Wide receivers offer Gase on-field advice
Coach seeks different view when team struggles.
DAVIE — Dolphins coach Adam Gase has many ways to dissect what’s happening on the field during games, including everything from his own vantage point on the sideline to world-class video technology. But there’s one perspective he can’t get unless he asks.
Gase often seeks player advice in games to get a better grasp of how the defense is playing, especially when things aren’t going well — Sunday’s 20-6 loss to the Jets, for example. When he’s really digging for a way to get the offense going, he always asks the wide receivers first.
“I grabbed all three receivers and said, ‘Give me what you like, so we can see if we can get something going,’ ” he said, recounting a moment from the New York game. “The good thing is those guys can communicate well and right away they’ll give you two or three things that they like for them, and we try to get to those.
“You might not always get exactly what you want from the defensive side, but ... they’re playing the game and they kind of have a better (feel). We’re watching, but they’re doing it. They have a little better feel of how guys are playing them, and for them to be able to give that kind of input helps a lot.”
Jarvis Landry, DeVante Parker and Kenny Stills let Gase know what routes are working. Jay Ajayi is simi- larly good at giving Gase insight on the ground game. He’s been talking to players this week, trying to straighten out the offense before Sunday’s game against the Saints in London.
It doesn’t seem profound that those players provide useful feedback, but Gase has had players before who didn’t.
“The thing that we try to tell our guys is, ‘Tell us the right stuff,’ ” he said. “To me, that’s an advantage when guys can. I’ve been around some guys in the past that were really good at relaying the information back. I’ve been around a few guys that tell you the wrong stuff, and it kind of throws everything off, but I feel like our guys do a pretty good job. When
they’ve suggested things, when they’ve told us stuff, they’ve been right.”
Gase ripped the offense as “garbage” over the past two seasons, a general criticism with minimal specifics. He ripped his own play calling after the 19-17 win against the Chargers in the season opener, saying he got in the way of the offense finding its rhythm.
Through two games, Miami has averaged 12.5 points, 280.5 yards and a 24 percent conversion rate on third downs. The Dol-
phins allowed the Jets to control the ball for 36:08 on Sunday.
ame protest? Could locking arms during the national anthem bring the
Dolphins bad luck? It might sound strange — unless you’re a member of the Dolphins, who locked arms in a show of solidarity Sunday ... then were upset by the Jets.
“A lot of people are superstitious,” Stills said. “So they figure, like, ‘We didn’t play well last week and we locked arms’ and all that stuff.”
players also knelt before the game.
Stills said he doesn’t know what form of protest against social injustice, if any, might take place before
the Saints game. It’s complicated because the game will be in London’s Wembley Stadium, where “God Save the Queen” also will be played before kickoff.
“I have no clue,” Stills said of what might happen.
Stills theorized “everyone would kind of do their own thing, but that’s just my opinion right now. I think we’re all just focused on winning a game, and that solves a lot of things.”