Ndamukong Suh – October 8, 2017 (Postgame)
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Sunday, October 8, 2017
Postgame – Tennessee Titans
Miami Dolphins Defensive Tackle Ndamukong Suh (transcribed by Lexie Balboni and Savanna Bell-Stevens)
(It seems you guys put a lot of pressure on QB Matt Cassel today. I think you were like 11, 12 hurries and a few sacks. Talk about the mental pressure.) – “We obviously wanted to shut down the run, and I think we did a pretty good job of it for the most part. Still a little too many yards, but we put them in a situation where they had to pass the ball to move the ball. We knew when we made them one-dimensional that we had the opportunity to hit the quarterback, and he wasn’t going to be able to get the ball because our secondary is going to do what they do and obviously make him hold the ball, and we had the opportunity to hit them.”
(We asked S Reshad Jones about the play where it was a fumble and nobody seemed to know. But from your vantage point, how did that play out? ) – “We’ve talked about it all week and many weeks before – even in camp – that obviously (if) the ball (is) on the ground, first guy who is there, pick it up. You never know what’s going to happen. I’m looking right at Reshad, and I saw him pick it up, so I turned to him and was getting ready to go to block, but he was already in the end zone by then.”
(Do you guys feel like a 2-2 team? Do you feel a little better? A little worse?) – “I think we’re a 2-2 team because that’s what we are. Nothing really more to say in that regard. But at the end of the day, we did what we’re supposed to do which is protect our home, and we’re getting ready to go to Atlanta.”
(It seems like when Head Coach Adam Gase, QB Jay Cutler come in there’s a sense of we have a long way to go. And the defensive point of view, this is as well as you guys can play. Do you feel that sense of that half of the locker room is pure joy at the moment, and the other half feels like not that they lossed the game, but they turned in a third string performance where they don’t look like themselves?) – “I wouldn’t say there is pure joy by any means. We’re not playing a perfect game. I think we’re playing well in some particular areas, especially in the run. Obviously, there are things we can always do better. They understand what they have on their particular side of the ball, and I wouldn’t say they are disappointed from the standpoint of they can’t do it. They’re disappointed because they know what they have and they can be very successful. Even though we are happy that we won, and we’re going to continue to strive to win, we obviously want to play at a very high level. That’s what excellent players as Jay Cutler is and a winning coach like Adam Gase is.”
(You’re getting guys coming back now. LB Lawrence Timmons comes back, LB Rey Maualuga come back, and you’re playing better. Does it have something to do with those guys and is it a matter of a lot of new faces in there, getting used to [each other], getting better as you go, is that part of getting to know the guys that you’re playing with in that room?) – “I think it’s a combination of everything. Obviously, there are a lot of new faces on this defense as well as some old faces, me being one of them. We understand what we have. We understand that we got to go out there and execute. (Defensive Coordinator Marr) Burke is going to put us in great positions as he is a very, very smart guy – obviously Ivy League guy – understands the game. I’ve been around him for a long time, and he’s going to put us in great places. As we are placed in those places go out there and execute and things are going to happen the way they are.”
(As far as the frustration level on the sideline today, we saw you go through it, we saw WR Jarvis Landry go through it. Does this win help take care of some of that situation?) – “Frustration in what regard?”
(You guys yelling, getting upset on the sideline.) – “I’m not much of a yeller so I’m not sure what you saw in that particular standpoint. But in regards to probably yes not playing at the best of our football, we’re always going to have conversations. We’re always going to push for us to be at the best of our best. We’re never going to always obviously get there but we want to strive for that. We’re going to push each other and be hard on each other until we get there.”
(I think the question was asked before: when one side of the ball is maybe playing better than the other that locker rooms tend to pull apart. What’s your sense as to where the Dolphins are?) – “I think we are a very strong team, and we understand that we’ve unfortunately been through this a little bit. We’re going to see some great things from the offense, we’re going to see some bad things from the defense and vice versa. It’s the ultimate team game. I think special teams did a great job, especially our punter. Our punter did a great job switching the fields and putting us in good situation. From the defensive perspective, we understand as a defense we’re going to get the ball and have an opportunity to give it back to our quarterback and our offense to go and make plays.”
(Do you have a formal event to go to after this?) – “No, I don’t. (laugher) I missed that earlier this week, but I like to dress up every now and then.”
Charles Harris – October 8, 2017 (Postgame)
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Sunday, October 8, 2017
Postgame – Tennessee Titans
Miami Dolphins DE Charles Harris (transcribed by Jason D. Silver)
(What do you feel like right now that you need most improvement on overall?) – “Just continue to learn the game. Continue to watch film. Continue to really learn. Learn from DE Cam (Wake), learn from (Andre) Branch, learn from William (Hayes) and all of them guys. They kept telling me to keep my head up and that’s what I did throughout the game. Of course it’s being patient. Being patient on the field, outside of the field, at practice and things like that. Just working on my craft and learning how to be a pro.”
(What’s it like to have your first sack come at a critical point in a clutch part of the game) – “Like I just said it’s natural. Been training all through training camp all through practice, things like that. When you make it a habit on a daily basis it just happens. I just thank the lord. I don’t care if it would have came the last play of the game. It came when it came. It came at a big time. I just thank God that I was able to keep my head in the game the entire time. He is teaching me patience. Teaching me patience, and keep continuing to work hard. Continue to work hard throughout the week. Continue to work on my craft.”
(You got around that tackle awfully awfully quick. Was it just you beat him of the snap?) – “Well the whole game he was chipping me. All game they kept on setting different formations trying to confuse me. But like I said listen to coach T, listen to the game plan. He told me to get outside, just get off the ball…that’s the reason why they brought me here, to get off the ball and get sacks so that’s what I did. Stuck to the fundamentals and I did a good job.”
Kiko Alonso – October 8, 2017 (Postgame)
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Sunday, October 8, 2017
Postgame – Tennessee Titans
Miami Dolphins LB Kiko Alonso (transcribed by Savanna Bell-Stevens & Armando Gonzalez)
(Was this your finest performance as a Dolphin, do you think?) – “I don’t know.”
(What do you think of the defensive performance as a whole?) – “I think that it was good. Obviously, it was good to score, it was our first score. I thought it was good.”
(Take us through that play when [S Reshad] Jones scored. I know you had a part in that play.) – “They didn’t block me, so I just tried to make a play and luckily it was a fumble, and Reshad finished it off.
(Did you know I was a live ball the whole time or were you not sure?) – “No I didn’t know. I just tried to hit as hard as I could.”
(Given how the offense was having to fight for every first down and every point, how good does it feel for the defense to come through the way it did today?) – “It just feels good to get the W. It’s hard to win and it feels good to come out with a W.”
(Cuál es la sensación después de ganar un juego importante en casa?) – “Es difícil ganar en esta liga y cuando ganes es emocionado todo.”
(Cuentanos un poquito de esa jugada espectacular en que [S Reshad Jones anotó] un touchdown.) – “No me bloquearon. Asi lo dicen? (Risa) No me bloquearon entonces quería darle duro.”
(Le diste duro.) – “Ya tu sabe. [risa]”
(Como se siente una victoria así que han peleado casi todo el partido para conseguir la victoria? Como se siente ganar un partido tan fuerte?) – “Se siente muy bien cuando ganas en esta liga, porque es muy difícil. Vamos a disfrutar esta victoria, pero tenemos que seguir trabajando para Atlanta.”
Rey Maualuga – October 8, 2017 (Postgame)
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Sunday, October 8, 2017
Postgame – Tennessee Titans
Miami Dolphins Linebacker Rey Maualuga (transcribed by Lexie Balboni)
(How pleased are you with how things went for you today?) – “I feel good. I feel good. I’m still trying to adjust to this heat. I don’t think it’s going to be overnight, and I’ve only been here for a month. I felt good to finally get out there and play. January 2nd was my last game that I played in. But it felt great. Obviously, it felt great to have the ‘W’ and just going to continue to work on my craft and hopefully get better and try to continue to help this team, make some plays and win some games.”
(As a unit is there a conscious decision that the defense has to create opportunities when the offense is struggling to put points on the board?) – “Obviously, we can’t control what they do, so I think our mindset – with (Defensive Coordinator) Coach (Matt) Burke and his philosophy is just control what we can control and be the best group that we can be and eventually, hopefully all we need is a field goal or we just need some points on that board. If we don’t let the other team score, then we win. It’s not like we’re taking the pressure off the offense or anything. We’re just going to continue to try and expand and see how good of a unit we can be. I think every week – with a good week of practice and all these older folks on this defense – I think we can lead by example and hopefully be the best unit in the league. I don’t know. We’re just taking it one game at a time and trying to see where we go.”
Lawrence Timmons – October 8, 2017 (Postgame)
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Sunday, October 8, 2017
Postgame – Tennessee Titans
Miami Dolphins Linebacker Lawrence Timmons (transcribed by Lexie Balboni)
(What is the key to forcing so many turnovers in general?) – “Like I said we have to play together and we have to depend on each other, everyone on one accord and listen to the coaches and gradually get better that’s all.
(What additions did Rey Maualuga make to that linebacker unit?) – “He gives us attitude, he’s a physical player. You can tell with our defense we want to be physical and detailed with our assignments. We just want to be aggressive out there and depend on each other.
(When defensive coordinator [Matt] Burke blitz you, or LB Kiko [Alonso] or S Reshad [Jones] it seems like that could be pretty affective. How do you feel about the skill set relative to blitz from you guys?) – “I feel like the sky is the limit for us. We’re still trying to get to know each other and it’s early in the season. We see where we are going, we’re building. We’re trying to gradually build up right now. It’s a long season we have plenty of room to grow.”
Mike Pouncey – October 8, 2017 (Postgame)
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Sunday, October 8, 2017
Postgame – Tennessee Titans
Miami Dolphins Center Mike Pouncey (transcribed by Ryan Murphy)
(It’s exciting to get a win, but on the other hand the offense was having to fight, scratch and claw.) – “Yes, we’ve got to figure it out on the offensive side of the ball to help our defense out. It’s always great to get a win in this league, but you know how we’ve been playing these last three weeks is unacceptable. We’re not going to beat any teams playing like that.”
(What did you think of that defensive performance?) – “I think they did a good job. They did a good job, but it’s more us. I feel like we had them blocked up the whole game and just one guy was off, so it’s more us. We’ve got to fix us first before we worry about anybody else.”
(On the mental errors happening on offense…) – “Well, I haven’t looked at the film yet today. I’m focused on doing my job out there. I’ll look at the film, but the last two weeks that’s what it’s been. We’ve got ten guys doing the right thing and one guy off, and it just messes everything up, and it’s not the same guys, it’s all over the football field. We’ll get it figured out. It’s early in the football season, but it’s what we didn’t expect in our second year in this offense.”
Adam Gase – October 8, 2017 (Postgame)
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Sunday, October 8, 2017
Postgame – Tennessee Titans
Miami Dolphins Head Coach Adam Gase (transcribed by Michelle Stone)
(Coach, you can certainly look at this game as a win’s a win…defensively, I don’t know how much you could say about those guys because obviously they controlled this game from start to finish.) – “They did a great job. It was nice that someone could score points. That was really impressive to see, how they just came out and decided they were going to dominate the game and they did. That’s what we’re looking for every week.”
(The elephant in the room is the offense – their inability to get first downs, convert on third down, and it looked like it was really a struggle all day out there for Jay [Cutler, QB]. What did it look like from where you were standing?) – “If guys would do their jobs, catch the ball, block the right guys, give the quarterback a chance to do something…Jay’s way down on the list of things going wrong.”
(This is kind of a redundant question, but how do you get this offense in synch?) – “If guys would do what they’re supposed to do, we’ll be all right. If guys keep not doing the right things, getting beat, not catching the ball, fumbling the ball, it’s not going to work.”
(How optimistic are you about turning things around?) – “We don’t have a choice. We have to.”
(If they continue to have the same problems week after week, we’ve talked about changes before – is that something you have to consider?) – “I don’t know where we’re going to go.”
(The fans were chanting for [QB] Matt Moore to enter the game. What’s your feeling about that?) – “That’s fine. They chanted for Matt Moore last year when we played against Tennessee. I’ll make the decision on quarterback. We’re not going to take public polls.”
(Are the offensive lines’ issues more not carrying assignments or just being beat? What’s wrong with the offensive line?) – “It’s some good, some bad. It’s both. One one time, one another time. Do they have a good defensive line? Yes. But we’re better than what we’re putting out there right now.”
(Do you feel better about the offense now than you did a week ago? Or is it still in kind of the same area?) – “There’s little things you can take from it. There’s times we’re open and we just don’t finish the play. We get the ball there…there’s a couple of times where Jay got out of the pocket and was making a good play and then we don’t finish the play. Guys got to make plays at the end of the day. We can keep scaling back the offense all we want, but it doesn’t matter. You’ve got to make plays.”
(Adam, this was the first game with [LB Rey] Maualuga, [LB Lawrence] Timmons, and Kiko [Alonso, LB] – how did they do, especially Kiko who seemed very active?) – It looked like they did well to me. It’s nice to see those guys out there because you don’t see a lot of missed tackles. Once they make contact, that’s it.
(Can you talk about [S] Reshad Jones and how he had a nose for the ball today and how he was on that play that nobody realized was a fumble?) – “The one thing about Reshad that you just notice right from the get go today was that he was all business today. He absolutely… You could tell he had a fire about him right from the time he walked into the locker room. Hearing him talking in the background, I knew he was going to be effective today and he went out there and he backed his talk up, what he was saying in the locker room, and he played an unbelievable game.”
(On that particular play it seemed like a lot of guys froze because the ball went twenty yards. Did you realize that it actually was a fumble?) – “Everything was happening so fast. We’re making adjustments, then you look up and see the ball go, and you see him go, and you’re trying to… Did anybody hear a whistle? That’s the biggest thing, will somebody accidentally blow a whistle in that case, the play’s dead. But the officials, over time, figured it out. You’re almost better letting it go if you’re not sure, because it’s a replay.”
(What do you know about [WR DeVante] Parker’s injury right now?) – “I’ll know more tomorrow, but obviously him not coming back into the game…we’ll see what it’s going to turn out to [be] next week.”
(When the offense did get going it seemed as though Jay was really locked into Jarvis [Landry, WR]. Can you talk about the connection that they had?) – “We were just trying to figure out if we could get him the ball and if he could run for extra yards. They were playing the run pretty hard, and just being able to get the ball out quick. Even when we were getting to them, we still got too much pressure in the face, missed assignments, and guys leaking through the line of scrimmage. We’ve got to clean a lot up.”
(What was your approach with the players today with regards to the National Anthem?) – “It was a decision made that we were going to stand and guys who didn’t want to stand, stayed back in the locker room.”
(It was a decision made by who?) – “I did.”
(Have you scaled back on the offense?) – “We have. Every week.”
(Dramatically?) – “Yes.”
(Adam, I know you pointed to other parts of the Dolphins breaking down. Particularly with Jay, how would you evaluate his performance?) – “I don’t know. He can’t throw it and run out there and catch it. We had five drops. They were going to be twelve to fifteen to twenty yard plays. I don’t know what else we can do.”
(RB [Jay] Ajayi averaged just three yards a carry, but given the fact that the defense linemen were at the line of scrimmage waiting to hit him – is that a good day in terms of production?) – “Yes. Some of it was good, some of it wasn’t good – the fumble, obviously is unfortunate. It was hard to see. I saw the replay up on the board. You just can’t have that happen. That’s one of the things we count on him with the amount of time he carries the ball, make sure ball security is 100%. It was one of those days where they were playing the run so hard, maybe we should have went to play action sooner. There’s a couple of times where we tried to earlier in the game, but things just broke down quick.”
(What is the mood in the locker room? What is the mood of the team right now? Is there a feeling of desperation?) – “No, I don’t think so. We just got done with the first quarter and we are two-and-two. Last year I don’t even think we were close to that. A win’s a win. I know I must have missed a column that says style points next to the win, so we’ll go back, we’ll correct it, and we’ll get better. That’s really what we’ve got to do.”
(As far as the touchdown drive in the fourth quarter, what went right? You seemed to have some success with the stop routes and things like that.) – “We did what we were supposed to do. It’s not hard. This is not a hard sport to play. Do what you are supposed to do and you’ll have success.”
