Jonnu Smith – November 17, 2024 (Postgame)
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Sunday, November 17, 2024
Postgame – Las Vegas Raiders
Dolphins TE Jonnu Smith (transcribed by ASAP Sports)
Q. Jonnu, when do you ever remember having a game like this?
JONNU SMITH: Christ is king, baby. Man, that was – it’s a lot more than just a game for me. I’m extremely blessed, man, and just proud of where God has placed me with this team. Everything was rocky in the beginning – forget about the stat line, what we just experienced in the locker room is something that we worked all year for. I’m not trying to ignore your question, but I just felt like I needed to hit on that. It wasn’t about the stat line for me today, it was the joy that we had knowing that the work that we just put in, the work that was put in all the way from OTAs and just the expectations and the fight that’s in this team. Just proud of this group of guys. It’s a special group, truly, and I’m just excited to be a part of this as a team no matter which way it’s going. Today was another step towards the direction that we want to go, but it’s one step at a time mentality.
Q. What was the locker room like?
JONNU SMITH: It was what we expected it to be every week, to say the least. But the resolve of the group of guys that we got, the leaders on this team, it was some key additions that was added to this. It was a championship caliber team before this year but just the leaders that were added to this team, it’s definitely taken us to another level. I know the record right now doesn’t show it, but we know who we are. We know who we want to be, and just that energy in the locker room, just guys being selfless rallying around one another, just more happy for other people’s successes. Just proud to be part of this group.
Q. What is that feeling of when you’re standing there all alone in the middle of the field on that touchdown?
JONNU SMITH: The Red Seas parted. It’s Sunday, I’m coming with my biblical terms today. It seems like if it was a busted coverage, and Tua, me and him, we just connected, locked eyes and just made the rest happen.
Q. Talk a bit about the reaction on the sideline when Jalen Ramsey got the interception, pretty much iced the game.
JONNU SMITH: Just momentum and energy, just an amazing feeling. It’s such a sigh of relief when you see everything that we put into it, you know what I mean? The guys, we’re working — I know the stats, the record doesn’t show, but we’re working. We’re sacrificing, you know what I mean? And for everybody, this town, this city, has had big expectations on us and we understand that we’re playing for the city of Miami — really probably the state of Florida, you know what I mean? We’re playing for a lot bigger than just the city of Miami, we’ve got fans all over the country. And I understand that there’s an expectation that came into this. And to just have that mentality of, listen, let’s look at this thing in the mirror and let’s go attack it. No matter who is with us, who is against us, we know what we’ve got in here and we’re going to keep rolling.
Q. What’s it like to have scoring drives of 14, 16, 14 and 10 plays?
JONNU SMITH: I was messing around earlier in the locker room just now saying, Jake probably went home already. (laughter) That’s our brand of football. That’s who the Miami Dolphins are offensively, that’s who we are. Still not our best offensive game, still. A lot of things we can clean up, and that’s why we believe in — but that’s who we are. That’s the Dolphin standard of football, and still a lot of things that we need to clean up and we know that. We’ll get back to the drawing board and continue to fix those mistakes and just continue to try to be better, never get too complacent.
Q. When you caught that and you saw nobody around you but you knew they were gaining on you, were you looking back? Were you just like focused at the end zone?
JONNU SMITH: I was told a long time ago slow people look back. So when I caught it and I saw nobody in front of me, I wasn’t leaving without a tud, wasn’t leaving without a tud. The Red Seas parted, Uce found me and God did the rest.
Q. What about the first touchdown moving in motion, fourth down play, could you just detail that one?
JONNU SMITH: Yeah, again, just getting my eyes around quick and just Tua having a feel for where I’m at. It’s funny, the ball actually got tipped. The guy tried to make a play on the ball, the ball got tipped and we still found a way to come down with it. Another big, big play just by the offensive group being it was fourth and one right there and definitely needed points. Another big play for us, and good way to start the game off.
Q. You guys were I think 8-of-12 on third down, 2-of-2 on fourth down. Since Tua has back from injury, you guys have been a really good third-down team. What’s the key been?
JONNU SMITH: Best in the world. You’ve got the best quarterback in the world. Makes things a lot easier for everybody else. And those guys that came in during that time when he was down, they did a great job and helped us as much as they could and showed a lot of grit and a lot of selflessness. We are happy to have those guys, but 1 is who he is for a reason. But we’re excited to have him back and excited to where we’re back where we need to be.
Q. You talked about how happy you are and what a blessing it is to be on this team. You’ve been on a few teams, what’s the difference?
JONNU SMITH: Again, like you could look at the roster and you could say, they’ve got this guy, they’ve got this guy. A lot may deem them as superstars. When we come into that locker room, we just try to put all that stuff away and come together and win. And I think that’s what is so special about this group, just eliminating the egos. Eliminating the “me” mentality and just focusing on the team, doing what you’re supposed to be doing, being there fighting for your brothers, being in this thing together. Everybody had the same feeling for the past nine or so weeks or whatever it was. We all had the same thing, we were all going through the same thing. Nobody was pointing fingers and nobody was wavering. We rallied, we experienced some adversity and pushing through it. That’s why it’s a special group.
Q. So because you’re a coach for little league football team, how does it translate with you being on the field to the coaching mindset with the kids? How do the kids look at you? Do they look at you as, oh, that’s just coach; like he’s supposed to do that? Or do they look at you when you have a game like this, it’s like, dude, that’s our coach?
JONNU SMITH: I’ll say this, so it’s funny that Tua said that. I had my pups come in. We just won two championships, my flag — my 7-year-old and 9-year-old team, we came in Saturday for Saturday’s walkthrough yesterday. I brought them in because we just won two championships, so I wanted to show them around, bring them around the guys. But obviously it’s like I’ve been coaching going on it’s probably started in January, so this is probably, I don’t know, what is it, 11 months or whatever it is. For me obviously all the kids knew who I was and all of that, so I had to separate — actually a good question, but they did a great job like separating like Jonnu Smith from Coach Nu. They did a great job. That’s why we won two championships. Shoutout to Cooper City Dolphins Optimist, come check us out next year.
-DOLPHINS-
