Jevon Holland – November 6, 2023
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Monday, November 6, 2023
S Jevon Holland
(You guys have a lot of guys coming back here in the second half of the season. T Terron Armstead is back, CB Jalen Ramsey is back, CB Nik Needham is back, OL Rob Hunt will be back, RB De’Von Achane will be back. How do you view that in the grand scheme of things? Do you look at this as a big infusion of talent and here you go? Does it make a big difference who is coming back? How do you view that?) – “Yeah, I mean we need those guys to win. Those guys are important to our team, as is everyone who is playing. When we have our guys back, obviously it’s going to help us because they are great players, and we’re looking forward to that. Yeah, that’s the way I see it. The more the merrier for lack of better terms. I’m definitely excited to have those guys back.”
(What was your travel like back? What time did you get home? Did you get any sleep last night?) – “We had to drive to a different airport I think. I’m pretty sure. And then we got back at like three in the morning or something like that. It was similar to a night game we had away – like the Eagles game. We got back early in the morning against the Eagles because we played at nighttime. Kind of similar to that. I slept on the plane the last four or five hours. I was watching Man on Fire at first, and then I slept this morning. I’m not too tired or anything like that. As the day goes on and as the week goes on, I’ll probably re-align with this time zone.”
(Are you pleased you have a bye this week?) – “I think it’s definitely smart. To go into another week after a long week like last week would be pretty difficult, but you take the crookeds with the straights, and I’m glad we have a bye week, for sure. I’m definitely going to catch up on my sleep.”
(Were the Hard Knocks cameras rolling in the meeting today, and what’s that going to be like to adjust to?) – “No, they weren’t, and I have no idea. I’ve never done it.”
(Defensive Coordinator Vic Fangio has been very complimentary of you. What have you learned from being around him? What have your eyes opened to from being around a coach with that level of expertise and experience?) – “I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again. Just more understanding of the game as a whole. He’s been in the league for along time – longer than I’ve been alive. Football is second nature to him, and the more I listen to him speak about his reasoning why, and why we play a certain type of coverage or defense in a certain position on the field, it just makes more sense. So my decision making becomes faster. I’m enjoying being a pupil in his dojo. The more time I spend with him, the more I learn.”
(That was your first game playing with CB Jalen Ramsey. How would you describe the impact that he has on the defense?) – “It was big time. You look out to the right and you see ‘X’ (Xavien Howard), you look out to the left now you see Jalen, and it’s kind of like, ‘who do you want to throw to?’ Him being out there, you can just tell there are certain things that we do – you feel his presence in the run game. If we’re in man-to-man, you don’t have to really worry about him, you don’t have to worry about ‘X’. As a safety, it feels good to have two All-Pro, Pro Bowl, gold jacket guys on each side. Knowing that if they throw it out there, it’s liable to be a turnover.”
(Now that you have pretty much the defense intact, it’s taken a long time to get everybody out there; but now that you have at least four quarters of seeing what it looks like, how would you assess where the defense is entering the second half of the season?) – “Definitely on the rise. I thought last game was a battle, and I thought we fought valiantly. But we’re definitely on the way up. Yeah, everybody is still getting their feet wet. We’re going into the second half of the season, which is going to be exciting, and I’m excited for it myself. As you saw putting the pieces together, everybody is starting to feel a lot more comfortable, and kind of right where I thought we would be. Yeah, it’s exciting to see everybody thriving within the defense. It’s just nice.”
(The second half of the season, the stakes become clearer. Certainly yesterday wasn’t the result that you wanted, but there is still so much of the season left to play. Over the last month, you might know home-field advantage and all of these things are up for grab. How does your mindset have to change as a team knowing that those will be crucial games down the stretch to get to where you want to get to?) – “I think that thinking about those games is going to add more stress than need be. You’re only going to play one team at a time, so focus on that one team and you’ll be able to handle whatever comes next. Those are obviously things that you want to look for, but if you win, those just kind of settle themselves. How do you win? You focus on the team that you’re going to play. How do you do that? You’ve got a day-by-day process. Just take it a day at a time and let the chips fall where they may.”
(At what point do you start to look at the standings and start to figure out that we could get a first-round bye and all of that kind of stuff? Do you personally do that?) – “Nope. Why? Like I just said, why even do that? That would just stress me out. I just focus on what’s right in front of me. Right in front of me is a bye week. I got to rest my bones. I’m not really tripping about it.”
(Is that the real goal of the bye week is to rest up? Do you just rest up, or do you self-scout individually? Do you come in as a team with some self-scouting?) – “Yeah. You can get a jump on the next team of course. But, also self-scout. What do you want to work on? It’s time for individual stuff, how could you improve yourself going into this next half of the season.”
Terron Armstead – November 6, 2023
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Monday, November 6, 2023
T Terron Armstead
(Good to see you back yesterday. You played well. Did you feel totally back to normal with the knee?) – “Just not playing for a month, just getting back in the groove, back to play shape, play speed, technique, fundamentals, chemistry, all those good things. It’s always a learning curve no matter how long you’ve been playing the game.”
(How do you feel today, the day after the game?) – “Good. Postgame soreness, all that good stuff that comes with it. The bumps and bruises of a physical game – it was a tough one yesterday. A tough, physical fight. But I’m good.”
(What happened? What was the injury that kept you out?) – “You talking from Buffalo?”
(Yeah, what happened a month ago?) – “I had a blow to the knee. Got rolled up on in pass pro. Just had to deal with some instability that I had to wait and let it heal up to get back on the field.”
(You knew right away that surgery wasn’t going to be needed?) – “Not really. I knew I wouldn’t be able to play right then in that game.”
(And the rest of you is okay?) – “Just ready to get back to take some time, see some family, get back to workouts and treatment, all those good things, and then get back here and continue to press and go for our goals.”
(How happy are you for the way OL Austin Jackson has played this year and where have you seen the most growth in him?) – “He’s been great. He’s been great. His technique, his attention to detail, his fundamentals, his approach every day, his willingness to work and the desire to be great every day, it’s hard to do. That’s the hard part about this league, especially up front, is the consistency of it. But he approaches it the right way. He’s ascending. It’s been great to watch and be a part of.”
(A long-winded question here about your guys’ health and getting everybody back. You’re back. OL Connor Williams is back. CB Xavien Howard and CB Jalen Ramsey played together. CB Nik Needham is back. Possibly RB De’Von Achane comes back. Maybe OL Robert Hunt comes back. Do you look at the last eight games in terms of look at everybody that we’re getting back and we can go on a big run here? Or do you just look at it like it’s still week by week?) – “Most definitely week by week. Yeah, week by week. There’s a lot of unpredictability that goes on in this game from week to week. We’ve got people that get banged up, can’t play one week, be back the next. That’s part of the game, part of the depth and filling out the roster. So we’re definitely just looking at the next game.”
(I don’t want to put words in your mouth, but I would imagine yesterday was kind of a sense of a missed opportunity. You were in position, you guys as a team, just kind of some self-inflicted wounds. What is it about some of these bigger games that you guys, maybe the focus just is a little bit off? Because penalties are down from last year, but the games that you’ve lost, you’ve been penalized and had drops and things like that. Where does that mental sharpness go in some of these moments?) – “That’s a good question. That’s a good question. I feel like we have the right intent. We play hard, we fly around the field. That’s what you want to see every game. That’s what you want to see. In order to win those big games against those better teams, the penalties, the costly penalties, the big plays that need to be made at certain times has to happen. We feel extremely confident that we can and will, even though the narrative is that we haven’t, which we haven’t. The facts are the facts and we can’t argue that. The outside world has every right to make those, create those narratives and guidelines. But for us internally in this building, we have all the confidence in the world. We’re going to keep pressing and we can win the next game. We can only play the team in front of us and our goal is to win every game. We fell short three times. We’re going to continue to go and battle, work to get better, work on that mental sharpness and toughness in more of those close games, late game situations. The execution has to be at an all-time high, especially when you get into the postseason. All of this is in preparation for the postseason. We’re halfway through the season. There’s no rings being given out in November, no champions in November. So we’re working. It’s a work in progress and I can promise you that our arrow is pointing up.”
(I’m sure every Monday there’s a message from Head Coach Mike McDaniel. I don’t know if he shows you cutups, things like that. Did he show you four or five plays today from yesterday that if one of those had gone the other way, it could have been a completely different game?) – “Every game. Every game we have a few that we missed, that could change the game. Fortunately, we’ve won a lot of games despite having those mishaps and miscues. Yesterday, we didn’t. We didn’t win the game and we had opportunities to execute and really would have just changed the whole feel of the game and the perspective of what we see right now. But it’s our job to continue to work and practice and minimize that, minimize the self-inflicted, minimize the missed opportunities and take advantage of them because they will be extremely important.”
(The theme after games like that has been that we’ll take this and we’ll learn from this, we’ll be better off from it in the end. You’ve been around this league a long time. You’ve played in a lot of big games. What specifically can you learn from those games where you do come up short? What do you take from those games positively, even if you lose the game?) – “Everything that happens in life, football, whatever – anytime something happens to you, you either learn from it, or you let it just weigh on you. With us and our approach – and that’s why I feel so confident about what we have going on and where we are – is that no one is wavering. No one is second guessing can we actually or do we have enough. None of that is in this building. We get ready for the next one and we’re going to approach that game with complete confidence that we can go out there and win and we let the outcome be the outcome. Then the one after that, it’ll be the same approach. We let the outcome be the outcome. As we continue to get better and work on those missed opportunities and miscues and miscommunication, we’re going to be harder and harder to beat, tougher and tougher to beat. That’s the goal. We want to be peaking at the right time going into the postseason and we’re working our way towards that.”
(You mentioned that no one in the building is wavering in their confidence that you can win these big games that are coming up. When you think back to your time in New Orleans, obviously there were a lot of times that you had statement games, really big games where you got over that hump. You talked a minute ago about learning from losses, what did you learn from those big wins?) – “It’s kind of all the same, really. You just would rather learn and make corrections after a win. Because even after every win we’ve got, all six of them, we’ve had mistakes, we’ve had miscommunication and miscues. But it always feels better after a win. So after a loss, everything is magnified. You pay more attention to it. There’s more detail. In New Orleans, we had big, big wins. I specifically remember, I think the Rams were 10-0. We were 9-1 in New Orleans. Like Sunday Night Football, we came away with a huge win and we learned what we did wrong. But it was in November. It was a November game. Fast forward to the NFC Championship and we lost to the Rams, the same way. So it doesn’t necessarily directly guarantee you anything in the postseason but you want those because it feels good. When you make corrections after a win, it’s great. But it doesn’t guarantee you anything. I would love to have reversed that, maybe took the L in Week 11 and went on to the Super Bowl, but life’s going to do what it do.”
(Was that the pass interference game?) – That was the pass interference game. (laughter)”
Zach Sieler – November 6, 2023
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Monday, November 6, 2023
DT Zach Sieler
(I noticed you guys had a lot of success running tackle/end stunts yesterday. I’m curious what impact or how much easier it makes your job when someone like LB Jaelan Phillips or LB Bradley Chubb can make such an impact rushing inwards to give you lanes to run through?) – “I think it helps a lot. I kind of hit on this earlier this year. We talked about this I think at the end of camp, start of camp, was just building that conformity between the four of us. Me, Christian (Wilkins), (Jaelan) Phillips, Chubb, Raekwon (Davis), (Emmanuel) Ogbah, ‘Gink’ (Andrew Van Ginkel) – any of us that rotate around in there – and building that unity with each other and knowing how each other rush and how to play off each other. It helps tremendously.”
(I think DT Christian Wilkins has a career-high in sacks or is enroute to a career-high in sacks. LB Bradley Chubb has been really hot recently. How does the defensive line feel? I think Chubb has, if I’m not mistaken, like four sacks in the last four games and two caused fumbles or whatever it is. Does it feel like the defensive line is getting hot right now?) – ”I think it just feels like we are doing what we are supposed to do and that’s what it is. We’ve got to take advantage of the plays we can. The calls that are called from Coach (Vic) Fangio, we’ve got to play them to the best of our abilities and we’ve got to make those plays when they arise and that’s what we’re trying to do, and Chubb is doing a great job right now of making every opportunity count that he’s able to do. He’s a great pass rusher and he’s getting there.”
(Earlier in the season obviously you guys were still figuring it out a bit. What’s been the difference aside from getting back a bunch of really good players?) – “I think a lot of it is just figuring it out and kind of seeing how we’re playing in (Vic) Fangio’s scheme compared to the older scheme that was here previously, and then how our blocks are different for us or how we’ve got to play something and adjust to something else, and sometimes that just takes time.”
(I imagine that was frustrating because you guys knew what your ability was and it was just a matter of kind of playing until you got to where you needed to be?) – “Yeah, you don’t get here without being frustrated at some point and having to work through something, so that’s something that we’ve all been built and coached and viewed as our strength for so long, is finding a way to make something work when you know you have all the abilities.”
(You and DT Christian Wilkins last year – you might know this – two of the four highest snap totals among all defensive linemen and now you guys are back to playing nearly all the snaps. Both of you only got a couple off yesterday. Besides being in great physical condition, what is required as a defensive lineman to play that many snaps? Is it mental toughness? What other qualities might you point to besides being …) – “Honestly you hit the nail on the head with the first one. It’s physical conditioning. Absolutely. And it’s also just the mentals of it and knowing – he and I both pride each other on ‘hey look, if we need to do it, we can do it.’ If we rotate, we rotate. If we don’t, we don’t. It’s just whatever the team calls for, he and I are ready to do.”
(Have you felt tired at all? Late in the game it’s natural to an extent, but has that been an issue for you these last couple years playing as many snaps as you have?) – “Early on, I think when I was trying to just getting into starting playing here – I didn’t play obviously when I was younger in the NFL and adapting to just everything. But now I think – and Christian (Wilkins) has done a great job helping teach me because he did play early on in his career a lot of snaps, and just kind of how weekly what we need to do to get your body right to recover and to get ready for next Sunday’s game, to be able to take those amounts of snaps if needed.”
(When you look at this defense, I’m wondering if you consider this a big-play defense. Your big plays – the sacks – and we just mentioned LB Bradley Chubb and CB Jalen Ramsey and CB Xavien Howard and S Jevon Holland. You guys, sacks, fumbles, interceptions. Do you look at you guys at a big-play defense?) – “I guess I never thought of that. I guess really what I look at is how we play as a defense and we go through a set of goals each week, what we want to accomplish and if we hit those goals or not.”
(Those goals, are they…?) – “It changes. It changes every week.”
(Did you have visions of six on that fumble recovery? I saw you trying to get back up.) – “(laughter) No, I just wanted to make sure I had full security of that ball and then just do what we can.”
(You mentioned learning from DT Christian Wilkins. Have you become a creature of habit to his extent or …?) – “I wouldn’t put me to his extent. I’ve always been a creature of habit. I’ve always been one that routine helps someone succeed, but no, not to Christian’s extent. That’s one of his greatest assets.”
Cedrick Wilson Jr. – November 6, 2023
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Monday, November 6, 2023
WR Cedrick Wilson Jr.
(We heard from HC Mike McDaniel and QB Tua Tagovailoa about the play at the end of the game yesterday. Just want to hear from your perspective on that third-down play.) – “I feel like it was just a miscommunication. I’m pretty sure that’s what they said. Just a missed opportunity that I wish we could get back.”
(Did your eyes get big for a minute there when you were breaking open?) – “No, I wouldn’t say my eyes got big. My heart kind of got broken when I saw that there was a miscommunication as soon as I saw the ball. That’s moreso where my mind was at.”
(You had a touchdown though earlier in the game. Can you take us through that?) – “Oh, yeah. That was a great throw. Kind of got the coverage that we wanted. Actually, me and Tyreek (Hill) both came open so it would’ve been a touchdown either way I feel. I’m definitely happy that I was able to get the spark for the team and get us back in the game.”
(Do you feel like you’re starting to get your rhythm in this offense?) – “I mean, whenever the opportunity is presented, I’m going to do my job. That’s what I prepare for every day. My only job is to block and when the ball is in the air, go get it.”
(With WR Jaylen Waddle trying to gut it through the game after that early injury, does that kind of change some of the roles you guys have to fulfill as his role kind of becomes a little more diminished?) – “Yeah, I mean when anybody goes down or has an injury in the game, it’s next man up. That’s why we all practice and get the reps during the week. When he went down and got banged up, it was a no-brainer – whether it’s me, Braxton (Berrios) or Chase (Claypool) – someone has to go in there and keep the offense rolling.”
(Do you feel like that training camp rotation of receivers playing with different units kind of helps you guys this time of year to execute when that happens?) – “I think it helps just because everyone needs to be put in those uncomfortable situations because that’s what comes up in the game. The more we prepare for those when they come up, we’ll be able to handle them.”
(Obviously you were such a good sport last year about not playing a ton. How satisfying is it to finally get steady snaps and targets?) – “I mean, I’m not really a satisfied type of person. Moreso just do my job and at the end of the day, the goal is to win. There’s no satisfaction over a touchdown with a loss.”
Christian Wilkins – November 5, 2023 (Postgame)
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Q. How do you feel about the way the defense performed today?
CHRISTIAN WILKINS: I mean, I thought we did some good stuff, was able to put ourselves in a position to win or played well enough to win. But that’s just how football goes sometimes. It’s a humbling game. You can play as well as you want, as hard as you want, as good as you need to. Especially after early when they had a couple drives there, I thought we did pretty well, and this is just definitely something to build off of. If we just watch the tape and keep improving each week we can be as good of a defense as we want to be.
Q. As a defensive lineman, how much does it help to have these defensive backs back, kind of taking away some of the quarterback reads?
CHRISTIAN WILKINS: Yeah, it’s definitely huge because we’ve all got a piece of the puzzle. If we’re all playing well and all playing at a high level, we can be as good as we want to be.
Q. A lot was made about this team against other top contenders. Where do you feel like this team is against the other top teams?
CHRISTIAN WILKINS: Really, I think we’ve got the right formula. We’ve got the right guys on the team that if we keep doing the things we’re doing and keep preparing how we’re preparing, I think we’ll be in a better position moving forward. These are just reps just like anything else. You learn from them. Good, bad, ugly. There’s games you don’t play well and you lose. There’s games you don’t play well and you win. It’s just how the league goes and how it goes. I’m not paying attention to any narratives that are trying to be created against us. I just know what we’ve got on our team and know how we’ll proceed moving forward.
Q. Talk about the second half shutout. What were some things that were said at halftime to get you guys going?
CHRISTIAN WILKINS: Really nothing was said. We just made a few corrections on things that could have been improved in the first half and just kept playing hard. Guys kept fighting. I really just saw the heart of my teammates, and we were able to get a little bit of momentum going, and we just kept fighting.
Q. How important would you say the [linebacker Bradley] Chubb sack, fumble, recovery play was for the team?
CHRISTIAN WILKINS: That was big. It gave us some momentum, like I was saying. It was a big play by Chubb and great job by [defensive tackle] Zach [Seiler] falling on it, and we eventually scored off of that, so obviously that’s a big play in the game. I’ve had a great time here in Germany, loved the hospitality, so thank you guys for that,
Tyreek Hill – November 5, 2023 (Postgame)
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Sunday, Nov. 5, 2023
Postgame – Kansas City Chiefs
Miami Dolphins WR Tyreek Hill.
Q. Tyreek, ultimately how did it feel seeing that former team on the opposite sideline today?
TYREEK HILL: It was fine. I had a lot of fun today, man. That’s what football is about. I feel like this is football’s new rivalry, so it was a fun day to play football in a different location. Had a blast.
Q. You made a lot of key catches, but there was a fumble and also a couple crucial drops –
TYREEK HILL: Yeah, I think I played overall pretty well. Some tight window throws, and those guys did a great job of making it hard on me all day. They did a great job. They had a real good plan on slowing us down at the line of scrimmage. It’s on me to make plays. That’s why they brought me here, to make plays in these type of games. I feel like the way the game went, it was a team game, and our defense played amazing. As a receiver, I never think about how many drops I got in a game. I’m always thinking about the next play, baby. That’s how I became who I am today. Everybody drops passes. It happens. But it’s all about how you move on to the next play. I’ve got to learn from it, go to the film room, learn from it, and find better ways to get open.
Q. On the fumble, did you think that the play was over? Were you fighting for more yards? What happened from your perspective?
TYREEK HILL: No, so they played two-man coverage, and there was a guy that was unblocked, and he came free as soon as I caught it, and I didn’t even get a chance to make a move. That’s the explanation I’ve got for you. They did a good job.
Q. I know that Mike and you guys don’t want to make too much about (inaudible), especially against a team such as this. Do you feel like it was a missed opportunity (inaudible) headed into the bye week?
TYREEK HILL: Oh, yeah, for sure, against the Super Bowl champions. We do believe that every game is a missed opportunity if we lose, man. It’s our job to come out here and win these games, especially the way that our defense played today. Those guys played tremendous. If we want to say that we’re the No. 1 offense in the league, we’ve got to be able to make plays when it counts.
Q. What would you attribute to the issues of the offense when you’re not home? It seems like whenever you guys are away from Hard Rock –
TYREEK HILL: You know what, man, at this point it’s ourselves versus ourselves. You feel me? We had a lot of penalties that shot ourselves in the foot. The early one when [wide receiver] Jaylen Waddle had a catch, the penalty was on me and Ced [wide receiver Cedrick Wilson Jr.]. They called illegal formation. We would make a play, and it would get called back. We’ve got to be able to find ways to not shoot ourselves in the foot, because as you see, we can play with any team in this league. It’s all about not making mistakes and being able to stay on time with the quarterback, obviously, and protect our quarterback. If we do all of that, no pre-snap penalties, obviously, we’ll be fine.
Q. You didn’t pull off the comeback, but you did get some scores after half. What was the mindset at that time?
TYREEK HILL: The mindset was obviously to come back. The defense was the engine today. Those guys had us fired up. When we were able to find a spark somewhere, because we was kind of flat on offense, we began to get it going. It was kind of a glimpse of what we could have been in the first half.
Raheem Mostert – November 5, 2023 (Postgame)
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Sunday, Nov. 5, 2023
Postgame – Kansas City Chiefs
Miami Dolphins RB Raheem Mostert.
Q. A couple big runs for you on that final drive. I guess at that point did it feel like your offense was in rhythm?
RAHEEM MOSTERT: Yeah, we started to figure out — I know it was a little bit late, but we started to figure out what we had to do. I went up to Mikey and I was like, hey, I think we should start running, just attacking their edges a little bit more, and he called up the plays, and we tried our best to execute, but unfortunately we were a little bit short.
Q. On your touchdown run, obviously a tough run, but can you describe from your perspective —
RAHEEM MOSTERT: Yeah, just trying to set up the defense, trying to figure out and get them out of their position, and with the motion and everything, that alley came across, and I just followed his block like usual and just made a decisive move. But he was decisive, as well, and that’s pretty much how that play ended up.
Q. I asked Tua this, but the difference in the offensive performance at home compared to on the road or away from home, what more can you say on that?
RAHEEM MOSTERT: I think with this offense, we have to be more sound, especially when it’s away. But all in all, whether it’s at home or away, I think that we do try our best, and we just try to go out there and try to make the big plays as best as possible. Each week presents a new challenge, new opportunity, as well, for different defenses and stuff like that. But we’ve just got to have a grasp on that and try to control what we can control at the end of the day.
Q. How close do you feel the team is to knocking off one of the, quote-unquote, upper echelon Super Bowl contenders?
RAHEEM MOSTERT: We’re fairly close I would say. If you look back at these several games, it was just a couple miscues on offense. Defense today, they did their thing, especially in the second half, with not allowing a single point for the Chiefs. I think that was setting a standard for them. But all in all for us on the offensive side of the ball, we’ve just got to do better, especially not allowing the defense to get a turnover and turning those into points. That’s what we have to do. We have to control those things and just move forward.
Q. Obviously not the outcome you wanted today, but with your mom being from Germany, how was this week for you?
RAHEEM MOSTERT: This week was very special. I even brought my family over here so they could experience the same journey I did, as well, with my family in recent years have — my family, especially my mom, was born about an hour and 30 northeast, Bad Hersfeld, I believe, if I’m correct. I’ve still got to work on my German language. But it was cool just to be able to come here. Frankfurt is always going to be a place that I’m going to now look back and call home, and I’m pretty sure from here on out with all the blessings and everything like that that’s been happening since I’ve been here, I’m definitely going to be coming back with my family a little bit more. Appreciate you guys, and it’s definitely meaningful for me and my family.
Q. Each week it seems like you have to field a different offensive line because of injuries, but as a whole it always seems to perform pretty well. How do you do that week after week?
RAHEEM MOSTERT: You know, with this game, it had a lot of different injuries occur, especially we’re dealing with some at the offensive line, but these guys come up from being in different positions, and they come up, and yeah, it’s going to be a challenge for that week, especially when you’re dealing with a guy like Chris Jones who is just an absolute beast. I’ve played against him multiple times, so I know exactly what we’re going to get out of that guy, especially in a big game like today. But our offensive line is doing a hell of a job. They’re doing what they’ve got to do in protecting the quarterback, and we just fell short on a couple plays, and I wish that we could get those plays back, but with all these injuries and stuff like that, it just breeds more competition in the room, and guys step up to the plate. It’s a challenge, but you see what they can do. I don’t think those guys get enough credit, and they should, especially with these type of injuries that’s been happening to the O-line, because like I said, these guys step up to the plate when their number is called, and you’ve got to knock it up for them.
Bradley Chubb – November 5, 2023 (Postgame)
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Sunday, Nov. 5, 2023
Postgame – Kansas City Chiefs
Miami Dolphins LB Bradley Chubb
Q. Bradley, the first drive of the game obviously Kansas City didn’t have much trouble scoring. What was the explanation from you guys on defense for what happened on that opening drive?
BRADLEY CHUBB: I don’t know exactly what it was. I know for sure on the touchdown, though, I can be a little bit more aggressive playing the screen and get there quicker to try to tackle the man. But throughout the drive — that’s a great team. You’re going to get their best shot to open up the game. It’s more about the adjustments we made as a defense, as a unit, just to limit the rest of that for the rest of the game. But opening drives, man, it’s a boxing match. You’re going to get hit, you’re going to take a couple hits, but at the end of the day you’ve got to keep fighting, and I feel like we did that as a team. We can look at the first drive when we get back to Miami and figure out what it was, but right now we’ve just got to take this one and learn from it. I know we’re going to do that when we get to Miami and watch the film and do whatever we need to do to get back on our process. But it’s hard to say what was the determining factor on that first drive.
Q. Defensive tackle Christian Wilkins said he’s not worried about any narratives about coming up short against these elite opponents, do you agree?
BRADLEY CHUBB: Yeah, it’s frustrating for sure because you want to win these big games. It’s not like, oh, we’re playing these guys this week, let’s go out there and lose. We play our hearts out until the whistle ends, and you see it in this team. Weve got fight; we’ve got everything that you possibly need from a championship-caliber team. It’s just about honing in on those little details when it really matters and finding ways to win these games. We’ve been in every single one of them, but at the end we just find a way to not execute our standard, and I feel like if we execute our standard for 60 minutes, it’s going to be hard to beat us. We’ve just got to keep finding ways to, like I said, stay in these games and make it close, and making it close is not good enough for us anymore, so we’ve just got to find ways to win.
Q. From a defensive standpoint on the last play, is it just even more aggravating, more painful to not even get a real chance at that last fumble?
BRADLEY CHUBB: That’s not how you want the game to end, but at the end of the day there’s so many factors going on in this game that you can’t control everything. You can only control what you can. Do we want the play to go off? Yeah, but at the end of the day, we’re not going to hold it over Tua’s head or the center’s head to say you could have did this better. It’s just about us learning as a team and coming together and knowing that when we get into that situation how to be better for it the next time.
Q. You’ve been making big sacks and forcing turnovers in recent weeks. What was the key to that play today?
BRADLEY CHUBB: Just kind of reading my guys. I was getting off the ball and I saw Zach flew off the ball, so when you’ve got a guy like that playing next to you, it kind of makes my job easier. He took the guard’s attention, I wrapped around, kind of got him twisted up and just tried to go after the ball, make a play, and it was a good play for us. But got to find ways to make more of those.
Q. How big did the momentum feel at that time?
BRADLEY CHUBB: It felt huge. It felt huge. Tried not to celebrate because we were still down and I still wanted us to as a team gather it all and I felt like we were getting to that point, and we were pushing, pushing, pushing, but at the end of the day, it didn’t work out how we wanted it to. The momentum for sure shifted in our favor at that point, but like I said, we’ve got to find ways to sustain that and come out with a W.
Q. You were able to bottle up Travis Kelce pretty well.
BRADLEY CHUBB: Are you asking did we bottle him up pretty well?
Q. You did.
BRADLEY CHUBB: Oh, I didn’t know if it was a question or a statement. Yeah, when you’ve got guys in the back end like that, it makes our job a lot easier, and we make their job easy. Rushing and coverage always goes together, and we’ve got some elite guys in that back end. There were some times where I felt like, oh, boom, the quarterback would have got the ball out by now, but he was still back there patting and patting, so that goes to show that the coverage is elite, and yeah, that’s pretty much all of that. Those elite coverage guys, man, we appreciate them.
