Cameron Wake – November 4, 2018 (Postgame)
Sunday, November 4, 2018
Postgame – N.Y. Jets
Miami Dolphins DE Cameron Wake
Are you back?
CAMERON WAKE: I left? (laughter)
How rewarding is it to have the kind of day you had and finish off with those sacks?
CAMERON WAKE: I don’t really consider anything different. It’s just I’m always tasked to go out there and do my job. A lot of times, obviously getting to the quarterback, sometimes it’s making a tackle, whatever it is. I spoke to you guys – however long ago it was – about everybody doing their job, playing together, front to back, side to side. And so that’s what was rewarding. I’m not a guy that counts stats, but everybody playing together and pulling out a win, that’s what rewarding is.
Did you feel personally that you played that much better today or was it just another performance?
CAMERON WAKE: It’s just in other performance. Football is an interesting thing. You go out there and sometimes the ball bounces your way, sometimes it doesn’t. There are days you get pressure and no sacks, and some days you get sacks and no pressure. That’s just the way the cookie crumbles. And if you continue to do your job day-in, day-out, don’t look backwards, don’t look too far forward, focus on the play in front of you, the next play is the most important play, eventually you keep doing the right thing, good things will happen for you and obviously for the team as a whole.
We had seen you guys getting pressure on the quarterback but you actually got him down today. We know what that does statistically. What does that do psychologically for you guys to actually get that quarterback to the ground?
CAMERON WAKE: The whole point is to get off the field. Obviously, pressure is great. You want to get the guy, whoever has the ball, off his rhythm, off his spot, maybe mess up the timing, all that. At the end of the day, third down, you want to get off the field. Sacks are a good way to get that done. We got good pressure today. Again, everybody doing their job and as you see, statistics are usually spread out amongst other guys – pressures, hits, sacks, all that. Again, you have to play together as one and you know and all the stuff will come to you.
What did you guys do to confuse and fluster the rookie quarterback out there?
CAMERON WAKE: I’ll be honest, we weren’t concerned about him, per se. It was, again, we had, had a couple weeks where it didn’t matter who was the quarterback. Guys were out of place, out of their gaps, uncovered receivers, again, I spoke to you guys about that. So today it wasn’t anything dramatic. It was cover the guy you’re supposed to cover, be in the gap you’re supposed to be in and everything else will take care of itself. And for the most part, I think we did that. Obviously, there’s still a couple plays we left out there. But again, like I said, playing together, it was about us, not about them.
Adam Gase said that Reshad Jones took himself out of the game. Did that come across to you as strange or bizarre?
CAMERON WAKE: I didn’t really have much time to think about what that was about. Obviously in the middle of a football game, so I had to focus on the next play and when I get out there, try to focus on my job.
You spent a good portion of this game when the offense was on the field with your arm around him talking to him. What was that conversation like?
CAMERON WAKE: That’s between him and I.
Is he too hurt to play?
CAMERON WAKE: That’s between him and I.
As a great pass rusher, is it like a chess game out there where you’re working the tackle the whole game, the whole game, you’re setting up for something, and then in the fourth quarter, you can pop a surprise on him and get to the quarterback. Does it work that way sometimes?
CAMERON WAKE: If you wait until the fourth quarter, you waited too long.
You know what I’m saying, setting up the fourth quarter.
CAMERON WAKE: I’m going to throw you my fastball the first time I get an opportunity to see if you can handle it, plain and simple. I feel like in this game, you’re going to have a guy across from you and he’s probably going to think there’s no way this guy can get past me, and I don’t feel like there’s any tackle in the league that can block me. They are going to put the ball down and we’re going to find out what’s what. I’m going to give you everything I got, play-in and play-out. Yes, there’s a game within the game as far as what you’re talking about, but at the end of the day, every player is trying to get there and whatever I’ve got to do to get there, within the defensive call, I’m going to give it to you, so you’d better be ready for a 100-mile-an-hour fastball every time.
You’ve had injuries at almost every position, defensive end, defensive tackle, safety, corner, pretty much everywhere.
CAMERON WAKE: Linebacker. Quarterback. Tight end. Receiver. Offensive line. Nobody. Kickers are safe right now.
How do you think the team has responded to that? What is the key to overcoming that?
CAMERON WAKE: I think, again, not to put too much on it, today as an example of that … I don’t even know how many guys we have on IR not playing today. You guys can probably look it up. But we had a lot of, hey yous, next man up, throughout the entire year. Even obviously I had a part to play in that as well. I think it all comes down to believing in the guys that are next to you and the guys that are behind you. I was down, I had guys go in and step for me, and the expectations are the same. You’ve got to get to the quarterback. You’ve got to stop the run. You’ve got to do X, Y and Z. It doesn’t matter if it’s receiver, quarterback, everybody so far except for the kickers, that’s the expectation. This is the NFL. If you’re on a team, at any moment’s notice, even today we had guys up and down, it’s just the way it works. We’ve probably had more than normal. I don’t know, again, that’s another stat you guys can look up, but it’s part of the business, and you have to be ready every day, every game no matter what, and everybody is going to rely on you and you’ve got to be accountable.
Is there any question in your mind whether Reshad Jones is going to be with the team next Sunday.
CAMERON WAKE: Unless you know something I don’t know, I don’t see why not.
Over the last two weeks, the defense wasn’t at its best. What were those two weeks like and how did you put it all together today?
CAMERON WAKE: It was frustrating. Again, I’ve always said this over my career, there’s a difference between can’t and didn’t. And I look at our roster and I look at the guys, and I know the guys that we have; there’s no can’t. We have the playmakers to make every interception, make every sack, stop every run, block, all the way down the list. When you have games like you had before, it wasn’t a can’t. They are not stronger than you, faster than you, better players. It was something you did to yourself. In the NFL, more games are lost than won. I think that was a dramatic overstatement, or understatement, for the last couple weeks. This week, again, it was no magical defensive call. There was no special water. It was guys doing what they are supposed to do, which should be the default, and when it doesn’t happen, obviously you’ve got games like you had before. Again, today was a shouldn’t be nothing out of the ordinary. It should be our par for the course and hopefully we can build on this game and move forward and do the same thing.
Matt Burke was talking about earlier in the week guys playing outside the scheme, outside their game. He wouldn’t go as far as saying freelancing, but referred to that. Had you seen that, and did that change today?
CAMERON WAKE: You saw it. I’ve told you guys … If you see a receiver running and nobody’s there, somebody has done something. Again, is it purposeful? Freelancing seems a little more malicious, versus maybe missed call, miscommunication, missed read, whatever you want to call it. At some point, you were wrong. If I’m not in the gap and the ball runs through untouched – freelancing is an umbrella word – I was wrong. Correcting your mistakes and being and doing what you’re supposed to do, it makes it very simple. Football is a very, very simple game. Easy, no. Simple, yes. Everybody has a gap, be in the gap and make the tackle when the football comes there. That’s football. But as you see, sometimes, again, for 100 different reasons, somebody is out of the gap. In the NFL, good players are going to find that gap or that open receiver or that thing that’s not being done, he guy is not doing his job, and they exploit it and you get explosive plays, touchdowns, so on and so forth.
