Alec Ingold – October 28, 2024
Download PDF version
Monday, October 28, 2024
FB Alec Ingold
(First time this Dolphins era being under .500 in several games under .500. What’s the mood been like?) – “I think it’s been obviously a tough start to the year. Like you said, 2-5, nobody had that scheduled for this team, this crew. So being able to stop hesitating and ask ourselves what’s going on and just continuing to try and fix problems I think is the biggest thing on these Mondays, is refocusing, recalibrating from what just happened, what does it mean and how do we use it to move forward. I think that’s really the state of the union on this Monday and I think that really helps put lot of things in perspective on a Tuesday and then showing up Wednesday with everything focused on how to win the very next week.”
(How do the team captains and the leadership council come into play in situations like this? Not just today but over the first seven weeks of the season?) – “I think we have quite a few leaders. In the regular meetings and the regular job description of captain and leaders, the leadership council, it’s always different and I think guys finding their voices in the margins of this locker room and this space and the complex; I think that’s really where a lot of those one-on conversations are happening. That’s where the communication is being and that’s where trust has to be built. It’s one-on-one. It’s the relationships, it’s the guys talking to each other, staying the course, being able to fix the little things before they become the big things. So captains and leadership council definitely – we have our meetings and whatever you want to describe it on the itinerary, but you never really stop leading and I think that’s the power in the amount of guys that we have in those leadership roles.”
(You’re a pretty upbeat guy. Why are you optimistic that things are going to turn around?) – “You can feel it on the field. It’s the weirdest feeling and you sound kind of insane when you feel that way because of the results, but when we’re moving, we’re operating; there’s times in games where we had 10 points, when we had 27 and you can just feel the – something is in the air. And I can’t put my finger on it, but it’s improvement. It’s development. You watch our tape from Week 2 to last week – there are guys that have made mistakes, have fixed it, have corrected it and have improved on it and you can feel that. You get a sense of this organization, this team coming together through a 2-5 start that nobody thought was going to happen and you sound crazy talking about it when you’re 2-5, but the only way is through. The only way is to continue on this process. The only way through is to continue to trust and build on what we believe have been lessons, not scars and that’s a Mike McDaniel-ism, but it’s something that is really true and it hits the nail on the head for a lot of reasons.”
(How frustrating is it that these little mistakes keep popping up? Before it was it with the holds and the offensive line. I think there was only one hold on Sunday, but then now there’s a little bit of snap issues. So frustrating is that and what are you guys going to try to do maybe with the leadership council to try to correct some of these little things?) – “I think it’s death by a thousand paper cuts right now and it’s like, man, we were able to overcome so many of those situations in past years and that’s not been the case this season. So to have that consistent voice, to continue to not get tired or feel sorry for yourself or waste any emotion on things that don’t value or add value to winning a football game; there’s no room for that. There’s no room for close. There’s no room for ‘Oh, that might have been good enough.’ They’re non-negotiables at this point and that sense of urgency, that sense of attention to detail, I think that’s all the way throughout this organization. Everybody has to – it doesn’t matter who wins or loses the game, it’s that continual improvement and that’s what we need to find and we need to win along the way while we’re doing it.”
(What were you noticing in the offense in QB Tua Tagovailoa’s first game back just in terms of the orchestration of everything?) – “It felt good, man. It felt good to have ‘One’ (Tua Tagovailoa) back. It felt good to be able to roll the way we did, but again, I think we had the ball with eight minutes left. We can’t end that drive in a punt and I think there’s a lot of guys, a lot of spots in that place where we all could have stepped up a little bit better. So it felt good to get in the end zone, it felt good to have those explosive plays, but good wasn’t good enough.”
(That sense of urgency that you were talking about, how does that translate to improvement maybe in the operation especially in a tough road environment like you guys have coming up?) – “I think when you talk about sense of urgency in the environment and the circumstances, all this external stuff, that sense of urgency is internal. It’s within the huddle. That’s within yourself. So being able to practice and replicate and develop that day by day with your actions, with your habits, your routines; it carries over. It leaks into the football field so you’re focused. You know the job at hand. You know what to do, how to do it and you do it with all of the energy and emotion that you possibly have in that moment to succeed. So I think that’s a really important thing building on this week to be able to lock in, laser-focused for four quarters, whatever it takes to find a way to win and finish a game.”
(What has impressed you about RB Jaylen Wright? He hasn’t had a ton of chances, but when he does he’s pretty impactful?) – “I think you hit the nail on the head. Like to be a running back and not be in completely like the flow of the game and still have explosive runs when his number is called as a young guy, that’s really cool. He doesn’t have to get his motor running, four or five carries, get tackled a few times to then be able to hit it. He shows up, he’s explosive and definitely for a young guy it’s cool to see him step into that role and whenever he touches the ball, he does something with it. So very happy with him.”
