Head Coach Mike Macdonald: "This Game Was The Power Of Our 70"

Mike Macdonald (0:02)

All right, I'm proud of our team.

A lot of noise this week with the injuries and other things going on. So just the poise that we showed, the 12 was one.

We said this game was like the power of our 70 With the depth we were going to lean on, the bottom of our roster, and guys did a great job of stepping in, not flinching. Drew Lock, AB coming back, Dante Fowler, I'm eager to see what Rylie did. Rylie had more of an opportunity. That was cool. Mike Morris. So proud of our team. Got a couple of red zone stops, which is a first for us, and then a couple of red zone scores. So that was great. Then to be able to close the game out, and a tough situation there at the goal line, and then our offense putting a four-minute drive together. So some really good situational football by our team. And so great to get a win. You know, I think you feel it in our locker room that, but we're determined to keep stacking and to grow from here. So we're looking forward to this week and to try to build on this performance.

SPEAKER_2 (1:11)

What did it take for him to be able to play in this game with the elbow injury, and what did you see from him?

Mike Macdonald (1:15)

Yeah, he's a beast.

He just, you know, threw not around, just kind of just went after it. And I think, you know, our medical people deserve a shout out too for putting a great plan together and treating, you know, treating Drew. And Jalen Milroe too, like operating our offense when he took the snaps that he took and being ready to play in case, you know, Drew couldn't go or couldn't finish. So really a great team effort. But Drew is, I mean, really, both quarterbacks that have played, I mean, talk about just, I mean, I don't know how you can get any tougher. Both guys is tough as nails. So.

SPEAKER_3 (1:55)

What was Drew being looked at in the 10th quarter?

Mike Macdonald (1:57)

We're looking at him for an oblique. So we'll assess it and go from there.

SPEAKER_3 (2:03)

I mean, had played through that as well as the other.

Mike Macdonald (2:06)

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_4 (2:06)

Yeah.

Mike Macdonald (2:07)

Apparently, it's something with our midsection of our quarterbacks is an issue right now.

SPEAKER_4 (2:12)

Zach was able to kind of help close that game out for you. You got some big plays from Charbonnet in the past game. Just feeling both those running backs in this game with that. Yeah, it's great.

Mike Macdonald (2:20)

Really happy for Zach, happy for JD. Definitely felt Zach in his power and, you know, the ability to break tackles and on the sideline there, even though we got the penalty to move his back. But really just happy for him, you know, just to put himself in that position. And I think we're just going to, you know, they should continue to get better, you know, with more reps and more experience.

SPEAKER_5 (2:42)

How often is it just at play today to get, to be in sync?

Mike Macdonald (2:46)

Yeah, I thought, you know, we still ended up in some longer situations where, you know, those are inevitable to a certain degree, but we want to minimize those. But I thought the guys did a good job. Be fun to watch the tape. Always room for improvement. But with the movement that we've had across our line in the past two weeks to kind of come together and especially finish the game the way they did was really cool.

SPEAKER_4 (3:08)

You say your defense is a whole, that's a long drive to start the game, but didn't score in the first one.

Mike Macdonald (3:13)

Yeah, we're just talking a lot about it. It's just like the composure of our team, like the togetherness. There's a lot. There's several things that didn't go our way today. And I feel like we got the ball out several times. There's some penalties that were against us to kind of put us in some, not some not great situations, but just no flinch from the fellas.

I thought our coaches did a great job of finding solutions and staying calm in the moment, even though it gets kind of crazy sometimes. But you could feel it from our group that they were determined to get that stop at the at the end of the game. And we were confident that we could pull it off. So guys did a great job.

SPEAKER_3 (3:47)

DeMarcus Lawrence talked this week about the fact that he felt like he was part of the red zone problem and his C gap. And then he makes a tackle for loss there at the end.