Dolphins 17, Texans 9
Q. Your defensive teammates say you do that in practice all the time. Is that something you work on?
MIKE GESICKI: That's something I work on. The catches, everybody sees them on Sunday, but they happen behind the scenes and things like that. One of our strength coaches, Jim Mangiero, he throws me so many damn footballs, you would think he is a jug machine. We do a ton of drills together on off days, before practice, after practice. All that kind of stuff. You do it so many repetitions. This way when it happens on Sunday, it just happens naturally.
Q. You actually work on that?
MIKE GESICKI: Yes. Yes, sir.
Q. Does your volleyball background help you?
MIKE GESICKI: You guys probably write about it that it does, but I'm not sure if it does, but maybe. If it does, appreciate playing volleyball back in the day.
Q. Mike, how much does a win do for this group's confidence especially on a short week?
MIKE GESICKI: A ton. It's a ton. Especially when we still didn't play our best football. You saw the game. We played in it, and there's still a lot to correct, but that's the beauty of this game. Finally get a win. Finally something to build on, something to be positive about. Locker room, some smiles, but I think we got to be professionals and be ready to roll on Thursday. Get back to work. If you want to watch the film and get better from it, great. If not, you better be watching Baltimore.
Q. (Or mic)
MIKE GESICKI: It's cool. It's something that we've been working for, and like I said, for many weeks we've been close. Today maybe that's the stepping stone we need regardless of the scoreboard, regardless of the turnovers, the whatever, a win is a win in this league, and it's not easy.
Q. The one-handed catches are obviously great for the highlight reel. I'm thinking that you probably only have other reasons for doing it just to increase your catch radius or whatever. Can you explain the advantages it gives you?
MIKE GESICKI: I just do it because you never know when the ball is going to be stretched out or it's going to be behind you or the guy is going to be holding your arm and sometimes they don't call it. You got to be ready to make those plays. I say week in, week out, you got to be -- when you have an opportunity to make a play, you have to make the most of it, so those are opportunities, and you don't want to come back and say, oh, man, like, that would have been a great catch or, honestly, the one after that would have been a great catch, but you've got to make those plays. Maybe I got to work on the left too. I do work on the left, so I don't even know why I said that. Maybe I got to do even more on the left because that's not my dominant hand.
Q. Can you sketch up like a Jordan-type logo?
MIKE GESICKI: If you do it and we sell merch off it and get some money, we'll talk about it.
Q. It seems like you and Mack Hollins are two guys who try to bring positive energy and juice.
MIKE GESICKI: Yes.
Q. That can be hard when the team is losing. How have you matured in that area in the leadership and, you know, around other guys? How have you evolved in that?
MIKE GESICKI: As a young guy, you sit back and watch how things evolve and how guys react when things go poorly. Now here in year four, I think the team needs it, so I'm not normally a guy that's going to yell and scream or, you know, honestly, say a whole lot of anything, but if that's the role and somebody needs to do it, I think I'll step up and do it, and I think I have. I think Mack does a great job. We got a lot of leaders on our team, and a lot of them stepped up today.
Q. What do you think this team learned from the previous two times you've had a multiple score lead?
MIKE GESICKI: We just played 60 minutes of football today, so whether it was we turned the ball over, our defense goes out and helps us out, you know, we just kind of kept pushing, kept going out there and not letting this one slip away. Like I said, you know, a win is a win. It's something to build on for us. We got a short week, and we should all probably be going home and watching Baltimore film tonight.
Q. Thanks, Mike.
MIKE GESICKI: Appreciate it.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports