Mike McDaniel – October 27, 2024 (Postgame)
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Sunday, October 27, 2024
Postgame – Arizona Cardinals
Head Coach Mike McDaniel
Q. What are you telling your team right now as this team is now 2-5?
MIKE McDANIEL: I know one thing, that — pardon my French, but no opponent that we play the rest of the year will give a (expletive). Yeah, we’re 2-5. Disappointed and it’s frustrating. I thought there were positives and negatives to the game and it’s magnified because of the situation we’ve put ourselves in. Situations like that, as tough as it is, it has to be – you have to immediately take your energy towards the next game while learning lessons from this game. I thought we had absolutely every chance to win it. I think collectively there is some – we always play really hard. I thought there was more execution but there were critical mistakes that I think it was tough to overcome one of the stronger games I’ve seen by a quarterback in Kyler Murray. He made a lot of plays for them and we can’t put ourselves in that situation as a team.
Q. You guys were pretty blitz heavy. It wasn’t all that effective at times. Did you think you guys maybe blitzed QB Kyler Murray too much today? Because he was able to kind of break it down.
MIKE McDANIEL: No, I think that was kind of the game plan going in and you know the stress that you put on coverage and you know you try to be effective in rush lanes. I think hindsight is 20/20. I did agree with our game plan going into it and in those situations, the guys know that it does put a high priority on guys that are free and have a shot at the quarterback, that you have to really rely on your technique and fundamentals, especially with a guy like that. I’m sure when I look at the tape there will be a handful of plays that we’ll talk through, Weave (Anthony Weaver) and I. But for the most part I thought guys were in position to make plays and there were just some critical ones we didn’t make and they did and that’s how you score more points than the opponent.
Q. How would you assess QB Tua Tagovailoa’s first game back?
MIKE McDANIEL: I thought it’s kind of what I expected. He did a real good job on third down but collectively I think the bigger thing was that we had a little bit more of our brand of football that we felt that is probably a silver lining if we weren’t sitting at 2-5. Guys didn’t really care about – when I tell you they’ve been all in on winning and falling short is hard for everyone, but we would have taken 3-2 as the win, but you can’t. There are no silver linings, really, in this loss. It’s testing us for sure. I feel good about the human beings we have. I feel like we’ve begun going all in with each other each and every week and it still hasn’t been enough, but the answer is not to take the foot off the gas. It’s to take a hard look, which will probably be pretty rough tomorrow, but that is what it is. We have to fix it. We have to get the win, and there’s going to be, moving forward, no team’s going to frankly give a (expletive) about our problems.
Q. What occurred on the mishandled snap? QB Tua Tagovailoa is saying he should have caught it.
MIKE McDANIEL: Yeah, I think if you ask both of them, Brew (Aaron brewer) would say he should have taken a little steam off of it, and Tua said he should have caught it. The bottom line is backed up, we can’t have those type of issues. You can’t just give free points to people, so collectively, I think the way I like to handle it is, all right, we can’t go in shotgun or pistol backed up until you guys tell me you can. As competitors, they’ll take that challenge. They know, and Tua’s hand-eye coordination’s outstanding, so he’ll be up for the challenge, but you just can’t expect to win a close game (with plays like that). That ended up being the difference in terms of points but it wasn’t just that play. There’s a multitude of things that ended up in points, like not connecting and settling for a field goal on the 7-yard line earlier. Those are things that add up, so hard lessons and they have to be lessons learned if you want it to change and so we’ll have an opportunity to do that. It’ll be a long week, but we get what we deserve.
Q. How did you feel about how QB Tua Tagovailoa protected himself out there and did you have any talks before the game about his approach or afterwards?
MIKE McDANIEL: I think Tua had his mind — I think the time (out), this season on this team, it really left an impression on the residuals of his decisions, so we had talks leading up to it. I think the biggest thing was that he knew his teammates were going to give him a chance to play a pretty clean game. He had a good amount of clean pockets and then when he didn’t, he was decisive and kept himself out of harm’s way and I think that’s big for our team as we try to get through this rut.
Q. Did you adjust anything from a game plan or play calling standpoint to try to be more protective of QB Tua Tagovailoa?
MIKE McDANIEL: I think it’s always been part of my job and seeing how there were injuries to the quarterback four games into my tenure here, I think that’s kind of old hat. We just kind of play our ball and as a coach, you make sure that you either have the protection or you have opportunistic situations for the eligibles to get people open in the time of the play, so he can do what he does. But I don’t think you can do right by a football team if the guys playing the game, you have to – you can’t really think about anything but how do we move the ball and score points. So I thought it was good for his teammates. I think the team felt this was, at times, more of a picture of what we had envisioned the entire time for how we played football, but it wasn’t clean enough to win and that’s the big takeaway for me.
Q. S Jevon Holland’s knee is not being feared significant at this time, is that accurate?
MIKE McDANIEL: Yeah, I don’t have all the information on it, but we’ll find more out. It didn’t seem, but I really would be talking ignorantly if I forecasted anything. I’ll find more out tomorrow.
Q. Can you speak to the challenge of going 2-5 and where this team is headed?
MIKE McDANIEL: Yeah, it’s a significant challenge. It kind of reminds me of — at this point, I can’t remember what the streak was, maybe it was two games or three in 2022 and we had that night game. I think the biggest thing is that you have to understand that all the heartbreak has to go into your next opponent. It’s the next opponent and it’s a divisional game and I know we have all the reason in the world to have 110 percent invested in it, so that’s what my expectation will be. I think it’s rough – 2-5 is rough. But in the NFL season, you can’t really take what your record is at this stage and extrapolate. That’s where you get causes for concern. You have to go take your best game and try to win one football game and I think that’s a really cool football place to play, and guys – I think we have the right guys and if they weren’t motivated for this one, they would be the wrong guys, and I’m not nervous about that. Just want to make sure that all of our energy is put towards what we’re able to do, not what has been done.
Q. Going back to QB Tua Tagovailoa protecting himself. What was your reaction during that scramble, I think it was the third quarter, when he actually got down and slid?
MIKE McDANIEL: Yeah, my reaction was I think he’s going to get the first down. I’m pretty sure what he’s going to do, but you never know until it happens and it was what I forecasted he would do. But when he’s mindful and not trying to run defenders over, he generally is able to stay pretty healthy, so I was excited that he didn’t hesitate and that he was very convicted in how he approached space, found space, and got himself down.
Q. Are you relieved that this is behind QB Tua Tagovailoa now that he’s back? He was untouched really today.
MIKE McDANIEL: I wouldn’t say relieved because that would insinuate that I was nervous about it. You know football is football, so you just try to put together a best plan that players can execute and I think that that’s part of the coach’s job, put guys in a position to succeed and for him, he does very well when he’s able to see the field and we protect well. There’s a lot of – I think the player ownership of our team, receivers running routes, beating bump coverage and the offensive linemen executing the protections, I think the players took it very personal in terms of their job and their responsibility to the team and to play effective football. The bottom line is if you’re giving up quarterback hits or sacks, you’re probably going the opposite direction of where points are. So I wouldn’t say relieved. I would say that the game played out in terms of that circumstance kind of the way I envisioned. I just envisioned us in the win column, not in the loss, but no one cares about my visions.
Q. What was the challenge playing without DT Zach Sieler and how long do you foresee you have to do this?
MIKE McDANIEL: It’s very challenging. He’s a big part of our team. I think there’s a lot of guys led by D-Hand (Da’Shawn Hand) but a lot of guys that were up for the challenge and just feeling his energy. Talking about Zach and in the locker room just as we left, he will be out no longer than his body — like as soon as his body allows, he will be out there. I wouldn’t envision it being too long just based upon his vigor and he didn’t like not being able to affect the outcome of the game and we are a better team when he’s on it.
Q. No surgery needed?
MIKE McDANIEL: Yeah, I wouldn’t be prepared totally to handle that question. They’re working through some things, but I leave that to the experts.
