Ryan Tannehill – December 5, 2018
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Wednesday, December 5, 2018
QB Ryan Tannehill
(How are you feeling?) – “Good. Physically, I’m good. I got hit a few times but nothing got dinged up or anything like that. I’m feeling really good.”
(Any discomfort you had the first couple of weeks, has that even gone away further, or about the same as when you returned against Indy?) – “The shoulder is definitely feeling better. It’s still not 100 percent, but it’s definitely trending in the right direction. Every day that goes by, it just feels a little better. A week goes by, it feels a little better. So I’m really excited about how things are progressing there.”
(There was a play during the game where we all kind of cringed a little bit. It looked similar to the Bengals game when you got hurt. I know you were trying to make the play, but were you kind of cognizant of it? Did you see a replay show that it was eerily similar to the play in Cincinnati?) – “Yeah. Someone mentioned it to me on the sideline after it happened. When it happened, I didn’t even think about it. I kind of stepped up through the contact and tried to get the ball to DeVante (Parker). Honestly, I didn’t really think about it too much during the play, and I don’t think you can. I think if you’re thinking about that in the pocket then you’re going to have a tough time finding an open receiver downfield. Thankfully, nothing happened and I was able to kind of shrug off the contact.”
(How is this Patriot defense similar or different than the Patriot defenses you’ve seen three, four, five years ago?) – “They’re playing physical right now, which you see every year. They still do some of the same stuff, mixing up their pressures. I think over the past five weeks compared to the last time we played them and in years past, they’re bringing a lot more Cover 0 pressures – bringing everyone and trying to get a guy free up front. I would say that’s probably the biggest change-up from what I’ve seen as opposed to what we’ve seen in the past and even earlier this year.”
(Does it seem like you always see something new from them when you play them?) – “Yes. I think they play their defense but they’re always going to throw some wrinkles at you. Whether it’s a pressure or playing a little more Bear Cover 2 than they show on tape or whatever it may be, they’re always going to throw some sort of wrinkle at you. They’re going to have a wrinkle on first and second down. They’re going to have a wrinkle on third down, changing up the pressure. Maybe it’s personnel. They throw a lot of different personnel at you, whether it’s dime, dollar, nickel, nickel big. They’re going to throw everything at you and try to make you take all of that into account and figure out what they’re doing. I think they do a good job of that, of just mixing things up and trying to make it harder on the offense.”
(How difficult is it to gauge how long you’re holding the ball when you’re looking for an open receiver and trying to make that connection?) – “You have a clock in your head. I think that’s just something that’s ingrained over time, whether you’re playing in the backyard or you’re playing out here on Sundays. You have a clock in your head. You have a rhythm of when guys are supposed to be open, when they should be breaking and all of those types of things. All of that comes into account of the clock in your head. Sometimes the clock happens faster because the routes should happen faster. Sometimes it’s a little more longer developing because the routes are further downfield. Every play has a different clock. You just kind of have to match that up with what you’re doing.”
(Do you feel like the buzzer may be going off in your head, at some point it says ‘I have to get rid of the ball?’ It looked like on two of those sacks, you might have been holding the ball a little bit too long or a receiver wasn’t open.) – “Yeah, of course. There’s always situations where the clock is going off. Sometimes you’re waiting on a receiver to get to his spot and get it out there. Sometimes the rush gets there a little faster than you want it to and you can’t get the ball out.”
(Every game and every season is different, I get it; but it so happens that you’ve won your last three games against the Patriots here with seven touchdown passes. Thinking back to those games – I know they were a couple years ago – but do you recall any sort of common denominator for you and the offense?) – “You’re going back years now. (laughter)”
(You’ve found success against the Patriots’ defense. Why is that?) – “I think first and foremost, when you play this team, you have to play smart football. You can’t have penalties. You can’t have turnovers. You can’t put your defense in a bad spot. I think that’s all where it starts and then all the other things, we look for each and every game. You convert on third downs, score in the red zone, get explosive plays – all that is something we look for every game. I think this team, more than any other team, they’re not going to beat themselves. They’re not going to give you cheap flags, cheap penalties, cheap anything, really. So you can’t give them any. You have to play clean football and everyone has to do their job.”
(The Patriots have had more trouble down here than just about any place else. Do you have any thoughts as to why you think they’ve lost four of their last five games?) – “I don’t know why. I think we’ve played good football against them. I think that’s one thing that we want to establish and we’ve been establishing is we play well at home. It’s our home field, we have home-field advantage and we need to take advantage of it and win the games at home.”
(You’ve been back for two games since the injury. What would you say would be your self-evaluation over that time?) – “Some good, some bad. I think we’re heading in the right direction. Obviously, some plays I would like to have back. Some plays I’m really happy with. I think that’s the continuous evolvement of playing the position is you’re always going to find some things that you do well, some plays you’d like to have back. As long as you’re improving and not making the same mistake twice, I think you’re heading in the right direction.”
(Do you know what your quarterback rating is in those two games?) – “I don’t know exactly.”
(112.) – “I think that’s a good start. Quarterback rating doesn’t tell you the whole picture, obviously. It means something. If you have a high rating, you’re obviously playing decent football. But I think I’ve done some things well and some things that I’d like to improve upon and get better at.”
(Are you ripping yourself?) – “(laughter) No. I like to be honest with myself of where I’m at. You’re not going to have the perfect game, but that’s what I’m striving for. I’m striving to go out and play the perfect game. I think if you’re happy where you’re at then you’re going to be in a bad spot moving forward. You’re not going to get any better. Obviously, I have a long way to go to get where I want to be. I think I’m doing alright, but (there are) a lot of plays that I’d like to be better at. I think we have a lot better football in front of us as an offense.”
(The one thing that hasn’t been showing up a lot is yardage. How important is that? 170, 160 yards a game, I’m sure you want more, but is that important?) – “Points are important. I think that’s ultimately what my job is, is to get the offense in the end zone. Usually to do that, you have to get yards and move the ball down the field, so it kind of goes hand in hand. Ultimately, we’re trying to get points and however many yards it takes to do that then that’s great.”
(The read option in years past has been part of your game. I know Head Coach Adam Gase has said there have been some situations in the last couple weeks where it’s been called and it just hasn’t really materialized. What are your thoughts on running the ball and tucking a little bit more?) – “I’m game for that. I think that’s something we have in the game plan almost every week, if not every week. Some games it comes up more than others. You think back to the Jets game early on. It came up a lot. It depends kind of on how teams are playing us, how we’re going to call it whether it’s a hand off or a keep. It really all just depends on the look that you’re getting from the defense. It’s not something that you call it more and you’re going to have more quarterback runs. You might call it more and end up handing the ball off every single time. It’s just something that we have to evaluate as the game goes on and how it fits in our plan.”
(With the shoulder, though, you’re not at all concerned about tucking and running?) – “No. I’m not concerned at all with the shoulder.”
(There’s a lot made of the heat and humidity down here. How as a quarterback does that affect you versus maybe playing in a cold weather area?) – “I wouldn’t say it affects the quarterback position more than any other position. I think conditioning is always important. We train in this heat and humidity every day so we’re pretty accustomed to it. I think that’s probably the advantage of teams from the north coming down here is they don’t have the luxury of practicing in the heat and humidity. They have to be able to adapt and keep their conditioning high in other ways.”
