Ryan Tannehill – November 13, 2016 (Postgame)
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Sunday, November 13, 2016
Postgame – at San Diego
Miami Dolphins Quarterback Ryan Tannehill (transcribed by the San Diego Chargers)
What is different about this team in terms of fourth quarter play?
“I think it’s just a belief in each other. Our energy, the way we prepare, the belief that we have in each other. There’s no panic if things don’t go well. Especially in the last month. We’ve seen guys face adversity, we just keep fighting. That belief is there. There’s been a few games where we’ve been down ten plus points, but on the sideline you can’t tell that we’re down. There’s a sense of urgency but there’s no panic, there’s no stress there’s just hey, we have to go play. This team finds a way to win. That’s what you want is a team that finds a way to win whatever it takes and that’s what we have right now.”
Where does it come from?
“It’s to a man. It starts with leadership, starts with the head coach, to the leaders on the team, and from there it’s to a man. You build the energy, you build the mindset, you build a culture. That’s where we’re at right now. We have the culture in a good spot and we’re heading in the right direction.”
Did you see that last Kiko Alonso return?
“I saw him buzz out on that last snap and as soon as Philip (Rivers) started looking that way, I was hoping he didn’t see him. Kiko got a good read on the play. He saw the receiver coming in, made a great catch, fully extended and ran it for the touchdown. They made some big plays today, not just him, but the defense as a whole. The really sealed the game for us.”
Where was your head when that play happened?
“We were getting ready to go. I was talking to the guys on the sideline saying you getting ready to go? Don’t know how much time we’re going to have left, but expect to get the ball back and have a chance to go back in and win the game. Two weeks in a row to have a defensive and a special teams touchdown to take the lead is huge.”
Walk us through the touchdown pass to Kenny Stills:
“We ran a naked fake, came around the edge, Kenyan (Drake) ran a little double move and the safety turned to run with him. I saw Kenny getting some speed on him and I put my foot in the ground, let it go and trusted that he was going to run into it.”
Walk us through the deep pass to DeVante Parker:
“Again, another double move. I didn’t really get to see much of the route. I got the ball out pretty quick and got hit right as I let go. I just trusted him, trusted that he was going to win. We liked the match-up out there on the safety and just let it go and let DeVante go get it.”
What goes through your mind when you know you’re going to get hit?
“You don’t really think about it until the ball leaves your hand then you just try to prepare to take it. You try to find the best way to move if you can. If you can’t get out of the way you pick your feet up so you’re not getting a knee or an ankle. Hope the guy catches this and then get up and have some energy to go down the field.”
How it feel going into that locker room being 5-4?
“It’s huge. I think the way we played as a team in the second half, we kept battling, kept fighting, got ourselves back in the game and then the defense came up huge right there at the end. A lot of fun, a lot of belief. We’re heading in the right direction so we just have to keep riding the wave.”
Did you know going into this game that you were going to have to throw the ball as much as you did?
“Yeah, we knew they had a tough run defense coming in. Coming in we compared them to the Bills and the Jets up front. They’re physical up front, they do a good job shedding blocks and just making it tough in the run game. We knew we were going to try to establish the run and try to stick with it like the past two games. There were times where we were trying to get it going and eventually we hit a big one right there in the second half with Jay (Ajayi) with that huge 50 or 60, I don’t know how many yards he had. We just kind of stuck with it. I think that opened up some things in the pass game for us and we were able to execute them.”
On 19-yard run:
“It was a fun play. I think they did a good job covering down field. We didn’t really have a play for that defense that they called. I got some good protection up front. They had a three man rush, so I knew I was going to have some time to try to move around and find a guy down field on the scramble. I saw Jarvis (Landry) take two guys and I knew I had some space there so I just tried to get free and get the first down.”
It’s been such a struggle for DeVante Parker was there something different you saw in him this week?
“Yeah, by far this was his best week of practice. He’s been struggling with his hamstring for a while now. I think he’s starting to feel a little better. He had a great week of practice. He ran hard in practice, he got open in practice. That built my confidence in him. I think it built a confidence among the coaching staff in him that he’s ready to go. He has the talent. We’ve seen him flash it at times. He’s just scratching the surface still. Being injured and being banged up, I think he’s been held back by that. I think today, really this whole week, he’s had a mindset that I’m going to go play and show them what I can do. He made a huge play, it got called back because of holding but that’s the type that you can see him making. He has all the tools that you want and the ability to go get those 50/50 balls. It’s what you want in a big time receiver.”
You’ve won four in a row, do you feel a sense of momentum?
“Yeah, we’re on a good path right now. I think as a team, we just have to keep that hunger, keep that drive to just keeping pushing ourselves to get better in practice every day. That’s what we’ve done up to this point. When things weren’t going well early in the season, there was no panic in the building. We weren’t down around the building. We stuck to the path. We kept pushing ourselves in practice to get better. Throughout the past four games and weeks of practice, we’ve been doing that. We just have to continue that.”
Is there a feeling inside that locker room that you guys will fight back?
“Yeah, there’s a belief that we’re going to find a way to win. Whether it’s offense going down on a two minute drive, defense like we had today, we also had a special teams play so as a team, that mindset that we have is until that clock hits 0:00, we’re going to keep fighting and find a way to win.”
