Jay Ajayi – September 17, 2017 (Postgame)
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Sunday, September 17, 2017
Postgame – Los Angeles Chargers
Dolphins RB Jay Ajayi (transcribed by the Los Angeles Chargers)
On what the win means to the team:
“I think it’s huge for us to come out here even through all the adversity that we had to go through the past couple of weeks and just put out a performance. At the end of the day, we were able to get the win. It shows how resilient our team is. We were able to fight through some mistakes early and still end up winning the game. With toughness, grit and just relying on each other, we were able to pull it out. That is what these couple of weeks have been about, relying on each other as a team together.”
On what this win means to the people in Florida:
“I think they are probably very happy about it, just to have something to look forward to for the season. For us to get the first win, even with all of the craziness that has happened with the schedule, to start off with the first win is always great.”
On the last field goal try:
“I didn’t look. I wasn’t watching.”
On the toughest part of this week:
“The toughest part is just our routine. Everything was just out of order. Everyone was coming from different places just to get to California. We all just ended up meeting up here and just tried to get our game plan and our practices in. It’s a crazy schedule and we were still able to come out today and get the win. It’s just a great feeling for all of us.”
On his improvement from last season:
“Through this offseason and preseason I really pushed myself to be great and just work on my consistency to be that guy and increase my role on this team. I think that I was taking the right steps. The offensive line was doing a great job today being physical and I think that’s what we needed today to be physical and keep us in the game. At the end of the game we were able to get just enough to be able to put us in good field goal range and [Dolphins K Cody] Parkey hit it. After that, it was good.”
Adam Gase – September 17, 2017 (Postgame)
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Sunday, September 17, 2017
Postgame – Los Angeles Chargers
Dolphins Head Coach Adam Gase (transcribed by the Los Angeles Chargers)
On going for the field goal and K Cody Parkey:
“I was trying to make sure they didn’t make a big play there. The guys did a good job on a play that I didn’t anticipate them playing. I wish I would’ve had a different call on but the guys did a good job of trying to get to work. We just didn’t get as much as we wanted to.”
On QB Jay Cutler:
“He was really good with the ball today. I thought he made good decisions. I was off calling plays. I wasn’t as clean for him as I thought I would be. I think I slowed him up a little bit.”
On WR DeVante Parker:
“He has a lot of faith in him, obviously. I think we were short on one and DeVante took it right off of the guy’s head. We had a couple other plays that were right there that he had a chance to make. When we have something interesting brewing with that group, we have three guys that are different types of receivers and they all have some strengths and they are all different strengths. We just keep working through that to see what we can create out of that.”
On winning this season compared to last season:
“We have a core group. The same guys we had last year and when it gets tight in the fourth quarter they just think they’re going to win. They don’t have any doubt and the energy on the sideline is awesome. You can feel it. Those guys believe good things will happen for us.”
On play calling against Chargers defense:
“That first drive was what we were looking to do. After that we just kept stalling. I was like one call off I felt like. I was not giving us the right play at the right time. I was calling a couple bad plays on certain coverages or blitzes. There are a few things I have to get cleaned up on my end. I thought those guys did a pretty good job of executing. They were trying to do what we wanted them to do.”
On the reason for the absence of LB Lawrence Timmons:
“That was a coach’s decision. I’ll be ready to talk about that tomorrow.”
On the performance of the offensive line and Ajayi:
“Anytime you have Jay back there, if you can get the guys to cover up he’s going to hit it hard enough to where if you graze him that’s not going to bring him down. He runs hard. He gives everything he has on every play. He’s been practicing like that through spring and training camp and it hasn’t changed. We saw him today. We saw what happens when he gets just a little bit of a crease. We did a few things that we didn’t really do last year and we did a good job. He executed the schemes well and used his ability to make more.”
On Cutler making big plays:
“For whatever reason he always seems to get one of these big guys and likes to throw it up. He made the right decisions at the right time. I felt like the one scramble he threw up and we ended up having a big play in the game. He made the right decisions there.”
On the helmet decal ‘One Florida’:
“It was one thing brought up and I think all three teams were willing to do that. Just us being out here we’re watching it on television. We are not there. [Dolphins DE Cameron] Cam [Wake] talked to the guys. He was back there and talked about some of the things that he saw and hearing some of the interviews that he saw around our area about the positive attitude that people in that area have. They’re just happy to be safe and have their families with them and not so much worried about material things. I thought that was a great thing for him to talk about last night. There’s more than just material type things. It’s about your family, it’s about us sticking together and trying to go out, play hard and win for each other and the South Florida fans.”
On pocket mobility:
“I think we tried everything. We did a lot of things that we’ve been working on since the spring. It kind of fits us. I thought we did a really nice job on a couple of plays and the touchdown plays were thrown really good from the pocket. He [Cutler] has a good feeling. He can break away sometimes from poor looks. You call a play hoping for one thing and it doesn’t look as good and then he creates something out of nothing.”
On the plan today:
“We had a number of plans. We’re trying to play guys to see what fits best and we’re going to keep evaluating and just see what really works for us.”
On WR Jarvis Landry:
When we go in, we really try to divide it up a bit and really try to spread the ball out. We try to get all positions to the ball. As the game goes on they start playing different coverages. Today was one of those games where the ball kept finding him. He keeps running his routes hard and good things happen.”
