Read the full transcript from Mike McDaniel's press conference on November 17, 2024.
Q. The four long drives — 14, 16, 14 and 10 plays. What do you think when you absorb that, digest that, the four long drives?
MIKE MCDANIEL: I think you know you're diligently working at various things in our football. I think last year we might have had three drives that were 14-plus plays the entire year. So it has been a focus of ours in anticipation of how guys were going to defend us and then as we've gone through the season, adjusting to how defenses have adjusted to us, and I think that's a lot of hours of practice, meeting room – that's what comes to mind, as well as the collective effort of our coaching staff, starting with (Offensive Coordiantor) Frank Smith, but all the position coaches being connected with the players and really focusing on fundamentals and technique to improve our game because the idea is if the whole orchestration of your offense is right, it shouldn't matter who you go against or what they decide to do. So a lot of execution, a lot of people making plays, and a lot of fundamentals and detail that go into that earned productivity.
Q. What has TE Jonnu Smith meant to you guys and has he exceeded what you expected when you first got him?
MIKE MCDANIEL: I knew it was a great add by Chris (Grier) and the pro (personnel) department just because of his skills with the ball in his hands, and then I knew secondhand from a couple of coaches that have been on staffs before the type of person we were getting. But I think the collective of his play and who he is has really added something very important to our offense. Ultimately, he's making defenses pay for the over attention that Tyreek (Hill) and (Jaylen) Waddle get, and that space that's added by, let's say, call it you have a linebacker playing in the alley between the numbers and the hash and his landmark is three yards deeper based upon our offense and trying to stop the in-breaks for Tyreek and Waddle. Well, he's making full use of those extra three yards and adding a real cool element to our offense that we needed every yard that he's had for us this year. It was cool to see him make plays in opportune times today.
Q. We asked you about becoming a ball control offense. On third down, what's the key since QB Tua Tagovailoa has been back?
MIKE MCDANIEL: I think the development of like when Tua was out, our offensive skill positions didn't throw their hat or they didn't tap. This year, those tight ends, receivers, running backs, have done a very good job at developing their game within the season, which is very hard to do. So their attention to detail in situations today, the Raiders coming into the game were a very zone-oriented defense on third down. And today, they played virtually all man, specifically the first half, which is, as we are a group working together over time, we've learned to adjust faster to the unexpected because it's been a long time since a defense has just shown up and done what they've done against other teams against us. You don't get that exact work, all the plays that we're running on third down during the week against man coverage. That's the idea of them showing up and surprising us, but we've been focusing on fundamentals and technique to beat man each and every week from a route tree perspective. So being able to do that, having the amount of time, the protection plan being executed and then I think Tua has just been very, very – he's taken a gigantic step in his game. He's got control of the emotional piece of the football game and isn't trying to force things unnecessarily, isn't trying to make plays when they're not there, but also finding ways to extend plays and making more plays than maybe the play that I gave him enabled them to do. So a lot of work, and I think the good news is although we haven't gotten a 30-point offensive output all season, that's been kind of the standard and expectation of the guys and they've been unrelenting in that expectation standard for themselves. So I think today, we got to tap into all that work and I don't see our crew really taking the foot off the gas just because there's a lot to prove each and every week. It was fun to get our first consecutive win of the season but we'll have another tough journey next week and the week after that as that continues. I like where we're at. We have a lot left to do.
Q. You have used basketball references before. What is the value of seeing the ball go in the hoop and the value of that win last week after being so close, two or three weeks before, the value of stringing two or three together?
MIKE MCDANIEL: Well, I think for this season, for this team, it's monumental because there's only so far that belief can last through adversity. And I think when you have a losing streak of like three games, that's 21 days of – and you have the next week before the next game, it's almost like a month of it's not good enough, but then you have guys continuing to chop wood and holding themselves accountable and finding ways that they can burden themselves with that result and that's trying. Worried? It makes you a little nervous when you find your fifth and sixth loss of the season consecutively on the last second. But then thankfully during the work week, my worries were appeased because I saw guys not breaking and going after it. So they deserve to be feeling the feeling of a two-game win streak. Based upon feelings that we've had for a couple of months at the beginning of the season, I think – I don't know about you guys, but winning feels a lot better than losing. So I think we're going to keep trying to do that.
Q. You had success on third downs the Raiders also did. What were you finding some of the challenges in that setting and what can you say about TE Brock Bowers?
MIKE MCDANIEL: I'll have to look at the tape. We've been very successful, specifically in the previous game on third down. It was one of the reasons we were able to win that game against the Rams. And they found a rhythm where, I think, they were ultimately, including fourth downs, 10-of-16, maybe? I think it was 8-of-14, 10-of-16. It was tough. It made the drives last long. We need to find a way to get off the field and take advantage of some of the momentum on the opposite side of the ball, and that's an important part of team football is playing complementary football and being able to put a team away when you have the ability to. I think that would have occurred earlier if we would have been able to find some success on third downs, but I was very happy with the fact that more often than not, even when they were driving, we kept them out of the end zone and had several, or we had a couple, four-point plays that helped the score be what it was. We had some tackling issues. Bowers, he's legit. We knew coming out of the draft, we were very high on him, and he didn't disappoint. He's going to be a player that everybody knows for years to come, in my opinion.
Q. Can you talk about the defensive line's efforts and what the return of DT Zach Sieler has meant to the team?
MIKE MCDANIEL: I saw an uptick in generated pass rush from my live observation, from our big guys, and it was really cool. Zach Sieler and Calais (Campbell) together do some really, really cool things in terms of working together, pass rush lanes, stunts, and just bringing the much-needed juice. I would say they're probably the heartbeat of our defense, for sure. And everybody plays off of that. And we have players on all three levels making plays from some of the production they do in the run and pass game. So (they are) very important players to us. Zach, personally, he's probably like my binkie. I don't like doing game day without him. He's the guy when we pray together in the locker room that sits next to me every single week and a lot of guys have really, if they didn't already appreciate it, appreciate what type of playmaker he is for us. Every opponent ends up saying that he's probably better than they realized, and that's good for us. Hopefully they can keep doing that.
Q. After so many completions between 13 and 24 yards, what was it like to see that 57-yarder develop?
MIKE MCDANIEL: It wasn't real. I was getting ready for my next call on the 30-yard line. (laughter) No, those are strenuous. If you can't tell by my energy level right now, my eyes feel like they're bleeding because you're just staring at your call sheet and the defense. A lot of decisions to be made. It was nice to have one pop. And that's what happens. You have to earn that. Well, in that situation, so many guys had made the appropriate play versus soft coverage, four-man rush, that it forces the defense to try to bring five or six. And the way that we operate in our offense and motion guys around, that makes it difficult to totally play sound. They dropped a guy and to Tua's credit, he waited an extra tick longer to go get the ball to Jonnu (Smith). If teams want you to earn it, then you need to play that way to have explosives. Explosives are an important part of winning football, just because it's hard to execute play in play out at five yards a tick. But if a defense wants to commit to playing keep-the-ball-in-front-of-you defense, then you have to execute in the ways we did and have long drives to force them to be a little riskier. But like we've seen all year, we're going to have to earn those types of defenses, which is what I was happy with the collective unit that they were able to do that this week.
