T.J. McDonald – December 3, 2017 (Postgame)
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Sunday, December 3, 2017
Postgame – Denver Broncos
Miami Dolphins Safety T.J. McDonald (transcribed by Paige Jefferson)
(How nice was it to get your first pick as a member of the Dolphins?) – “It was great. It was great. Appreciate Bobby (McCain) getting his hands on the ball. (I) just to try to be around the ball and good things happen when you’re around it.”
(Did you guys sort of play with the attitude that Broncos QB Trevor Siemian wasn’t going to hurt you and you kind of like maybe could be more aggressive?) – “We show respect to everybody we play. It wasn’t that it wasn’t going to hurt us. We understand that they’re struggling, and quite frankly we were too for a while. For us it was like, again, we wanted to attack this game. We wanted to attack everything that we did in all coverages. We came at them, and we got on them early, and we just didn’t let our foot off.”
Jarvis Landry – December 3, 2017 (Postgame)
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Sunday, December 3, 2017
Postgame – Denver Broncos
Miami Dolphins WR Jarvis Landry (transcribed by Alex Onaindia)
(Obviously, you always kept talking about, “Just need to win one.” How much of a relief is this?) – “It’s huge. It’s huge for the organization. It’s huge for the guys, especially in this locker room that have been working hard week in and week out. I wouldn’t say it hasn’t been paying off, but it hasn’t ended the way we wanted it to. For us to come out today and do it like we did it, it means a lot.”
(What’s it like to see the capabilities if you play a complete game – special teams, defense?) – “Those are the amount of points that I think it’s the floor to what we really can score. We had some penalties there. We got to the red zone. I think we had three or four turnovers as well. (If) we punch those in, you think about the score, and we may score 60 points, obviously, depending on the game and all of that stuff.”
(With the offense, is this the way you envision it going in terms of being balanced – run, pass?) – “Yeah. Kenyan (Drake) had a great day on the ground. He busted the big run to really take it out of their hands. He did a good job of ball security today. That has been the biggest thing. We’ve just been harping on him about ball security, and he has done well. I think he was at 120 today? 125? That’s huge. That’s what we need. It helps the pass game a lot, too.”
Kenny Stills – December 3, 2017 (Postgame)
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Sunday, December 3, 2017
Postgame – Denver Broncos
Miami Dolphins WR Kenny Stills (transcribed by Michelle Stone)
(How does it feel to have to have the losing streak be over?) – “It’s nice to win. We play to win. We give ourselves an opportunity by winning games. So I’m happy to win.”
(What felt right? What went better today?) – “I can’t think of anything off the top of my head. I don’t think we played that great a ball [game]. They gave us a couple of opportunities. The defense scored, blocked punt. We played well, but obviously we still have a lot to clean up.”
(RB Kenyan Drake obviously ran the ball well. What did you see from him and did you know that he had that kind of game?) – “The line was giving him a couple of creases and he was making the right cuts and protecting the football. We know what he’s capable of. I’m happy for him. I know he got his first 100-yard game so it’s been time.”
Ndamukong Suh – December 3, 2017 (Postgame)
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Sunday, December 3, 2017
Postgame – Denver Broncos
Miami Dolphins DT Ndamukong Suh (transcribed by Daniel Chavez)
(How nice was it to have a lead in there and be able to get a win?) – “It’s great, it what we expect of our offense, creating turnovers on defense and put them in great situations to make sure we win the game.”
(That was a great game. Philosophically, why can’t we see more of those?) – “I think we took advantage of the mistakes that they made and in a lot of cases we forced those mistakes. I think when we go back to Wednesday’s press conference like you asked me before, how we were winning games last year and how we weren’t winning them this year is that we weren’t creating turnovers and we weren’t getting the ball out and putting our offense in good situations and obviously, getting off the field. I feel like we did that and obviously we reap the benefits of that.”
(You got ahead, your defense was able to open up your pass rush and you were able to put some pressure, create some problems back there. Does that make a difference when you’re playing from ahead instead of behind?) – “I think we should do that no matter what. I think at the end of the day we have the talent up front, especially in the front seven and in the back end you can obviously see when we give pressure, they’re going to make great plays. And they’re going to do what they’re supposed to do in the pick six and create turnovers.”
(Defensive Tackle Jordan Philips had a big game, played a lot of big plays out there, seems to be making more and more impact plays the more he goes. What are you seeing out of him?) – “I think he’s just continuing to grow, it’s what we expect of him. It’s his third year in the league and it’s time for him to continue to make strides. I think at the end of the day that’s what we expect of him and he’s got to continue on that path.”
Julius Thomas – December 3, 2017 (Postgame)
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Sunday, December 3, 2017
Postgame – Denver Broncos
Miami Dolphins TE Julius Thomas (transcribed by Ken Mendonca)
(You wish you had a performance like this all year.) – “We haven’t had a big win all season. So, it’s like I was saying before the game, ‘Let’s have one of those wins were it feels like a party on the sideline in the fourth quarter.’ They’re great for the team morale, they’re great just for how much work we put in. It’s a grind. This isn’t an easy profession. So when you’re able to have a big win, a comfortable win, where you’re not constantly thinking, ‘Man, every possession is coming down to the wire,’ like some of our wins earlier this year, it’s just encouraging, so we’ll enjoy it.”
(That’s a first for the year isn’t it? Even the games you guys won early.) – “Yes, comeback, close. We’ve fought tooth and nail for our wins this season. Just to have a big win, it brings so much excitement, so much confidence to a team.”
(So it was a party on the sideline, everybody laughing and enjoying?) – “Oh yes man. You see the hats. Whenever you see the backup quarterback in the game, you know you did really well.”
Xavien Howard – December 3, 2017 (Postgame)
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Sunday, December 3, 2017
Postgame – Denver Broncos
Miami Dolphins CB Xavien Howard (transcribed by Lexie Balboni)
(What’s it like to get the first two regular season interceptions of your career in the same game?) – “It feels great. Just going out there and making plays and knowing what I’ve got to do to help my team win.”
(Talk about what you remember happened on the first interception.) – “Just watching film and just knowing what the guys were going to do. Just going out there and making the play and just knowing the intentions of the guys and what they were going to do.”
(We talked before about trusting yourself. Did that go into that play when you saw that there?) – “Right, just trusting yourself and taking chances. Going out there and just playing, not thinking, just going out there and playing.”
(Do you feel like you’ve personally turned a corner and you’re playing at a pretty high level now?) – “I’m taking it one game at a time and just going to grow from here. Take it one game at a time and just doing my job.”
Kenyan Drake – December 3, 2017 (Postgame)
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Sunday, December 3, 2017
Postgame – Denver Broncos
Miami Dolphins RB Kenyan Drake (transcribed by Lexie Balboni)
(100-yard day for you in the NFL. What does this mean to you?) – “It’s only a testament to the people around me. The o-line did a great job, receivers did a great job getting open so Jay (Cutler) could spread the defense out. I had the easy part; I was just running through big holes trying to make the most of every play. At the end of the day, I can’t do nothing but thank the game plan and the coaches and everybody else.”
(What happened on the touchdown run?) – “It’s funny, I really can’t remember, because at the end of the day, I was just out there trying to make sure I didn’t mess up. I think I made a couple people miss. At the end of the day, I didn’t want to get caught from behind, so I was able to get into the end zone.”
(This is a pretty good run defense statistically. Did you guys come in thinking that you could run the ball with this kind of success?) – “At the end of the day, we always want to be a balanced offense – run, pass. They’re a three-four defense, they’re always going to have five guys on the line of scrimmage, but it’s about being mano o mano, coming in and asserting your dominance, and I think we were able to do that.”
(How much did you enjoy the heavy workload?) – “I think like one time in high school I ran the ball 25 times. But other than that, I don’t think I’ve ever run the ball that much in my life. I could’ve ran it 20 more times with how the o-line was blocking, so give all the credit to them.”
Jay Cutler – December 3, 2017 (Postgame)
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Sunday, December 3, 2017
Postgame – Denver Broncos
Miami Dolphins Quarterback Jay Cutler (transcribed by Daniel Chavez)
(Jay, offensively you had RB Kenyan Drake running out there. How does that help your offense completely open up for you?) – “They have been missing that a little bit and we’ve been a little scatter with the run game so to get him going, opening up some things in the outside, some one-on-one coverages so it was good.”
(WR Kenny Stills and WR Jarvis Landry both gave you good games out there today, did you expect to have them available to you?) – “We have four or five guys that can make things happen so it was just kind of whoever’s hot, whoever the coverage lends itself to and, offensively, we’re going to look at the film and be upset with a few drives. We put together some good stuff but there’s some more left on the bone there.”
(You get your fifth win, what does that mean?) – “We’re heading in the right direction. We’ve talked about it all year long, I think this team has done a great job of staying together, concentrating on the week ahead and not worried about the future or the past. And to get one and get the ball rolling a little bit heading in the right direction feels good.”
