Jets 24, Dolphins 31
Q. Connor, seemed like the first possession you guys were able to take the ball right down the field and scored a touchdown. From a quarterbacking perspective ball was out the Zach's hand. What happened in the second half where that same success didn't carry over?
CONNOR McGOVERN: Yeah, they kind of changed their defense a little bit. Obviously it's what a lot of --a good team does going into the half. We kind of felt like whatever they brought to us we were winning our one-on-one matchups and we could kind of go out and do the same thing we did in the first half.
Yeah, just the defense changed a little bit and then kind of had the momentum swing. We never would claw that momentum back, and everything we were trying just to get that momentum to swing our way just was a little unfortunate.
Q. What happened with the protection? It seemed like Zach took a little more hits there in the second half than he did in the first.
CONNOR McGOVERN: We were calling the same plays. Like I said, they kind of switched up their defense a little bit. It wasn't quite that zero pressure we were expecting. They were bringing a little bit different forms of pressure.
So, yeah, they made some good halftime adjustments and we weren't winning our one-on-one battles as well as we were the first half.
Q. You guys have not led at halftime all year. What was the vibe in the room at halftime, maybe in anticipation of what was to come since you played pretty well in the first half?
CONNOR McGOVERN: Yeah, everybody was feeling really good going into the half. We definitely didn't take our foot off on the pedal. If anything, we just wanted to keep our foot on it and press and find that next gear if we could, but it didn't kind of go in our favor.
Like I said, we just -- those one-on-one battles we were winning in the first half, the tides kind of changed. When you're not winning those one-on-one -- when you win the one-on-one battles you're winning, and when you start to lose the one-on-one battles you're obviously not going to win the football game.
Q. Connor, we talked early this season about you guys struggling to start games, not scoring points in the first quarter. Now this game, Eagles game, you guys came out and played pretty well in the first half and faded in the second half. How frustrating is it that you haven't been able to put the full game together?
CONNOR McGOVERN: It's frustrating. As an offense, it takes all 11 every play, and I think that's what makes offense football so special. You can have an absolute baller on defense that just destroys the game, and the other ten can mess up here and there and that one guy, that's not how it works.
It would be awesome to see us put a full game together because I think if we could put a four quarters together we could be a pretty dangerous offense.
We just haven't had that ability to do that, you know, this year. We've had some games with three quarters, but haven't had a true four quarter game.
So I think that's something we can use as our goal in had the last couple weeks and use that as a springboard going into next year. The last couple games are extremely important in setting up the next year, so this is where your biggest growth happens. You can practice all you want and stuff, but nothing beats live gameday reps.
So this is really where you want to set up having a great season next year, which every body does. This is where it happens.
Q. Bryce Hall was in here before. He said Coach Saleh has challenged you to treat this like the playoffs. Is that the kind of mentality you have right now?
CONNOR McGOVERN: Yeah, for sure. December football is hard. If you watched every play on both sides, it was a battle out there. The defense was battling, their offense was battling, and vice versa.
Everybody wants to run the ball, wear somebody down. You got learn how to do it. It's funny, it kind of carries from every level. You know, back in North Dakota it was who won in October was the ones that get remembered. You win in October you go to the playoffs, you win the state championship.
Got to college and it was those who win in November get remembered, and now here it's December. So you always hear about how teams talk about Thanksgiving hits it's a whole different season, and that takes practice.
That just doesn't happen, to just go out and December hits and you naturally go, now it turns up another notch. It's something we will be practicing the next couple games and use it for a good future ahead.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports