Eric Rowe – December 14, 2020
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Monday, December 14, 2020
S Eric Rowe
(With you guys knowing what’s at stake in the final three games, with all these injuries mounting, what do you tell the team about these December games?) – “It’s part of the league. Everybody gets injured, especially towards December. I don’t even know – what is this, like our 12th, 13th game? Stuff happens. Just regardless, the only thing you can tell is, ‘hey, people got to step up,’ because these last few games – really the whole month of December – is crucial.”
(You talked about the importance of this week. For you personally, the significance of facing the Patriots. I don’t know if you know this, but if you win on Sunday, they’re eliminated from playoff contention for the first time since 2008. Your thoughts on having this kind of critical game against a team that you know very well?) – “Yeah, it’s a crucial game on both sides. They’re trying to keep their playoff hopes alive. At the end of the day, we’re trying to keep our playoff hopes alive, too. If we lose these last three, I’m pretty sure we’ll be out. We’ll be 8-8. So it’s a big game for both us and then not just that but it’s a division game, too. Those are always that little bit – adds a little ‘umph’ to it.”
(I wanted to ask you, the two years you’ve been here, last season you saw plenty of weekly changes to the lineup and guys stepping up and still producing. And then yesterday you go into a game with plenty of guys nicked up and exiting the game mid-game, and you guys are still able to stay competitive. I’m wondering what’s that common thread that allows a team to be able to continuously replace guys that go out of the game and still get production out of the guys that come into the game?) – “It’s just the message of – ‘Flo’ (Head Coach Brian Flores) has been preaching it since even in the offseason and virtual meetings – that if one guy goes down, then the next guy has to take advantage of this opportunity. And so when we have guys go down, especially like last game and it was kind of unfortunate it was against of the best teams in the AFC; guys stepped up and they made plays. DeVante (Parker) went down and Mack (Hollins) stepped up. Bobby (McCain) went down and Kavon (Frazier) and Clayton (Fejedelem), they stepped into the role. That’s the kind of team you need to have that type of depth and to build throughout the season because not that you want to say it, but not all 11 guys that started in August are still playing in December – injuries, stuff happens.”
(Two questions I’d like to point your way. One is just the significance for you of getting an interception against Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes. That’s No. 1 and No. 2, you’ve had a lot of experience on the Dolphins-Patriots rivalry. Most of the time it’s been where other teams are trying to play spoiler toward your team at this time of year and what is it like when you play a team that’s in that kind of position?) – “For the first question, I feel like every interception is significant because they’re not easy to come by. Not everybody’s like ‘X’ (Xavien Howard) who gets one each game, (laughter) so any interception that comes by me is pretty up there. It’s high up there. But as far as the Patriots rivalry, like the ‘spoiler,’ yeah, because usually the Pats when I was with the Patriots, the Dolphins kind of spoiled our season; but I guess now, I guess the tides have turned and they’re going to try to wreck our season. At the end of the day, honestly that’s not something that we think about. We really think about getting our job done, executing and winning. That’s just the main thing, so ‘revenge game,’ all that stuff; that’s cool, but all we think about is – if you look at me, like, ‘all right, how am I going to shut this tight end down?’ That’s all I’m going to think about week-to-week.”
(How different would you say the Dolphins defense is now from the beginning of the season? The team had a lot of trouble with the Patriots in that first game. How different is it now other?) – “We’re a lot different than the team in September, which you should be, right? They’re a lot different team than who they were in September. How us as a defense, we were still trying to come together. We only had training camp, a couple weeks of practice, no game, no game reps; and then now until today, you can kind of see how we’re doing as a defense. We’re all playing with a lot of energy and getting a turnover each game, trying to make good stops. But also, they’re different, too. So we’ll have to see on Sunday, but us as a defense, we’ve made some huge strides.”
(I wanted to ask you how close – now that we’re in December and the playoff race is so tight – do you keep tabs on scores around the league and in that vein, whether you’re planning on watching the Baltimore-Cleveland game tonight, which obviously has ramifications for you guys?) – “As things get closer, like me, I’ll keep an eye on like last night with the Bills, for the division; but then they end up winning and I was like, ‘ah.’ But nothing like we need to sit here and focus on the game. But any prime time game, I really watch. Honestly, I didn’t even know until probably y’all told me, that this Baltimore game has an effect on us. I was going to watch the game because Cleveland’s been balling and you got Lamar Jackson, so I was going to watch it for that; but now that you said something, yeah, like, I hope they lose, but all I know is we got to get ready for the Patriots though.”
(I was wondering what, if anything, you told your teammates about yesterday about lessons learned from a game like that? Obviously you’ve been on the wrong end of some results that were probably tough to handle and impactful. What was your message to your guys?) – “I think we all kind of understood we were in the game. If you take a couple – we could really count three or four plays, at least defensively – and I think we had a better shot of winning. But at the end of the day, we were in it. Obviously the (Kansas City Chiefs are) the best team in the AFC. With us being injured – I mean, we went through like three running backs. We lost them from the jump. DeVante (Parker) injured, Bobby (McCain) goes down; so to have that type of competitiveness with guys going down, with things kind of going against us, it kind of shows something in the team and then the fact that we didn’t quit. We could’ve quit when was 30-10 and kind of hung the towel, but we just kept that fighting. I feel like that’s a good sign, good keys of a team.”
