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Eric Rowe – December 31, 2020 Download PDF version

Thursday, December 31, 2020

S Eric Rowe

(The league-owned website is reporting QB Ryan Fitzpatrick has COVID. Are you aware of this? Were you alarmed to hear this news? And how hurtful do you think it will be not to have him on Sunday?) – “Yeah, I got the news today. It hurts. He’s a leader of our team. He brings energy, even in the Zoom meetings; so just to hear it that he’s probably – it’s down for all of us but I’m sure it’s worse for him because one, he loves the game; and two, nobody wants to catch COVID, right? But kind of with that, you just got to push forward.”

(You’ve played in a lot of big games in your career and you’ve mentioned before how much it means to you to be a part of this Dolphins team. What does it mean for you to be in this position to play in a game of this magnitude with this team and how can your experience in big games kind of provide some direction for the younger guys who haven’t seen a big Week 17 game like this in the NFL?) – “This means a lot, just kind of coming from where we came last year. We were definitely like, bottom five in the NFL last year. It was a struggle. To now this year to have a chance to get to the playoffs and obviously you’ve got to take it day-by-day, so this is the last game of the season; but kind of with the young guy, I just kind of tell them like – actually, I don’t really have to say much. They kind of know. They’ve kind of matured through the season that it’s just a regular game – same regular game plan, technique, all that’s the same. The only difference is it’s just the last game of the season. So I didn’t really have to tell them much.”

(Head Coach Brian Flores mentioned that Assistant Defensive Backs Coach Curt Kuntz leads the third-down defense meetings and I was curious, how long can those meetings go and in what way are they beneficial?) – “How long can they go? I’m not sure. I’ve never actually really timed it. (laughter) I never really timed it. It’s just as long as how much he wants to talk about it, but obviously you see we put an emphasis on third down every week for that game plan. We break it down by yards, and obviously it’s helped us a lot this year coming off the field. You can stop points right there.”

(How was the news broken to the team today about QB Ryan Fitzpatrick and how would you describe the reaction when it was immediately revealed?) – “’Flo’ (Head Coach Brian Flores) told us in the team meeting this morning about his situation and then we’re on Zoom, so you can’t really tell everybody’s reaction at the time; but my reaction was just praying for his health because COVID, that’s a real-deal thing whether you don’t have symptoms or you do. So I’m just kind of praying that he doesn’t have the symptoms and that he didn’t spread it to his family or kids.”

(You talked a little bit earlier about just sort of the turnaround where you guys were last year to this year. When you look at that, the full frame of you guys were the No. 32 scoring defense to No. 1 so far this year; are you able to put all of that into grips and how you guys have really completely overdid this defense?) – “Also, it’s a bunch of new guys that we have on the team than last year. I think over like defensive-wise, I feel like – over 50 percent of the roster has flipped, right? So a lot of guys don’t know and I tried to tell them, but they don’t know what we’ve been through last year and how we go from getting scored on nearly every drive to now we’re getting off the field on almost every third down. So just to see that flip, it is crazy, though.”

(CB Byron Jones actually mentioned that this morning on Good Morning Football, about the overturn of the roster and how guys have kind of bought in that way; but he also mentioned something I wanted to ask you about and he said that CB Xavien Howard is the best player he’s ever been around. What do you think about that statement?) – “He’s not lying. To have a pick in nine games straight – it got to the point where if he didn’t have a pick, we’re kind of like – like the Patriots game – we’re kind of like, ‘whoa, that’s not normal, right?’ And really to have a guy like that, that you can put him on any receiver and he can produce turnovers like that, that’s definitely a comfort thing within the defense.”

(I wanted to ask you, you guys have obviously come so far this season; if you didn’t make the playoffs, would it be a big disappointment or would you guys be able to see the success you guys made and the strides you guys made as a positive?) – “It’d be both. It’d be a big disappointment. We put a lot of work in this year, a lot of work winning games that aren’t easy and really to have double-digit wins and to not make the playoffs, that hurts. But at the same time, kind of like at least we’re – the guys like me, Bobby (McCain) and ‘X’ (Xavien Howard) who were here last year, to see that stride especially defensive-wise, to see that kind of leap we took from last year to this year, it’s positive. Positive for the years coming on.”

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