Xavien Howard – December 2, 2018 (Postgame)
Sunday, December 2, 2018
Postgame – Buffalo
Miami Dolphins Xavien Howard (transcribed by Savanna Bell-Stevens)
(What was it like there in the second half because it felt like that game was slipping away from you guys) – “We got the W. That’s all that matters right now. We got the win. There is still some stuff we can work on and we can get better at. We’ve just got to watch film and see what we do.”
(Can you take us through that last play, what you saw, and your reaction when Bills TE Charles Clay didn’t catch that) – “The ball had hit the ground. It was short. Thank the Lord for that. The ball was short and came out of his hands so he didn’t catch it.”
(What’s this stretch been like now with back-to-back games with two interceptions. What’s the feeling like when you are out there and you see the ball thrown?) – “I want to be a ball hawk. I want to be around the ball every time the ball is in the air. That’s what we preached this whole offseason … I see it paying off.”
Ryan Tannehill – December 2, 2018 (Postgame)
Sunday, December 2, 2018
Postgame – Buffalo
Miami Dolphins QB Ryan Tannehill
What was your reaction when you saw Bills TE Charles Clay’s drop?
RYAN TANNEHILL: Well, I was holding my breath for what felt like an eternity. I saw him scrambling around. (Robert) Quinn was trying to corral him. He went left, right, back left. When he turned and wound up the throw, I looked out and saw Charles scot-free over there. From about that point until the ball hit the ground, I was holding my breath. Thankfully, they weren’t able to connect.
You guys have been on the bad side of a lot of these close games. Now you’re on the fortunate side. What is that like?
RYAN TANNEHILL: It beats the heck out of the alternative, I’ll tell you that much. To finally be able to pull one out feels really good. I’m proud of the guys, the way they battled. It took all 60 minutes today and thankfully we were on the right side of it.
Your touchdown to WR DeVante Parker seemed to be kind of the play that you have been hoping from him for a while now. What happened there?
RYAN TANNEHILL: It was a big-time catch. It was a great call. We got the coverage we were expecting there. I got hit as I was making the throw so I didn’t get to put as much velocity on it. I kind of adjusted it as I was throwing it. DeVante did what we expected him to do – go up and make a big-time play for us. (I’m) excited to see what he can do there. Obviously, we have seen that from before, but great to see him make that play.
Your best throw of the day might have been the WR Kenny Stills touchdown. Take me through the play. It was double coverage. You just laid it up there for him?
RYAN TANNEHILL: Yes. It’s a play we’ve been working for a while. The safety played more to the left than we wanted him to. It took a while for Kenny to get around him and make the play. I just trusted him that he was going to get around that guy. He did a great job of getting around and making that play on the football.
What were they doing – you go down, score the first touchdown and kind of struggled to get first downs after that. What were they doing that created issues for you?
RYAN TANNEHILL: They did a great job up front. I think that’s where it started for them was up front. They were doing a good job shedding in the run game, making our runs short. Especially there in the first half, they were doing a good job of getting pressure. I wasn’t able to get the ball off downfield. I have to give a ton of credit to their front and the way they were playing.
Were you involved in any of the conversations with Bills DT Jordan Phillips out there?
RYAN TANNEHILL: No. I talked to him a little bit before the game, but no on-the-field conversations.
What is this team’s offensive identity?
RYAN TANNEHILL: I think it’s something that’s kind of changed throughout the year. Obviously, losing the guys that we did, we’ve kind of had to navigate that. It’s tough. It’s tough when you lose — ultimately, we’ve lost five or six day one starters on offense when you include (Josh) Sitton, (Daniel) Kilgore, MarQueis (Gray) at tight end. Jakeem (Grant) and Albert (Wilson) played a lot. You lose those type of guys, you kind of have to shift the way you’re attacking defenses and change things. It’s tough to say exactly what our identity is at this point, but I know we’ve had to change it a couple times throughout the season.
Frustrating for you, I would imagine?
RYAN TANNEHILL: Yes, it’s tough. It’s tough whenever you lose guys and you feel like you’re finally starting to get an identity and then you kind of lose guys and have to change it. But that’s football. Unfortunately, injuries are part of the game and you have to be able to adapt and respond.
Like you yourself?
RYAN TANNEHILL: Yes, unfortunately.
You were pretty banged up and bruised in terms of the amount of hits they got on you. Your jersey was pretty gray. What was that experience like and how much of that was just what Buffalo was doing?
RYAN TANNEHILL: They did a good job. I think most of the hits were early. After that first drive – a couple in the first drive – and then right after that the consecutive drives after that. (I spent) way too much time on the ground. I think they did a good job of giving us different looks up front, moving guys around, running their games up front and got a couple guys free. It made it tough to get the ball off.
What happened on the pick?
RYAN TANNEHILL: We had a double move outside to Kenny (Stills). They played quarters. The backside safety did a great job of coming across. I tried to put it more on the line, let Kenny go up and make a play, and the safety was able to get in front of it.
Was your arm hit or no?
RYAN TANNEHILL: No. I put it where I wanted to. The safety made a good play of getting in front of Kenny (Stills) as opposed to the other way around.
Adam Gase – December 2, 2018 (Postgame)
Sunday, December 2, 2018
Postgame – Buffalo
Miami Dolphins Head Coach Adam Gase
Crazy game.
COACH GASE: Who cares? It’s a win.
You guys get outgained 415 to 175 and win. Do you feel fortunate?
COACH GASE: I don’t care. It’s fine. We didn’t turn it over. We left too much out there on offense. We had opportunities. It’s a good defense, one of the top teams in yardage. But we knew if we won the turnover margin that was going to give us a good chance to win.
What was going on in your mind that last play with QB Josh Allen and TE Charles Clay getting open?
COACH GASE: I was just thinking, ‘Get him down,’ and the longer he extended it, then you start getting concerned, because you just figure somebody’s going to free up. I know both sides were gassed. It was just going to be who was going to keep fighting. I think both teams did everything they could today until the end.
As far as rookie quarterbacks go, it seems like he keeps you on your heels a little bit, keeps you guessing a little bit more than normal.
COACH GASE: He’s a big guy that can run and obviously (if) somebody shakes free down the field he, can throw it a long way. So, he causes a lot of problem in that area. You’ve got to stay in your coverage when he starts scrambling around. That’s why it’s hard for guys to just take off and start chasing him because they know if they leave their guy and he sees them, it’s going to be a touchdown.
I know you watched them in the pre-draft lead up. This is the first time actually playing against him. Were you impressed?
COACH GASE: I think it was what I would expect. I think last week he played well. He’s only going to get better. He’s going to be a tough guy to go against for a long time.
You guys are still alive I guess in the playoff race and what you guys want to accomplish. What does that mean to you?
COACH GASE: I think it’s one game at a time for us right now. We’ve got to focus … When it hits Wednesday, focus on the next week. Just worry about that one and do everything we can to win that game. These guys should enjoy this one for the next 24 hours and then we’ll move on.
How do you think QB Ryan Tannehill played?
COACH GASE: I thought there was a lot of good. There were a couple things that right away, he knew that he missed. But we ended up scoring on those drives anyways, which was good. It didn’t hurt us. The interception, I thought he threw a pretty good ball, it gave us a chance. I think we go back and watch that one and Kenny (Stills) will probably think, ‘Maybe I could have stopped and went up and got it,’ and Ryan will probably say he should have probably put it out there a little more.
What does this win mean for your football team? Keeps you alive in the postseason.
COACH GASE: I think our guys were excited we won a tough game, a division game. It seems like, against those guys, it’s always, it’s just tough. It’s tough to play their defense. They have a tough scheme and they do a good job executing everything. Their offense, it’s a little different than what we’ve seen the past couple of years. The young quarterback and his ability to move around, that causes problems.
You’ve got a quarterback last week that was staying in the pocket and throwing, you got a guy here that rushed for 135 yards. Got to be some frustration level with that knowing that you’ve got good coverage and guys figured out how to get a first down.
COACH GASE: I’m not frustrated about anything right now. We won. That’s all we cared about this week. We’ll correct the things we need to correct. We’ll have to make adjustments next time we play them to make sure that he can’t do that to us. I thought we did a good job of trying to bottle up (LeSean) ‘Shady’ McCoy and keep him contained. We did a decent job there. There was a couple times where it got a little scary seeing him in the open field. We just got to do a better job of making sure the quarterback can’t run for that much on us and that’s a couple weeks away, next time we play them.
They came in with a good defense. Go down, score easy. After that, it was tough. Was it the defense exerting their will or was it breakdowns? What did you see?
COACH GASE: Probably a little bit of both. They are a good defense. We hurt ourselves sometimes. We get a first down and then we get a holding. We had two holding calls. So we hurt ourselves a couple times. We just need to clean up some of those penalties, because it just goes back to technique and fundamentals, all the things that we work on every day. The day that we get a lot of that stuff cleaned up and avoid those type of penalties, it’ll help us a lot.
Two more interceptions from CB Xavien Howard and he’s just playing at a very, very high level.
COACH GASE: I just wish we could turn those into points. Those are game-changing plays and he’s doing a good job of making it hard to throw to his side. We need him to keep doing that. We need whoever is on that side that he’s covering, just lock that guy down and the rest of the guys just got to keep getting better.
On the last touchdown in the corner of the end zone, when you saw him throw into double coverage – tell the truth – when you saw QB Ryan Tannehill throw into double coverage, you wanted to kill him. And then when WR Kenny Stills caught it, you wanted to hug him.
COACH GASE: I wasn’t sure … That safety was kind of flatfooted, so I was hoping at worse it was going to be an incompletion. I didn’t think any negative thoughts at all.
Was WR Kenny Stills open on that play?
COACH GASE: He caught it.
Was he open on all the plays?
COACH GASE: He might have been.
You played WR Brice Butler more than we’d seen. What exactly has happened there? Was it to the point you were trusting him to that extent?
COACH GASE: I think he’s done a good job learning the offense. He’s had two weeks of full practice to be able to get a lot of reps. He’s picked everything up really fast. There’s a lot of cross-over (with) what he’s done before and here. He’s just a guy, he’s been around for a minute, so he understands what we’re trying to do for the most part. He’s a big guy that can go get the ball if we throw it to him. There’s something about that size that makes it comfortable for the quarterback.
How did it work out today?
COACH GASE: I thought he did a good job. I don’t remember looking at … I know he had one chance for a ball down the field to where he didn’t like his release and Ryan (Tannehill) got off and we got to a check down.
Reshad Jones – December 2, 2018 (Postgame)
Sunday, December 2, 2018
Postgame – Buffalo
Miami Dolphins Safety Reshad Jones (transcribed by Paige Jefferson)
(So can you take us through that final play? Your vantage point of it?) – “(Josh Allen) is a running quarterback, scrambler. Charles Clay came free and I guess the ball (was) just short. We did enough to win the game.”
(What about CB Xavien Howard and the way he’s been playing? Two interceptions again today.) – “He’s one of the best corners in the league. I say that all the time. I think he’s one of the best in the league. I don’t think he’s finished yet. We (have) some more important games coming up – division games coming up – and we’ll be ready. ”
(It was your first look at QB Josh Allen. Just your initial take and what you thought about him, you’re going to be seeing a lot more of him.) – “(He’s got) a little Ben Roethlisberger (to him). He (has) a similar game, a big guy. He can run. Probably one of the strongest arms in the NFL. I think that guy is going to be good.”
Kenyan Drake – December 2, 2018 (Postgame)
Sunday, December 2, 2018
Postgame – Buffalo
Miami Dolphins RB Kenyan Drake (transcribed by Paige Jefferson)
(This is a game that you guys expect to win, but how much does actually pulling it off do moving forward for you guys?) – “This is the next game, so now we’re going to take this in, digest the good and the bad come tomorrow and then move on.”
(Three different guys got into the end zone. Considering all the injuries you guys have had that’s a great sign that things are starting to balance out. Figure things out as you’re moving forward here?) – “We’ve had a lot of injuries this year. It’s always about the next man up. ‘Tanny’ (Ryan Tannehill) did a good job distributing the ball to a lot of the playmakers that we have left, taking the heat off our defense in that situation. It’s all about us putting the ball in the end zone and having the most points at the end of the game.”
(For you guys to be able to take the lead back and then to pull that game out defensively, how can you guys build off this win for the rest of the year?) – “Like I said, it’s the next one. (We will) look at what we can get better with, correct the mistakes that we made and move on. ”
Kenny Stills – December 2, 2018 (Postgame)
Sunday, December 2, 2018
Postgame – Buffalo
Miami Dolphins WR Kenny Stills (transcribed by Daniel Chavez)
(What did this victory mean for keeping playoffs hopes alive? This is a big, big win.) – “Obviously, in order to stay in the hunt, we’ve got to win and we know that. We didn’t play very good football today, but we came out with a W and so on to the next one.”
(How did it feel to get some targets out there? You had four catches, the most catches you’ve had since September.) – “I’m just happy we won. Whatever we got to do to win. If I get involved, then I’m involved, but whatever we have to do to win.”
(It seemed like there were two guys on that play when you caught the touchdown. Was it just a matter of just going up and getting it?) – “Ryan (Tannehill) threw a nice ball. Everybody protected up front and so when a ball is in the air, I have to go get it. The other one, the interception that was thrown, I’ve got to find a way to make a play. I saw this opportunity, I had to go up there and snag it.”
Cameron Wake – November 30, 2018
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Friday, November 30, 2018
DE Cameron Wake
(In the last two weeks, you’ve played against Aaron Rodgers and Andrew Luck. Now, you get a rookie quarterback. The team has six interceptions against rookie quarterbacks this year in Sam Darnold. Are there things that you can take advantage of with a rookie that you can’t with a veteran and how will we see that? Is it just in turnovers or looks? How do you do it?) – “I think it’s a double-edged sword. You don’t fear what you don’t know. Rookies get in there and they have no idea what they’re doing and they might throw into double coverage, and ‘who cares what the look is?’ They’re just gunslingers. They can go out there and have a tremendous day. Vice versa, obviously veterans maybe have a little bit more sense of what’s going on in the game and specifically try to attack things. Usually if you let it fly, it can be great or it could be terrible. As a front or as a team, we just have to do what we have to do as far as staying where you’re supposed to be, being on the man you’re supposed to be on. Obviously, he’s in the NFL. He’s a talented player. He’s a competitor, so you don’t want to take anything away from him being a rookie, but you want to take advantage of the areas where you should have an advantage. I’ll say that.”
(We talked to DE Andre Branch on Wednesday. He said he’s going to start pulling a Vlade Divac – flopping to get holding calls.) – “That would be interesting. The game would be very different, I’m sure. I don’t know if it will work. He’s not in here. I’ll tell him to his face.”
(You’ve been held a bit in your career.) – “A bit? You think? It’s every day. (laughter) You just play the play, hope the refs see it and if they don’t, it didn’t happen. You have to move on.”
(It’s not often when it’s the play of the game where it’s egregious and if there’s a hold there, the entire outcome of the game can be different.) – “That happens as well. I feel like I have no investment in that being something that I’m going to get, is a holding call. It’s like a bonus that you weren’t expecting. ‘Oh, okay, well fine, good.’ I would say with the o-linemen – they’re also not here – more often than not, there’s holding. Obviously, it’s not called that way. You just have to go with the mindset that it’s not going to be called and I’m going to do my job anyway.”
(If you were to put a percentage on it every time you pass rush…) – “A lot.”
(60, 70?) – “The goal, because you know it’s going to happen, is to eliminate the possibility of allowing it to happen. A lot of times, my goal is to not let them have a chance, if you get my idea. If I go in there and I was rushing different, they’d probably hold me 80, 90 percent of the time because you’re going to allow them to. Now, if you defeat their hands or power or do other things we do to not give them the chance, which wouldn’t give them the chance to not throw the holding call, it plays in your favor. Don’t even put them in that position to do it because then, now you’re hoping that they’re going to make the right call and that’s probably not going to happen.”
(You treat it as a move then? That’s one of their moves is that they’ll hold you, so you’re treating it almost like a strategy to counteract it.) – “If you’re an o-lineman and you can have a sack or a holding call, which one are you going to do?”
(Holding call. The quarterback doesn’t get destroyed.) – “Exactly. You’re going to lose yards either way. My quarterback doesn’t get hit, maybe fumbles or something.”
(And you have a chance to get away with it.) – “And you have probably an 80 percent chance to get away. I think that’s probably better. Not our line – of course not our offensive line. (laughter) Every other offensive line. It’s risk/reward.”
(Do you sense at all that there’s some momentum going for the defensive line? I know you guys weren’t where you wanted to be as far as sacks and things like that. Do you feel like you’re starting to kind of get the ball rolling?) – “Momentum is a relative term. I don’t really believe in it. I just feel like if you go out there and continue to do what you’re supposed to do, good things will happen. You can’t get discouraged as a pass rusher or a d-lineman or a football player, period. Probably more so as a pass rusher. You have to have a 20-second memory. You got the sack or you didn’t get the sack or whatever the play was, as soon as that play is over and dead, it’s erased. You have to go back out there with the same mindset that this is the play I’m going to get a sack. It could be 500 plays in a row where you don’t. That 501st play, you still have to have that mentality – this is the play, it’s going to happen. That’s kind of how it works. The next play, you get a sack and then you erase it and start all over again. Momentum starts every 20 seconds and then you have to start all over.”
(Rather than momentum, has it been better? The last couple games, have you seen that you guys are making more headway?) – “I think we have had more production. I think that’s not just with us. I think it has a lot of other factors that we spoke before when we weren’t having production, that it’s not just us alone. I’m not a guy who’s like ‘when we’re doing good it’s all us, and when we’re doing bad it’s everyone else.’ When we’re not playing where we want to play, it’s usually a team or a defensive collaboration. When we’re doing well, it’s probably the same thing where we have other players in other positions helping us along and we’re all getting more production.”
(When Jason Taylor played here, he was an incredible player, Hall of Fame player but not a ton of team success. Kind of that script has followed a little bit for you, too.) – “It’s JT’s fault. Tell him I said that. (laughter)”
(Do you worry that that might kind of be your legacy, that you never got to where you wanted to get to?) – “I hope not. I kind of put that in the same vein as what I spoke with per plays. You kind of have to do the same thing season to season, year to year. Every year, reset, work as hard as you can to do your job, do whatever you can to help everyone do theirs and be confident that the other guys are going to do their job as well, and the season will go hopefully in a positive direction.”
(I understand, but that has to be frustrating.) – “Every time you don’t get where you were supposed to get, whether it’s play by play or season by season, it’s frustrating; but the old adage is you control what you can control. If you do everything you possibly can and I can go home at night and look at myself in the mirror and say ‘did you do what you were supposed to do to the best of your ability?’ If I can look myself in the mirror, look my peers in the mirror, look at my teammates, coaches, loved ones, I could live with that for the rest of my life. The hard part is when you didn’t do this, should’ve done that, should’ve went to sleep, should’ve woke up – all the should’ve, could’ve would’ves – that will burn you forever. So far to this day, I can look myself in the mirror knowing that I gave everything I got. I came from where I came from, reached this point. As of now, I’m completely able to look at my production.”
(When you were running scout team early in your NFL career, how much pride did you take in making plays against the starters? Did you take mental notes of that?) – “That actually meant more than anything in my football world. I tell a lot of young guys now, I probably wouldn’t have ever made it to the active roster had I not done the things I did on scout team. I think a lot goes obviously to the guys who play on Sunday and the guys in the bright lights but I was inactive for the first five games of my career, so I was on scout team every play, every rep. I never played on Sundays. It used to be Thursday was my Sunday. That was my game day. I’m playing against, in my mind … It was Vernon Carey at the time. That was my opponent. I have to show – not only my teammates but the coaching staff – that against a quality top-tier offensive lineman, I can make plays. At the same time, hopefully I’m making him better as well. That was what … I loved every minute of it. That, and I hope you can ask them, gave me confidence to say ‘All right, we can put this guy in the game on Sundays.’ It was the only thing that mattered to me. That was my Sunday. They hated it, of course. ‘Slow down! C’mon man! This, that … Scout team player!’ All of the adages but at the same time, I’m trying to make the team. You’ve already made it. You’ve got millions of dollars in the bank. I’m just a guy coming off the street. I took tremendous pride in getting that done.”
(Does anybody stand out through the years that you’ve gone against or that you’ve even observed on scout team, whether it is quarterback, offensive tackle, center, that you said this dude needs a shot?) – “Well, I think you see it every year. It happens. Guys go in and most people don’t know who they are and then all of a sudden you see them pop up on the active roster. Most people don’t understand but for us, we know. We’ve watched him in practice. We’ve seen him going against starters or players who are going to be playing on Sunday making plays and doing things. Then they go in, they get moved up, active roster, and then they end up playing actually in the game on Sundays. We’ve had guys moving up from practice squad to active roster throughout the years and you’ve seen them show up on Sundays and make plays. To single somebody out, I would be missing someone else. But we’ve had guys doing that and I think that’s a tribute to them and it helps us when we go out there on Sunday.”
(You’re closing in on 100 career sacks. What does that milestone mean to you?) – “Right now, it’s not going to mean much. At the end of February after we win the Super Bowl, it’ll be something that I’ll probably take time to look back on and kind of reminisce. During the season, I just take it day by day. Sacks don’t really mean as much as far as numbers; but when the season is over, that’s my time to kind of reminisce back on the year, the accolades, the numbers and things like that. It’ll be something that I can probably enjoy later on down the line; but for now, it’s just another sack.”
Adam Gase – November 30, 2018
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Friday, November 30, 2018
Head Coach Adam Gase
(Have you made a decision or has a decision been made on WR Danny Amendola’s availability for Sunday?) – “No. I won’t know until Sunday.”
(What have you gotten out of WR Danny Amendola? What has he been able to do this week?) – “I mean he can run straight. We’re waiting to see lateral movement, how well he really feels doing that. We’ll be able to work on some stuff tomorrow and see how he feels.”
(I assume WR Danny Amendola thinks he’s good to go?) – “I don’t know. I haven’t talked to him yet. He’s always going to tell me that. Just like in the game, he said he was alright.”
(So you think you might take WR Danny Amendola through a workout Sunday morning?) – “We’ll see where we are tomorrow.”
(C Travis Swanson?) – “He didn’t do anything in practice today. It’s a wait-and-see (with him). We’ll get to Sunday and figure it out.”
(I’m not asking who you are going to play at slot receiver if you have to, but who do you have that can? Who do you have that you think…) – “Really, all of them can do something. We’ve got enough packages to mix all of these guys around between receivers, tight ends, running backs and all of those types of things. We just have to have more guys doing it. It won’t be just one guy.”
(How often do you see a guy on a scout team catch your eye and really make plays? A few times a year?) – “Offensively, it’s a little easier because guys are getting either catches or getting a chance to run the ball. I think (Kalen) Ballage, especially at the beginning of the year, he really was flashing and having some big runs and doing some really good things. The one I think back to is being in Denver, Brandon Marshall – the linebacker – that’s where he really started. We got him from Jacksonville. He frustrated anybody that he went against. Knowshon (Moreno) always thought he was tough. He was the one linebacker that could go out on Julius (Thomas) and give him problems. Peyton (Manning) was a huge fan of his where we would do something one week and if we tried to do something similar the next week, he would be calling out our plays and it would drive us nuts because we felt like we couldn’t get as good of work because he knew what our stuff was. He really used that time and developed and when he got his opportunity, he made the most of it. He’s had a really good career.”
(How do you know when your scout team is effective? Do you see that on Sunday that your team reacts to looks pretty well? How do you know?) – “I think it’s more about if guys are in the spots that we need them to be in and are playing the coverages the way that we need to, because it’s not always the same as what we do. So there are some things that they have to adjust to and maybe some things that they haven’t played before. When you start getting the right looks, you can see it on tape that it looks close to what we’re actually seeing from the other team.”
(Have you been happy with the discipline of this team, by and large, this year?) – “Yeah. These guys just work. They get to the office and they just grind.”
(And on Sundays?) – “Yeah, I mean they try to do everything we ask them to do. We’re not close to being perfect by any means; but last week, you watch the film and you see the effort. Guys – whatever they have – are giving it.”
