Mike McDaniel – January 13, 2024 (Postgame)
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Saturday, Jan. 13, 2024
Postgame – Kansas City Chiefs
Miami Dolphins Head Coach Mike McDaniel
Q: How would you describe the season as a whole?
MCDANIEL: “I am not in the appropriate place to reflect on the entire season. I think the entire thing about this team and a team sport is that we had goals that we didn’t accomplish tonight. I think one of the reasons it hurts so bad is that nobody on this team harbored all the excesses or all the different variables that people talk about, injuries or weather. We came here to win, and it didn’t happen. We fell short of our goals. We had very strong expectations of ourselves. One of the reasons a lot of people don’t put themselves out there and hold those expectations is because when you fall short from them, it’s emotional and gut-wrenching. In terms of categorizing the season or other macro things about stuff moving forward, I don’t think it does justice to the team in the appropriate way. We lost a game. We were 100 percent all in, fearlessly playing as though we would win, but hats off to the Kansas City Chiefs. They beat us, outplayed us, outcoached us, all those things. That is where my mind is at. I will be better answering that during the week when you next see me, but tonight is about tonight. It hurts.”
Q: Do you think there is a fundamental flaw in the offense tonight or will you be able to make minor tweaks?
MCDANIEL: “I think the season is a journey. I think you’re either getting better or getting worse. I think there are some good things and bad things as there always will be. I don’t really look at it as this offense is. That is an ever-evolving thing. What I do know is we will be in a situation where we will be trying to get better. I think we were a better team and a better specially talking about offense then last year. That is the point. There are a lot of things we are going to look at and have concrete actual, solid information on what we can do to get better. That is the objective of the offseason. You are trying to identify exactly what those things are and then improve upon that. We would always like to be the best at and win all of our games. That is what we are intending to do. There is a lot to learn from that we will get to, fast and furious, as the offseason begins.”
Q: How tough was it to address the players that might not be coming back next year for the final time?
MCDANIEL: “It is as tough as it gets just because everyone poured their heart and soul into it. That is the nature of the business is there are salary caps and a lot of different moving parts. That is one thing that this team didn’t run from. I kind of alluded to the idea that the season before, I feel like that team understood the gravity of which you approach which team you are going to have. On average, there are like 30 new players every season including practice squad. That is the tough part that guys were fighting for. No one used anything as an excuse. One thing I didn’t see in that locker room was finger pointing or excuse making. There was just a lot of emotion with regard to hurt, which is what happens when you make yourself vulnerable to having high expectations that we didn’t hide from. I am proud of that. I am proud of a lot of things with regard to this team, which is one of the reasons we were trying to do everything we could to make sure this wasn’t the last game. It was. You have to learn from it, but that will come in the near future. Tonight, I am just trying to aid some of those hurt souls and we will take a hard look at those things moving forward.”
Q: What does Tua Tagovailoa need to improve on moving forward?
MCDANIEL: “I think everyone has to get better because if you are not getting better, you are staying the same and that is as bad as getting worse. It would be a far cry from putting blame on one player. He made some good plays tonight. I know there are some plays that we would want to have back. I know there were some calls he liked and some I would want back. I think that goes across the board. There were a lot of really good things, and we have all learned to have high expectations for that unit. Seven points isn’t good enough. We will have to live with that and learn from that and try to take another step. That is what you are always trying to do. For me, it is hard to take those big pictures. I am just processing this loss. I was expecting to have a schedule next week, depending on whether it was a Saturday or Sunday game. I was more thinking about that, not exit interviews. I don’t mean to disregard it. It is a tough time to give real feedback towards big picture questions when we were thinking about one game at a time and deliver what we wanted to deliver to the fan base was the victory we fell short of.”
Q: We know you won’t use injuries as an excuse but how much were injuries an explanation for tonight?
MCDANIEL: “You can look at it as what we didn’t have or you can look at it as who stepped up. Injuries are part of the game. It’s hard for me as a coach who is invested in these players, to sit here and say that this isn’t good enough. We had a very good roster that had depth. Injuries are part of the game. The bottom line is that every year you expect to have to count on your depth down the stretch of the season. I think every year, to a point, you’re not going to have every single one of your starters that you started the season with. You have to find a way to evolve and adjust to the skillsets of your players. Whether it’s the case or not, it’s going to be tough for me to ever say that it’s okay because we had injuries. Lots of people have injuries, so that’s kind of where I’m coming from.”
Q: How did you feel about the physicality of the Chiefs defensive backs?
MCDANIEL: “I thought they did a good job. We knew that was going to be the plan. They showed us elements when we played them in Germany. I think we struggled to find a rhythm that we wanted. We had a good plan. I thought the guys were very prepared for what we were trying to get done. It’s the little things. You have something set up because you think this run is going to give you a chance to move the ball or be a little explosive. If a guy is a hair off or if I call it at the wrong time, it kind of pins you back and you’re behind the sticks. That’s what we couldn’t do. We knew they were going to be aggressive in that way. They did a good job in the front seven. We knew they were going to put a lot of attention towards our receivers, but we also knew they were going to challenge us. We thought we had the right plan, but obviously it wasn’t. Hats off to them for executing their plan at the most important time.”
Q: Was the weather any worse than you thought? Did the temperature affect the game in any way?
MCDANIEL: “I’ve experienced games of this nature. Very specifically, playoff games as well. It’s going to be a factor for both teams. It takes a certain mentality to compete in games like this. I think the team was very competitive for a majority of the game. I thought they had the prerequisite physicality, they didn’t turn it down. Guys were excited. You kind of have to go to a different place to be in that weather in a contact sport. I thought our guys were in a good spot. It affects the game, but it affects both teams. They were just a little better at executing what they wanted to do than we were.”
Q: Would RB Raheem Mostert and WR Jaylen Waddle have played today if it was not a playoff game?
MCDANIEL: “That’s hard to say. It didn’t even enter my mind. That’s a hard question for me to answer because it was so hard to keep them out of the game before. It was like a non-negotiable from both of them. It wasn’t if they can, it was what they had to do to (play). That’s a tough question. I know they were warriors and not all players with their positions and skillsets would be able to strap it up. But that’s who they are, that’s who we learned to count on. It’s kind of a gray answer, I haven’t really assessed it from that point. They were so gung-ho. We were measuring and hoping they wouldn’t have a setback during the week because that would cloud the whole decision.”
Q: Where did you feel your team’s level of communication was tonight?
MCDANIEL: “I thought it was, at times, good and, at times, a little lacking. I would say I wish it were a little better in both phases. It’s hard to explain exactly why that is. But at the same time, our job is to communicate with each other. There were a couple times in the game that the communication could have been a little bit better. That’s one of the reasons why we fell a little bit short.”
Q: Could you find any consistencies on the offense’s struggles on third-down tonight?
MCDANIEL: “We knew we had our hands full on some of the longer third-down situations. I thought we did a fairly good job on the shorter ones. We knew they presented those types of problems and are pretty highly ranked – on the longer ones – so we were trying to avoid those situations. Were in too many third-and-seven-to-eight-pluses for us to have the day we wanted to have on third down. I think there’s some residuals from that from first and second down. We didn’t execute the way we would have liked to. We were just a hair off here or there. There are multiple reasons that that could be the case. The bottom line is they out-executed us. They didn’t really throw anything at us that we weren’t expecting, it was just old-school execution that we fell short on.”
