Head Coach Mike Macdonald On The 31-17 Victory Over The Steelers In Week 2

Mike Macdonald (0:00)

Good to see everybody, for those who made the trip. Look, we're just really proud of our football team.

After coming off a loss that they're disappointed in how you started the season, and just the resolve on our team, and all the things. You gotta come across the country, 10 a.m. start. This is a really, it's a great atmosphere to play a football game. It's a tough atmosphere to play a football game. They got great fans, it's a great atmosphere. And so, the game wasn't pretty early. You know, there's a lot of things that we gotta get cleaned up operation-wise and taking care of the football and spotting them, you know, several points. I think you probably added up to about 11 points, missed a field goal. And our guys didn't flinch. You know, we knew it was going to be really tough coming in here. You know, there's going to be times where, you know, our backs were against the wall, but our guys were awesome the whole game and just fought to the very end. And we had a couple of breaks there in the second half that went our way and we took advantage of it. So, we're proud of the team. Looking forward to the flight back. But once we get back, we'll be back to work and try to go 1-0 again this week.

SPEAKER_2 (1:04)

Mike, what can you say about the job of your defense, short-handed in the secondary, facing you at all times?

Mike Macdonald (1:09)

Yeah, look, yeah, I mean, our coaches deserve a lot of credit getting Derion ready to go and D-Bell.

It's hard to learn our system in two weeks. And DK, I thought, played a really good game. Obviously, had the interception, which is a tremendous play, a game-changing play, and the rest of the D-Final. I just think right now we're playing really, really hard. And I think the details came to life more this game. And so, I look forward to watching the tape and trying to get better.

SPEAKER_3 (1:36)

Do you think the way the guys up front play is three sacks from the defensive line?

Mike Macdonald (1:40)

Yeah, I mean, you know me and sacks. It's Russian coverage working together. You need time to be able to get to the quarterback. And those are team sacks, but our guys are playing really, really hard. They're playing together. And we should only get better from here on out.

SPEAKER_2 (1:54)

How much does J. Marvon rule that your guys can hold around that takeoff situation?

Mike Macdonald (2:00)

I wish I could say it's like we went over it on Friday night, but you have to talk rules. You gotta know the rules of the game and play by them better than everybody else. But I can't tell you when exactly we've talked about it, but as a heck of a play by George. Understanding the situation and then staying in bounds and recovering it, which actually Brian Ayers talked about sideline recoveries yesterday from that matter of fact. So Brian Ayers serves a lot of credit too. But George made a heck of a play there.

SPEAKER_3 (2:29)

In the kick from Jason, he's kind of done a bunch of different short kicks already this season.

Mike Macdonald (2:33)

Yeah, it's great. It's tougher than it looks because the landing zone is, it's easy to kick it short in landing zone. So if you're gonna kick it low, you gotta be on your stuff and he's on his stuff right now.

SPEAKER_2 (2:47)

Is it your understanding that that went over, that it didn't touch him and that was just like a live ball situation with the new kickoff?

Mike Macdonald (2:53)

Yeah, we're just going to pick it up. Any ball on the ground, we're picking up no matter the situation and let it play out.

SPEAKER_3 (2:59)

Would you make it the way Sam played? I mean, obviously there's the interceptions, but otherwise the numbers were really good.

Mike Macdonald (3:03)

Yeah, I had some adversity early, but you know, it's not like I'm talking to him the whole game, but I'm looking at him and the guy's stone cold out there and just keeps playing. And when we finally closed it out there at the end, you saw the emotion, saw the excitement, and he deserves it. I thought he played a really good game.

Bob (3:20)

What did you think of your rookies, Tory Brinkett, his first touchdown in the Rio with a big catch?

Mike Macdonald (3:24)

Yeah, it was big. He's been doing it all camp, and that's why we train the way we train. It's, hey, you're in a tough atmosphere, but we're executing like we do on OTA number three. It's Russ, we're trying to have the same mentality, and he's done it consistently, so I'm happy for Tory.