Jay Ajayi – October 26, 2017 (Postgame)
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Sunday, October 26, 2017
Postgame – Baltimore Ravens
Dolphins RB Jay Ajayi (transcribed by the Baltimore Ravens)
(on the difficulties in the running game) “We weren’t able to run the ball tonight. We had a good run early and then weren’t able to run the ball. They did some different things here and there. At the end of the day, we still have to block up the scheme and execute; and we didn’t do it.”
(on the loss) “On all sides of the ball, we didn’t execute; so we lost. It showed on the scoreboard.”
(on playing on Thursday night) “Everyone has to do it. They had to do it, and they came out and played. We should have come out and played, and we didn’t. Now we reset, recharge, come back next week and try to go 1-0.”
Reshad Jones – October 26, 2017 (Postgame)
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Sunday, October 26, 2017
Postgame – Baltimore Ravens
Dolphins S Reshad Jones (transcribed by the Baltimore Ravens)
(on the Dolphins’ defensive performance) “They made more plays than we did. They ran the ball. They passed the ball. They just made more plays than we did.”
(on having extra days of rest before next game) “Just rest and take care of your body. We don’t have a bye week. This is the time to take care of your body and get your body well. Regroup and get ready to play more football.”
(on bouncing back from a big loss) “The guys in this room are resilient. We’ve got one of the best staffs in the league, so we’ll be able to bounce back and be ready for the rest of the season.”
(on the Kiko Alonso hit on Joe Flacco) “I actually didn’t see it. I was running from the other side of the field. ‘Kik’ [Kiko Alonso] said, ‘the guy slid late, and he was just trying to make a sound play.’ He’s not a dirty player, so I know he wasn’t trying to harm the guy.”
Kenny Stills – October 26, 2017 (Postgame)
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Sunday, October 26, 2017
Postgame – Baltimore Ravens
Dolphins WR Kenny Stills (transcribed by the Baltimore Ravens)
(on the offense) “We didn’t score any points today, so it just wasn’t good enough. We didn’t execute. We didn’t convert on third downs. We had turnovers. You just can’t win games when you don’t execute.”
(on QB Matt Moore’s play) “It’s a team sport. Matt did his job the best that he could.”
(on the large point spread and loss) “A loss is a loss. I’m never happy when we lose. As I said, we didn’t execute as an offense. We’ve got to do better.”
(on not scoring points in the first half) “We’ve just got to do our job. We’ve got good players and a great coaching staff. We’ve just got to get out there and execute and find a way to get first downs. [We have to] find ways to get into the end zone and score points.
(on today’s problems) “We weren’t converting on third down. We had two pick-6s. When you can’t convert on third down, and you can’t get first downs … We’ve got to figure out a way to get first downs and stay on the field and score points.”
Matt Moore – October 24, 2017
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Tuesday, October 24, 2017
QB Matt Moore
(I’m sure you’re used to the description of yourself as a gunslinger. How do you take that and do you like that?) – “It’s not a bad term. Guys describe guys in different ways and that seems to be the thing (for me) and I’m fine with that.”
(What does that mean to you?) – “I’d like to think of it as someone that just likes to go out and compete and throws the ball around. That’s what it means to me.”
(Somebody who likes to take risks or no?) – “Somebody that competes and likes to throw the ball around. (laughter)”
(Did you get a chance to take any practice throws before you went into the game or was it just immediate?) – “I threw eight or nine balls just to warm the arm up.”
(I didn’t know if you had time.) – “There was not a lot of time, no. Not a lot of time.”
(What routes do you feel like you like the most?) – “I don’t know. I think my focus is to execute what’s called. I think most guys like to shoot it down the field; but I think whatever’s called is what I’m trying to execute. Everybody has favorites, but at the end of the day, that doesn’t matter.”
(Is that a question you can’t answer because you don’t want the other guys to know?) – “No. I answered it the way I thought I should answer it. (laughter)”
(How much more challenging is preparing for your first start because you’re playing on a Thursday as opposed to a Sunday?) – “I don’t know. Last year I had a kid the week of my first start and it was on a Saturday, so it was a similar situation; but I mean it’s tough. Time to prepare is everything. I think in this league, sometimes there’s not enough hours in the day, but you’ve got to make the time to prepare. The short week is definitely tough, but we’re getting it in and guys are working and studying. It’s challenging for (the Ravens) too. They’re coming off a Sunday game and have to play Thursday. You’ve just got to be on top of your stuff, get as ready as you can and go execute.”
(What have you seen from the Ravens defense on tape?) – “A lot of those guys have been in that system for a long time. Obviously their front is pretty powerful. (They’ve got) experienced guys in the back end. They have the ability to do a lot of things, so like I said, the studying and preparation is going to be big. At the end of the day, it comes down to execution.”
(Just watching you over the years, you’re a guy who I’ve always thought has fun playing the game. You bounce around out there on the practice field and everything like that. Is that accurate and how does that serve you when you’re playing?) – “I don’t know. It’s an emotional game and I’m an emotional player, I think. It’s always better when you’re having fun. Obviously when you’re out there kicking the dirt, that’s not a way to do your job, so I try to have a good time. Obviously, when things are going well, it’s a lot of fun. You try to keep your spirits as high as you can and go out and have fun with your guys.”
(It doesn’t seem that much rattles you.) – “Well, I think as a quarterback, you’re out there, you’re in command of the offense, you can’t … You get rattled; but I just think you’ve got to keep a positive stance and a positive attitude and keep the guys going. That’s what I try to do.”
(You spend so much time next to Head Coach Adam Gase during games, it’s almost like you’re an assistant coach. You’re right there. How much does that help you when you go in there to do it physically?) – “Yes, it’s good because I get to hear what he’s thinking and just hear him calling the plays. I get it in my ear, but also just to be next to him and listen to him (is helpful). There’s a comfort level there just listening to him, knowing how he is on the sidelines, so when you’re out there, it’s not second nature, but it’s pretty close. That experience comes from just being by him in games and knowing where his head’s at and maybe expecting what’s coming, so it helps that way.”
(Are you going to be able to watch the Dodgers game tonight?) – “(laughter) Probably not. I’ll be rooting for them though. I’m fired up for them.”
Ndamukong Suh – October 24, 2017
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Tuesday, October 24, 2017
Defensive Tackle Ndamukong Suh
(You guys are at this place with a new quarterback once again. It’s your third starting quarterback in whatever it’s been since QB Ryan Tannehill went out. Does that affect you guys on the defensive side of the ball at all?) – “No, I don’t believe so. I think we’ve seen all these quarterbacks in camp and understand what they can do; but really, at the end of the day, we can’t really focus on what’s really going on that side, really because it doesn’t concern us.”
(The run defense, you guys allowed 92 yards last week but 40 yards on two runs. How do you feel that you guys did last week and overall do you come into games and say yes the run defense is rock solid, we can count on it, it’s going to be there?) – “I think we’ve had really, in this season overall, struggled with having some pop plays in the run defense. At the end of the day, as long as we eliminate those, we’ll continue to be successful in my opinion. What we’ve been doing is really just executing. As long as we stay on that path and allow ourselves not to get lax or have a mistake happen, and continue to gang tackle, we’ll be fine.”
(How much of a physical challenge do you find this being in this quick turnaround?) – “I think it is part of the game, part of the business. We understand that. At the end of the day, as professionals, you find yourself in situations where you’ve got to be prepared and prepare for short weeks, long weeks, as we have some of those coming up. It’s just really about the mental grind and obviously taking care of your body at the same time.”
(How do you feel physically right now?) – “Physically? I’m good. It’s football. Really, honestly, I personally don’t pay attention to it. I do what I need to do to make sure I’m there to play and I think it’s served me well in my career.”
(So can you play the same number of snaps four days after a game as you do seven days after a game?) – “I think so. I plan to, if I need to. At the end of the day, we’re very fortunate in our group that we’re all interchangeable. We can line up in all different positions and so a lot of times, I don’t really have to; but I’m wired to play that way.”
(You guys are on a three-game winning streak. Does it feel as though, ‘okay this thing is rolling now, we’re going in the right direction?’ Put it that way.) – “I’d say no for the simple fact that we need to focus in on what the task in front of us is, and we continue to preach each and every week that our focus is to worry about the game that’s of that week, and really go from there. When you start to look at things and see what you’ve done in the past and look ahead and do all of these different things, that’s when you lose track. I don’t say that just because that’s what the head coach says and things of that nature, I say that because I truly believe it; although the head coach says it for a reason, because it’s true. You don’t want to get distracted. You want to understand what you have in that particular week to take care of and go from there.”
(Having said that, you guys have won 12 in a row in terms of one-score games. Obviously you’ve come back from two touchdown-plus over the past couple of weeks. Have you noticed a change in maybe the confidence level or the belief level over the span that you’ve been here in terms of being able to both come back and pull out close games?) – “I’d say under the new regime of (Head Coach Adam) Gase and understanding what we have, we’ve always had a mindset that we’re capable of doing whatever we want to, and then at the same time, we understand the positions that we put ourselves in. So being 28-14 down going late into the third quarter, we understood what we need to get done. Going into half, we knew what we needed to get done, being down, I think, 21-14. Having been in all of those situations the previous season, especially with being a young team – myself being eight years, understanding I’ve been in multitudes of situations – it’s not hard to get out of it. It’s just about going through the process to get yourself out of it and doing it before the time ends.”
(How do you get off to faster starts?) – “That’s the magical question, I guess. In my personal opinion, on the defensive side of the ball, which is really all I can speak to, it’s not allowing people to score. We’ve not been the best in red zone defense. Last week, starting out the way we did, wasn’t the best. We’ve done some good things in previous weeks, so we probably need to go back and look at some of those pieces; but at the end of the day, each and every team is different. This is a copycat league. I’m sure Baltimore has looked at the film and seen what happened last week. We need to figure out how they are going to attack us and then two, to combat that and get off the field, if we end up starting first.”
(What do you think of G/T Jesse Davis’ future as a defensive tackle?) – “(Laughter) Jesse’s good. I think he’ll be fine, especially if he’s playing next to me – a pat on my back. (laughter) We talk for sure, and give him a little crap. We’ve actually got a little funny thing going on, which is harder to play – o-line or d-line? He’s getting a taste of that right now. (Laughter)”
(What about LB Rey Maualuga’s future as a fullback or blocking back?) – “He’s a strong downhill guy, so he’ll serve pretty well on that side of the ball as well as being on our side of the ball. We’ve got some blitzes for him that I’m sure you guys have seen in the past where he’s coming downhill. He’s got some stuff in practice that he’s done, which I wouldn’t want to be a center. (Laughter)”
(Will we see you on offense at any point?) – “I don’t know, you’ll have to ask (Head) Coach (Adam) Gase about that. I’m more than happy to go on the offensive side of the ball and have some fun, obviously in, situations; but the one thing I definitely want to do is get back on special teams and kick a field goal or an extra point. (laughter) I’ve got to make up for that past Jets game, however many years that was ago.”
(When was the last time you played offense?) – “The last time I played offense … It’s been some time. I can’t even think back to it.”
(High school?) – “No, it’s been in the pros. I know I had some stuff in Detroit. I don’t think we ever ran it; but we had some plays for sure. It was actually the ‘Husker package.’ If I’m ever needed and my number is called, I’ll be ready to go.”
(Do you think it’s harder to play defensive line than offensive line?) – “I’ll let you guys ponder that. We’ve got a running piece of what all goes into that. Do me a favor, ask Julius Thomas about what he thinks. (laughter)”
Matt Burke – October 24, 2017
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Tuesday, October 24, 2017
Defensive Coordinator Matt Burke
(How tough a decision was the CB Byron Maxwell decision for you?) – “It’s always tough anytime you’re making a move like that. Obviously, the team had a need at another position. That was just kind of the spot we had to get to. It’s always tough. You make relationships with guys and you’ve been around guys for a long time, so anytime you make moves like that it’s hard.”
(Was the second touchdown – the second thrown touchdown by the Jets – on CB Cordrea Tankersley or was there supposed to be safety help?) – “Both. It was a miscommunication to be honest with you. We should’ve had better pre-snap communication, which would’ve provided better help for him. He didn’t do it. He was expecting help and didn’t really get it; but that’s partly on his fault that wasn’t communicated before the snap. You can kind of paint that both ways if you want.”
(What is it about that deep out and that post combination that makes it difficult on the cornerback, for CB Cordrea Tankersley?) – “Again, schematically stuff, in that play he’s outside leverage. Now the post route is running away from him. Again, that’s why if we see splits or tendencies or stuff when we get in that area of the field, those guys need to communicate that if that’s a possibility, we can either pass that off or draw some extra help somewhere. If you’re playing outside leverage and you’re by yourself and that guy is running an inside route, it’s hard to close on that. We still put those guys in those spots. He has the athletic ability to do it. I felt like he slowed down a little bit, to be honest with you, because he was expecting the help. Where if he just accelerated through, he still has a chance to go make the play. To me, it was probably more of a communication error than anything.”
(So could CB Cordrea Tankerlsey have treated it as though he does not have help?) – “Absolutely. Again, he didn’t – technique-wise – he didn’t play it … He was playing it like he had help, but he never talked about it beforehand so no one else knew he was expecting help, essentially.”
(What’s your concern level on defending the screen?) – “What’s my concern level?”
(Yeah, it seems like it’s had some success.) – “To be honest with you, the first play of the game, we were lined up wrong. And it was a very similar play, too. I don’t know if you guys remember, later in the game where Lawrence (Timmons) made that tackle and they got kind of backed up on a very similar play. If we’re lined up right, it should look exactly like that. Defending screens, to me, it’s about getting bodies to the ball. Teams are going to do it to us because of the style we play, because of out front. To me, it’s about recognition and keeping leverage and getting hats to the ball with the d-line turning and running or again our back end guys being in leverage and sending it back to whoever they’re supposed to send it back to. Two of the plays – two of the screens we gave up – we were lined up wrong, which I’m obviously not very happy about. One was a tough call – the one they through to the tight end. I pressured a little bit when I shouldn’t have there. Reshad (Jones) was the only guy out there. If he doesn’t make the play, there’s nobody there to help. It’s something we work on every week, because we do see it a lot, obviously. We just had a couple mental errors. On the third-and-long one, we missed seven tackles on one play. It was third-and-19. We preach trying to get turnovers and all that, but the first guy in has to get the tackle secured and then the next guy are trying to punch the ball out. We had about three or four guys that were just going for strips and not securing tackles. We should never give up a third-and-19 conversion. Between the missed tackles … There were a couple that we weren’t lined up right. There were a couple, that one in particular, we obviously missed a lot of tackles on, and there was one I put them in a bad spot. Those things happen. We’ve addressed them, obviously, and we’ll continue to get better.”
(The impact per snap for DE William Hayes seems extraordinarily high. With that being said, if you don’t have DE Andre Branch this week, how do you determine what is the realistic snap count for him where he wouldn’t lose effectiveness?) – “We roll those guys through a little bit. Obviously, it’s hard for us. If you’re putting Will in the game, a lot of times you’re taking Cam (Wake) out. That’s a tough tradeoff for both of them. We feel both those guys are more effective when they’re not playing 70 snaps and we’re able to roll groups. Whoever is up this week, we’ll kind of take the same approach. We don’t have pitch counts on any guys. We just have ideas in situations of when we want to use all those types of guys, whether it’s Will or Cam or Charles (Harris) or ‘Dre (Andre Branch). Even (Terrence) Fede went in when ‘Branchy’ (Andre Branch) wasn’t feeling great at the end of the game. Fede gave us some good snaps. We try to utilize those guys. That’s part of the point of us keeping a bunch of d-lineman active on game day, that we’re going to keep them fresh and get them going. Will’s play time is going to be dictated by what we’re seeing and what the situations are.”
(With DE Charles Harris against the run, has he shown enough in terms of setting the edge that you can trust him in base a lot, not just occasionally, but a lot if you need him there?) – “Sure. Yes, absolutely.”
(As far as DE Cameron Wake being 35, has that played any into his … You said you don’t have a pitch count …) – “You’re always … Any of our veteran guys, we’re always proactive with worrying about wear and tear and again, especially the circumstances of our season in terms of playing a bunch of games back to back. We’re aware of it. We’re trying to give him some time off during practices and moving guys in and out. We have an awareness of it. You get into a game, there’s not like ‘once Cam gets to 40 snaps, we can’t play him anymore.’ It’s more like that. We’re aware of all our veteran guys – Will (Hayes), (Ndamukong) Suh, all those guys that we try to be proactive in terms of taking care of them during the week and as you go through the season.”
(What did DE Cameron Wake show you at the end of the game against the Jets?) – “What did he show me? A couple sacks and caused holding. (laughter) He showed me some good plays. I know (Head Coach) Adam (Gase) has talked about it. He’s amazing to be around. It’s crazy to watch him work day in and day out, and again, continue to be effective. I keep sounding like a broken record here. It’s a testament to how he prepares and who he is as a person and the work he puts in, not just during the week, during the offseason. Nonstop. He’s a special person.”
(What’s an anecdote? Everybody keeps saying it is crazy to see DE Cameron Wake day in and day out. What illustrates that?) – “When we first got here last year – (when) we first got hired – and he’s coming off the Achilles (injury) a year before, I didn’t know Cam before I got here. I remember ‘V.J.’ (Vance Joseph) and I were like … It was one of our first … We had just gotten hired. It was early January, mid-January, and we’re walking through the building and this guy – I don’t know when he hurt it, four months, three months off Achilles surgery – and he looks like he still looks right now and he’s doing box jumps in the weight room. To watch him rehab and put all the work in to prepare to come back and then being around the offseason when he’s still coming in and getting his own work in and doing those things. We have to proactively say, ‘We’re going to try to sit you down a couple of these periods,’ and he never wants to come out of that stuff. He always wants to go out there and get his work in. When he’s doing his drills and his work, it’s always 100 miles an hour. He never slows himself down. It’s just impressive to watch.”
(What does CB Cordrea Tankersley do best right now and what will be some continued points of emphasis in his training?) – “It’s funny, I told ‘Tank’ when he first got here … He can run. He’s a fast kid. He can run. And I said, ‘You always have that in your back pocket.’ He’s a bigger kid, so he’s a physical player at the line of scrimmage. Just like any young corners, I think his growth has got to come from route recognition, pattern recognition, formation tips. He has been pretty good with that stuff, but that’s to me where his development has got to come along. (As for) physical tools, I think he has got a lot to work with, obviously, with size and speed. He’s a tough kid and he’s confident, as we’ve talked about before. I think his development is just going to come from some of the stuff that we’re doing and seeing the route combinations and understanding how teams are trying to attack him better.”
(What’s your evaluation of LB Rey Maualuga, especially considering where he started from this season, coming out of retirement or whatever you want to call it?) – “Retirement. Forced retirement. (laughter)”
(Inactivity. It wasn’t a normal offseason.) – “He has been good. I know everyone was impatient. We tried to have sort of a long-term plan for him – a long-term picture – in terms of making sure he was healthy and in shape, especially obviously down here (as) we’ve talked about with the heat. So, we kind of had that plan. I remember when he tweaked his hamstring a little bit in training camp, whenever it was, and I said, ‘Look dude, if you can get back for the Titans game…’ He is a great, great person. I know you guys have talked a lot about him. He’s one of those guys that hates being away from his teammates and hates not being out there to help to contribute and be that guy. So, he puts himself in bad spots, because he always wants to get back soon. He wants to do everything. He wants to take 50 reps out there. Again, he’s another guy, I was like, ‘Look, if you get healthy and get right and get in shape, then I’ll take the seatbelt off and you can do whatever you want.’ He kind of stuck to that plan. He did a lot of good work with (Head Strength and Conditioning Coach) Dave Puloka in the training room and the weight room guys to get to where he’s able to do what he’s doing right now. He has been great. He really has been. Obviously, (he has) a physical presence in there. He has played well since he has been in. He has had (three) good games or something, whatever he has played.”
(Why does G/T Jesse Davis qualify to play on the goal-line defense?) – “He’s a big dude. He’s physical. Again, it’s a testament to (Head Coach) Adam (Gase). Everybody is all hands on deck. When we went into the game with only three tackles active – defensive tackles active … We’d actually done it two weeks ago – I guess that was the Titans game – and he went out there for the snap and they jumped offsides, so he didn’t get an official snap of it. It was literally sort of like, I went to Adam, I was like, ‘Who’s going to be active? What are we kind of looking at, the picture of this here?’ He seemed like the best fit. He played d-tackle, I think, way back in his day at some point. So, there was kind of that element. It just felt like, ‘I’m going to stick you in this A gap. Can you go just get off and try to knock somebody around?’ He was good.”
(G/T Jesse Davis just plays the big unit, right? When you don’t have cornerbacks?) – “Just in goal line, he has been, yes. I figured if (Head Coach) Adam (Gase) was going to steal Rey (Maualuga), then I get one of his too. (laughter)”
(Most of the time towards the end of the game, most defenses are geared to stop offenses from going to the sideline. With the play call that you guys made on the CB Bobby McCain interception, were you surprised when the ball went out to the outside that way, especially considering that the quarterback is a 15-year veteran?) – “Honestly, not to give too many secrets away, we play that coverage a lot. It’s on tape. We set it up from a different look than we had before in the past. I don’t know if that was part of it. You can see on tape – I know Josh (McCown) talked about it – we dropped Reshad (Jones) in on the front side, so I think he’s looking to the front side first. When he sees Reshad rotate, obviously he doesn’t want to throw over there. Reshad is kind of sitting in the window, so I think when he comes back, I don’t think he has time to really look. We’ve been getting some pretty good pressure, especially in the fourth quarter. Again, you’d have to talk to him; but I don’t think he saw Bobby. They had somebody in the flat also. I don’t know if he thought Bobby was going to get sucked up on the flat route a little bit and he kind of short-armed it a touch and went to Bobby. Bobby did a good job kind of getting where he had to get to, to that spot. It was a great play by Bobby. Obviously, we were pretty happy it happened that way.”
Adam Gase – October 24, 2017
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Tuesday, October 24, 2017
Head Coach Adam Gase
(Every coach stresses the need to finish and the need to close, how important it is, and says a lot of the same things you told us. Why is it that some teams are good in the fourth quarter and some aren’t?) – “I think a lot of it has to do with probably more of the personality of the players more than anything. Guys around here just seem to embrace it more than worry about failing. They kind of enjoy being in that moment and when they get opportunities, somebody seems to step up and make a play.”
(Does that person only come primarily from the leaders on the team?) – “I’d say yes. I think that’s where it starts. I think some of it came from some of the guys that we drafted last year. I always go back to (Kenyan) Drake. He made a big play in a big moment and helped us keep that thing rolling. It was a guy that was from a very successful program and he had done really big things in big-time games.”
(You’ve done it now with three different quarterbacks. There’s been so many different people on the team. Are you comfortable that it’s ingrained in the culture here?) – “I think so. I think guys just know nobody cares who’s out there. Nobody cares how many injuries you have, hurricanes, losing players, coaches – nobody cares. It’s all about what are you going to do? Are you going to win games or are you going to lose games? That’s all they care about.”
(Given the talent level that you know CB Byron Maxwell has, is this a disappointment that you guys and him weren’t able to figure something out here to make this work?) – “I think he did a good job with … Last year, he battled and played well for us at the end of the season – the last 10 or so games that he played. We’ve just got a lot of young guys and we had to kind of make, shake room for a roster spot. We’re kind of looking right now and down the road.”
(What went wrong with CB Byron Maxwell?) – “I don’t think anything really went wrong, I just think we’ve got a lot of good players and a lot of guys that we like. It’s tough when you become a veteran player and you’re not a special teams guys. You get thrown into being inactive and you don’t get opportunities. That was just … we’ve got a lot of guys that do both.”
(What do you like about QB David Fales?) – “I’ve been around him for multiple times. He’s smart. His recall is really good. He has a game … I don’t know, he’s a gamer. (He’s) the kind of guy you throw in there, it looks bad and he’ll figure out a way to make a play. It seems like we’ve got a couple of guys that are the same way. Sometimes in practice it might not look great, but when we get out into a game, he just figures out a way to move the ball.”
(Why QB David Fales instead of the other choice which was QB Brandon Doughty?) – “We’re just kind of looking at how long this is really going to be. We felt like this was the best decision for the organization right now.”
(Of all the guys who would not have practiced yesterday or would have not been able to practice fully had you held a practice, who are you most optimistic in that group?) – “I really don’t know. I’ll have a better idea probably Thursday right before the game.”
(Offensive line concerns obviously, just being on top of what T Laremy Tunsil is dealing with, how worried are you about that group?) – “We’ll figure out a way to move the ball.”
(The way that you’ve used TE Anthony Fasano and TE Julius Thomas the last few weeks, obviously matchups played a part but is that a way that you settled on where you think it’s a good use of both and to get Fasano in more, they play similar snap counts, keep guys rested and a little TE MarQueis Gray?) – “That’s been a conversation. I think that was something that maybe hurt us a little bit in Denver, where Julius (Thomas) was playing close to 75 plays a game, and I think towards the end of the season – he’ll never admit this – but it wears on you a little bit. It’s a lot of snaps. We really like all three guys. We want them to play and we think they can contribute in different factors of the offense. I kind of like rotating those guys in. It just gives us some good and bad tendencies that you can kind of use to your advantage. It’s hard to pick one and just go with it because I like all three. They all have three different skill sets, but I like when all three guys that are out there at different times. It’s easy to call plays.”
(When QB Matt Moore threw a touchdown to WR Kenny Stills to make it 28-21, he ran over to the sideline. It looked like he kind of bumped you and then he was shouting something in your ear and you had the biggest grin. What did he say?) – “(laughter) It was a very similar play to the Arizona game. Teams seem to want to bring everybody against him and for whatever reason, every time that happens, we have the same route on, and he hits it. It was really almost the exact same thing in the Arizona game where he just threw it up and Kenny was where he was exactly supposed to be. He threw that thing early too. There was a lot of trust there and that’s him. That’s how Matt is. He’s going to get fired up.”
(The term you hear a lot with QB Matt Moore is gunslinger. Does the term tough guy fit also? He seems to take a lot of hits and be able to bounce right back up.) – “I think you look at all three of these guys (Ryan Tannehill, Jay Cutler and Matt Moore) that have played since I’ve been here. That’s something that they all three have in common is they’re extremely tough. I’m not sure if I’ve really seen anybody take as many violent hits as Ryan had and he kept getting up until finally one got him, and then same thing with Jay, just being around him for two different seasons – the amount of hits he’s taken. That was the first time I’ve ever seen him not get up. Matt, we’ve all seen him take probably one of the worst shots that I’ve ever seen in person and somehow the guy battles back and was okay. This guy’s got something that you just can’t coach it. You’re born with it. Those guys, they want to be out there for their teammates and I think there’s some kind of internal drive with those guys to make sure that they’re out there.”
(Do you know anything more about QB Jay Cutler that you did not know 24 hours ago?) – “No.”
(Is there an inherent tug of war between a coach and a quarterback about the quarterback wanting to be more aggressive and the coach kind of wanting him to be a little more careful and conservative? And does that apply at all with you and QB Matt Moore?) – “No. I don’t really kind of look at it like that. A lot of times my concerns have to deal with are we getting guys covered up front, are we picking up the right guys when they’re pressuring? The thing that you’re always trying to just make sure you avoid is when you’re getting pressure and guys are trying to make throws and they can’t set their feet and it’s kind of an up-for-grabs ball. We’ve been kind of on the positive side of some of those, which those are the ones that you’re not really sure what’s going to happen on those because the guy is covered and you’re not throwing a strong ball sometimes. You’d rather have it where you pick everybody up, (you have a) clean pocket, step into the throw, be able to have proper mechanics when you’re throwing the ball. When we do that, that makes you feel better as a coach – whether it’s short, intermediate, down the field – but when you’re getting leakage and guys are making off-balanced throws, that’s the only time you’d like to tell them ‘Hey, don’t do that,’ but sometimes when they make a play, you’re okay with it.”
(That’s where the instincts are at odds, yours and theirs?) – “Yes, because the way I look at it, I’m standing on the sidelines. It’s a lot easier to question a lot of things over there.”
(What do you see when you look at the Ravens on tape?) – “You see a lot of similarities to what you’ve seen the last 15 years, or so. (They’re) physical. They’re sound. I think it’s gotten a little more difficult since (Eric) Weddle’s gotten there. You just never know what they’re going to be in. He’s moving around so much and he’s impacted so many guys on that defense where they disguise so well, it’s hard for the quarterback to figure out what’s going on. That’s added a different element to them over the last two years. They still do a great job. They set the edge, they’re physical, the linebackers are downhill and they’ll do some really good things in the run game. In the pass game, they have good guys – both outside and in the back end. It’s one of those matchups that when you watch the tape and you look at stats and things like that, it doesn’t really match up, because you see a lot of the things that they’re doing makes it very difficult.”
(When you look at what you have at corner now, CB Xavien Howard and CB Cordrea Tankersley, CB Bobby McCain, CB Alterraun Verner, and then I guess CB Torry McTyer, CB/S Walt Aikens and CB/S Jordan Lucas, how do you feel about the overall depth at the position?) – “Good. I like that group. I like that whole – you can throw the safeties in there, too – and you’ve got (T.J. McDonald) coming back soon. That’s a pretty talented group, a pretty physical group. I think that’s one of the things I’ve been most impressed on with those two young guys is they’ve really helped our run game. When guys get to them, they get them down, and (when) they get them down, they’re physical and they hit hard. I think it’s rare to have two guys that tackle as well as those two guys do.”
(You mentioned toughness earlier as being one of those things you can’t coach. Doesn’t ‘being ready’ ready fall into that category as well, specifically talking about QB Matt Moore, because he’s been in this position quite a few times now?) – “I think that goes across the board for most of our guys. I think they keep preparing the right way and every guy knows … We talk about it so much about being one snap away. In this game, we’ve all watched it long enough to know, the injuries, they come out of nowhere and then all of a sudden you’ve got somebody else in there and everybody around them expects them to know what to do. It happened to us up front last week in a couple spots and guys went in there and figured it out. It’s the same thing. Matt prepares every week like he’s one snap away. Especially at that position, you see some of the violent hits that quarterbacks take when they don’t see a guy coming and the next thing you know, you’re in there. The way that he’s prepared, week after week, it’s allowed him to have success when he comes in the game, whether he’s been the backup or the starter.”
(With the game just two days ago, what actual work are you guys doing practice-wise this week? What can you actually expect them to do?) – “We’re sticking with a similar format we had last time where we went (with) our walk-through. We just do multiple walk-throughs. We’re not going to actually practice. We did it a little different with how we structured things, just to change it up, just talking to some of our guys, just what we didn’t like about last year. We changed it up a little bit in that aspect but the guys have done a good job. There were a ton of guys that were making sure they were (in the) cold tub, hot tub – all of those types of things – recovery stuff on Sunday after the game. Once we got done talking, guys were getting ready for this one.”
Clyde Christensen – October 24, 2017
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Tuesday, October 24, 2017
Offensive Coordinator Clyde Christensen
(How is QB Matt Moore different than QB Jay Cutler?) – “He probably wears it on his sleeve a little bit more where they both have great motors, but Matt just wears his emotions on his sleeve. He’s kind of outgoing. He’s all over the place. I think probably that. He has a little – we talked about it last year – he has a little gunslinger to him. He’s going to take some chances. He’s going to get that ball out quick. He came in and did a really, really nice job, as you would expect him to. I don’t think anybody was surprised that he came in out of the bullpen and threw strikes, if you will.”
(Sometimes as a quarterback, you have to let the ball go a lot sooner than you would like, but QB Matt Moore is able to still throw it on the money, even though he’s letting the ball go a little sooner. How does that help you guys?) – “That’s huge. This league is about that. You see so many guys come out of college and just the anticipation isn’t there because the off-schedule throws and the throws that maybe the receiver hasn’t quite come open yet, whereas in college, a little bit more, you can see the whites of his eyes and then you throw him the ball. This thing, you kind of have to let it go and you have to anticipate. It’s always changing. You just don’t keep four guys covered up, or if it’s blitz, more than four guys covered up very long. There’s always someone on an edge. There’s always a hand out there. There’s always a presence. We work hard on putting those guys in those circumstances. The on-schedule throws are minimal in this league, especially once you get to third down.”
(I know you mentioned that C Mike Pouncey is your best blocker this year. Who has been your second-best blocker?) – “I don’t know. (Jermon) Bushrod has played extremely well. Bushrod has played good, solid, steady football. I’m not sure, I’d probably stop short of saying second or first or something like that, but I would tell you that he’s really been consistent. He’s steady and you kind of know what you’re going to get every week from him, which is a compliment, a great compliment.”
(How close are T Laremy Tunsil and T Ja’Wuan James to the level of where you think they realistically should play with their talent level?) – “I think it’s just at times, they are. At times, they are special. At times, the right tackle is as good in the run game as any right tackle in the league. He’s an aggressive guy. He’s very good in the run game. Probably just the consistency, we just keep working on getting the consistency. It’s a hard position to play consistently because … We talked about Tunsil will probably have his biggest challenge of his young career this week. (Terrell Suggs) is a veteran guy. He’s an active guy. He’s been a pain in a lot of people’s rears for a lot of years. I do think they get more pitches. They get the wider variety of pitches out there on the edge. You’ve got a lot going on and it’s a tough position and it’s harder to be consistent at it; but I think probably if you said ‘What are we looking for?’ it’s their good plays have been good enough. Now we’ve just got to get it consistent, day in and day out, where you know exactly what you’ve got. Then the special ones, all of a sudden you just don’t worry about it. ‘We don’t worry about our left side any more. It’s taken care of.’ Then you’ve got something really special.”
(The last six quarters, what can you say about the offense, especially in light of personnel losses like C Mike Pouncey, WR DeVante Parker, T Laremy Tunsil, QB Jay Cutler?) – “I think I’ve always tried to think of myself as the voice of reason and the even-keeled guy but I’ve started wearing my ‘We Are Not Normal’ shirt. I should have worn it today. I’ve bought in. I’ve drank the Kool-Aid. We’re not normal. It’s something different every single week. I’ve drank the Kool-Aid so to speak and given up on being the voice of reason. I just adopted it. Now it’s whatever, whoever. Even the last two weeks, the second halves have been unbelievable. Even to look in, guys are coming in and trainers are coming up to you (saying) ‘This guy is down. This guy is out. Hey, this guy is back. This guy is out.’ It’s one thing after another and guys have just kind of gone in and look in the huddle and see who is going that series and see who is hanging on. It really has been just kind of one of those years. I think this one will be the same thing. This will be a short week. It will be, probably, I think … We said to the unit today that of all of the challenges of this season, and there’s been a bunch of them, that this one may be the biggest one. It’s a short week. It’s a really, really physical bunch. It’s coming after an extremely physical ball game. These are two of the most physical defenses in the league back-to-back and now doing it on a short week. That thing (against the Jets) was a brawl. That was a three-hour brawl Sunday. It took 59 and a half minutes to win a football game and now, to go on a short week, hit the road, go to a great venue with a place that prides themselves on playing great defense and being physical. I think this might be the biggest challenge of the whole season for us. We will have to go be physical and make ourselves play physical even though maybe the body feels like it just came out of the ring. It didn’t get the rest it is used to. I think it’ll be a tough one. These guys always are challenging up there and it’s a great venue and a great atmosphere, and really a great defense over, in my opinion, the last 15-20 years – one of the top, consistent defenses around. They’ve been in the same system for a ton of years. They just keep doing it. They do it well. They know what they’re doing. They know how to draft to it. They know how to personnel it. I have an incredible respect for them; and frankly, they got after us last year when we went up there. They got after us physically. Much like the Jets thing, we’ve got to take on the bully so to speak and go match them physically and throw blows again for another 60 minutes.”
(Has your offense turned the corner?) – “We’ll see, we’ll see. I hope so. The last two second halves have been a lot more fun than the first halves, I’ll tell you that. It’s the same as what we were just talking about with the tackles. It’s good enough at times, it’s just not good enough for the 60 minutes, and to be a great team – to be an upper-echelon team – we’ve got to be able to do it for 60 minutes drive after drive after drive, and we have not been able to do that so far. We’ve done it for bursts for periods of time, but we haven’t done it consistently for 60 minutes. We’ll keep striving and keep working towards that.”
(We’ve seen a lot of starting quarterbacks go down in this league – Arizona QB Carson Palmer and Green Bay QB Aaron Rodgers. There aren’t a lot of QB Matt Moore’s out there, are there?) – “No. They’re hard to find and they’re expensive. They’re expensive, frankly. I do think that you have to look hard to find one, a guy who can come in and win games. We had this discussion when we first got here because I think Matt was up and there just aren’t many. It’s kind of a Catch 22. Even when you have a real durable guy, you hate to spend money on a veteran backup and it costs you a couple of special teams guys or something; but you don’t need them until you need them, and when you do need them, and you get caught without one, it’s not fun, as we’re seeing around the league. For us last year and this year, to have one, to have that insurance policy and maybe you pay a little extra for it; but once you have to use it, you’re sure glad that you’ve got it.”
(Plays want to be made, they don’t care who makes them. What is it about whatever it is that you guys do in practice that enables these guys to step up when plays need to be made the most?) – “I think we try to create pressure situations in practice. We go against the defense. We always start practice off with a good ‘best on best’ if you will, a competitive period. You try to create that situation where there is some pressure on them and where things are contested. Then you try and make it part of your DNA that you just make plays. Part of it is personnel – getting the right guys, getting guys who have made plays all their lives. That’s a knack and some guys do have it and some guys don’t have it, but you do want to keep it sharpened and developed by going as much as you can ‘best on best.’ That’s where training camp and all of the practice we get against our defense is really good, and try to put them into those situations in practice.”
(Do you expect the personality of the offense, whatever that might be, to be different with QB Matt Moore than with QB Jay Cutler?) – “I think so. Probably we would all say that we all see the same thing and (Moore) is a fire ball. He comes in there flinging it. He’s fun to watch. I’m glad he’s on our side. You don’t have any doubt when he goes in there that he’s going to make something happen and give yourself a chance to win the thing. He throws a touchdown against (the Jets) last year on Cover Zero and they ‘zero’ him again this year and he hits another one that kind of turns the game around. I do think everyone loves the backup (quarterback). Everyone loves the guy, the reliever, coming in. That’s part of it. Some of it is built into the position, but he’s that kind of guy. He’s an electric guy. He works every day. He comes out there and he’s the pied piper. He takes the young guys under his wing. He’s a popular guy in the locker room and I think that his energy is contagious. I think you saw it. Probably the whole stadium knew. ‘We’ve still got a chance,’ whereas a lot of times we’ve all been around when the starting quarterback goes down and the air goes out of the building and you think it’s going to be extremely hard to hang on or win this thing, especially when you’re down two touchdowns like he was. I do think hope is a big thing and when a guy comes in and says ‘Hey, we’ll still win this thing,’ I don’t think anyone had a doubt that we were going to have a chance to win this. That’s a compliment to (Moore) and that’s a great thing to have said about you.”
(WR DeVante Parker and Lazarus last week? How is that working out?) – “He hasn’t risen quite yet but I felt some tremors. (laughter) We’re still hoping. We’re still looking anxiously. We’ve got to keep working. This is a hard week because of the short week just because you can’t … We’ll do very little full speed, so it’s hard to get a good evaluation of him. We’ll just have to get him out in between practices and stuff and just see how the thing feels. It is getting better. He is improving. How far can he get on this short week and without the practice sessions will be … I think the same thing, it’ll be a game-time decision. It was up there (in Baltimore) last year, right, where he came out and made an appearance there? I’m hoping so. We’re all hoping.”
