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Ted Karras – December 21, 2020 Download PDF version

Monday, December 21, 2020

C Ted Karras

(How surprised were you about QB Tua Tagovailoa’s holiday gifts to the offensive linemen and what does that notion mean coming from a rookie quarterback?) – “I think it’s an amazing gesture. I think it shows how good of a leader he is already. It’s a pretty sweet gift and I’m very grateful. We’ve already made several of the sausages. We haven’t set up the grill yet, but I’m very thankful. It’s an amazing gift and obviously a very large gift. We’re going to set it up and smoke some meats here this offseason. I’m looking forward to it.”

(I wanted to get your opinion on what was the biggest factor leading to the Dolphins’ 250 rushing yards in the game?) – “I think everyone stepped up and did their job really well. I think as a o-line, we had a hat on a hat and got to the second level, and our backs had great vision and hit the hole fast. Our tight ends – Adam (Shaheen) and Durham (Smythe) – really had some key blocks that sprung us to some big gains. We’ve been working on that for a long time. It felt really good to get a bunch of yards on the ground and continue our push here in late December.”

(Not only did you have your best rushing day of the season, but you did so without a couple of the key pieces. How did you feel C/G Michael Deiter played down the stretch, and G/T Jesse Davis filling in at guard? The moving pieces didn’t seem to miss a beat this week.) – “No. obviously you never want to see anyone go down. With Mike (Deiter) coming in, like you said, we didn’t skip a beat. I was very happy for him to come in and play and play in a big moment and play really well. I think the film really speaks to the preparation and the hard work that he has put in these last five or six months in a different role. Coming into a game and playing really well, I was really happy for him.”

(I don’t think I’ve ever met an offensive lineman who doesn’t enjoy run blocking, especially when things are going well. I’m wondering while that is happening, while you guys are having great success run after run and they keep calling it, what was that like for you and your offensive line teammates emotionally and from a psyche perspective?) – “Well, we want to continue the success we’ve had. I think we had a lot of long drives and I think that can wear you down here in South Florida as an opponent. We did enough execution-wise to have a really big day and we do want to run block. Obviously it’s a little bit less higher stakes than pass blocking; but it’s just as challenging and probably a little bit more exerting. I think our conditioning held up and for us, we’ve been waiting on that for a while and we’ve been working really hard and putting in the time. I’m glad that we all got to share in the rewards here last night.”

(They say that you have to be able to run the ball in December and January to win. Do you think that’s still the case? Do you think this could be the key to you guys making a run here?) – “I think it’s definitely the case probably all the time in the National Football League. If you have a good ground game, it will definitely up your chances to win. This was a great performance for us. We’re going to have to keep grinding and keep working. We have a good opponent coming up here the day after Christmas in Las Vegas, and we’re going to have to do it again. That is the task of an NFL o-lineman. Now we have the next challenge coming up and it’s going to be a big week of preparation, a little bit of unique week, but I’m looking forward to going on another west coast trip.”

(We saw C/G Michael Deiter get some NFL action for the first time this season. I was curious to get your reaction on how excited you were to see him out there because after the QB Tua Tagovailoa scramble, he seemed to be pretty excited. How did you feel to see Michael get back on the field?) – “I was very happy for him. I’ve been in that kind of sixth-man role for several years of my career. To come in and make the most of the reps that you get and put good film out there, I was very happy for him. He’s put in a lot of hard work and every day he comes to work and is ready to go, and it definitely showed Sunday afternoon when he came in the second half and we had our best rushing performance of the year.”

(Offensive linemen can help really make running backs look good. After you looked at the film or even was thinking back to the game. What in this game did RB Salvon Ahmed and RB Matt Breida do that helped you guys look good?) – “I think we had a great plan going in and the backs definitely I would say make the o-line look good more than the o-line make the backs look good; but they were hitting the hole fast. They had great vision. The cutbacks were there. I think our tight ends deserve a lot of credit for sealing off the back side on a lot of the big runs. As an o-line, we had an hat on a hat and playing good assignment-clean football, getting to the second-level quick. It was a complete team effort and it showed. The film looked – it was fun to look at that film with runs we have been repping now for six months. We came out of the gate strong in the second half yesterday.”

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