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Cameron Wake – October 21, 2018 (Postgame)

Sunday, October 21, 2018
Postgame – Detroit Lions

Miami Dolphins DE Cameron Wake

  The run defense, they put up 248 rushing yards today.

CAM WAKE: I didn’t realize (it was) that much but a lot has to go wrong for that to happen. (It was) a very odd situation because, when something like that happens, you want to sit down and pick apart the whole game play-by-play; but the reality is today’s Wednesday and we have a game coming up very quickly. We have to move on. I know for sure that our guys will go back and look at the tape. Any time that happens, very rarely is it just somebody comes in and runs all over you. It’s miscommunication or somebody not where they are supposed to be, not playing complementary from front to back is the only way I can describe it.

How would you evaluate the pass rush?

CAM WAKE: Not good enough. But I think, if you’re running for 250, you’re third-and-short every time. I mean, there’s not going to be much of an opportunity. We always say as a front, you’ve got to do your work first. Stop the run so you can play and rush the passer. I don’t know all of the details but I’m pretty sure there weren’t too many third-and-longs out there because we weren’t stopping the run. So pass rushing on third-and-2 is probably not going to be an advantageous position for getting after the quarterback.

How much of a challenge is it now to try to put this behind you when you have a game coming up behind you?

CAM WAKE: It’s going to be … I just said, it’s Wednesday. To the rest of the world it’s Sunday, but for us it’s Wednesday. In a very normal week, we wouldn’t even be talking about the (next) game. Usually I say you’ve got about 24 hours to pat yourself on the back or lick your wounds. You’ve got about 30 minutes to figure that out now. You’ve got to already be getting ready for the next opponent. It’s an away game obviously, so we are traveling there, too. It’s a lot, but everybody has to get their job done. We are all big boys, grown men. You’ve got to have a short memory, wipe the slate clean and start focusing on the next task.

I don’t have the stats in front of me but I don’t imagine you guys have given up that kind of running stats all season. What happens when someone does that?

CAM WAKE: There’s no way you could have told me that would be something that would happen today. I’m pretty sure, I don’t know the stats either, but that hasn’t been something we’ve encountered in the past season and maybe if you probably look back to last season before you find something like that or numbers like that. But if that was a recurring thing, then I would probably be a little nervous. Again, I think that has to be miscommunication. Out of position, wrong fit, whatever it is. That’s the only way I can explain without seeing the tape; but at the same time, as frustrating as that is, that means it’s very easily fixable. Be where you’re supposed to be and as you’ve seen, we’ve done it in the past. So it’s not, ‘I can’t do.’ It’s ‘I didn’t do,’ and we’ve just got to make sure again on defense, it’s every single play for 60 or more minutes. You’ve got to play four quarters. We didn’t.

How did you feel out there, your first game back?

I felt good. I’m glad to be back out there. It’s hard watching (from) the sidelines. I want to get out there and help. It eases my soul.

How frustrating are all of these injuries?

CAM WAKE: It’s football. Every game you turn on, somebody is going to get injured. That’s the way it is. You roll the dice. It’s not if, it’s when, and nobody can predict when. So there’s nothing you can do about it, unless we put on flags. But that’s not … I mean, we’re going in that direction though.

So three weeks ago, you guys are in first place, and now, I don’t even know if you’re in third place. Does that concern you that you’re going in the wrong direction?

CAM WAKE: It’s early. We’ve got nine more games, I think. I’ve played a lot of football and I’ve seen things change. So we have a lot of work to do, but we have a lot of time, as well. I’m not panicking yet. We’ve got a lot of time but at the same time, we have to make sure we don’t play like this on both sides of the ball. So it’s not an impossible task. I think we’ve shown what we’re capable of, but you’ve got to do it consistently. You can’t be up, down, up, down. You’ve got to play every week, play together and start stacking wins so that whenever it comes down the line, Week 13, you’re not saying, ‘Oh, we should have, or I wish we would have.’ You (have to) put yourself in a place so that you don’t have to worry about that.

 

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