Danny Crossman – December 15, 2022
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Thursday, December 15, 2022
Special Teams Coordinator Danny Crossman
(I know this is a worn-out topic with K Jason Sanders, but a 55-yarder last week. Did he do anything differently? I know you’ve been saying confidence. At risk of a harsh response, did he do anything differently?) – “No. Again, he’s been the same guy all year. Just like we talked about last week and the week before that, it’s good to see what we see every single kick in practice on gameday now. So as I’ve said all along, (we have) complete confidence (in him). Like anything though, the made kicks always give you more confidence. It was good. It was an important kick. We needed it and he struck it very well.”
(With the potential weather conditions that are forecasted, wind, snow and whatnot, what discussions are you having with P Thomas Morstead and K Jason Sanders about?) – “We talk about all the situations and all the possibilities. One thing after spending some time (in Buffalo), it can change in a heartbeat and it could change – when we wake up in the hotel, what’s happening at the hotel downtown means nothing (compared to) what may be happening in Orchard Park. So you talk about what you may get. You look at it, you talk about it and then you just got to be able to go out and execute. You want to strike a good ball and then let the elements take care of what they’re going to do – you can’t control that. As long as we hit the ball well, the elements are going to do to the ball what the elements want to do – you can’t control that. What you can control is up until your foot hits the football and that’s what we’ll concentrate on.”
(Depending on where the wind is maybe blowing, are there conversations that you have with Head Coach Mike McDaniel about, “Hey, maybe we want to go this certain way in the first half because of the winds?”) – “There’s a lot of things. Five or 10 miles per hour wind in that stadium changes a lot of things. What direction is it coming from? Is it coming off the lake? So there’s a lot of things in that stadium because of how it’s built and how close it is to the lake that can be factors. But again, until you get there, we’ll talk about them, we’ll discuss them, but we’ll worry about it when we get there on game day.”
(You coached there for several years. You talked about the wind and all that. Does that give you “OK, when I get there, I need to look at this?”) – “Yeah, like anything, there’s a knowledge of what that stadium is and where there are certain things you expect. So without question, the more time you spend there under different circumstances in terms of weather, it gets you a little bit more prepared, I believe. But again, it comes down to execution. We’ll make the guys aware of it, we’ve looked at some tape of some different situations in terms of what could be when you talk about weather and then again, we’ve just got to go out and execute.”
(What was the toughest weather game you had up there?) – “Probably when we played Indianapolis one year with lake effect snow. Pregame there was no snow until about 20 minutes before gametime, and then we ended up playing in about eight inches. But again, you can’t control that. So you talk about it and you adapt to what you get.”
(In the event of heavy snow flurries, are you inclined to tell your receivers either don’t even try fielding the punt or just make sure you catch it and don’t worry about the return?) – “Again it’s the footing even before you get to the ball. There’s so many different things that can go into it that we just make them aware of all the scenarios and then to go out and No. 1 make good decisions but understand the circumstances of what you may have to do.”
(I guess you can’t just dust off the Week 3 gameplan and scouting report because the Bills acquired RB Nyheim Hines. What do you see from him?) – “He’s an outstanding player. (He’s) really special with the ball in his hands and has been since he’s been in the National Football League. They’re an outstanding team. They’ve done a great job building that team, offensively, defensively and in the kicking game. Obviously, to be able to go at the trade deadline and get a guy of that caliber to go along with what they’ve done and how they’ve built the team on offense and defense, it shows that on all three phases, they’re an outstanding club.”
(We’re making a huge deal about the weather. I’m wondering from your experience, how big a deal it is? Because my thought kind of is, everybody on the Dolphins didn’t grow up in South Florida and live here their wholes lives. There have been guys who have played – OL Michael Deiter grew up in Ohio and played at Wisconsin. WR Tyreek Hill played in Kansas City. So how big a factor is the cold weather for the Miami Dolphins specifically?) – “I don’t think it’s any bigger factor than for anybody, regardless of what team you are. We don’t get to practice in these certain elements, but everybody has seen them at some time, I’m sure, in their careers, and then you just adapt to it. You get a guy that’s never been in super-hot sun and humidity and he comes down here – it is what it’s going to be. We can’t control it, so we’re not going to worry about it. We’re going to worry about the things that we can control.”
