Matt Moore – November 19, 2017 (Postgame)
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Sunday, November 19, 2017
Postgame – Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Miami Dolphins Quarterback Matt Moore (transcribed by Daniel Chavez and Ken Mendonca)
(Matt, what was your mindset when you entered the game with the team down 20-7?) – “Just positivity. My message to those guys was ‘Hey, we’re going to be good. We’ve been in this situation before. Let’s go put a drive together and see what happens.” But I was just the same as always: work the offense, communicate, execute and get in the flow of the game.”
(Do you run the same plays basically? It’s obviously the same offense, but when you’re down 20…) – “I mean you have to open it up a little bit, obviously, with the score the way it is. For the most part, yes; but when you’re down, obviously you have to push it a little bit.”
(I think you hit the long pass to WR Jarvis Landry on your first drive, right? Did that give you some confidence?) – “Yes, it’s the third down. To hit one over the middle in a third-and-longer situation, yes, it’s a confidence builder for sure.”
(There was a lot of over the top stuff today, was that encouraging even though you didn’t win today, that you went over the top with the tying touchdown?) – “Yes, and some of it you have to have a favorable look to do that. You can’t always do that; the defenses do a good job of preventing that and different styles of defense allow you to do that. But yes, we felt good. Again, being down, we were in a situation where we had to do those things, so that’s probably why there were some shots taken.”
(What’d you see on the tying touchdown?) – “Kenny (Stills) was lined up inside and the corner, (Brent) Grimes really stuck to Jarvis (Landry) and Kenny got outside. He had good leverage on the safety and with his speed, he is difficult to cover. He did a good job winning. At that point, you just put the ball up and let him go get it.”
(When you’re moving the ball with some consistency, but amid that, penalties, false starts – even like before drive starts – what does that do to a mindset of the quarterback and the offense?) – “It didn’t affect my mindset. Obviously we’re putting ourselves in a tough situation on first-and-10 and now we have to go an extra 5 (yards) to get a first down. The frustrations are obvious there, but my mindset didn’t change. It was just ‘Alright, let’s get some yards, get us back in third-and-manageable and keep going.”
(As a quarterback, how do you understand the ruling on a safety, if you’re in the end zone, if you’re out?) – “I don’t know what the rule is. I’m not going to second-guess anybody or judge anything, but it was pretty dang close.”
(It’s obviously something you have to be aware of as a quarterback.) – “Yes, I don’t ever want to be back there. If you’re in that situation, you do everything you can to get any positive yards. It’s something you’re aware of. Obviously ‘Fitz’ (Buccaneers QB Ryan Fitzpatrick) was aware of it. You tell him to try and push forward there, but I don’t have a rulebook on me or anything. It was difficult.”
(Where does this football team go from here? You have another game next week, four straight losses, you seem to keep shooting yourself in the foot throughout the games. I think they had 17 points off turnovers before that last one. Other than that, it’s not much of a game. How do you get past that and try to make something positive out of these remaining games?) – “It’ll be a test, for sure. I think guys just need to come to work, grind and focus on getting better. It’s all you can do. There is no magic potion, no nothing. You need to come to work, get better, learn the scheme, execute the scheme and move forward and that’s it. That’s the only thing we can do. I’ve got faith that these guys in here will do that.”
(When you found out you were playing, who told you? Was it early in the halftime process or late?) – “Probably about midway through, (Head Coach Adam) Gase told me – probably with 5 minutes left to go during the halftime.”
(Can you just talk about your role on this team? I don’t know if it’s frustrating sometimes that you’re the ultimate fireman coming in out of the bullpen and, obviously in a perfect world, you’d love to be the man and be the starting quarterback. Just take me through the mentality and how you deal with that?) – “I’ve answered this question a lot over the years, which is fine. I understand my role. My role is the backup quarterback on this team and when it’s time to play, it’s time to play. When whatever happens and you get the call to go, there’s obviously excitement. You’re fired up and ready to go. That’s it. I’ve done this for a long time and have had to come off the bench and play. I think it comes in preparation during the week; but you just understand your role and when the time comes, you’ve got to go and make those guys feel that we’re going to be okay, have confidence in those guys, make them have confidence in you and you’ve just got to roll.”
(Is it tough mentally-wise to always have to be prepared to jump in, just like you were at halftime today – going into the week, knowing you’re not the starter, but have to jump in?) – “I don’t know if it’s tough. Like I said, it’s my job. Is it tough? I mean it’s tough to start this game when you prepare all week for a game. Sure it’s tough; but again, my mindset is I understand my role and when my number’s called, I go and do my best to execute.”
(I don’t have the stats in front of me, but I think you had about 280 yards passing. Did it feel that way? Did you feel unstoppable? That’s 560 yards for a game.) – “I knew there were a lot of chunk plays there, maybe towards the end of the third. I know we converted some third-and-longs, which were chunk plays. Obviously the play at the end tacks on a bunch. Yes, there were times we were going, and then sometimes it was difficult, which is how a flow of a game goes. Yes, it was nice to see guys on third-and-longer situations, really, starting up front, and then guys running routes and making big plays to keep the chains moving.”
(I know there’s no excuses out there, but you’re in there, G/T Jermon Bushrod is out, T Sam Young, C/G Ted Larsen. Was it tougher out there? Does that raise the degree of difficulty?) – “No. I think you ask, really anybody in the locker room, especially on the offensive side of the ball and you talk about roles, all of those guys understand their roles. Sam, he comes in and he’s ready to go. We’ve had this situation a lot this year, where guys go down and other guys have to step up. I think that’s the nature of this league and we’ve got some really good guys that come in and are ready to go. So, no, it’s not more difficult. Guys are ready to play and we were going.”
