Mike McDaniel – January 7, 2024 (Postgame)
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Sunday, January 7, 2024
Postgame – Buffalo
Miami Dolphins Head Coach Mike McDaniel
Q. Sometimes you have to do things the hard way. Saturday you all will have to face Kansas City. How quickly do you shift gears from division championship game to prepare for the tournament?
MIKE MCDANIEL: Yeah, it’s a new season. We have to – as hard as it is, that’s part of the reason why you have so much joy in the game, is when you come out the right side there is nothing like it. Then the polar opposite, when you let opportunities go by the wayside, it just completely absorbs you. We don’t have time to sulk. This is what happens in football against a very good team. Our team really, really wanted it bad, but wanting, you’ve still got to do the things in football to come out victorious; we didn’t. So I’m very confident that our players and coaches will turn their attention full bore to Kansas City, because that’s all we can do. This is a feeling that I can’t console or fix it with the team. It hurts; it should. We lost a game that we think we’re capable of winning. Hats off to the Buffalo Bills for coming in here and winning the game. But yeah, we’ll focus immediately on Kansas City because that’s the only way you can really get through something like this.
Q. The offense only totaled 57 yards, I think three first downs in the second half. What went wrong for that unit in the second half?
MIKE MCDANIEL: Yeah, they did much better than we did, across the board. It was very disappointing, starting with – I always look at myself. Then we had some things that possibly could have been there, that self-inflicted wounds or we didn’t play the same type of throwing-catching-blocking as we normally do. Yeah, very disappointing, and we got out-executed substantially.
Q. What happened on the last play, the interception that was intended for Claypool? Why was Tyreek not in the game at that point?
MIKE MCDANIEL: Well, the play before, he got hit. I mean he got hit pretty good. I was just pumped that he got up. So then we had a concept kind of for the coverage. Taylor Rapp was a little further outside of Chase Claypool than I think Tua recognized, and between Tua and Chase they didn’t connect. That’s a hard play to make that I could have put them in better position to do it. You win as a team. You have all these successes as an offense, as a group, and then when you fail, then you fail as a group. So they out-executed us for sure.
Q. How much carryover is there from the first Kansas City game or how much do you anticipate there will be from the first Kansas City game?
MIKE MCDANIEL: Yeah, I think the Kansas City Chiefs play their style of defense. I think there will be a fair amount, but things change during the season. Different players come in. There are injuries. There is evolution to what you’re doing. So it’s not like it’s ever the exact same thing when you play someone in the middle of the season and play them in the postseason. It’s the same starting point, but both teams are going to be competing to get a playoff win. There are usually some bells and whistles attached to the scheme and game plan so you got to be ready for a lot.
Q. I know it’s always next-man-up, but two more edge defenders go down in this game. That’s a lot of attrition for one position group.
MIKE MCDANIEL: Yeah, it is. I think the guys did a very good job during the game handling all that. Guys stepped up. I thought limiting that team to 14 points from a defensive perspective and the stuff that was done in the red zone and the turnovers, I think that speaks to how it’s a whole unit. There’s definitely nobody in the locker room or on the other side of the ball that’s blinking. That’s kind of been what we’ve hung our hat on the whole season. There are different sorts of injuries, but I don’t think people use that as an excuse towards their confidence. There are just different things you can feature. So it’ll be a challenge, but that is what the National Football League is. It’s a challenge.
Q. Are there early indications on Van Ginkel and Cameron Goode?
MIKE MCDANIEL: I have to find more out tomorrow with Van Ginkel. Cam Goode, it doesn’t appear promising.
Q. How close were Mostert and Waddle to playing, and would you anticipate you’ll have both on Saturday night?
MIKE MCDANIEL: Yeah, I’m optimistic for both those guys. They were pretty close, but both situations actually that would be very, very vulnerable to that being their last game if they would’ve played as vulnerable as they could have played for how long and what setbacks could incur. That’s kind of where we had to put our foot down. So optimistic for them next week, but they were gung-ho trying to this week. It just didn’t work out.
Q. Back-to-back weeks now Tua has thrown multiple interceptions. What do you need to see from him over the next week and then in Kansas City?
MIKE MCDANIEL: We need to not turn the ball over and still be able to be aggressive while doing that. I think that’s the name of the game of every quarterback, and that’s what Tua does. If there is a player that I’m very confident in how they handle things that maybe don’t go their exact way, you want to talk about a tough minded individual, that’s what Tua is. He’ll be harder on himself than he needs to be, but that’s what you want from your quarterback. He takes full accountability. I know he’s pretty frustrated, but I look forward to him being able to get back out there and righting some wrongs. It’s definitely not all on him at all. It’s not even close to that. Very fortunate for his play. He puts us in position to win, but there are times where he knows he can do better, and that’s what he’ll have to do moving forward.
Q. A month ago this team was the AFC No. 1 seed; you’ve had four of the last five games at home. From your perspective, why is this team now in a position where they have to go on the road instead of hosting?
MIKE MCDANIEL: I think that that is a very fair question. I think it’s very frustrating to all parties involved that care about the Dolphins, whether you’re a Dolphins player, support staff, coaches, fans. That’s something we can – I’ll have more of a concrete answer when the season ends, but the season hasn’t ended. Right now we’re 100 percent moving forward to the next game, which we did earn. Hindsight is 20/20 and there are a lot of different things we will evaluate because that is extremely disappointing. But I think that’s part of the National Football League, is if you give up an inch, you’ll be punished for it. We didn’t take care of the games we really needed to and that’s what happens. It’s a very competitive conference. You know, you needed 12 wins, not 11 and that’s what it is. But we have an opportunity to play football together. This team grew much closer in this last week. I was very proud of how they responded in terms of how they attacked this game and how they prepared and how they practiced. Unfortunately it wasn’t enough. We have to go on the road to get right so that’s what we’re 100 percent of our focus and effort will be doing.
Q. What did you see on the punt return? It seemed like a real turning point in the game.
MIKE MCDANIEL: Yeah, it was unfortunate. It looked like we had an opportunity to pin them back and I’ll to have look at the tape again, but we had an opportunity to pin them back and it turned at the beginning of the fourth quarter. Yeah, that was a huge momentum swing that hurt us, that the defense had done such a good job keeping them from scoring points. Points were at premium at that point in the game, so it was a gut punch for sure. I feel like we had – I don’t know the exact player that had a shot at the very beginning of the play but that was probably our best shot and then looked like they won the matchup game after that. So big point in the game that we’re going to look closely at.
Q. When you talk about narratives, you guys now are 1-5 against teams with winning records. Your players have social media. We are going to be asking them about it. How do you keep them out of that mindset, out of that funk, out of thinking about that?
MIKE MCDANIEL: I don’t think it’s a funk. I think it’s reality. I’ve said time and time again, I get out in front of narratives because you know they’re going to exist because it’s reactionary. If you lose to two good teams down the stretch you leave yourself vulnerable to say you can’t beat good teams, which will be the case until you do. My opinion on winning football games against records that aren’t above .500, it’s irrelevant. That narrative will occur until you do things to change it. I don’t get very mad at it or anything. I just let them know that’s coming, and so when they hear it they’re like, of course, because that’s what it will be until you do something about it.
Q. You had 218 yards in the first half; 13 first downs. A lot seemed to be going right offensively. Then three three-and-outs in the second half. Did they do anything differently?
MIKE MCDANIEL: No, it didn’t necessarily surprise me. They played some more single safety to stop the run, which we were kind of anticipating. Then it was just herky-jerky when you have some – we had two different penalties and then we just had misfires. There was an incompletion that was a throw issue. There was a drop. It seemed like take a turn each drive. We weren’t able to really get the momentum of the drive going, which is what happens when myself as a play caller decides to pass, anticipating that we have an advantageous look. I think at this point in the season you have to trust a lot of things and it didn’t work out. It goes really to the whole group because we were running the ball well. They changed their box count which wasn’t like they changed defenses. They just called more eight-man front and you have to be able to adjust with the defense and make plays in all phases, and we were unable to do that tonight.
Q. Thoughts on Josh Allen’s game? Took over toward the end but some turnovers early.
MIKE MCDANIEL: Yeah, he’s a great player and he did some big things down the stretch of the game in terms of third-down conversions specifically. I thought the defense did a great job containing him for – I think he made his money on keeping the offense out on the field and earning long drives with some third down plays that were – there are not many people that do some of the things he does. He played like he usually plays.
Q. 27 snaps tonight for Jevon. Did he suffer any setbacks in the game that made you dial back his snap, or was that – did that all tie into him being downgraded?
MIKE MCDANIEL: No. Like he’s been battling for a while. We’re trying to keep him involved without having him have more setbacks. I think he was battling through it tonight for sure. I think a lot of guys are at this stretch of the season. What he’s been working back from was not the easiest, and he’s been diligent about it. So hopefully tomorrow upon review when he sees our trainers, there hasn’t been any setbacks. If there were any tonight I’m not aware of them.
