The great play-calling controversy continued Monday with Jets coach Adam Gase providing more clarity than he did Sunday about who was calling the plays.
It appeared that Gase had taken back the play-calling in Sunday’s 20-3 loss to the Dolphins after offensive coordinator Dowell Loggains called the plays the previous four games. But Gase said that was not the case in his postgame press conference. He was asked for further clarification on Monday.
“It’s a collaborative effort between Dowell, myself and the offensive staff obviously is involved,” Gase said. “For us to say like, who’s calling what, when, what situation and those things, that’s a competitive disadvantage really at the end of the day. You don’t want teams to know, ‘Hey, is this guy calling runs, calling passes, calling play actions, calling empties, calling dropbacks? Who has third down and the red zone?’ That’s kind of for us to really be able to do without having to make it public knowledge, but the last three weeks it’s been a collaborative effort throughout the game.”
Gase has gradually taken back more play-calling from Loggains as the weeks have gone on. On Sunday, it was about 50/50 with each one taking different situations. Gase did a poor job of explaining this after the game.
This is an example of a minor issue that gets blown up in an 0-11 season. If the Jets were winning, no one would care who is calling the plays. But they are not, so everything becomes an issue.
One bright spot for the Jets continues to be the play of second-year defensive tackle Quinnen Williams, who had a strong outing against the Dolphins. Williams had seven tackles, 1.5 sacks, three quarterback hits, two passes defensed and a forced fumble.
“I don’t want to say this is the most impressive game that I’ve seen him play, but I think he’s had a good amount of them this year and definitely seeing improvement throughout the season,” Gase said. “I mean he’s been out there — beginning of the year, maybe there was a little bit, he wasn’t as consistent, but man, this kind of like middle part of the season I feel like he’s really showing up a lot whether it be [tackles for loss] or creating pressure on the quarterback. He’s playing his ass off right now.”
Gase did not provide much more information on what is going on with guard Alex Lewis, who was inactive for Sunday’s game for a non-injury reason. Gase would only say it is being handled internally. Gase did deny a rumor that was floating around the internet that he and Lewis had a heated altercation.
“We had a conversation. I wouldn’t call it, I don’t know if it’s really a verbal altercation, but we had a conversation and right now, like I said, we’re handling it internally,” Gase said.
