Mike Macdonald: "We Played A Complementary Game Today"

Mike Macdonald (0:00)

All right, good to see everybody. Great, great team win for us. Man, just the mentality that we're in right now, coming down the homestretch, December football. Thought the guys were ready to play.

Trying to put it all together, all three phases. I thought we took a step today on special teams. It would have been great if Geno would have held on to the ball when he's down by contact, gave me a little scare. But offensively, we've been able to run the rock, control the tempo of the game, find some explosives in the run and pass game. Defensively, settling down after that first drive and made some adjustments as we went and then really tried to keep it a multiple score game in the second half. So just a great win. Guys had a great mentality, great week of prep, so we got to keep stacking it. And we got a big game coming up on primetime this week. So excited, but we're moving forward and keep stacking wins.

SPEAKER_2 (0:51)

Mike, what was working so well in the run game today?

Mike Macdonald (0:54)

Well, I thought, one, we had a great plan.

Hats off to the Office of Line. I thought they bucked their tails off. I think what you're seeing is just continual progress on all of our processes and our guys kind of getting on the same page. And hopefully this is something that we need to build off of moving forward. But guys did a great job.

SPEAKER_3 (1:15)

And then Charmaine, just the way you stepped up, filled in for Kenny.

Mike Macdonald (1:17)

Oh, yeah, Zach did a great job. We gave him a game ball, gave the Office of Line a game ball.

Just ran really physical. And it's tough to tackle that guy in the open field. You know, he's got speed and power. So excited for him.

SPEAKER_2 (1:30)

It's not going to show up on the box, Coach, but Derrick Hall drew three holds today. The first one was right before Jones' interception. How big were those plays in the scheme of things? Just getting them behind the sticks is great.

Mike Macdonald (1:43)

Yeah, we were fortunate on some of the penalties that went back. But, you know, if you look at them, those are not necessarily unforced errors. Those are, to your point, our guys playing the right way. So Derrick's had a great season. He's a very physical player and plays his absolute tail off. So even the short yardage play, they creased us there in the C gap and Derrick drew the holding there where he probably would have made the play. So those were two huge game, or plays going into the game.

SPEAKER_4 (2:09)

I think it's been struggling a little bit lately. Can you talk about the grind, the work that Coach Grubb, Gates, Scott Huff, all those guys have been doing to get this going?

Mike Macdonald (2:17)

Yeah, they deserve a lot of credit. You know, I just, I have been saying for weeks, we've been, we're going, we're working on this thing. So we're working through all the processes. By no stretch of the imagination, are we, have we made it? But it's great to kind of get a breakthrough on productivity, on how we want to play. I thought Grubb called it a great game. And onward we go, you know. So I think now we can hopefully just generate some more confidence for us and the things that we've been doing and the inputs that we're putting in. But I thought we played a complimentary game today. The ball wasn't in jeopardy.

Geno didn't take any sacks. And so that's what it's going to take to win, especially late in the year.

SPEAKER_5 (2:55)

Mike, what was it about today that even when you knew Ken couldn't go, that you're going to stick with the plan and run Zach the way you did?

Mike Macdonald (3:02)

Well, I mean, you know, Ken's obviously a dynamite back and we would have loved to have him, but so was Zach. And Kenny McIntosh has proved that he can run the ball effectively as well. So we didn't feel like we need to make any any adjustments.

SPEAKER_4 (3:16)

Mike, obviously, in that first draft, they had a big play, but outside of that, it's pretty dominating performance again by your defense.

SPEAKER_6 (3:22)

What was the most significant change in the last few games?

Mike Macdonald (3:26)

Well, yeah, I mean, again, similar to the offense, I think the curve just happened a little bit earlier.

It's a room full of guys and full of men that just decided that we're going to stick together, do it together, prepare our tails off throughout the week, stay poised, and we decided we want to play a certain way. And so when it shows up on tape and when it doesn't show up on tape, then it sticks out like a sore thumb. And our guys are starting to step up as leaders, too, where they're feeling confident in talking to the group and taking ownership of what shows up on tape. So we got to keep building.