Friday, November 29, 2024
Head Coach Mike McDaniel
(Do you have any sense yet about how severe CB Kader Kohou’s back injury is and are you hopeful for having CB Kendall Fuller back for the Jets game?) – “Hopeful for both. More information on Kader (Kohou), it didn’t seem to be severe but we’ve got to get more information.”
(As you reviewed the tape of last night’s game, in particular I wanted to ask you about the three plays from the 1-yard line. What did you see on tape and what might you do differently as a playcaller?) – “I would do four plays, like I said I thought there was an opportunity for us to score from the 9(-yard line), great effort but a minor execution fault on the perimeter got us to the 1(-yard line). The next play, we had a critical assignment mistake that got us kind of stuffed at the 1(-yard line), then we had a bootleg which we just needed an extra tick to layer the ball out there a little bit further. That was a huge opportunity to score and defense did a good job on the edge to kind of layer the ball and then I thought the defender got to Jonnu (Smith), it was a bang-bang. You hope for a call there, but it’s 50-50 when those happen, it’s just one of those football things. The fourth down call was what I was eluding to last night, I was disappointed in just because this is the way I kind of look at fourth down; sometimes going for it on fourth down you’re successful, sometimes you’re not. I can’t really hang my hat on the result, but what’s important to me is in those situations that I give the players an opportunity to make a play in that moment of truth. In that situation, the defensive presentation was a little difficult for the play. I put Alec Ingold in a really tough spot who got caught up in foot traffic, and with the pocket kind of compressed at the point of attack, there wasn’t really a play to be made. So those are the ones that for me I don’t view as acceptable, I expect better in those situations. I think just going through that, that’s kind of the microcosm for the game where everybody played a part in something and executing football in a way that we hadn’t in the past month offensively and as a result, we came up short.”
(I wanted to get your reaction to a comment that came out of the locker room last night postgame. LB Jordyn Brooks, “We were soft.” What’s your reaction?) – “I think specifically what Jordyn (Brooks) was talking about, I think that has to do with the tackling or the lack there of. So much of the production over 100-some odd yards for them offensively was as a result of tackling, and I think that was a collective issue. It’s two-fold, really. In my mind, it’s hard for me to assess 100% with conviction opinion one way or the other, but I think two things were at play; I saw a consistent failure of tacklers to bring their feet through the tackle, just picture diving and leaving your feet to try to wrap up, as opposed to bringing your feet through the tackle which is our No. 1 fundamental emphasis when we do that. Whether that was because of the cold or the short week, either way both things are consistent with the opponent; the opponent has a short week and the opponent is playing in that weather. There are some things that kind of we took a step back in the football that had gotten us out of 2-6. I’m not sure – whatever factors at play, we need to attack this game singularly and focus on the stuff that we didn’t do that contributed to the result that we had been doing. We got out of, I think the last five guys – even before the three-game win streak, there were three games that we lost but they were all one score, so you saw us playing better football. Then we travel to Green Bay, and unlike the Monday night experience, we didn’t bring some of the nuts and bolts of how we play football and paid for it severely. A 13-point game, three-and-out after the defense was defending a short field based upon a kick return that we gave up too much yardage on special teams, then we had a special teams turnover, too many mistakes there which wasn’t acceptable, so you give up seven points there and then you’re denied on the goal line – that’s 14 points there in a 13-point game. It’s frustrating but it’s also not that complicated from my vantage point. I think it will be very clear when talking to the team, I think they’ll agree. In the National Football League, you learn hard lessons a lot, and we’ll have to hear about all the things that come with this loss and I’d prefer that. I want things earned, not given, and we have some work to do to earn what our goals are.”
(I’m wondering if you guys talk playoffs at this point. Is that still the big picture goal or is strictly week-to-week, game-to-game right now?) – “I think it’s an understated thing that I bring up from time to time just because I try to address things that I know that come up in conversations. I absolutely obsess about – there’s only one thing you can do about your football season, about your football team, about your football play, and that’s through one opponent and when you do that, case in point, we have the prototype right in front of us. When we were 2-6, we weren’t talking about getting to 5-6, we were talking about one opponent. And then when you talk about that one opponent, you talk about how you’re going to improve your football play or how you’re going to execute your football play on that very day, and then you put that to bed and learn from it and go to the next. So the focus is very much on the New York Jets. We have seven losses and that’s the amount of losses we had last year in the playoffs, and we had eight losses, I think, the year before. So a lot of things happened the last five weeks based upon my experience in the NFL, so you just worry about the one opponent with the life of our season absolutely being above water.”
(You guys had been so good about the penalties and reducing the penalties, and they cropped up last night. What happened last night in that respect?) – “That’s another microcosm of the issue. We can’t expect to have the results of the previous games and take a gigantic step back. To the players’ credit, some of those things were absolutely gigantic reasons for losses earlier in the season. And so what happens there? Well, you put a point of emphasis on it, you really focus on it and to their credit, we played really clean football which is how you win in this league. One of the biggest things that good teams do when they’re playing good teams is they play clean football and allow the opponents to make mistakes – that’s what the Packers did to us last night. So in moments like that, you can’t regress on something that has been monumental in your development over the course of the season. If the collective investment is to the standard, it should be an easier lesson to learn in terms of we have the prototype in front of us as how to clean that up. Part of it I think is taking a hard look on short weeks how we can get that done, because I think our team does a great job preparing for opponents, and then why our some of our fundamental principles and foundational principles of our football team regressing in short weeks? That’s something that’s my job to figure out and will be the rest of the coaches to apply it and the players to execute it. So I have some substantial things to work on but things that we are capable of based upon my observation and direct experience this season with this football team.”
(T Kendall Lamm left the game, came back, left again. Do you have any sort of idea of whether this is anything that might be concerning in terms of his availability for the Jets game or beyond?) – “No, I think he was battling. He’s a warrior for us. He had some back stuff and had an elbow thing, but he was showing his grit and his toughness last night. I’ll get more information probably later this afternoon, but nothing is indicating that it’s super severe, but as far as what that means for this week and this game, I’ll have to find some more stuff out.”
(A question about WR Malik Washington. Beyond the muffed punt, which you addressed after the game yesterday, I think it’s twice now in the past two or three games where he’s fielded a punt at the 5- or the 6-yard line and I’m wondering if you guys have some sort of set rule for him: “Do not field a punt inside the 10, at the 5-yard line,” or do you leave it strictly up to his judgement?) – “You have parameters, and the one last week, I think it was last week, but that was him really doing something calculated, it was dangerous, but it was also very smart in terms of how fast the ball was moving backwards and it was probably going to be pinned. He saved us some yardage, risky but heads up play. This one, I think it’s a tough lesson that if I know Malik Washington like I think – yeah, I’m pretty certain that I know – the good news is he learns lessons as well, fast. It’s a part of the reason he’s been able to contribute so much to our team as a rookie is it’s very important to him. It was terrible for a guy who takes the job of contributing to a veteran team as a rookie so serious. It was gut wrenching to see him learn this lesson of you’re in the Midwest, the winds are swirling, the balls in the air and it changes flight, and sometimes the best play, it’s like a quarterback learning to take a sack instead of throwing a pick. I know that’s going to be difficult for him but it’s one of those that you have to understand. And we talked about it during the week, with teams like this, games generally come down to turnovers and extra possessions, which it did and he had to learn a tough lesson the hard way. I know he’ll bounce back.”
(Obviously, injuries are a part of the game but how frustrating is it to lose two corners when you’re already down and there’s no CB Kendall Fuller as well?) – “I try to lead by example and one of the things that I think is paramount, and it’s probably to my fault, is that I refuse to allow myself, nor the team to make excuses. In the game, I really attach zero emotion to it because I think it’s important to focus on what you can control. In this game, there can be a snowball effect and it’s unfortunate, especially when some young guys are really cutting their teeth with some good experience and continuing to progress their game. I would say it’s probably more frustrating; we’ve had position fallout at tackle in 2022 and outside linebacker in 2023, but it gets even more frustrating when you have some young players that are growing in their game and you really want to see them continue to climb mountains. So that’s the tough part for the team and the individuals.”
Thursday, November 28, 2024
Postgame – at Green Bay Packers
Miami Dolphins Head Coach Mike McDaniel
(On the narrative of playing poorly in cold weather.) – “That’s the thing with narratives. There’s one way to change them and so my expectation would be those who, the naysayers, you prove them right, they’ll be louder. That’s part of the territory. You carry that until you do something about it, and unfortunately, we didn’t tonight.”
(On what went wrong on defense.) – “I’ll have to have a calculated answer for that. I’ll have to refer to the tape. From my eyewitness accounts, it’s an accumulation. Partial is that you have to give the Packers credit. That’s kind of their game. They put guys in space and force you to tackle them. That’s part the missed tackle players, part pursuit. Collective defense against talented space players. You need to stop the ball or force the guy to redirect and then you have to have a teammate come to your aid. Generally, from what I saw, it was a collection of things. I think that there were some positive parts to how they played, but I know that there’s going to be some frustrated individuals when they watch the tape because of that.”
(On how much of tonight’s lack of success is attributed to the cold.) – “I think, the weather and the cold, I didn’t really see that as much of a factor as it was playing football and technique and fundamentals of bringing our feet collectively and getting our hips into tackles and wrapping up. I think the biggest thing is that on a Thursday night game in a short week, you have to be clean, and we weren’t. They were a lot cleaner in terms of penalties. In terms of just our style of play. How complimentary we were specifically in the last game, we were not that tonight and I thought they made us pay. For instance, the first drive, you’re three and out to get the ball back, and that special teams turnover equaled seven points. A turnover on downs on the one-yard line equaled seven points. That’s 14 points in a 13-point game.”
(On what happened with WR Malik Washington on the muffed punt.) – “It was a tough spiraling punt that kind of turned over unexpectedly on him and as a competitor, he’s trying to field every ball, but when you’re reacting to a flight change at the last second, you have to fight your instinct and run the opposite way. He’s trying to be great and not allow an inside the five drive, but that spirit worked against us. The most important thing was hanging onto the ball. We’d prefer the ball on the three-yard line with our possession as opposed to their possession at the nine. That’s a tough learning lesson, but fortunately at least with a guy like Malik (Washington), it won’t be in vain. I know it’s going to be tough for him to swallow and for all of us to swallow.”
(On the turnover on downs at the Packers one-yard line.) – “There’s three plays in particular. The first down on the nine and then the following play that I thought there was some technique errors that could have gotten us into the endzone. Then there is a play call that I’d absolutely like to have back. It was a collection of things over the four-play process that will be tough for us to swallow when we watch the film.”
(On what he told the guys in the locker room.) – “We didn’t come all this way to have this stop us. Yeah, your margin of error is smaller, but tough-minded individuals can learn from the things that kept us from the victory column this game and utilize it in last five games. The biggest thing is that you hyper focus on the next thing and take it one game at a time. The same way that we did when we were 2-6. I told them 5-7 pales in comparison to 2-6. To me, we positioned ourselves to be in a situation where we can withstand a one game setback and still be able to get things done. It’s a long season left, and a lot of things can and will happen, but the main thing we have to do is make sure that all these things that, specifically the self-inflicted wounds, that we use to our benefit and make sure that those things aren’t keeping us from winning football games and moving forward. If you are tough enough to withstand that, which I really believe our absolutely frustrated locker room who knows that it just gets really, really frustrating when you know you’re capable of winning a game and you can point to yourself as why you lost it, and that’s the biggest thing that they are eager to make right because they believe in each other and they believe in this team. We didn’t do it justice this week, and so you have to press forward and that’s really all you can do.”
(On still having more cold weather games this season.) – “There is correlation or causation and that will always be the case from my vantage point. We weren’t failing to snap the ball before delay of game or false starting because of the cold. I think that the tape will show that when we watch it tomorrow, but like anything else you eventually have to overcome it if you are trying to do anything in this league so that narrative like good teams and etcetera, etcetera correlation causation. It will always exist until you defeat it. So I think our guys will look forward to executing in the cold weather at the next opportunity because I think that they know that they can, so they need to and they want to, so we will take advantage of that opportunity when it comes.”
(On the injury to CB Kader Kohou.) – “Yeah, lower back. He cleared protocol. They checked him for that, but it was his lower back so we will find out some more information tomorrow.”
(On the injury to CB Cam Smith.) – “Yeah, his shoulder. I think it came out so he was in a good amount of pain so we will see what that looks like tomorrow.”
(On not activating LB Shaq Barrett this week.) – “In just talking with Chris (Grier) where are roster is at and the players that have earned the right to be on it, it is just a numbers game in the NFL so the timing I don’t think was necessarily ideal.”
(On if LB Shaq Barrett was clear with who he wanted to play for.) – “It wasn’t any measured situation like that posturing one way or the other. Like I said we just found out on a day that I had a press conference with you guys, and it was more of that. It wasn’t whether he wanted to play there or here. He knew we had his contractual rights, so it was more of where we are at, and let’s look at our roster.”
Thursday, November 28, 2024
Postgame – at Green Bay
Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa
(On why it took so long for Miami’s offense to get going.) – “Yeah, I think that the things that we progressed on, we somewhat ended up digressing within the first half. Pre-snap penalties, things that we thought we were getting better at. You look at penalties in general. Outside of the pre-snap penalties just the operation wasn’t our style of football that we showed and that’s not how we wanted to start and that’s not how we wanted to play, but I am proud of this team for continuing to stay in it. In the second half, we had an opportunity to come back. Nobody blinked. Everybody continued to stay in the fight.”
(On fourth downs not working out.) “Yeah, the play to Achane, Achane was where he needed to be. That was just a missed throw on something very simple. That is on me. On that fourth-down play where I took the sack, it was one of those where I seen Alec (Ingold) fall and as I got through to Jaylen (Waddle) I couldn’t really navigate to see if he won his matchup or not and by that time I was just trying to maneuver through the pocket and hopefully find an opening to find somebody on a scramble drill.”
(On if FB Alec Ingold was the first read on that play.) – “Yeah.”
(On if the cold weather impacted the slow start offensively) – “I wouldn’t say any of the things that were out there as far the elements are going to be used as an excuse for the reason as to why we started slow. When you are on the road, it’s always tough to communicate and operate at such a high level the way you want to and that’s why it is very premier that in walk through and practice, when it is loud, that you are locking in so that you know did I hear this, did I hear that, or did I say the correct thing in the huddle and are we getting out there and doing what we need to do to execute this play. So I would say from my standpoint and from our team’s standpoint we aren’t going to use any of that as an excuse as to why we didn’t get the start that we wanted.”
(On Green Bay’s run defense making things difficult for the entire offense.) – “I think it makes it challenging for any offense to go out there and not sort of be one-dimensional, but to mix in runs and then mix in play passes with those runs. Obviously tonight we were a little more pass heavy, but it does make it tougher, but sometimes that is what the game asks of you, especially when you are playing catch-up from behind.”
(On having a 5-7 record.) – “As far as season hopes I would say that this one was a tough one for us as a team. I know what this game meant to a lot of the guys in this locker room. I wouldn’t say that the dream is dead for our team just yet. Anything can happen in this league and we are going to watch the film and look over things that we need to get better at. We are going to come back next week and just keep chopping wood. Keep chopping wood and find a way to win the next game and keep stacking those again.”
