Jarvis Landry – December 24, 2017 (Postgame)
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Sunday, December 17, 2017
Postgame – Kansas City Chiefs
Dolphins WR Jarvis Landry (transcribed by the Kansas City Chiefs)
What was the most disappointing part of today? “We lost.”
What went differently than you expected from an offensive standpoint? “Turnovers, penalties, most of the things that cause us lose a game. They showed up today, starting with myself on the first drive and carried on throughout the game. It’s hard to win like that.”
What happened on your fumble? “He made a good hit. It was a hell of a hit, honestly. He hit the ball perfectly. The ball was tucked, I tucked it. I was going down. He made a good tackle. Peters made a good play and made sure he got his feet down.”
You had another milestone for catches, do those things mean something? “Maybe when looking back, but not immediately after a loss.”
Can you explain what happened between you and Head Coach Adam Gase? “Nothing. We were in the red zone with third and 10, fourth and 10 and we didn’t get the first down. The game is on the line right there. Everyone knows it. We need to score a touchdown right there. I think it’s normal for anyone to show frustration at that point. Understanding that this is our season, our season is on the line on this drive. I think we didn’t get the ball back until under two minutes after that drive. Anybody would be frustrated. I’m sure you guys were frustrated as well. I wasn’t yelling at Adam [Gase] or anything.”
How would you contrast going from a 10-win season to a 9-loss season? “It happens. It’s the NFL. A lot of the games we could have won this year. We didn’t due to turnovers, penalties, things that showed up today. That will get you beat any day in the NFL.”
Jakeem Grant – December 24, 2017 (Postgame)
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Sunday, December 17, 2017
Postgame – Kansas City Chiefs
Dolphins WR Jakeem Grant (transcribed by the Kansas City Chiefs)
On today’s missed opportunities: “We got to capitalize and not have those penalties. We started moving things forward, but then we started shooting ourselves in the foot with penalties. We just got to get those corrected.”
Did you feel that the passing game was the best that it’s been? “It was good, but I’m not worried about the passing and being involved, as long as we win is what I’m more focused about and we didn’t do that today. All that doesn’t mean anything to me.”
Is “missed opportunities” going to be the one thing that stands out when looking back at this season? “Yeah, there’s some things you wish you could go back and change. It’s the game of football, you got to execute it right there. We just got to hope and get better next week, each and every week. We just have to worry about this next game and executing it as best as we can.”
On his touchdown reception: “It was just a screen, like a previous screen I ran before. I just made a play and lowered my pads and ran over the guy. I didn’t think I was going to run him over, but I did. When he fell off, it was easy running. It was great execution by the whole offense.”
On being eliminated from playoff contention: “It sucks, just going off last year being in the playoffs, you just want to get back into the playoffs. It didn’t happen this way. You can’t say anything about it and we just got to go and execute the next game.”
T.J. McDonald – December 24, 2017 (Postgame)
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Sunday, December 17, 2017
Postgame – Kansas City Chiefs
Dolphins S T.J. McDonald (transcribed by the Kansas City Chiefs)
On today’s loss: “We just didn’t do enough. Point blank. We just didn’t do enough. We got to be more consistent. Hats off to them.”
Did the defense under achieve this year? “You always think that you can do better. I feel like we have good players here. We have guys that can play good football, but it didn’t happen for us. We have one more game and we’ll go out there and put on some good film and it’s something to build on.”
On being eliminated from playoff contention: “It is what it is. It is what it is. It sucks. It sucks. You want to go to the playoffs, you want to continue to keep playing. The whole goal is to win and when you don’t win it sucks. You can’t sugarcoat it. It doesn’t feel good.”
Jay Cutler – December 24, 2017 (Postgame)
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Sunday, December 17, 2017
Postgame – Kansas City Chiefs
Dolphins QB Jay Cutler (transcribed by the Kansas City Chiefs)
Seemed like offensively you had to settle for field goals instead of touchdowns – how did that aspect of the game hurt you? “It’s hard to win football games only kicking field goals. The offense was rolling pretty good at times. I thought we moved the ball really well. There was only one three and out and other than that, a couple fumbles and missed opportunities here, a penalty when we were driving. It’s those types of things can hurt you in a big way.”
Does it just seem like the same story to you over and over again? “I think all those things are recipes for teams, win a few, lose a few. If you’re going to be consistent in this league those are the things that you have to eliminate. You got to eliminate turnovers, key penalties, got to be in the red zone, third down efficiency. I think it’s a hard recipe or solution. You look at the top 10 teams and the guys that are getting into the playoffs, probably doing all those things really well.”
With the playoffs out of the picture now, how do you approach next week’s game? “Same as this week. We’re going to keep going until they tell us not to. I think there’s still a lot of fight left in that locker room. It’s a good group of guys. We’ll get ready for next week and we’re going to give it our best shot.”
Anything you can say about the season right now through 15 games? “No. I don’t think it’s fair. These things, after 12 years it takes a little bit of time for these things to sink in. To gain perspective I think you have to step away for a little bit to really look back at it and know exactly what happened.”
Adam Gase – December 24, 2017 (Postgame)
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Sunday, December 17, 2017
Postgame – Kansas City Chiefs
Dolphins Head Coach Adam Gase (transcribed by the Kansas City Chiefs)
On the amount of penalties, third down conversions and negative plays: “We just never could play together again. That’s the biggest problem. We get a stop, then we turn it over. We had an early turnover that’s just not going to cut it against a playoff team.”
On Jay Cutler moving the ball well: “Yeah, he was good. There’s a couple of things I’m sure he’ll, when he goes back and looks at things, probably want one back, but I thought for the most part he did a really good job. He controlled the game for as much as he could. In the second half, he didn’t really do much.”
On how he feels about being eliminated from the playoffs: “It’s tough. This is what you play for. We’ve had a couple weeks here in a row where we’ve had good opportunities to do something with the opportunity that we had. Instead, we just came out, didn’t perform well, and didn’t get it done.”
On what had been the issue on the defensive side of the ball: “We got beat by a couple of the guys who we talked about stopping. That’s really what hurt us. We thought we had a good plan coming in, got in a couple of situations that we couldn’t use what we had planned and we couldn’t find a way to be consistent and get them off the field.”
On how surprised he was seeing Kenny (Stills) and Jarvis (Landry) stripped balls: “Yeah we’ve been pretty good for the most part with the wide outs. That was the one thing we talked about was Marcus (Peters) does a good job. That’s what he does. He goes after the ball and gets those; probably the fifth or sixth one that he’s gotten out or recovered.”
On what the difference this year was this year with penalties: “Yeah, we had a really bad streak there the first eight games and then it looked like we were going to clean it up there for a while then we kind of got in the pre-snap penalties for a few weeks and then we get called for a holding at the wrong time and then we get some defensive holdings. We just have to play clean.”
On his perspective of Ted Larsen’s unsportsmanlike conduct call: “I didn’t see it. I was trying to figure out what happened the play before, basically on that play. It was a little bit of a surprise the way Jay (Cutler) threw the ball away. I was trying to figure out what happened on that and then somebody said there was a flag.”
On what happened when it appeared he was yelling at Jarvis (Landry): “It’s just part of the game. It just happens. Not the first time. You guys just noticed this one.”
On what Jakeem Grant showed today: “That he’s a guy we think we’ve got something there. Him and (Kenyan) Drake have done a great job of stepping up especially in the last eight games of the season making plays for us. I feel like Jakeem, we wanted to get him the ball. We’ve been trying to find ways to do it, it’s tough sometimes because when he goes into the game, it’s a big red flag. We’ve been trying to keep him in there. It’s tough with those other three guys because you like them being on the field too. So we just try to find ways to get him on the field and we kind of used him as really a relief for Drake a lot of the times. We were able to get him involved today and if he would have had a few more that would have kept the game closer.”
On a possible recurring theme for those nine losses this year: “Yeah that’s probably going to be more of an offseason deal. I wish I had a great answer of ‘this is why’. The best I can give you is we haven’t played one game of complimentary football the whole season. That’s just really not going to cut it and we’re not going to win many games if we do that.”
Adam Gase – December 22, 2017
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Friday, December 22, 2017
Head Coach Adam Gase
(With CB Cordrea Tankersley, what’s the challenge in terms of his road back?) – “I think it’s just getting out there and getting that confidence of being able to stick his foot in the ground and attack, not being cautious at all. I don’t know if he’s really thinking about that part of worrying about any kind of injury. I think he’s just ready to get out there and go play physical, play his game.”
(So RB Damien Williams is doubtful. In addition to RB Kenyan Drake, you have RB Senorise Perry and I don’t remember if RB De’Veon Smith was up last week; but to what extent have you or would you consider using one of those guys in a slightly increased role?) – “Yes, it’s kind of really how the game kind of goes. I mean sometimes we have some stuff in there for certain guys and we don’t get to it and it’s just no different than Jakeem (Grant), where we’re trying to do some stuff with, and the tight ends, we had certain packages in. We just never got to it. It just depends how the flow of the game is and how many touches (Kenyan) Drake ends up having. You just prepare for a lot of different scenarios and then see how it plays out.”
(With the linebacker situation. The perception is that from a coverage standpoint, you guys are struggling in that unit. Is that what film is showing you or are we overplaying what’s happening?) — “I think a little bit of it is we’ve played some good tight ends and so there’s been some times where we’ve had guys wide open and sometimes we’re in zone, where it’s not really their responsibility and possibly it was the safety’s or the corner was supposed to be in a certain location. If we clean a lot of those things up, we probably eliminate half of the issues that we’ve had. Have there been times where we get one on one and it’s not the greatest matchup ever? Yes. I mean it happens; but if guys play the proper technique, proper leverage and stay tight to make it hard for the quarterback to throw, if we’re contesting balls then that’s a good play. If they catch it, I mean that’s going to happen. It’s the NFL.”
(When you have an offense with talented threats, high-level threats at every level with the receiver, the tight end, the running back, how challenging is that for a defensive coordinator?) – “I think that’s what you want. You want to make them play the whole field. We’ve had situations before where they know they’re not going to get anything past 20 yards. That makes it really hard. If you got guys that can stretch the field, that’s where they start and then they work their way back down, now obviously we’ve got guys that can stretch the field, we’ve got guys that can hit in the intermediate game and then we’ve got a guy that’s really good in underneath and the intermediate game, which causes a lot of problems for those guys. That’s why you see Kenny (Stills) pop free down the field every once in a while and DeVante’s (Parker) had some one-on-one matchups. A lot of it starts with Jarvis (Landry) doing some of the dirty work and working underneath and the same thing with the tight ends, just finding those little, almost like annoyance catches to move the chains. Now when you add the backs to the passing game, now it becomes a whole different animal for them because just a simple check down turns into a 12-yard gain. It puts a lot of pressure on the defense and that’s what we want to do.”
(I know you don’t think about stats and I know this is how you are, but how important do you think it is for WR Jarvis Landry to maybe lead the league in receptions for the first time in his career and get over that 1,000 yard benchmark?) – “It’s one of those things, you don’t want them to think about it. When position guys come into the season, they have goals in the back of their mind; but it’s kind of one of those things they kind of keep to themselves. It’s really not necessarily, ‘This is what I want to have.’ They’re thinking, ‘This is what I can do to help us win.’ He’s a guy that we go to a lot and the hardest thing is when we know he’s getting doubled and he still gets open and we’re still finding him and not shying away from the fact that we can run certain routes and take advantage of some of those coverages, and he’s done that. I think if he’s in that position to where he ends up having the most catches in the NFL, that’s great. I mean it’s one of those things that’s great for the resume; but I’m sure he’d take two more wins. and be second. We’ll see how these next two games play out and if he is, great. If he’s not, I’m sure he’s not going to lose too much sleep because he still caught a ton of balls.”
(Has S T.J. McDonald lived up to expectations?) – “I think so. I think it’s hard when you come in and you basically didn’t play any football for a long period of time and then he jumped right in there and was ready to go. I think in his first game he played 60-some snaps. I think he played every snap on defense. That’s tough to do to prepare yourself like that. As this part of the season has gone on, he’s gotten better every week. He’s a guy that we’re looking forward to, not only these next two games but down the road. We think we’ve got something with those two guys (McDonald and Reshad Jones) back there.”
(How is TE Anthony Fasano’s skillset at this point in his career compared to what you thought you might have been getting when you signed him?) – “I didn’t realize he was as good a receiver as what he’s shown me. We’ve done a lot of things with him in practice that we haven’t (done in the game), whether it’s been the wrong coverage when we were releasing on certain routes. He gives us flexibility. There’s nothing on the game plan that I say, ‘I don’t want to call that because he’s in.’ He knows exactly where to be and has been reliable for us as far as any time the ball is thrown to him. We’ve gotten a couple of big plays out of him. It’s always good to see a guy that everybody says is a blocker and you’re able to get him the ball in the passing game and throw him the ball every once in a while”
(It’s weird because it seems like, as the season has gone on, obviously you’ve gotten more and more hurt on the offensive line, but it has played better and better. How is that? How does that work?) – “I think you’ve just got a group of guys that have a great mentality and they’re fighters. A lot of times on the offensive line, that’s really what you’re looking for is guys that develop a little bit of a bond, a little bit of that chemistry that I’ve been talking about for the last two years. We’ve had so many guys in and out. These guys have actually been practicing together and playing together, it seems like, for a while now. It probably has only been like four weeks, but it feels like forever. They do a good job of sticking together throughout a game, adjusting during a game and I love the way that they battle down in and down out.”
(Have you settled in with G/T Jesse Davis at right guard or do you still think he could be a tackle?) – “We’ll look at that at the end of the year. It’s one of those things where we’ll probably put film together and sit there and watch both at the end of the season.”
(G/T Jesse Davis was one of those guys that when you picked him up last year, he was on the practice squad right? How did that even come about? Was he was someone that was on your radar?) – “Personnel guys, this is all they do. They look at practice squad guys throughout the league, looking at their preseason tape, looking at tape if they’ve played in games. They’re constantly coming through, paying attention to what’s going on with them on a weekly basis. When opportunities come up, they have to have a list ready to go. ‘Hey, this is a guy I like,’ and when we have a spot open, they go and try to get that guy on our team.”
(In years, even before you, this team put so many resources into that guard position and you kind of, not stumbled into a pretty good player in G/T Jesse Davis, but it wasn’t exactly a plan.) – “I think he’s done a good job of allowing himself to be put in his position because when he got here, I don’t know if you guys remember, he wasn’t as big as what he is now. He really spent a lot of time in the weight room with (Head Strength and Conditioning Coach Dave) Puloka and he continued it, not only through the end of last year, but all through the offseason, all of training camp, through the season. You can see his strength is one of his assets that we really, really like. When he gets his hands on guys, he really can tie a guy up for a while.”
(Where is TE A.J. Derby in terms of being able to help you on offense?) – “He’s smart. He’s done a good job of picking things up very quickly. It helped a little bit because Denver runs close to a similar offense. Some of the terminology is still carried over from a while ago, so I think that made it easier. We’ll see how it plays out for us.”
(We’re done, but I do have information for you. You asked me about RB Kenyan Drake, 148 scrimmage yards per game the last three games, that would make him the most productive back in starts over that three-game span. Now he started four games, so his 123 yards per game average, that makes him the fifth most productive back in the NFL.) – “I’ll take it.”
Jarvis Landry – December 21, 2017
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Thursday, December 21, 2017
WR Jarvis Landry
(Did you do Secret Santa or anything?) – “Not in the locker room, but we did it through the (position) groups and stuff like that, the receivers room. One of these guys brought somebody a car. It’s crazy.”
(Wait, what?) – “That’s all I’m going into it; but it’s crazy.”
(We need more specifics about this? Are we talking like a Hugo, a Lexus, a Beamer?) – “Like a Dodge something, a Dodge something.”
(Did the person need the car?) – “No, absolutely not. The person has 10 cars already. I think that was kind of the point. Who knows? We’ll see.”
(What unit, if you can?) – “O-line. They got all of the money anyway.”
(The important question is, can they fit in that car?) – “I don’t know. I haven’t seen the car. I heard about it. I haven’t seen the car, so I don’t know. Probably not. That’s probably part of being Secret Santa, pranking each other and stuff.”
(You’re good friends with Steelers WR Antonio Brown. Are you a little bit conflicted that he gets hurt, a friend of yours gets hurt; but at the same time him getting hurt puts you in line for a pretty good shot at the receiving title?) – “No, no, no. It’s always unfortunate; but obviously in this league, things happen. He’s a great player. He does great things for his team, and the biggest concern for me, immediately after our game – I kind of saw that going through the ticker that he was going through the hospital – was his health, his personal health. That’s the biggest concern for me. I’m sure he takes pride in catching the most balls in the league and hopefully next year it’ll be a tighter race. We get a couple of guys back as well. We’ll get (Giants WR) Odell (Beckham, Jr.) back in the race and a couple of other guys. We’re all friends, we’re all brothers at the end of the day and that’s what it’s about. It’s about competing; but also celebrating each other’s success.”
(How significant would it be for you to get that receiving title?) – “It would be good.”
(What did you think of the Pro Bowl picks?) – “I respect all those guys’ game. It is what it is. I didn’t get in.”
(Were you stunned?) – “Of course. That has always been a goal of mine to make the Pro Bowl each and every year. I’m sure that any player in this league feels that way, that that’s an accomplishment. It sucks, but it is what it is.”
(Are you still hoping to go?) – “Yes, of course. More importantly, I just want to try to focus on getting another W.”
(We always hear the final two games is a chance to put tape out there. I know you guys kind of have a small chance of making the playoffs, but if guys put together good tape, does that ultimately lead to the ultimate goal of winning a game in general?) – “A good tape? Like a good game?”
(Yes.) – “Not all the time. Our biggest thing is penalties and turnovers. If you go back and look at it, most of the games that we won the turnover battle, the penalty battle, we win those games. For us, that’s the biggest thing. Win those two and we give ourselves a better chance.”
(Did you happen to see the controversial play at the end of the Steelers, Patriots game?) – “That was a catch and a touchdown.”
(I was going to ask you, do you have a firm grasp on what constitutes a catch anymore, do you think?) – “That’s a little bit different considering that he crossed the line. Once the ball breaks the plane, it’s automatically a touchdown, just as Calvin Johnson’s was when this all started. He had two feet down and his whole body fell down and then the ball (came out) – after he placed it on the ground pretty much. Dez Bryant as well. It’s something that I don’t know if we have a true grasp on as far as refereeing it; but it never seems to work out in the receiver’s favor, ever.”
(Getting back to the secret Santa thing, what did you receiver?) – “I don’t know. We haven’t exchanged gifts yet. We’re going to do that later this evening.”
Cam Wake – December 21, 2017
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Thursday, December 21, 2017
DE Cameron Wake
(On the defense accomplishing its goals.) – “It’s hard to say. I don’t know statistics. The feeling is that we could do better, but I felt that way last year and probably the couple years before that, as well. It’s hard to please me. I’d be a bad person to ask, because I’m always looking for more. I think, especially with the guys we have in this locker room, that expectations are high and that can go both ways.”
(You guys have been very good on third down, but not so good in red zone. It’s hard to imagine that those two things could be true at the same time and yet they are. Do you have any ideas as to how those two things could be true at the same time?) – “I don’t know. It’s interesting. (laughter) It seems like an oxymoron, I don’t know how to phrase it. When you’re in that situation, it’s literally one play. It’s not like you get multiple chances, usually. In (the red zone), if they get a first down it’s a touchdown, and you have to do whatever you can to make sure that they turn the ball over or kick a field goal. Moving forward, that’s something even still we’re working on to fix. I don’t have the exact answer.”
(Defensive Coordinator Matt Burke basically said that in order for you guys to play better as a defense, the stars need to be playing better and be more consistent. How much pressure, obviously you put pressure on yourself; but how much ownership do you take on that?) – “That’s not a new concept. It’s an old saying, ‘Big players step up and make big plays in big games.’ That’s not something that I didn’t know already. I put a lot of pressure on myself, probably not much more can be added. I expect to be one of those guys he’s talking about.”
(Defensive Coordinator Matt Burke said he called a perfect play for that sack you missed on the first drive and it hit home.) – “I missed the play, and I put that on myself. He’s been doing a great job of calling plays all year and it’s up to us, me included obviously, to execute. When you have somebody lined up in your sights, you’ve got to put him down. Moving forward, that’s something we’ve got to continue to do.”
(On the lighter side of things, I understand through Secret Santa that one of you offensive linemen got a Dodge, got a car for Secret Santa. Have you heard anything about this?) – “I have not. I would like to put my name in the hat if people are giving away cars for Secret Santa. That’s news to me.”
(Defensive line, do you guys do something as a unit for the holidays?) – “We haven’t done anything as of yet, but there’s still time. We might have something coming up in the future.”
(Which unit do you think gives the best gifts?) – “D-line.”
(Why would you put your guys up there?) – “Because we’re the most stylish, we’re the most attractive, the toughest, the smartest, hardest playing. Of course we give the best gifts.”
(What’s the best gift you’ve gotten from a defensive linemen?) – “I don’t know. It’s a family friendly show. I’ll keep that to myself. (laughter)”
