, nothing shows up there. But my confidence level right now is extremely high that he’s going to be fine (and) that he has been treating the thing. I think it does fall in the soreness category that almost everybody has something right now. I don’t discount it – it’s real – and hopefully he won’t aggravate it going up against the ‘Fearsome Foursome.’ (laughter) You guys are too young. You don’t remember the ‘Fearsome Foursome?’
(The L.A. Rams, right?) – “Yes. I grew up out here, so I grew up with the ‘Fearsome Foursome’ and Roman Gabriel and Merlin Olsen. Deacon Jones. Lamar Lundy. Rosey Grier. There you go.”
(G/T Laremy Tunsil at tackle – not much of a worry there?) – “No, there’s always a worry. Don’t get me wrong, we’d love for everybody to still be in their position and this group stays right where … We had gotten some momentum. We did have some good things going on, and we can’t get derailed. We’ve got to go. That’s the only way you can look at this thing. I have complete confidence in Tunsil. He’s a confident guy. He’s a smart guy. We’re really fortunate that he has such great football IQ that he can go back and forth, which we talked about throughout the year, that he’s really a bright guy, especially football-wise. He really does get it. I really think he’ll do a good job. This is a heck of a line to get tested on. These guys are for real. They are really good, and they’ll move people around, and they rush the passer. They like to rush five and they all turn them into one-on-ones as much as they can. So, it’ll be a test for whoever, whatever five we have out there, it’s going to be a test. It’ll be a great challenge.”
(With DeVante Parker, you guys have seen him flash spurts, a healthy Devante Parker. Where is he from a talent standpoint when he is 100 percent?) – “We think he can be one of the top guys in the league. We’ve always liked him. He shows enough … you guys get an extra opportunity, you see some of it at practice and in training camp. We see it every day, a big catch here and a big catch there. A big thing is his health, and keeping him healthy, and keeping him up at full speed, and just the consistency. We need a consistent DeVante Parker, where it’s week-in, and week-out where people fear him. He took over the game in his way last week and gave us a huge lift with that catch, and even earlier in the game. We’ve said it all along, I think he is really key to us going from solid to good on offense. I think he’s the guy, his big plays. Those are the plays that take you to whatever that next level is, one notch better. And minus those big plays makes it harder. I think we all have felt all along that if we get the running game going and then now your play action (is more effective). Jarvis (Landry) is going to make his plays – he makes them every week – and then all of a sudden now, you’ve got the two guys outside that can really run and DeVante jumping up and making a big catch. Now you’ve really got something; you really do have something. You’ve just got to get all the parts functioning at the same time and working at the same time week, after week, after week. Then we’re going to get this franchise … this offense, where we want it to go. You see bits and pieces and you see how it should happen and that’s kind of encouraging. That’s encouraging. I do think it’s helped us that all of a sudden the players, you kind of see it work. You kind of see ‘Boy, here’s what they’ve been preaching; this is what (Head) Coach (Adam) Gase has been preaching.’ We’ve all seen that this team has come together and rallied and developed a little bit of confidence that we didn’t have those first four weeks and through training camp and the offseason. It all kind of feeds off each other and we’ve kind of got to keep that going – get to where we can do it every day. That’s what pros do. You do it every single day at a high level. It doesn’t matter who you play, where you’re playing, what the weather is or any of those things. You just keep doing your deal, but we’re not there yet. We’re going to fight to get there.”
(We saw earlier in the season, when the offensive line was together, they played well, and when it wasn’t, it didn’t. Where’s your level of confidence that it’s going to be different this time?) – “I don’t know that it was the offensive line as much as we just played some bad football early. It wasn’t just them. It was the whole unit. they were certainly a part of it but they weren’t any worse than any of the other parts, any of the other components of this thing. None of it was good early. None of it. There was some bad football played. I don’t think it was them, and hopefully now everything is a little bit better. We are a little more mature. We’ve gotten (10) weeks (into the season), a few more months in this offense, where people understand what we’re trying to do. That’s huge. When you insert a new offense – I know I’ve said that to you before – but it does take time. Hopefully, there is more of a maturity level as football players (and) there’s a deeper knowledge of what we’re trying to do. I think there’s also a deeper knowledge by (Head) Coach (Adam) Gase of what everyone can do, what we’re good at, what we can be good at, when we can be good at it. So it goes both ways. I think players learning, ‘Hey, here’s what Coach Gase wants to do,’ and then Coach Gase going ‘Hey, I didn’t know we could be such a good outside zone team or this guy can do that.’ I think both of those two things together are really important. It’s both. It’s not just the players learning the offense but it’s the coaches learning what the players can do also.”
(How important is it regardless of who you put out there on the offensive line, that RB Jay Ajayi gets his touches and you don’t just give up on the run game?) “Critical, critical. We won’t change what we’re doing I don’t believe. We’ve got a good game plan, and we know it may be the best defense we’ve played this year. We won’t change the philosophy. That part of it won’t change. Guys got to jump in and they’ve got to do their job. We’ve got to be on our mess and if we are, we’ll be right in this thing, and if we’re not, we’ll be out of it. We’ll have trouble with them. We won’t change that; that game plan is in. We’ve practiced it. We’ve had really good practices here. Guys have … it’s been not surprising, because I expect that; but it’s really been great. With the time change, we haven’t gotten worn down. There’s good energy. Coach Gase has given them a lot of free time and they’ve managed it well, responsibly. We come out there yesterday and they were humming. So we’ve had two good, fast, high-energy practices. That’s really encouraging. It’s the same as every week. We play good football, it doesn’t matter who the opponent is, and we’ll be in good shape. If we play bad football, we’ll be in some trouble no matter who the opponent is. That’s kind of how we’ve approached it.”
(Do the issues on the offensive line put more of a notice on QB Ryan Tannehill to be sharp with his decision making?) – “I think so, yes, and I think this game does. We know that, that ball has got to come out quick. We know how they rush the passer and we know their philosophy is to get their guys rolling up front. We know that we have to protect him well. He has to be a part of that protection process and get that ball out (or) pull it down and run. (He) had a huge run last week and that continues to improve slowly, but surely. Sure, we have got to get the ball out of his hands, absolutely. The best way we can do that is to run the ball well, where we can call the play-actions, where we can have the manageable third downs and don’t have to drop back there seven steps and pat the ball twice while we try to get past the sticks.”
(How would you describe C/G Kraig Urbik’s game? He’s gotten some reps this year?) – “Yes, I think he’s gotten better and better. He’s gotten more comfortable. He’s learning the offense more. We’ve moved him around. He’s played some center; he’s played some guard for us. I think he’s the steady veteran we were looking for. The good thing about these guys … (Anthony) Steen the same thing. He’s been at Seattle opening day, right? So it’s not going to be too big for them. That’s huge. That’ll end up being a blessing in disguise that he’s got some reps under (him). All of a sudden this happens and he’s got to jump in and go. But he’s been in some huge games. He’s been in some huge games for us already. Urbik the same way, he’s gotten some reps here and there, and we’re kind of into this thing. I think he’ll jump right in and really do a nice job, I really do believe that.”
Vance Joseph – November 17, 2016
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Thursday, November 17, 2016
Defensive Coordinator Vance Joseph
(What are some of the specifics you see with regards to CB Byron Maxwell. He seems like he has turned his season around. What has looked better lately than it did early in the season?) – “I think what’s better is he’s playing to the system. He’s understanding where his help is. He’s doing a better job with his technique and leverage. It’s a corner-friendly system if you play to it, and he’s kind of figured it out.”
(How do you feel like your corners have played in the last month or so?) – “They’ve played solid over the last month. Both of those kids have worked hard. They’ve improved with technique. We’ve given up very few big plays at the corner position. It’s been more concept, coverage stuff that has been exposed sometimes to force the big plays; but they’ve played solid and they’ve competed well. They’ve tackled well, both of those kids have for the last month. So I’ve been pleased.”
(Where’s the biggest area of growth you’ve seen in CB Tony Lippett’s game?) – “I would think his confidence. He’s a young corner and he hadn’t played much corner. He was a receiver in college. His confidence has gone up a lot. He believes now he can make plays. Not only being close, but going up for the ball and make the play. All spring and even some of the fall, he would be in a spot to make a play and he wouldn’t make it but now he’s trying to make plays. That’s the biggest thing with him. He’s gained confidence.”
(S Bacarri Rambo got himself some significant playing time very quickly. What did you see from him that gained that trust from you?) – “He was a very similar pick up to Donald Butler. He was a veteran player that’s played in this league, so I knew he could play, especially as a high safety on third downs for us. Once we lost Reshad (Jones), it was kind of toss up who’s going to be our high safety in a third down zone. Watching his film in the past, he was really good at that – playing the ball, having range in the high zone. He’s a smart guy. He makes very, very few errors. He’s been good for us. Same with LB Donald Butler – he’s been good for us in base downs as a Sam ‘backer once Koa (Misi) went down. So they’re very similar players – veterans who have played at a high level in the league at one point in their career.”
(With S Bacarri Rambo, he learned your defense according to your players, in one week. How does that happen?) – “Well I think it happens because he’s played some ball. In this league, we’re all playing the same stuff. We just call it different. Most veteran players come in and once they figured the certain words out, they can play. In a secondary, it’s four major coverages. It’s man. It’s zone. It’s Cover 2. It’s Cover 3. So for a safety it’s easier than a linebacker would have coming into the system. He’s played some ball. He’s been good for us. He’s made very few errors. He’s been good.”
(How did the injury affect LB Jelani Jenkins and might his injury affect who plays linebacker this week?) – “Jelani (Jenkins), he’s been beat up a little bit but played well last week. He had a club on his hand for four quarters and played well, and now he’s got a knee. If he can’t go then Neville Hewitt would play most of the base downs and Spencer Paysinger would play the sub downs. Neville has been splitting time with Jelani in base the last month and he’s played well, so I’m pleased with Neville. If (Jenkins) can’t go, Neville will play for him and we have Spencer playing the sub downs.”
(What do you think of the penalties in the defensive backfield last week? Do you think they were all legit?) – “I would say two or three were. And again, I don’t mind corners being close and playing with their hands. Sometimes it gets to be too much but I think two or three calls were the right calls. Maybe two could be … they were questionable; but again, I want guys close. I want them competing and that’s part of competing at corner. I’d much rather that than guys that are 5 yards off and not making plays and not trying to make plays. I’m okay with that. Some of it I’m okay with, not all of it.”
(DE Mario Williams and DE Jason Jones, were nursing some injuries. If you have an issue there, is DE Terrence Fede the next guy in line?) – “Absolutely. Jason practiced today for the first time this week. He should be okay. I think Mario will try to go tomorrow. If one guy is out, Fede would be up. Absolutely.”
(On LB Kiko Alonso’s game-winner the other day, what’s something that impressed you on that play that we might not have noticed?) – “Kiko, he’s a hell of an athlete. He’s popping from the A-gap and he’s playing zone coverage off a two-to-one read. If two’s up, he stays up. If two’s up and one comes under he has to drop two and come back to one. So he’s kind of carrying two a little bit and he sees one stop, so he comes back and picks the ball off and runs off with it. I mean he’s … that was a special play – a special play. The catch was really special and the run afterwards was obviously big-time. He’s been great for us. The last month, he’s played really at a high level. The Jets game to me was his best game all year. Obviously last week he had a productive day. He’s played really well for us.”
(Did you catch LB Kiko Alonso’s strut after he scored?) – “On TV I did. I didn’t see it on the field.” (Laughter)
(Did you know what it meant?) – “No, I did not. The boys told me it’s the Conor McGregor, I guess, right? It’s his postgame fight thing, I guess. He loves that stuff. Kiko loves the UFC and all of that stuff. It fits his bill.”
(Has LB Kiko Alonso surprised you at all?) – “No. I think this: as a rookie, he’s rookie of the year. That’s no accident. After that, he had two years of injuries and he wasn’t healthy, so he didn’t play as well. We got him healthy, so this is what he should have been the last two years but he wasn’t healthy to do it. Obviously we’re lucky to get him. He’s a young player still. He’s still learning how to play the position. His future is bright.”
Darren Rizzi – November 17, 2016
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Thursday, November 17, 2016
Assistant Head Coach/Special Teams Coordinator Darren Rizzi
(When you have a young player like WR Jakeem Grant go through instances and moments like he went through last week, how do you get him to clean the slate and respond?) – “I think the first thing you do is you have to make sure he knows that we have confidence in him; his teammates have confidence in him. I think sometimes a mistake by a young player can snowball at any position, not just as a returner. One of the things I said to him – once I knew he was getting kind of hard on himself – was, ‘Listen, we all believe in you. You’ve already made plays. You’ve already shown what you can do. We have to correct, improve, move on.’ That’s really the biggest thing. One of the things I always said to people is, ‘Some of the best returners in this league of all-time have put the ball on the ground before.’ Really, it’s learning from the moment, learning from the situation. It probably wasn’t a great decision to field the ball on the one that we lost. Really, that’s the biggest thing is learning from the situation, moving on, knowing that the head coach has confidence in him, his position coach has confidence in him, his teammates have confidence in him. Just keep reassuring him that, and that’s really all you can do. As I told him, there’s no one that has worked harder at that craft – that skillset – than him since he has been here. It’s going to keep paying off for him. Just like Matt Darr dropping a snap, or a guy missing a field goal – any of those things – a guy missing a tackle or a block, you have to learn from it, correct it, move on and keep going. That’s really the biggest message to him so far.”
(When you guys initially put WR Jarvis Landry back there inside the 20, was that just a comfort thing until WR Jakeem Grant gained comfort level, or was that because you felt more secure with Jarvis doing it?) – “If you look at it, we’ve really actually used Jarvis in a bunch of situations. I know a lot of people have said to me, ‘You always use Jarvis on that going-in punts.’ It’s actually not true. We actually used Jarvis a few times as a changeup. There’s no doubt we’ve used him in those going-in situations, but we have had Jakeem (Grant) back there a few times. We tried to use it a little bit of a changeup. Listen, there’s no mistaking what Jarvis has done when he has been back there throughout his three years. He has been very productive and productive this year. He was productive his first two years. We feel like any team that has multiple returners, (you) want to try to use both guys. It definitely helped the learning process for Jakeem. I think Jarvis has been a great, not only sounding board, but a great example for Jakeem as a returner, because he did it as a rookie. Here’s another guy that hadn’t done it in college, and they had very similar backgrounds. Listen, if you remember back, Jarvis wasn’t perfect either. He lost a couple fumbles early in his career as well. Again, I think we talked about this last week about learning from other people’s mistakes, and Jarvis has been great for Jakeem and vice versa. Again, it’s great to have both. At some point, we have different packages where we have them both in together. We haven’t really done that, yet. That’s coming down the road. Again, I think using Jarvis on the going-ins, using Jarvis … There have been a couple times where people have punted out of their end zone, (and) we’ve had Jarvis back there. But there’s no doubt that I have confidence in Jarvis to make the right decisions, because he has been doing it for longer, more reps, more experience, just the natural stuff.”
(How did CB Lafayette Pitts do on special teams in his first game?) – “He had a good day. He had a really good day. We slow burned him in there a little bit, but as the game went on, we played him more and more and more. I think he ended up with 17 or 18 snaps. He had two really good gunner reps. He had a couple of really good kickoff reps. I was very pleased with him. He was in on our punt returns as well. We’re going to continue to expand his role, because he really showed … The one thing that really showed up on film for him was him playing fast. It was kind of neat; we watched the game, obviously, on Monday right here in the meeting room. To watch the older guys see him on film and congratulate him like, ‘That’s a hell of a job,’ I pointed out to the younger players, here’s a guy – and I might have mentioned this last week – that has really taken practice reps very, very seriously throughout training camp, throughout all these practice weeks as a practice squad player. He got the opportunity, and he showed in the game that he could do it. I was very, very pleased with him. We recognized him; we recognized his effort. He was playing fast, and hopefully, he can continue to do that, because he can certainly be some help to us.”
(Was CB Lafayette Pitts a guy that caught your eye in training camp on special teams?) – “He was a guy that was … Every rookie made their fair share of mistakes early on, but the thing that flashed with him was athleticism, speed. He plays fast. One of the things that’s hard to coach is a lot of these younger guys will slow down when they’re thinking, and they won’t show their true ability. He’s a guy that plays fast. Even if he makes a mistake, he played fast. He wasn’t perfect in the game on Sunday – he wasn’t perfect in preseason games – but he plays fast. He’s disruptive. He has got a great temperament. He has got a great skillset. I was really, really pleased with what I saw, and we’re going to continue to up his reps.”
Adam Gase – November 17, 2016
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Thursday, November 17, 2016
Head Coach Adam Gase
(Opening statement) – “I’ll start off here with, you guys probably saw on the injury report (that Mike) Pouncey didn’t practice today. He ran into some issues with the hip again. (It’s the) same one and we’re going back through the evaluation, getting him with the doctors and things like that. We haven’t ruled him out for this week at all. So we’re still trying to figure out the exact details of issues and where we’re at with that. That’s kind of where we’re at with him right now.”
(Is it something C Mike Pouncey suffered in practice?) – “I don’t know if it’s been bothering him for a while. He’s kind of one of those guys that just grinds everything out and you really don’t know anything and then yesterday he kind of pulled himself out and said he didn’t feel right. (We) pulled him out and right now we’re trying to get more information.”
(You’re already down obviously one starting offensive lineman. C Anthony Steen I guess at center?) – “We’re going to shuffle some things around. We’re working a couple of different lineups right now. We’ll try to figure out what’s the best way to go into this game with. Obviously we have a very big challenge this week with this group and we just have to figure out what’s the best lineup for us for this game.”
(Is this a situation where you could possibly rest C Mike Pouncey up until game day or would you feel comfortable playing him without practice?) – “Yes, I mean if he didn’t practice at all during the week and played on Sunday, I’d be alright with it. That’s where he’s at as far as a pro, where he can actually do that. In this case, obviously we still have some information to gather and try to figure out where we’re at for Sunday.”
(Is there any concern that this is career threatening for C Mike Pouncey in this situation?) – “I wouldn’t go that far. I mean just want to find out if he can go this Sunday and then, if for some reason he couldn’t, what’s the next step.”
(So you’re not at home, you don’t have all of your facilities and stuff like that. Do you have to go searching for an MRI place?) – “No. I mean that’s the one good thing about when you’re involved in the NFL, there’s a lot of resources and our training staff has a lot of people they know throughout the country and it’s fairly easy for us to know where to go and we have plans when you do go on the road like this of where you’re going to go if something does happen. So we have a lot of things at our fingertips.”
(With C/G Anthony Steen, where’s your comfort level if he has to start based on his performance earlier this season?) – “Very high. He did a really good job when he was in there. When you play that position, you’re really kind of the mouthpiece of the entire offensive line. You’re setting everything up. You’re an extension of the quarterback as well. He did a good job. He knows our offense in and out. Obviously for the period of time he was in there, he did what we asked him to do, and we had a lot of pieces moving in and out and he handled that fine. Now it’s a different challenge for us just because we had been on a little bit of a roll here with that group and now we’re going to have to make some changes and figure out what’s the best lineup for this week.”
(This kind of pales in comparison, but you’ve been asked a lot about CB Chris Culliver. He clearly thinks he can play, and you guys don’t seem to be at that point yet. What’s the disconnect?) – “When I’m ready to say he’s active, he’ll be active. I think that’s pretty much the last time I’m going to talk about that.”
(You don’t know right now whether C Mike Pouncey is in or out, needs surgery or doesn’t?) – “Correct. I’m talking … This is very early stages where we’re at right now.”
(With WR DeVante Parker, we’ve gone over this back and forth with the hamstring. Have you figured out what causes it to flare up?) – “I want to say he may have been a little inconsistent as far as his preparation throughout the week earlier in the season to where one week we’d have a really good week, everything was right on cue, he did everything right as far what was going into his body and how he’s practicing. I think the last three weeks, for sure, he has been very consistent. He has put himself – him and (Wide Receivers Coach) Shawn Jefferson and (Assistant to the Head Coach Jay) Kaiser has actually been involved in this too with the sports science guys – is they’re on a very strict regimen as far as what they’re doing every day. They set up his schedule to where he has been very consistent with that, and you can see that has really paid off for him, because every day looks the same. I think the fact that he has really embraced that – and he has done a good job of making sure the recovery, sleep, hydration, the way he’s eating – everything he’s doing is really paying off for him right now. He needs to continue doing that throughout the rest of the season.”
(When WR DeVante Parker is hot and cold, back and forth, does that prevent you from calling plays for him?) – “The only time that you’re trying to figure out if he’s healthy or not … That was earlier in the season, because we did have a couple games where we felt like we were in good shape leading up to the game, and then Friday or Sunday, something just didn’t look right and now all of a sudden you have to change gears to where last week, we felt good all week. And then when we hit Sunday, we were really confident that he was going to be able to be a guy that could impact the game. I feel like if we can consistently get that weekly performance from him, we script those openers or how we want to go through our red zone or third down (and) we can put him high up on the list as far as a guy that’s going to contribute for us.”
