Mike Macdonald: "Beginning Of Something Really Special”

Mike Macdonald (0:00)

All right, we got everybody? Look, I mean, we talked about throughout the week that our goals changed coming out of the weekend, and I thought our guys did a tremendous job of staying focused on what our new goal was, finishing the year the right way, and it was a great team win. I mean, it wasn't necessarily pretty, but I'll tell you what, we fought through some injuries and some guys that we had initially planned on playing a big role. I mean, we can rattle those guys off, but guys stepping in and playing good football for us and ultimately winning the game, guys like Hardy Burns and Kenny McIntosh, Mike Jarrell at right tackle. I mean, there's a lot of guys in there that stepped up and did a great job for us, so it was great for us to.

It's great for us to close the season out the right way.

John (1:02)

What did you think of Geno's game?

Mike Macdonald (1:05)

Yeah, I mean, talk about one of the guys that fought all the way to the very end for us, and putting a drive, I mean, par for the course for Geno coming, you know, coming another fourth quarter comeback. I'm not sure what number that is, but great drive. They strung together at the end, great throw to Noah. I thought he played a great game.

John (1:23)

It wasn't how you wanted to learn, Mike. What would you maybe learn about these guys this week in this situation?

Mike Macdonald (1:28)

Yeah, we got the right guys, and they got the right mentality. Just really proud of just the cohesiveness, the connection that we've built, and having each other's backs. Just kind of fighting through when things don't go your way. And it's ultimately our responsibility to put ourselves in a better situation at the end of the season, but coming out of the weekend, just the resilience and the positivity was just really cool. So proud of our guys.

John (1:59)

Was Geno seriously hurt at all at the end?

Mike Macdonald (2:03)

He was fighting through at the end. Is that the same knee thing that he's had? No, it was a hip. Yep.

John (2:11)

Probably stay longer in the next season, but conventionally, you guys did a pretty strong second half and going out on the win. From that kind of carryover, do you feel like a young team?

Mike Macdonald (2:19)

Well, frankly, I didn't feel like how this... Our off season and next season was not predicated based off of how this game finished, but of course, you want to finish the season with a win and finish on a positive note, and the process that we put into it was big for us. Just understanding who we have and the type of guys we have and the resilience that we have was really cool to see.

John (2:46)

You win six for your last eight, I think, and end up with ten wins and all that. Do those things kind of matter to you and mean a lot going forward in terms of how you finish the season?

Mike Macdonald (2:55)

Yeah, it shows us we can grow and evolve and make adjustments throughout the season that are necessary for us to win.

I mean, you look at some of the splits we had, which are positive, and we can put meaning behind the season kind of tomorrow or whenever we have our end of the year conference or whatever, but our road record is something that we're proud of. Our division record is something we're proud of. Obviously, we have to do a better job at home, but there's a lot of things to be proud of coming out of this game. What's the most important thing you learned this season about what it takes to be a successful NFL head coach? Where do you start? I mean, I think it's the mentality that you have to have of you're always learning and you're always growing and you're always evolving, and that's when we talk about chasing edges, trying to stay ahead of things rather than being a reactionary. I think that's really important and you got to balance that with being steadfast and what you believe and doubling down on your principles when times get tough and trusting your people. There's so many lessons learned from the season and we're going to grow from this. I really believe this is the beginning of something really special and I'm excited. I mean, I kind of wish we could just kind of, I want to go back to work. I mean, we need to take a deep breath here and think about how we're going to move forward, but I'm excited to get back to work.