The Jets' start to the 2020 season has been a struggle, and that has left head coach Adam Gase contemplating the 0-2 start and the road game ahead at Indianapolis.
"There's a lot of people that put a lot of work into this, not only coaches but players as well," Gase said before Wednesday's first practice of the week for the Colts at the Atlantic Health Training Center. "When you go through Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, you're preparing, you're sacrificing everything, you're putting your life on hold to make sure you do everything you can to get ready for a game. And then basically we're not even in the game and that's frustrating.
"But guess what? When you start over, when you get back to Wednesday, you've got to find a way to go out to practice. You've got to start over, you've got to look to go 1-0 for that week, and you've got to find a way to improve and then fix the mistakes. That's the thing I always look at, let's correct the mistakes we made from the week before."
Gase said he's also open to changing things up for practice, in response to a question about LB Avery Williamson and S Bradley McDougald suggesting the Jets could pick up their practice tempo.
"Everybody has a different feel of how practice goes," the coach said. "If that's the feeling that they have, we have a chance to really kind of ramp it up and make sure that we're doing what we need to do in individual and pick up the tempo. I haven't necessarily felt that. When I watch our guys, I feel like guys are flying around, they're chasing the ball.
"But you're always looking to improve in practice just with everything from how you feel the speed of individual goes and all the drills that you're doing, the routes versus air, team periods, 7-on-7, scout team stuff, all those type of things, you're always looking for ways to improve of not only the speed and the tempo, it's the execution as well. That's why you're practicing. Everything's built to get better every day."
Whether it's taking advice from your players or going back to training camp video of your own team or breaking down the video from your team or the upcoming opponent, Gase said, that's what the league is about, in a normal season or in a season marked by COVID-19.
"It's that information gathering," he said. "You're creating a library, a toolbox for yourself for next time you see that look from another team, because it's all the same. It comes in different shapes and sizes, but it's all the same at the end of the day: Use the information you've gained.
"That's the process of an NFL season. It's about really finding ways to improve each week whether it's in practice or a game. And that's something that we're always going to be looking to do, and that's what we're going to do today. We're going to try and improve from the last Wednesday."
With the ultimate goal being to hang a hurting — and a loss — on the Colts in Lucas Oil Stadium and to go 1-0 for the week.
