Read the full transcript from ILB Jacob Rodriguez's media availability on October 28, 2026.

What were your observations about the successful goal line stand in the last game?

Jacob Rodriguez: Guys just playing really great football. I think great pad level, great intensity, great physicality. I think kind of everybody on the same page, just doing their job and doing what they need to do. It's great to see. It's fun. It's fun to be on the field when that happens. It's huge, I mean, they would have won the game. So yeah, it's great.

This team has been resilient. We've seen it week in and week out. In this game in particular, it was the first time that the team led. So just how different was it to be coming off leading throughout the entirety of the game?

Jacob Rodriguez: I mean, it makes it a different type of game. Play calling changes based on what the offense has to do. They got to score a little bit faster, so they got to throw the ball a little more, so you just play the game differently. It was nice to play from ahead, and obviously it was nice with the outcome we had that it worked for us. But I think the biggest thing was just more complementary football. I think we get ahead early and if we continue to play sound football on defense, and we played really good special teams. So I think that was just kind of the biggest difference of the game was just the complementary football we were able to play.

Michael Taaffe mentioned how studying film, studying tendencies led to that interception that he had. How much do you appreciate just seeing him as a fellow rookie, studying film to that level that leads to a game changing play like that?

Jacob Rodriguez: Yeah, he's doing his job. I mean, he works as hard as anybody and he's always trying to do the right thing. He's communicating loud and he's exuding confidence back there with preparation. It's great to root for a guy like that who can play well and elevate everybody's game around him. It was nice to see him have another interception and we needed it. It's one of those where I was talking about throughout the entire season, if you can win the turnover battle, your percentage of winning the game, no matter what happens, goes through the roof, so that was really nice.