Cardinals 28, Dolphins 27
Q. Mike, what are you telling your team right now as this team is now 2-5?
MIKE McDANIEL: Um, that -- I know one thing, that -- pardon my French, but no opponent that we play the rest of the year will give a shit, you know? Yeah. We're 2-5. Disappointed and it's frustrating. I thought there were positives and negatives to the game and it's magnified because of the situation we've put ourselves in. Situations like that, as tough as it is, it has to be. You have to immediately take your energy towards the next game while learning lessons from this game. I thought we had absolutely every chance to win it. I think collectively there is some -- we always play really hard. I thought there was more execution but there's critical mistakes that I think it was tough to overcome one of the stronger games I've seen by a quarterback in Kyler Murray. He made a lot of plays for them and, you know, we have to -- we can't put ourselves in that situation as a team.
Q. You guys were effective at times today.
MIKE McDANIEL: No, I think that was kind of the game plan going in and you know the stress that you put on coverage and you know you try to be effective in rush lanes and when I think hindsight is 20/20. I did agree with our game plan going into it and in those situations, the guys know that it does put a high priority on guys that are free and have a shot on the quarterback that you have to really rely on your technique and fundamentals, especially with a guy like that, so.
I'm sure when I look at the tape there will be a handful of plays that we'll talk through, Weave and I, but for the most part I thought guys were in position to make plays and there was just some critical ones we didn't make and they did and that's how you score more points than the opponent.
Q. How would you assess Tua's first game back?
MIKE McDANIEL: You know, I thought it's kind of what I expected. Did a real good job on third down but collectively I think the bigger thing was that we had a little bit more of our brand of football that we felt that is probably a silver lining if we weren't sitting at 2-5. Guys didn't really care about -- when I tell you they've been all in on winning and falling short is hard for everyone, but we would have taken 3-2 as the win, but you can't. There's no silver linings, really, in this loss. It's testing us for sure. I am very -- I feel good about the human beings we have to -- I feel like we've begun going all in with each other each and every week and it still hasn't been enough, but the answer is not to take the foot off the gas. It's to take a hard look, which will probably be pretty rough tomorrow, but that is what it is. We have to fix it. We have to get the win, and there's going to be, moving forward, no team's going to frankly give a shit about our problems.
Q. What occurred on the mishandled snap? Tua's saying he should have caught it.
MIKE McDANIEL: Yeah, I think if you ask both of them, Brew would say he should have taken a little steam off of it. Tua said he should have caught it. Bottom line is backed up, we can't have those type of issues. You can't just give free points to people, so collectively, you know, I think the way I like to handle it is, all right, we can't go in shotgun or pistol backed up until you guys tell me you can. As competitors, they'll take that challenge. They know, and Tua's hand-eye coordination's outstanding so he'll be up for the challenge, but you just can't expect to win a close game. That ended up being the difference in terms of points but it wasn't just that play. There's a multitude of things that ended up in points, not connecting and settling for a field goal on the seven-yard line earlier. Those are things that add up, so hard lessons and they have to be lessons learned if you want it to change and so we'll have an opportunity to do that. It'll be a long week, but we get what we deserve.
Q. Mike, how did you feel about how Tua protected himself out there and did you have any talks before the game about his approach or afterwards?
MIKE McDANIEL: I think Tua had his mind -- I think the time this season on this team, it really left an impression on the residuals of his decisions, so I was -- we had talks leading up to it. I think the biggest thing was that he knew his teammates were going to give him a chance to play a pretty good team. He had a good amount of clean pockets and then when he didn't, he was decisive and kept himself out of harm's way and I think that's big for our team as we try to get through this rut.
Q. Did you adjust anything from a game plan or play calling standpoint to try to be more protective of him or is that just on him?
MIKE McDANIEL: I think that's -- you know, it's always been part of my job and seeing how through his injuries to the quarterback four games into my tenure here, I think that's kind of old hat. We just kind of play our ball and as a coach, you make sure that you either have the protection or you have opportunistic situations for the eligibles to get people open in the time of the play so he can do what he does, but I wasn't say I even really -- I don't think you can do right by a football team if the guys playing the game, I have to -- you can't really think about anything but how do we move the ball and score points. So I thought it was good for his teammates. I think the team felt this was at times more of a picture of what we had envisioned the entire time for how we played football, but it wasn't clean enough and that's the big takeaway for me.
Q. Javon not being here is that accurate?
MIKE McDANIEL: Yeah, I don't -- I don't have all the information on it, but we'll find more out but it didn't seem, but I really would be talking ignorantly if I forecasted anything. I'll mind more out tomorrow.
Q. Can you speak to the challenge of going 2-5.
MIKE McDANIEL: Yeah, it's a significant challenge. Kind of reminds me of the -- at this point, I can't remember the -- what the streak was, maybe it was two games or three in '22 and we had that night game, you know, I think the biggest thing is that you have to understand that all the heartbreak has to go into your next opponent. It's the next opponent and it's a division game and I know we have all the reason in the world to have 110% invested in it and that's what my expectation will be. I think it's rough. 2-5 is rough. Any NFL season, you can't really take what your record is at this stage and extrapolate. That's where you get causes for concern. You have to go take your best game and try to win one football game and I think that's a really cool football place to play and guys, if they're not -- I think we have the right guys. If they weren't motivated for this one, they would be the wrong guys and I'm not nervous about that. Just want to make sure that all of our energy is put towards what we're able to do, not what has been done.
Q. Going back to Tua protecting himself. What was your reaction during that scramble and I think it was the third quarter and when he actually got down and slid?
MIKE McDANIEL: Yeah, my reaction was I think he's going to get the first down. I'm pretty sure what he's going to do, but you never know until it happens and it was what I forecast he would do. But, you know, when he's mindful and not trying to run defenders over, he generally is able to stay pretty healthy, so I was excited that he didn't hesitate and that he was very convicted in how he approached space, found space, and got himself down.
Q. Behind him now that he's back. He was almost untouched today.
MIKE McDANIEL: I wouldn't say relieved because that would insinuate that I was nervous about it. You try to -- you know football is football, so you just try to put together a best plan that players can execute and I think that that's part of the coach's job, put guys in a position to succeed and for him, he does very well when he's able to see the field and he's -- we protect well. There's a lot of -- I think the play you are ownership of our team, receivers running routes, beating bump coverage and the offensive linemen executing the protects, I think the players took it very personal in terms of their job and their responsibility to the team and to play effective football and bottom line is if you're giving up quarterback hits or sacks, you're probably going the opposite direction of where points are. So I wouldn't say relieved. I would say that the game played out in terms of that circumstance in terms of the way I envisioned. I just envisioned us in the win column, not in the loss, but no one cares about my visions.
Q. What was the challenge playing without and how long do you foresee you have to do this?
MIKE McDANIEL: It's very challenging. He's a big part of our team. I think there's a lot of guys led by D-Han but a lot of guys that were up for the challenge and just feeling his energy, talk about Zach and in the locker room just as we left, he will be out no longer than his body -- like as soon as his body allows, he will be out there. I wouldn't envision it being too long just based upon his vigor and he didn't like not being able to affect the outcome of the game and we are a better team when he's on it.
Q. No surgery needed?
MIKE McDANIEL: Yeah, I wouldn't be prepared totally to handle that question. They're working through some things, but I leave that to the experts.
Q. Thank you.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports