Xavien Howard – November 27, 2022 (Postgame)
Sunday, November 27, 2022
Postgame – Houston
CB Xavien Howard
(Big play today against your hometown team. Just kind of what was the feeling of getting to play against this particular team?) – “It was great. I’m a Houston game. That’s a team I’d seen growing up playing football. It was great to get a touchdown against them and that was it.”
(Whenever you get in the end zone as a defensive guy how does that feel?) – “It feels good. It reminded me of high school playing on the offensive side. I always wanted to touch the ball and score touchdowns.”
(When you are up 30-to-nothing, what’s it like being conservative because you have a big lead, but you still want to play your game defensively. Is that a challenge?) – “It’s definitely a challenge. Like I said, we just have to put our heads down and go to work and play all four quarters. I feel like we did not play well the second half. We started off hot and then the second half we weren’t getting it done.”
Jerome Baker – November 27, 2022 (Postgame)
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Sunday, November 27, 2022
Postgame – Houston
LB Jerome Baker
(Going into the Browns week, you could have overlooked them. Going into the bye, you could have overlooked this 1-8 team. Going to San Francisco… how does Mike McDaniel keep you guys focused on what you guys have to do now) – “He just sets the standard of no matter what we do, we go out there and play the Dolphins brand of football. We’re definitely doing a good job of that. We just got to keep stacking and keep doing better and we’ll be alright.”
(How does a win like this set you up for as you head in this next block of the season and going into three tough games on the road?) – “I mean a win in this league, it means everything. You know we have a few away games. This just gives the confidence and the momentum and we just have to keep it going.”
(Guys are talking in this locker room, some of the guys almost like you lost because the standard been set at a different level here. As one of the guys who’s been here, was that the goal this year, to make it we’re not going to tolerate – even if we win – if we don’t play the way we want to, we’re not going to be happy with it?) – “Yeah, I mean that’s credit to (Mike) McDaniel. We have a standard and he always holds us to that standard. No matter if we win or lose, we have a standard and he sticks to it no matter what it is. Even in practice, we might have a good practice to us, but he comes in and watch film and if it wasn’t to our standard, he’ll get on us. So it’s just a credit to our coaching staff and the leaders we have on this team and we just have to keep it going.”
Bradley Chubb – November 27, 2022 (Postgame)
Sunday, November 27, 2022
Postgame – Houston
LB Bradley Chubb
(What does it feel like to be a part of this locker room just in the time and how much have you grown?) – “It’s dope, man, it’s dope. Just to be with all these great players around me. It makes my job so much easier. It makes us closer and just being able to go out there an have success. See the guys fighting for you next to you and all that. It’s dope to see and I’m glad I’m a part of it.”
(How does it feel to be a contender?) – “It feels great. I’ve probably never had this in my career, you know what I mean? Going on five years and never been in the conversation this late in the season. So just to have that, have the guys, everybody fighting hard, everybody coming in with the right mindset each and every day throughout the week is just, it’s special to see for sure.”
(Now you guys are going out west, basically staying out there for the whole week. What do you expect that experience to be like?) – “Like a ball game in a sense, being with your teammates 24/7 in a different city and nobody is used to anything. Everybody is just kind of figuring out on the go, so I kind of expect it to be like that which is going to be cool. Get a lot closer with guys, be able to spend some time because family and stuff probably won’t travel out for the whole week, so I feel it will be a good experience for us.”
Jaylen Waddle – November 27, 2022 (Postgame)
Sunday, November 27, 2022
Postgame – Houston
WR Jaylen Waddle
(You guys had 30 in the first half. Did it feel like you guys left even more out there? It felt like there were maybe, first game back, just a little timing off and stuff like that?) – “I definitely feel like we left some money on the table for sure. We had some plays that we wanted back. I feel like I had some plays I wanted back, a couple drops. We just had a lot of mistakes hopefully that comes out. It was our first week back from break.”
(What do you think of this critical road trip coming up here?) – “It’s going to be fun. We got some great teams we got to go against, so it’s going to be fun. We got a lot of good competition, got the LA trip, back going to Buffalo, so it’s going to be eventful, good football. We’ve got to get prepared and we know that.”
(Let’s talk about coming back from the bye week. Holiday week. Lot of distractions. Playing the Texans. You know you have the road trip coming up. What does it say about this group to come out the way you did, go up 30-nothing in the first half?) – “It just shows how hard we work throughout the week. I think we had a great week of practice, preparation. I think Coach (Mike McDaniel) did a good job game planning and scheming, so it just all goes together. We come out there, start fast. We didn’t finish how we wanted to, but we going to try to learn from it, get better and carry on what we didn’t do well to the next week.”
Mike McDaniel – November 27, 2022 (Postgame)
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Sunday, November 27, 2022
Postgame – Houston
Head Coach Mike McDaniel (Transcribed by ASAP Sports)
(Do you have any status update on T Terron Armstead’s injury?) – “I don’t. Didn’t get any hue as far as how serious it would be, so we’ll find out more tomorrow. Same with Austin (Jackson).”
(Just to add to T Terron Armstead, this was not a situation where he would’ve come back in the game if the game was [closer]?) – “Not that I was aware of, no. That was an injury that regardless of the score was going to keep him out for the game.”
(I don’t know if it was causation or correlation, but when he left, the pass protection broke down a little bit. Were you guys scrambling a little?) – “No. We were struggling to a degree. I think I would have a part in that as much as anybody really. There were some play calling decisions that I definitely learned from. I put some guys in some unfair situations, was way too aggressive, and it was something that I told the team after the game that I’ll definitely learn from because it wasn’t fair to them. When you do have some lineup changes, you can’t play the way that — or put them in situations they were put in. I don’t think that was a fair representation of the group in general, even if there was some lineup changes. They were able to tee off, and we hadn’t established the run game, and it kind of put the tackles in some real, real tough situations, and so something that we’ll all get better from it. The good thing about this group of players in that locker room is they’ll hear me say that I need to get better in that situation, not put those guys in that situation again, but the players will take the accountability, as well, and know that they can work on their techniques to make sure that if I did it again that they would perform better.”
(Just overall what’s the feeling of going into December football knowing that everything you want to accomplish is in front of you?) – “There is nothing better in professional football than meaningful December and January games. Nothing better. I’m very excited for our young team and a lot of guys to feel that for the first time. I think it was important that guys looked at this game through the lens of establishing good position for that competitive playoff run. We’ve got six games left, and there’s no — you have to learn on the job live. The more that we bring intensity and focus to each and every game knowing that they’re all going to count for whether or not we’re able to be in the playoffs, whether or not we’re able to have home games, all of those things that you want as a team; you have to earn it down the stretch. This is as fun as it gets. I’m really juiced for the guys. We have a team that’s very tight, that is very ambitious and is willing to work for it, and that’s all you could ask. Very happy. Very happy with that. You just wish we could have times’d the first half by two, as opposed to dividing it by zero. (laughter)”
(You mentioned accountability. Over the bye week Jason Sanders, very critical of his own performance this year. He comes in today perfect on field goals, on PATs. What would you say about his accountability and his performance?) – “That is the coolest thing about sports — I guess the second-coolest thing in sports because I just said the coolest thing was… (laughter) Right? So the second-coolest thing in sports is overcoming adversity. Like I said last week, I fully expected that. He’s given me no reason to think otherwise. But it is to his credit, that is not always the case at that position. It’s such a finicky, off a quarter of an inch with your strike or your plant foot or anything; and you find it tough to get it through the uprights. That’s very meaningful and I think he just reiterated and reestablished the respect he already had in the locker room. Everybody had that expectation. No one really even thought twice. I know I didn’t hang on the field goal, on the field goals when we were attempting them. I fully expected him to drill them and he did, so happy with that and happy for him.”
(We heard that you showed Tua a 700-play highlight reel as part of I guess your introduction to him…?) – “Who are you talking to? Who’s your source?”
(Broadcast. Can you talk to us about that, the process of putting that together and what made you want to do that for him?)” – “You try and put yourself in other people’s shoes as best you can. I think that’s an important component to being a head coach. No one really — I think it’s hard for people to truly wrap their head around what it is to be a quarterback in the National Football League in terms of you talk about as much pressure as one could ever have. You have all these teammates depending on you to do the right thing on every play. People are trying to tackle you full-speed while you’re making split-second decisions and you’re in charge of making sure that our plus-minus turnover ratio is right. That is a hard, hard job. Not to mention, this just in, anybody that’s drafted as a quarterback in the top 10, top five, they want to be good. They want to be good with the — I would not want to trade places or wish any sort of — anybody really to be drafted super high and then fall short of the franchise’s expectations. That is a tough place to live in. That was the motivating factor behind everything. You acknowledging that, understanding that, wow, it’s hard enough to play an opponent. I’d better make sure there’s a lot of things that are telling me that this player may not have the confidence that he should, so instead of getting mad at that or doing anything, it was incredibly important that anybody that would listen would be able to see from a starting point, not just watch the FaceTime where I’m like, ‘yeah, you’re going to be a great player.’ To actually know, and it was easy; he had the stuff on the tape. I think that’s a credit to him. To his credit, he’s really listened, taken the coaching that he’s good. Said ‘okay, Coach, I believe you.’ And I think you guys have seen the residuals up close and personal for a while.”
(To follow up quickly, were you aware or at what point were you aware that his confidence had dropped that low from last season?) – “This was not going off of straight fact. This was just using intuition, that getting beat up and having your existence be completely tainted by people saying that you aren’t X, Y or Z, and then on top of that, from my vantage point, I felt like he was put behind the 8-ball in a way with the — basically his strengths, he couldn’t play to. And so if you’re not able to play to your strengths and your position that one of the reasons you’ve gotten there is you’re an unbelievable point guard, I felt, how could he, with all the things going on. It’s a lot of loud noise that you try to ignore, but people are human. It was intuition, and it started seeing him every practice once he started getting a little bit more confidence each and every day. You could see his personality evolve and that’s when I learned kind of how deep it was, because I’m learning his personality – the first day I meet him is who I know him as, and then you fast forward a month and a half, and he’s a different guy. Then retroactively, like wow, that was real. It’s not like he admitted it, either, to me at the time, live speed. This is something that I think he — all he did was just come to work, buy in, listen, and then do what he could control instead of worrying about any of it. He chopped wood, got with Coach Bevell and Chandler Henley, and they’ve not done anything but tried to work on technique, fundamentals, and how to play the position at an elite level, and they’ve done an outstanding job with that, and henceforth we were 8-0 with him. Or I guess he didn’t finish the game, but you guys get it. (laughter) He wins a lot.”
(Undefeated month for you all, 4-0, what does that mean to you finishing the month of November undefeated?) – “You know, I think it means a lot because it wasn’t just handed to us; it’s earned. And I think in the process, the five wins that we’ve had in a row or the month that we’ve won, it means a lot because I know it wasn’t gifted to anyone and that they did things the right way, and that shapes the way you do things moving forward. We found different ways after the three-game losing streak that we identified, looked ourselves in the mirror and were very candid about how we can correct, really challenged the leaders of the team, the captains and the leadership council, and those guys have really taken it and ran with it, as well as the coaching staff. We knew we had higher expectations than what was happening to us in the three-game losing streak and thought we should have a better record. So instead of, well, if, but or when; no, you take those experiences and you do something about it and that’s what I’m happy about, is that every single win was through blood, sweat and hopefully not too many tears, but there may have been. And you know what, I have a low, small shoulder that people can cry on. I’m good for many things.”
(Going back to your old stomping grounds in San Francisco, how long will you enjoy this one before you turn the page to a team you’re very familiar with?) – “Yeah, I’m just trying to — can I get a day? (laughter) You do not want to take anything for granted in this league. If you get a win, it does not matter. Every team is trying tooth and nail to beat you. You can get delusional in the wrong way if you just move past it. For me, I’ll worry about our next opponent tomorrow and that’s who it will be, is our next opponent. A lot of people have teeth in this league. You go a bunch of different places, but I promise you that next week will not be about me. I refuse for that to happen. This is about the Miami Dolphins and trying to string another win together because tomorrow I’ll be excited to go after nine wins. Right now I’m just excited about eight.”
(In your work to inject confidence, for lack of a better term, back to Tua, when you look at the timeline, was there any moment that you said, okay, now he said something or did something that you said, okay, he’s getting to be the guy that we know he can be?) – “I think within the offseason there were some — it was definitely in OTAs, and there was a particular practice in general that he made some plays going against our defense that — we’ve been running a very similar offense, a starting point, the same offense since 2006 or so, so there’s core concepts within it that you build from. It may look different, but the principles are the same. There were several plays in, I think a practice in May, that for the 12 or 13 years of cut-ups of running said play, I didn’t have one example of a quarterback being able to pull off a play that he did. So going over the top with that and then his teammates in an authentic way gravitating to him and really, really being excited about very good quarterback play, once he did that, he flipped and never went back. It wasn’t wishy-washy, it wasn’t back and forth; it was more that you just had to scratch and claw to break through something and once he did, he was good to go.”
(There’s a back and forth that goes on with the o-line and Tua where Tua has to make plays in kind of an adequate amount of time to help out those guys and vice versa. I guess if anything does happen to Terron long-term and you’re playing some time without Terron, how has Tua made it easier for the o-line and how is the o-line going to make it easier for Tua?) – “No, that’s kind of one of those reasons I’m so accountable for my part in the end of the second quarter and the beginning of the third specifically, because it’s a group effort that has to be committed towards getting the ball out and having timely concepts and then not putting people in position to be in harm’s way. And I think that’s something that you have to kind of tackle from the beginning of the week. I thought we had that in our plan. My biggest problem with the game was that I didn’t really lean on those portions of the game plan. I kind of went rogue to a degree. I think that’s something that we’re all playing football together. Every team we play has very, very good players somewhere. The key is to try to figure out how to make sure those guys aren’t the guys that beat you and then play sound football as a group, and that’s what we’ll continue to work on moving forward.”
Tua Tagovailoa – November 27, 2022 (Postgame)
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Sunday, November 27, 2022
Postgame – Houston
QB Tua Tagovailoa (Transcribed by ASAP Sports)
Q. How does it feel, ending the month undefeated, you guys get back off the break, now you’re preparing for a road trip, how does it feel?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: It feels good. It feels good to come back, get a win. Regardless of who we’re playing out here, it’s hard to win in this league. We’re just really happy that we came out with a win. We’ll learn from the things that we could have done better. We could have finished a lot of drives better. We could have given guys opportunities more, put guys in better position to make plays for our team. But that’s always tough when you’re hot, your team is hot, and then you go into a bye week. You try to come back on a week like this to find whatever that feeling was that you guys had with that momentum and that’s all it was. We’re just out there just trying to find what rhythm our offense was trying to get back into. I think we’ll go in and find that throughout this next week and we’ll be better for it.
Q. How did you guys go through the decision for you to come out of the game in the third quarter?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: Yeah, well, Mike (McDaniel) and Bev (Darrell Bevell), they were going to give me two series. So they gave me two series and then told me they were going to pull me if the opposing team didn’t score, so they didn’t score, got in two series and they pulled me.
Q. When things tightened up, was there any conversation about you coming back in?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: Yeah, yeah, there were conversations like ‘hey, like we might need you to come back in if they score again on this because then it’ll be a one-score game.’ I was prepared to come back in if needed.
Q. That sack you had late in the first half, you bent backwards, did everything come out clean from that?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: Yeah, I’m sure tomorrow will feel a little different, but yeah, felt good from that. I was just thinking get up so we could clock it.
Q. Obviously in a game like this – you mentioned that the bye in itself but just defensively how does it feel when they were just to back up their offense as a whole, as a team?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: Man, that was awesome to see from our defense. The turnovers, the sacks, just the big hits that they were making defensively. For me I’m used to seeing that because in my first two years, that’s the type of defense we’ve had, a defense that would get interceptions and then would score. We’d come off with like five turnovers a game my first two years. I’m used to seeing that, and it’s always great to watch when we’re able to also do some things really well offensively.
Q. You’ve been protected so well during this stretch. What were you seeing in the protection through that run when the Texans had the sack at the end of the first half and then also in the third quarter?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: Yeah, well, I think with some of the plays that I told Mike (McDaniel) I liked, I put some guys in some bad situations by doing, so like I said, that has a lot to do with kind of finding the rhythm of the game with your guys, your players. I would say that one falls on me. But yeah, we’ll be better for it.
Q. The broadcast said that last year you had some moments where you looked yourself in the mirror and had to ask, am I good, am I good, and that Mike McDaniel showed you a 700-play highlight tape reminding you yes, you are. Can you describe from your perspective what that process was?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: Well, I thought it was cool. I think anyone here can attest to someone believing in them and how that changes how they see themselves but also things around them, so perspective. But it was awesome. There’s a lot of details that entail me sitting down with him and other things as well, but it’s awesome. It’s really cool.
Q. Was that the first step to being what you are today, this season? Was that affirmation from your head coach and all that?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: Well, yeah, I think that could be a step, but at the end of the day, no matter how good your relationship is with someone, you’ve still got to go out and play. You’ve got to go play football. And that’s with all of our guys. I could have a great relationship with our running backs. I mean, having a good relationship with you, I can’t help you rush for 2,000 yards or rush for however many yards you want to in the game. We’ve all got to be dialed in to the details of what the offense entails. I would say that’s just an add-on, the relationships we have with one another in the building, with each other, from coach to player, player to player, and much more in the building with everyone else.
Q. Early in the game Jaylen Waddle broke the record for most receiving yards for the first two years in a career for the Dolphins. What can you say about your college and pro teammate?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: Wow, never knew that. Congratulations to Jaylen. That’s news to me. I’m definitely going to go and beat him up about that. I don’t know if he knows, too, so that’ll be awesome to tell him, but well-deserved for someone like him. He comes in to work, works his ass off, has a lot of questions every time; and if he doesn’t get them answered, then he’s not going to be in for that play. Very detail-oriented person and very happy for him. This is just the beginning. He’s only in Year 2 and we’ve got a lot more games to play.
Q. Five wins in a row, 8-3, three big road games upcoming. Where does the season stand for you right now?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: Well, we’re enjoying our win right now, being 8-3, and we’ll come into work tomorrow, see what we need to get better with, and then we’ll worry about the next team.
Q. The MVP chats, they’re starting to get a lot more louder now. How do you keep on keeping that momentum going as far as trying to acclaim that title?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: I would say it’s us just playing together as a team. I understand the question of that being an individual thing, but really, I’m not able to have recognition or any of that without everyone doing their jobs, doing their assignments. If a team has success, that’s what brings individual success for anyone on any team. If we were losing, I don’t know if I would be getting the recognition I’m getting. I don’t know if any of the guys on our team would be getting that recognition. It really is a team. Individual success is based off of team success.
Q. Your relationship with Trent Dilfer from your time at the Elite 11. Do you look back at that and see how that motivation from Trent, with your conversation with Trent to this point in time, how is that process?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: Oh, man, that’s been a long time that I can remember because I was in high school when that happened. I think that happened through the summer and then I had a season after that and then I was deciding what college I was going to go to, so really hard for me to think of a lot of the things that Trent had told me and talked to me about, but he’s a really great resource that I’ve been able to have in my corner, someone that I’m able to call, talk to about whatever. When I was coming out in the draft, he was definitely someone that kind of helped me prepare for the draft, too.
