Terron Armstead – October 27, 2024 (Postgame)
Download PDF version
Sunday, Oct. 27, 2024
Postgame – Arizona Cardinals
Miami Dolphins OT Terron Armstead
(How did it feel offensively working with Tua and moving the ball down the field the way the way you guys were able to do it?) – “It felt better, it felt more rhythmic. We were able to get some first downs, some good drives going, good momentum. We had a couple drives that we would love to have back and finish with some touchdowns instead of field goals. You know what I mean, in hindsight, they always tend to bite you. So we can work toward that, you know? Execute better in the red zone and walk away with touchdowns instead of field goals.”
(What was it like having Tua back in the huddle, did it seem like he hadn’t missed a beat?) – “Yeah, it seemed like he was right back. It felt familiar, it was great, it was great, and it’s going to be great moving forward.”
(What was that moment like before Achane’s touchdown where Tua had the open field, ran, slid, and everybody kind of cheered, what was that moment like?) – “It was great. Great energy from the fans, that embrace. This team, we’ve been through some adversity for sure. So, it was a good moment. For Tua to be fearless, go run, get that first down, slide, the reaction from the fans; it was a great moment.”
Tyreek Hill – October 27, 2024 (Postgame)
Download PDF version
Sunday, Oct. 27, 2024
Postgame – Arizona Cardinals
Miami Dolphins WR Tyreek Hill
(How are things going knowing how much is at stake [inaudible]?) – “It sucks. Every time you lose in this league, it sucks. They are a good football team, but the end of the day, I feel like we obviously are a better football team; we’ve just have to prove it on tape as a team. Not just one player. We’ve got to play – every man on the field, everybody’s has to play better. And at the end of the day it’s got to mean something to you. It’s got to.”
(It seemed like there was a play called there to make a difference and it just didn’t happen on that little screen pass?) – “Yeah, there was. I went back and watched it on tape. Obviously there was a play to be made, but they get paid, too, on the other side of the ball. Those guys have a great defense, they did a good job at shutting us down and knowing what to do when the team needed it. Props to them.”
(Is Buffalo a must-win next week?) – “Each and every week is a must-win. Our mindset was a must-win this week, but next week, 24-hour rule, we’re going to move on and Buffalo is a must-win.”
Mike McDaniel – October 27, 2024 (Postgame)
Download PDF version
Sunday, October 27, 2024
Postgame – Arizona Cardinals
Head Coach Mike McDaniel
Q. What are you telling your team right now as this team is now 2-5?
MIKE McDANIEL: I know one thing, that — pardon my French, but no opponent that we play the rest of the year will give a (expletive). Yeah, we’re 2-5. Disappointed and it’s frustrating. I thought there were positives and negatives to the game and it’s magnified because of the situation we’ve put ourselves in. Situations like that, as tough as it is, it has to be – you have to immediately take your energy towards the next game while learning lessons from this game. I thought we had absolutely every chance to win it. I think collectively there is some – we always play really hard. I thought there was more execution but there were critical mistakes that I think it was tough to overcome one of the stronger games I’ve seen by a quarterback in Kyler Murray. He made a lot of plays for them and we can’t put ourselves in that situation as a team.
Q. You guys were pretty blitz heavy. It wasn’t all that effective at times. Did you think you guys maybe blitzed QB Kyler Murray too much today? Because he was able to kind of break it down.
MIKE McDANIEL: No, I think that was kind of the game plan going in and you know the stress that you put on coverage and you know you try to be effective in rush lanes. I think hindsight is 20/20. I did agree with our game plan going into it and in those situations, the guys know that it does put a high priority on guys that are free and have a shot at the quarterback, that you have to really rely on your technique and fundamentals, especially with a guy like that. I’m sure when I look at the tape there will be a handful of plays that we’ll talk through, Weave (Anthony Weaver) and I. But for the most part I thought guys were in position to make plays and there were just some critical ones we didn’t make and they did and that’s how you score more points than the opponent.
Q. How would you assess QB Tua Tagovailoa’s first game back?
MIKE McDANIEL: I thought it’s kind of what I expected. He did a real good job on third down but collectively I think the bigger thing was that we had a little bit more of our brand of football that we felt that is probably a silver lining if we weren’t sitting at 2-5. Guys didn’t really care about – when I tell you they’ve been all in on winning and falling short is hard for everyone, but we would have taken 3-2 as the win, but you can’t. There are no silver linings, really, in this loss. It’s testing us for sure. I feel good about the human beings we have. I feel like we’ve begun going all in with each other each and every week and it still hasn’t been enough, but the answer is not to take the foot off the gas. It’s to take a hard look, which will probably be pretty rough tomorrow, but that is what it is. We have to fix it. We have to get the win, and there’s going to be, moving forward, no team’s going to frankly give a (expletive) about our problems.
Q. What occurred on the mishandled snap? QB Tua Tagovailoa is saying he should have caught it.
MIKE McDANIEL: Yeah, I think if you ask both of them, Brew (Aaron brewer) would say he should have taken a little steam off of it, and Tua said he should have caught it. The bottom line is backed up, we can’t have those type of issues. You can’t just give free points to people, so collectively, I think the way I like to handle it is, all right, we can’t go in shotgun or pistol backed up until you guys tell me you can. As competitors, they’ll take that challenge. They know, and Tua’s hand-eye coordination’s outstanding, so he’ll be up for the challenge, but you just can’t expect to win a close game (with plays like that). That ended up being the difference in terms of points but it wasn’t just that play. There’s a multitude of things that ended up in points, like not connecting and settling for a field goal on the 7-yard line earlier. Those are things that add up, so hard lessons and they have to be lessons learned if you want it to change and so we’ll have an opportunity to do that. It’ll be a long week, but we get what we deserve.
Q. How did you feel about how QB Tua Tagovailoa protected himself out there and did you have any talks before the game about his approach or afterwards?
MIKE McDANIEL: I think Tua had his mind — I think the time (out), this season on this team, it really left an impression on the residuals of his decisions, so we had talks leading up to it. I think the biggest thing was that he knew his teammates were going to give him a chance to play a pretty clean game. He had a good amount of clean pockets and then when he didn’t, he was decisive and kept himself out of harm’s way and I think that’s big for our team as we try to get through this rut.
Q. Did you adjust anything from a game plan or play calling standpoint to try to be more protective of QB Tua Tagovailoa?
MIKE McDANIEL: I think it’s always been part of my job and seeing how there were injuries to the quarterback four games into my tenure here, I think that’s kind of old hat. We just kind of play our ball and as a coach, you make sure that you either have the protection or you have opportunistic situations for the eligibles to get people open in the time of the play, so he can do what he does. But I don’t think you can do right by a football team if the guys playing the game, you have to – you can’t really think about anything but how do we move the ball and score points. So I thought it was good for his teammates. I think the team felt this was, at times, more of a picture of what we had envisioned the entire time for how we played football, but it wasn’t clean enough to win and that’s the big takeaway for me.
Q. S Jevon Holland’s knee is not being feared significant at this time, is that accurate?
MIKE McDANIEL: Yeah, I don’t have all the information on it, but we’ll find more out. It didn’t seem, but I really would be talking ignorantly if I forecasted anything. I’ll find more out tomorrow.
Q. Can you speak to the challenge of going 2-5 and where this team is headed?
MIKE McDANIEL: Yeah, it’s a significant challenge. It kind of reminds me of — at this point, I can’t remember what the streak was, maybe it was two games or three in 2022 and we had that night game. I think the biggest thing is that you have to understand that all the heartbreak has to go into your next opponent. It’s the next opponent and it’s a divisional game and I know we have all the reason in the world to have 110 percent invested in it, so that’s what my expectation will be. I think it’s rough – 2-5 is rough. But in the NFL season, you can’t really take what your record is at this stage and extrapolate. That’s where you get causes for concern. You have to go take your best game and try to win one football game and I think that’s a really cool football place to play, and guys – I think we have the right guys and if they weren’t motivated for this one, they would be the wrong guys, and I’m not nervous about that. Just want to make sure that all of our energy is put towards what we’re able to do, not what has been done.
Q. Going back to QB Tua Tagovailoa protecting himself. What was your reaction during that scramble, I think it was the third quarter, when he actually got down and slid?
MIKE McDANIEL: Yeah, my reaction was I think he’s going to get the first down. I’m pretty sure what he’s going to do, but you never know until it happens and it was what I forecasted he would do. But when he’s mindful and not trying to run defenders over, he generally is able to stay pretty healthy, so I was excited that he didn’t hesitate and that he was very convicted in how he approached space, found space, and got himself down.
Q. Are you relieved that this is behind QB Tua Tagovailoa now that he’s back? He was untouched really today.
MIKE McDANIEL: I wouldn’t say relieved because that would insinuate that I was nervous about it. You know football is football, so you just try to put together a best plan that players can execute and I think that that’s part of the coach’s job, put guys in a position to succeed and for him, he does very well when he’s able to see the field and we protect well. There’s a lot of – I think the player ownership of our team, receivers running routes, beating bump coverage and the offensive linemen executing the protections, I think the players took it very personal in terms of their job and their responsibility to the team and to play effective football. The bottom line is if you’re giving up quarterback hits or sacks, you’re probably going the opposite direction of where points are. So I wouldn’t say relieved. I would say that the game played out in terms of that circumstance kind of the way I envisioned. I just envisioned us in the win column, not in the loss, but no one cares about my visions.
Q. What was the challenge playing without DT Zach Sieler and how long do you foresee you have to do this?
MIKE McDANIEL: It’s very challenging. He’s a big part of our team. I think there’s a lot of guys led by D-Hand (Da’Shawn Hand) but a lot of guys that were up for the challenge and just feeling his energy. Talking about Zach and in the locker room just as we left, he will be out no longer than his body — like as soon as his body allows, he will be out there. I wouldn’t envision it being too long just based upon his vigor and he didn’t like not being able to affect the outcome of the game and we are a better team when he’s on it.
Q. No surgery needed?
MIKE McDANIEL: Yeah, I wouldn’t be prepared totally to handle that question. They’re working through some things, but I leave that to the experts.
Tua Tagovailoa – October 27, 2024 (Postgame)
Download PDF version
Sunday, October 27, 2024
Postgame – Arizona Cardinals
QB Tua Tagovailoa
Q: What was it like to finally be back out there? How are you feeling having gone through the game?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: It feels good. It feels good to be able to come back and play with my teammates, to hopefully help in whatever way I can to get a spark going for us offensively or get the mojo going for the entire team. It feels good but a tough loss today against a really good team, so that diminishes not just what I’ve done, but a lot of what other guys have done individually as well.
Q: Did you feel like you were in a pretty good rhythm, did you feel like yourself early on? Or did it take a while to start settling into a rhythm?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: I would say I felt like myself. Like I said, I’ve been preparing for five weeks as if I were to play while I was on IR so that’s what it was. So it felt normal coming out there.
Q: You came back to a tough spot. You guys are 2-5 now. What’s next for this team?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: We got to keep chopping wood. That’s it. Keep chopping wood. Don’t look for any external motivation from anyone. Just look within. What can we do to get better? What can we do to continue to encourage each other? Because that’s what it takes. It takes everyone inside that locker room if we want to get to where we want to go.
Q: What did you think about the crowd’s reaction when you had the scramble and you slid and the crowd roared and chanted your name. What did you think of that?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: I thought that was super cool. It was super cool. I think anyone would think that’s awesome.
Q: You said you recognized sort of the need to make adjustments to remain available. Do you think that played out today in any way?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: What do you think?
Q: It looked that way.
TUA TAGOVAILOA: Yeah, so I would definitely agree with you. I’m just trying to avoid the big hits if I can. Sometimes they’re unavoidable. If there’s a free rusher and you got to get the ball out, you take a hit, but just for me putting myself in those situations, I would say just obviously for the past five weeks, I have been able to just really think and ponder about my decisions.
Q: A lot of good plays today but the one negative was the safety. What happened on that one?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: I got to catch the ball. That’s it. So, yeah.
Q: Do you have any lingering hesitation or nerves — did you have any lingering hesitations or nerves before you actually played?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: No.
Q: So there was nothing unresolved?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: No.
Q: How do you balance being aggressive and playing without thinking but also like you were talking about having to be mindful of the positions you put yourself in?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: I think it’s just continuing to practice that in practice, kind of having a different mindset when running the ball or when I’m trying to escape the pocket and there’s nothing there, not trying to be a hero, just things like that.
Q: How well do you feel the offense played as a unit?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: Well, I think there’s a lot of things we can continue to get better at. As a unit, we look to end the drive with points every time we’re out there. I believe we’re too talented to not end drives with points, so we got to go take a look at what we can continue to do to get better for our team, to put points on the board so that a situation like that doesn’t happen.
Q: What was the feeling at the end as the Cardinals are running down the clock and it’s kind of a helpless situation when you’re just watching the game?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: That’s exactly what I would say the (offense) felt, just helpless. We didn’t get another opportunity to go out there and give our team a chance to hopefully put some points on the board. So yeah, it’s not a good feeling.
Q: How much of an emphasis was it today to get WR Tyreek Hill involved in the game?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: It was an emphasis to get everyone involved in the game. For sure Tyreek, but as you can see with how they played their defense, they were really keying ‘Reek and trying to keep a shield over him and when they did give us opportunities we tried to take advantage of those, with those one-on-ones with ‘Reek. Outside of that, we were just playing the plays as they were, reading it out.
Q: You were 11-of-15 on third downs. What was the key to what you guys had there?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: I would say good Thursday practices with that. I would say everyone’s been locked in with – what I would say is what I expect of them with where to be on the field, knowing what to do in certain looks and whatnot. I would say that’s a testament to the guys in studying within their playbook.
Q: Is there enough time left in the season to recover?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: I think there’s always time, brother. There’s always time. Seventeen games. That’s a long time. A lot of games. So whether we’re counted out or we’re not, it doesn’t matter. We’re going to continue to play football. A lot of people in here know that I don’t know how many years ago we started out 1-7. We didn’t have half the guys that we have, and no disrespect to my other teammates, but I’m talking about the talent that we have here, we didn’t have half that talent however many years ago. So to give that group respect, we won the next (seven) games and I’m not saying we’re going to do that or whatnot, but it is possible. Anything’s possible. So we’re going to continue to trust each other, lean on each other, believe in each other, and we’re going to go do it next week.
Q: What are your thoughts as the next team you face will be the Buffalo Bills.
TUA TAGOVAILOA: I’ve got no thoughts. We’ve got to beat them. They’re good. It’s the same thing over and over. You’ve got to beat them.
Q: What happened after the — when TE Jonnu Smith got the first down, those three plays after, was there anything in particular that Arizona was doing?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: Yeah, there wasn’t anything new that they showed us. It was just poor execution offensively on our standpoint and I would say those are plays and that’s a series we wish we could have had back.
Q: When you see the team two weeks in a row lose a game after having a 10-point lead, what is it that you guys have to do to correct that?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: We just got to continue to play complementary football. That’s all it is.
Q: This doesn’t really have anything to do with this game, but we didn’t get a chance to ask on Monday. After the Week 2 game, fans donated I think it was $18,000, $20,000 to the Tua Foundation. Is that something you were aware of in the moment or what was your reaction when you saw that?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: It wasn’t something I was aware of at the moment. I do want to say a big thank you to those fans and then I was told that a good amount of them were Bills fans as well. It is kind of a love/hate thing. It’s hard to hate them, also hard to love them sort of deal. So I really appreciate it from the Bills fans and then also to fans in general, just thank you.
Tim Bowens – October 27, 2024 (Halftime)
Download PDF version
Sunday, October 27, 2024
Halftime – Arizona Cardinals
DT Tim Bowens – Miami Dolphins Ring of Honor Halftime Ceremony
Vice Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer Tom Garfinkel:
“Good afternoon. It’s a great honor to stand here today on behalf of Stephen Ross and the whole Dolphins organization and introduce a man who has left an indelible mark on this franchise. Today marks the first Ring of Honor induction in over 10 years, and although we’ve had countless alumni players who’ve left their mark on Dolphins history, it takes a special player and a special person to make the kind of impact that leaves their name forever enshrined in Hard Rock Stadium. Tim Bowens was that kind of player. The Dolphins drafted Tim in 1994, and it didn’t take long for him to make name for himself winning NFL Rookie of the Year. Over the course of his 11-year career, Tim was named to the Pro Bowl twice, dominating the trenches with more than 400 tackles, 22.0 sacks and most impressively started 155 games, the most for an interior lineman in Dolphins franchise history. Tim was the ultimate teammate; he was also one of the toughest as our very own Pro Football Hall of Famer Zach Thomas coined the phrase, ‘Tim Badass Bowens.’ Zach and Jason Taylor have both credited Tim as one of the main reasons why they wear gold jackets now; he did his job with consistency and set his teammates up for success. Tough, consistent, dependable and the ultimate competitor, he was all of these things throughout his Dolphins career. Tim, you’re more than deserving of this recognition. It’s now my honor to formally induct you into the Dolphins Ring of Honor.”
Former Dolphins DT Tim Bowens:
“Thank you. Thank you, Tom, Nat, Mr. Ross, the organization for letting me play my entire 11-year career here. I thank you. Special thanks to Coach Shula for drafting me and giving me that opportunity, and the rest of my coaches and my teammates, I love you guys. I appreciate the love, I appreciate last night, and I thank you. And to you the fans, I thank you for your support. I really appreciate it, thank you. To my family and my friends all in the stands or back home in Mississippi, thank you.”
