Kenny Stills – September 9, 2018 (Postgame)
Sunday, September 9, 2018
Postgame – Tennessee Titans
Miami Dolphins WR Kenny Stills (transcribed by Daniel Chavez)
(The longest game in NFL history. Just describe how physically and mentally challenging that was.) – “Just had to stay locked in and just know that we’re going to have to play at some point in time. At the end of the day, that’s football. When they told us its time to go play, we went out there and did it.”
(What was it like in the locker room? What were you guys doing to pass the time and stay fresh?) – “Just hanging out. Really just waiting to hear what they had to tell us. When they told us it was time to play, we had to go out there and do it. If you complain about it, get negative about it, then it’s going to probably show up on the field. We all just kept our spirits high and knew that at some point in time we were going to go out there and finish the game.”
(Kenny, can you take us through that touchdown pass and when the field opened up for you?) – “Which one?”
(The 75 yard strike.) – “We just had a post route on and the corner was sitting outside and used our speed. The line protected and Ryan (Tannehill) threw a great ball down the field and I made a play on the field.”
Minkah Fitzpatrick – September 9, 2018 (Postgame)
Sunday, September 9, 2018
Postgame – Tennessee Titans
Miami Dolphins S Minkah Fitzpatrick (transcribed by Ken Mendonça)
(It feel like three days ago, but that goal line stop you made ended up being a huge play and won you guys the game. What happened, what did you see on that?) – “They were three in a bunch, and one of the plays they run is that pick play. Where they take number one, try and pick the nickel, which I was playing, and take number three and send him to the flat, and I just had to fight through the block, and just make the tackle.”
(Is that something you saw in film study? How often do they run that?) – “They didn’t run it a whole lot, but it’s a combo route that teams run down there. It’s a good play, especially in a zone coverage. They pick one guy… Zone coverage, or man coverage. They pick one guy the guy in the flat is wide open.”
(How hard is it to keep coming and going due to the delays?) – “It was hard. You just have to keep your focus. Keep focused on your assignments, that’s what you got to do, and that’s it really. A lot of people could lose focus and cool down, but we did a good job of warming back up. I was looking at some notes I had in my notebook, and I was listening to some music. I tried to take a nap, but that didn’t work.”
Cameron Wake – September 9, 2018
Sunday, September 9, 2018
Postgame – Tennessee Titans
Miami Dolphins DE Cameron Wake
What’s it like to be a part of the longest game in NFL history?
CAMERON WAKE: You were out there. How was it?
We ran out of snacks in the press box.
CAMERON WAKE: We ran out of snacks in the locker room. Lots of peanut butter and jelly (sandwiches) and turkey sandwiches gone. Lots of carbs, so we will do some conditioning tomorrow.
How did you manage that time off and get yourself ready to go out not only once but twice? You were going to go and then not go, go and not go both times.
CAMERON WAKE: Yeah, there’s no manual for that. The first time it was kind of like … kind of in your mind, okay, this is halftime, and just they kept pushing it back 15 minutes, so you were always on edge the whole time. Now, the second one was like, ‘Alright, you guys are going to be in here for an hour and a half.’ It was just like, do I take my pads off, do I lay down, do I stand up, do I get on the bike? There’s really no way, so everybody was doing a lot of different things. But at the end of the day, they always talk about football is more mental than physical, and when you come out on the field, you have to be ready to go. I don’t know how it was out there for you guys, but they told us 7:30, and then all of sudden, they’re like, ‘Alright, in 10 minutes we’re going.’ So you’ve got guys laying down, some guys on the bike, some guys (looking at) plays on the (Surfaces), and all of a sudden it’s like, ‘Alright, it’s go time.’ Like I said, the guys responded well. Everybody got back in the mode that they needed to be in, and obviously went out there and finished the game off.
Big plays in this game both offensively and defensively, and it seemed like it was a perfect opportunity for the pass rush, both tackles get knocked out at the start. How tough was it to try to put pressure on the guys? Seemed like they were trying to get the ball out quickly, whether it was QB Marcus Mariota or QB Blaine Gabbert, trying to get the ball out as quickly as they could.
CAMERON WAKE: Yeah, I think kudos to them. I probably would do the same thing if I was facing us. But at the end of the day, you’ve got to put that in the back of your mind and think each play, this is the opportunity we’re going to have to make them hold the ball. Even if they were going to go back, five-step drop, it doesn’t matter if they’re chipping or whatever protection they’re going, you’ve got to continue to fight and get your job done. Like I said, if they’re going to do that, I think that plays to our favor because we’ve got guys on the back end who are going to come up and put the ball on the ground. If it’s a day like that, I think those guys, as you see, like Reshad Jones and Kiko (Alonso) and those guys had a big day.
S Minkah Fitzpatrick made a big play at the goal line. He’s been out there a lot. I watched him today, and you look at him and he certainly doesn’t look like he plays like a rookie.
CAMERON WAKE: No, he’s definitely a tremendous asset. Like I said, we said to the guys that were going to play – the rookies – that ended when the training camp ended. We expect you to play at a high level, we expect you to play like a veteran football player, and he’s going out there, and he’s making plays every time he’s on the field, and he’s getting better every day. I told him his first NFL game had to be the longest one in NFL history; but we got a W, so I think it was all worth it.
Did you learn anything about this team today, or did it maybe solidify some things where you were maybe a little questionable?
CAMERON WAKE: No, not at all. I didn’t have a doubt, really. I feel like … I’ve been around these guys since April whatever day we started, and I kind of … I understood what the situation was going to be. It wasn’t going to be more … especially at that point, literally two hours of breaks sitting in your locker, kind of restart, start, restart – that’s a mental thing. And you’ve got to go out and snap back into it, get back on to hair on fire, blood boiling, getting after it football game. It was weird. There’s no manual, but at the end of the day, when they say ‘put the ball down, let’s play,’ I never doubted that our guys would be able to go out there and do it.
What was it like to see QB Ryan Tannehill come out and play like he did, his first game back?
CAMERON WAKE: Well, I heard him say, as well, we’ve been chasing him around since April. He’s been out there all preseason. So it didn’t really seem like his first game back because it’s probably portrayed, but obviously it was good to see him out there delivering the ball, making plays. Obviously he couldn’t wait. It’s been a while. Long overdue. But again, I think that his return, he did a good job.
Bobby McCain – September 9, 2018
Sunday, September 9, 2018
Postgame – Tennessee Titans
Miami Dolphins CB Bobby McCain (transcribed by Paige Jefferson)
(What were the conversations like in here?) – “You know just about ball. We turned a couple of games on. Everybody got the wet stuff of them, changed. Just go back out and prepare because at the end we have to finish the game.”
(Was it hard to come out with that same intensity after two delays?) – “Not at all. Not at all. Not one bit.”
(How did you stay focused throughout the many delays that we had?) – “I just focused on ball. I just watched TV, watched the games that were on, the highlights and stuff. Like I said, we were in here for a little while so I got close with the teammates. Everybody just huddled up, and watched a little ball, and chilled out and waited until we could go back outside.
(What happened on the taunting?) – “I’m not really sure. I asked and the refs didn’t know either. I was celebrating with G5 (Reshad Jones) and it was a big huddle coming up around. I’m looking around. I don’t know what’s going. Somehow I’m right in the smack dab middle of it with my feet off the ground. I don’t know. At the end of the day, all that matters is that we got the win.”
Reshad Jones – September 9, 2018 (Postgame)
Sunday, September 9, 2018
Postgame – Tennessee Titans
Miami Dolphins S Reshad Jones (transcribed by Ken Mendonça)
(On staying focused for this game with two delays.) – “It was a long game, but guys stayed resilient. We did what it took to go out and win this football game.”
(What was the conversation like in here for those four hours you were spending?) – “We’ve been knew it was … (Head) Coach (Adam Gase) said all week there was going to be some adversity here, and it did come. When we went back out, we were prepared and ready to go.”
(Your first career two-pick game. You talked before the season that was something you hadn’t accomplished yet that you wanted to do. How exciting was that?) – “It was very exciting. It helped the team win a football game. But it wasn’t just me, it was a total team effort. The front seven played well. Those guys got after the quarterback, and I was just back there doing my job to make the play.”
Adam Gase – September 9, 2018 (Postgame)
Sunday, September 9, 2018
Postgame – Tennessee Titans
Miami Dolphins Head Coach Adam Gase
Needless to say, a bizarre game. You come away with a win. How did you manage it during those down times so that you were ready to come back and play the couple of times that you had to do it?
ADAM GASE: I thought the guys did a good job of transitioning from when we came in. They knew we had some time, guys just being able to take their shoulder pads off, just trying to get up every once in a while, move around. Guys stayed … they were hanging out and stayed engaged and talking about the game. There was a lot of time to burn.
When you go back before the first stop, they’re moving the ball down the field, and they go for it on fourth down. S Minkah Fitzpatrick comes up and makes a big play to keep them out of the end zone, and then you were able to go 98 yards and put it in the end zone. It speaks a lot for your football team being able to make that turnaround.
ADAM GASE: Yeah, that was good to see that we actually played off each other. That was the one time we did. We just … we need to take more … offensively take advantage of when our defense puts us in scoring position. We didn’t do that very well except for that one where they had the stop and we actually scored on it. We’ve got a lot of room for improvement, but that’s what the whole exercise is about.
Talk about QB Ryan Tannehill, what you saw out of him, his performance coming back for the first time after a year and a half away.
ADAM GASE: I thought he was good. We had it rolling there for a little bit. We’ll clean up some of the turnovers and maybe some of the mistakes. He didn’t make too many. It was good to see him back out there. He got knocked around a little bit, but did a good job of bouncing right back up.
A couple big plays from WR Kenny Stills, but S Reshad Jones with his interceptions really changed the course of the game for you I think at key times in this football game.
ADAM GASE: Yes, I mean, that’s why he’s a Pro Bowler. He seems to make the timely play, and he made a couple of them tonight. He made some big hits, and they had their run game going a little bit, and he made a really good play where he jumped in the hole there and had a really good tackle. You know, it’s good to see our better players really stepping up in those key moments.
Did guys eat during the break?
ADAM GASE: Yes.
Did they change jerseys?
ADAM GASE: No.
Did they shower?
ADAM GASE: I don’t know. I wasn’t watching.
What were the coaches doing?
ADAM GASE: We were working on our game plan stuff, trying to figure out kind of like what our next step was. A lot of conversations, sat around with the rest of those guys just talking ball.
What was your communication with the league or officials or anything like that?
ADAM GASE: I had none. Somebody would run down and tell me. I just figured they’d tell me 10 minutes before we were going out, and we’d be ready to go.
As a coach, you prepare for any situation, but do you ever in the back of your mind think of something crazy…
ADAM GASE: I mean, I won’t be surprised by anything. I think we’ve almost covered everything. (laughter)
Did that help you or hurt you? Could it have been better if.
ADAM GASE: I don’t know. We won, and we’ve got a lot of things we’ve got to improve on. We know that, but that was the team that was in the playoffs last year, and that’s — we knew they were going to be a tough opponent, even though we’re at home. We played like it was the first game of the year. We had some mistakes that we’re going to go back and say this can’t happen anymore, and we’ll improve from here.
Your young rookies, from what you’ve seen, what you saw, how did you think they handled themselves?
ADAM GASE: I felt like they were all very loose before we started the game. It seemed like everybody was playing fast. It’s going to really probably take some time to just kind of see how everybody fits in and really what their roles become. We’ve got an idea, but I don’t think we really got as good of a flow offensively as we wanted to, and defensively I think the young guys did a good job. It seemed like they were around the ball quite a bit.
Did you expect to have more opportunities for TE Mike Gesicki, or was it about what you expected?
ADAM GASE: I don’t want to say … it’s probably not what I expected, but it was just kind of how the game went.
How would you describe the chemistry between QB Ryan Tannehill and WR Kenny Stills?
ADAM GASE: Well, that’s trust. Those two guys trust each other. They work a lot. You know, Ryan and him always seem to spend extra time. Kenny and him really do a good job of using kind of that downtime when we’re going scout team with the defense, and they work on certain routes, and it seems like that one they got down pretty good. That was one of those plays where it was the right coverage versus what we ran, and they made a good play together.
Did you realize pretty quickly that WR Jakeem Grant was gone?
ADAM GASE: Yeah, I was standing … he was coming my direction. I just saw it was him and the kicker. I was just going, ‘please run by him.’
You see QB Ryan Tannehill almost every day; it’s different than what people here see after 600 days. Is what they saw the Ryan you’ve been seeing for the last 600 days?
ADAM GASE: As far as what? (inaudible) I mean, I think it’s been a steady climb for him since we got here and where he is now where he has more control of the offense. There’s still some things he’ll want to clean up. I know he’ll be mad at a few decisions he made where he might have had some better plays, and that happens. That’s part of playing the position. The longer you play and the more times you get in those situations and don’t make the same mistake twice, that’s when you really start having good things happen, and now instead of two touchdowns you have four or five. I think there’s a lot of good things that are going to come out of this game, and we’ll just keep trying to find ways to get better.
Talk about the attitude and QB Ryan Tannehill’s enthusiasm with the playbook and the offense, does that lead to you guys trying to go for fourth-and-1?
ADAM GASE: Well, the fourth-and-1, we’ve been talking about it really through since the spring that when we get in those situations that if we feel like it’s going to be the right coverage versus what we’re going to call, we’re going to go for it, and we felt like that was one of those situations, and it didn’t work out, but we’ve got confidence that our defense is going to try to find a way to stop them and keep them pinned back there. That’s just kind of the flow of the game. You have a good feel. You just know where you’re at. I felt like the defense was in a good place at that time. It would have been a different situation if I would have had a different feel. Maybe I would have kicked a field goal. But at the time the defensive guys wanted us to go for it I could tell. They wanted us to try to pop one there or maybe score a couple plays later.
There was RB Frank Gore with that long run.
ADAM GASE: Yeah, it seemed like we had some momentum going there. It didn’t work out this time, but we’ll keep attacking it.
Is that the recipe for you?
ADAM GASE: Yeah, I think that’s always been the recipe. It’s just got to be the right situation.
You kicked off seven and a half hours ago; how do you feel right now?
ADAM GASE: I’m ready to go home. You’ve got to stop asking questions. (laughter)
Cameron Wake – September 7, 2018
Download PDF version
Thursday, September 6, 2018
DE Cameron Wake
(Different thought for you going into this regular season game than maybe the preseason for you?) – “Not really. For me, if there’s an opponent across from me, he’s wearing a different color and they’re keeping score, it’s all gas, no brakes. It doesn’t matter whatever it is. I don’t care if it’s ping-pong, badminton, preseason, Super Bowl, I’m trying to kill you.”
(How has DE Robert Quinn helped you on the other side?) – “He’s a tremendous asset to the team. Obviously, he’s a great football player (and a) tremendous pass-rushing force. Anytime you have to make decisions when it comes to the offensive side of the ball … of course, that would probably be a great question to ask one of those guys on the other side, but how are you going to dispense your attention? There’s only so many guys you’ve got to use and hopefully the more that we can occupy, the better it is for the team in its entirety – whether it’s DBs, linebackers or the guys up front. I think everybody is going to benefit from other guys making plays, not only him. We’ve got other guys also doing the same thing, but I look forward to all of us causing problems and having good output as far as production is concerned.”
(You’re a guy who picks his spots when he has a message for his teammates, is there anything this week that’s come to mind you felt the need to share?) – “Sure; but what I’ll share is probably, I mean, it’s just a long offseason. I think April 25th-ish, we came back and pretty much everything we’ve done from that day until now is focusing on Sunday. All the drills, the conditioning, weights, studying, preseason, 9-on-7s, 1-on-1s, all of that stuff has kind of come to this moment. I think everybody kind of is ready. It’s time. All the talk, whatever I’m going to say now, doesn’t mean anything. Whatever I say tomorrow is not going to mean anything. What’s going to mean something is going to be when you put those pads on and you do your job on Sunday.”
(There’s been a lot of talk about changing the culture after what happened last season and some of the ups and downs there. What have you seen this year relating to that, and do you buy into changing the culture in the offseason?) – “Words have never solved a problem. It’s always come down to actions. It has to happen. It’s not something that we can just go out and say. It’s not something that you can speak into existence. Speaking something into existence is not a thing. You have to act it into existence. We can go out there and rah-rah-rah all we want, whether it’s culture, stop the run, get to the quarterback, score points, all of that. It sounds good. It makes good T-shirts; but you have to bleed. You have to do it and that becomes who you are. Whether you want to say I’m a rah-rah guy or I’m a tough guy, if you don’t go out there and be tough, what difference does it make? So Sunday will show what this the situation is, who you are individually, unit, team, so on and so forth.”
(You’re now in Year 10. What drives you? What’s your motivation?) – “Cameron Wake. Every day I look in the mirror. Being better than him. I’ve always been a guy I’ve never cared about stats particularly, somebody else, what he did, what he does, what the other guy on the other side of the league is doing. I have a very, very competition in myself and outdoing me, being better, being smarter. All of those things, keep stepping that bar up. That’s kind of the way I make my way across improving and I think if I continue to do that, then hopefully I can help this team. If I can help this team, then we can get more wins, and so on and so on. It’s just going to trickle down and trickle across and be contagious. If that’s not how you approach it and you’re worried about somebody else, what he’s doing, what he’s doing, I think you’re behind the 8-ball already. I just focus on being the best me I can be and I can look in the mirror every day and live with that. I think I’ll be all right.”
(Can you quantify what outdoing the 2017 DE Cam Wake would look like?) – “It’s hard. It’s hard. I think especially you guys, looking at this paper here, there’s all kind of numbers and probably statistics and what not; but that’s not always the picture that you’re going to be able to get from football. There’s so much more to it that goes into being a good football player or a good teammate or a good pass rusher, so on and so on and so on. A lot of it … Some of it is on the paper and some of it isn’t. To be a better me, I would be here for 30 minutes talking about that; but some of it is statistical, quantifiable, tangible stuff and some of it isn’t. I think if you are honest with yourself and only you know that, I think you’ll be able to look in the mirror again and say ‘Yes, I did,’ or ‘No, I didn’t.’”
(I think you guys have seen the Titans the last two years. One was when QB Marcus Mariota was healthy and one when he was not. That 2016 game with him, he had some success. What did you guys learn from that game?) – “That’s ancient history at this point. I think it doesn’t really matter. I think now the guys we have to deal with now is the team we’re going to play. Of course they’ve got a lot of new pieces, a new scheme, new this, new that. So it’s probably less about what they are going to be doing and it’s more about what we’re going to do. If I punch you in the mouth, I really don’t care about what you’ve been doing or not doing. It’s just the nature of the business. I don’t really care, I’m going to go out – I’m going to say we – we don’t really care. We’re going to go out and do what we do, play our technique and if we do that we’re going to go out and be successful regardless of what happened in 2013, ‘14, ‘20, ’22, whatever.”
(Speaking of your individual matchup on the edge. What do you see in T Taylor Lewan and T Jack Conklin and if they’ve got to play T Dennis Kelly and how you can fare in those matchups?) – “I’m pretty consistent on how I look at guys. I study like anybody else. I see weaknesses and strengths and things like that. You try to line those up with what you’ve got. You line their weakness up with your strengths. At the end of the day, it’s a guy I look at as an opponent. He probably thinks he’s better than me, I think I’m better than him, and on Sunday it’s going to be pass or fail. I look across our line and I feel we have the guys to get the job done; but, again as I’ve told you before, T-shirts, rah-rah and speeches is good for TV maybe, but it doesn’t win games. It doesn’t change the outcome of how your season is going to go. You have to put on the pads and put in the work. On Sunday, that will be very evident one way or another.”
(You spend 349 days getting ready for 16 games, what’s that like? All that work and if you’re not on that day, it feels like a failure probably.) – “Yes. Again, you guys have asked … The people and of course those last however many days – I don’t know how many days from the last game until Sunday – but people don’t see that. There’s no SportsCenter highlights. There’s no TV shows about it. The majority of what goes on, no one sees. Everybody sees Sunday at one o’clock until 3:30 or four o’clock – whatever – and that’s all they know; but there’s so much that goes on behind the scenes. I think, again, that’s why this is the greatest team sport in the world because there is so much at stake. You don’t get 100 games to figure it out. You have, like you said, 16 chances. You work the rest of the year for those 16 chances. And it’s probably going to come down in the NFL as we saw last night to one play. Just one. You don’t know which one. It could have been the third one, the 15th one. Everybody think’s it’s the last play of the game, but it got decided good or bad somewhere along the line of the game. A game of inches. All of those sayings and all of those thing, it’s the reality. It’s heavier than you can probably express to somebody who hasn’t been on this side doing it. It’s some of the greatest highs and some of the lowest lows. That’s why we go through what we go through in order to achieve that six hours of joy and pleasure of winning a game and to avoid those 16 or so hours of sorrow. Again, it’s heavier than I can explain to you until you put some pads on.”
Jakeem Grant – September 7, 2018
Friday, September 7, 2018
Wide Receiver Jakeem Grant
(Where have you improved the most in the last year moving outside?) – “I would say just all areas – route running, understanding coverages, hands, just everything. Just understanding the concept and just knowing the playbook inside and out and knowing what each guy has, so I can go out there and not think about what I’m doing and just be fast, run fast and play fast.”
(What was your reaction last year when they approached you about moving outside?) – “Me? I was just like ‘let’s do it coach. Whatever, let’s do it.’ It was something new for me. It was the first time that I was going to be a predominantly outside receiver. In our offense, one guy can easily be in the slot, but whenever he (Head Coach Adam Gase) said ‘Jakeem, I’m going to try you out at the X,’ I was like ‘Okay, let’s do it.’ It was something new and I just learned it and the rest was history. I actually love it. It’s actually night and day, and I can see the bigger picture from the outside now. I loved the move, I just love it. So, I appreciate him for moving me outside.”
(What is it about being outside? Do you kind of lick your chops a little bit knowing you can burn those guys?) – “Definitely. You can easily come across a one-on-one matchup at any time. Like I said previously, just seeing the bigger picture. In the inside, you have to look through linebackers and all kind of things like that; but outside, you can see where the safety is at clearer and you can understand what coverage it is. With that, there’s a lot of film studying that took place and also going out there, (Wide Receivers Coach Ben) Johnson harped on it, (Assistant Head Coach/Offense Shawn) Jefferson harped on it – find out where those safeties are and they will tell you what coverage it is. So, the first thing I do when I get outside and get lined up, I find out where those safeties are and they tell me what coverage it is and what coverage it isn’t.”
(How much outside did you play at Texas Tech?) – “Slim. Very minimal. Like I said, this is my first time playing outside and it’s night and day. I love it.”
(The first time they came to you with this idea, what was your reaction?) – “My reaction was ‘let’s do it coach.’ I was like ‘it’s something new. I’ve never played outside before,’ and I was like ‘I could easily get a one-on-one matchup at any time.’ I was like ‘with my speed, that’s a home-run ball.’ I like scoring touchdowns, so I was like ‘you know what? It’s whatever. I’m down for it.’ I was up for it, and I appreciate him (Head Coach Adam Gase) for moving me because I’ve been doing a good job at it and I’ll continue to do a good job.”
(You could use your speed for end-around’s as well, right?) – “Definitely. I definitely use the speed. I always harp on ‘don’t let them get their hands on you.’ The thing is, with my size, guys want to get their hands on me quick because they know they can’t run with me, so all I have to do is just continue to practice on my Mr. Miyagi technique – wax on, wax off. (laughter) That’s what I’m going to continue to do.”
(You deserve a ton of credit, obviously, for your improvement; but guys you would also credit for also helping you reach this point over the last year, who comes to mind?) – “I would say just the whole coaching staff, just for them to even have faith in me. Just saying ‘Hey Jakeem, we’re going to try you at the X position and see how you fit in there.’ Obviously, they knew that that was going to be a good role for me, and as time passes, they would expand my role and I continued to make plays and plays. So, just with them harping on ‘Hey Jakeem, you’re already fast. You don’t need to be 100 miles in a brake area. Your 75 is people’s 100, so just get it down and just understand the playbook and all of this and that.’ With them doing that, just having that trust in me and just wanting me to be better, it makes me want to grind harder and not let those guys down. So, that’s what I continue to do is just go out there each and every day and show them that I don’t want to let them down and I want them to be able to trust me.”
(The last couple weeks, how have you dealt with being in the concussion protocol and did you have any doubts that you probably wouldn’t play?) – “No, I had no doubts. I knew I was ready to go. Being in the protocol, it definitely stinks. I just hated it and I couldn’t be out there with my brothers and teammates out there having fun and making plays, blocking, going out there joking around. That’s like being at a family event. Once I got back, I just picked up where I left off and having fun when I got out there, because I was out there with my brothers, my family. We’re here every day with each other, so it’s a brotherhood and one big family. So I was glad to be back in there and they welcomed me back with open arms, just like I was here before.”
