Dolphins
- Dolphins HC Mike McDaniel on QB Tua Tagovailoa‘s performance in the loss to the Packers: “It’s uncharacteristic of him. He started the game playing at a high level. I don’t know where that went but it’s something he and I will figure out.” (Marcel Louis-Jacques)
- McDaniel added that he thought the team would come away with a win against Green Bay: “I didn’t foresee standing up here in this situation … I guess we needed another gut check.” (Louis-Jacques)
- Tagovailoa commented on the loss as well: “This is something we’ve got to be able to move on from … I want this game to stand on its own merit. We’re going to learn from it but this loss isn’t something we should be taking home to our kids or our families. We leave it all on the field.” (Louis-Jacques)
- As for Tua’s mindset, McDaniel said the following: “It’s a challenge. Can’t let things snowball. I’m confident he’ll be able to get through that.” (Hal Habib)
- Tua also feels for his teammates and takes the blame for the loss: “It’s just terrible how everything ended. Like I told the guys, that’s on me.” (Habib)
Jets
Thursday’s 19-3 loss to the Jaguars marked the Jets’ fourth consecutive loss. HC Robert Saleh responded that they are not concerned about the playoffs right now.
“It’s not about playoffs right now. It’s not,” Saleh said, via NFL.com. “We’ve played four consecutive teams that are in the hunt for the playoffs. We battled three of them and are really disappointed about this showing today. Right now, it’s not about playoffs. It’s about getting off this mat and finding a way to put together a football game.”
Jets first-round CB Sauce Gardner mentioned that they couldn’t execute and need to create more takeaways going forward.
“It was extremely disappointing,” Gardner said. “We couldn’t execute, we couldn’t play complementary football today. You know the way the fans see it, they see it just the quarterback situation, the offense, but we as a defense, we take pride in everything. Even though 19 points is not too much, we need to get takeaways and score at this point. Our special teams didn’t have their greatest night today, but we know we got a lot of dogs on special teams, so got to play complementary football.”
Gardner said he was “extremely confident” going into Thursday’s game and thinks they’ve committed costly mistakes during the four-game skid.
“I don’t even know what to say. I was extremely confident, I’m still confident in this team, but I was extremely confident and I don’t even know what happened,” Gardner said. “It’s like our fourth straight loss, and a couple of them we shot ourselves in the foot at the end of the game, like can’t do that stuff. I take pride in what I do individually because I feel like it starts with me, I gave up like 20 yards today, 20 yards that I gave up that led to a first down, so I got to be on my side, it starts with me because I’m the one on the field, and we got to execute.”
Patriots
Patriots third-round CB Marcus Jones continued his season of play-making, recording a pick-six in New England’s failed comeback attempt against the Bengals in Week 16. That’s Jones’ third touchdown of the season, with a punt return score and a receiving touchdown under his increasingly versatile belt.
“He’s just ridiculous,” Patriots QB Mac Jones said via NESN’s Zack Cox. “Great player, great teammate. Explosive, lines up, runs full speed on offense. Lines up and goes full speed on defense. Same thing on special teams. I love the guy.”
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