MIAMI DOLPHINS QUOTES AFTER DEFEATING NEW ENGLAND

MIAMI DOLPHINS QUOTES AFTER DEFEATING NEW ENGLAND

Head Coach Joe Philbin

(Opening statement) – “I think after watching the tape and looking at it closely in all three phases, I think there was obviously a lot of good things. I thought we played a very good second half. I thought the guys played hard. We were very resilient throughout the course of the game. We made enough plays to win the game.”

(On if last season’s loss at Buffalo after a home win vs. New England is something he is compelled to tell his team and if his team has grown a lot since that game) – “I do think we’ve grown a lot. We haven’t really started our Buffalo preparation. Again, I’ve spent all morning analyzing the tape, talking to the staff, looking at everything about the New England game, all the corrections and all the things we need to do better. We are going to start in earnest our preparations for Buffalo here right when I leave this press conference. I do think we’ve grown as a football team. I think the guys that were here certainly remember the performance we had up there. But this again is a new team, a new year, a new week. It’s Week 2 of the 2014 season and certainly we are going to have to go up there and play very well.”

(On if he celebrates or takes time to appreciate what the team accomplished after victories such as yesterday) – “You always celebrate a little bit. I had one of my sons who doesn’t live with us anymore was here. One of my sisters was here. A couple of my nephews were here. So I just went home, sat on the couch. My wife made a nice dinner, called my mom and dad, stuff like that. It was good. That was a celebration as far as I’m concerned.”

(On how big it was to be successful yesterday on third down) – “It was huge. I think that’s a little over 50 percent. I think the biggest thing, most of the day, we were in pretty manageable third downs. I think that was one of the things that was really beneficial to us throughout the course of the game. I know we had a couple of those bad series early in the fourth quarter, maybe where (the third downs) were a little bit longer yardage. I thought that was really the key. Sometimes, it’s what you do in normal down-and-distance that sets the table for third down, and I thought that was big.”DAVIDiPhoto, Inc.

(On the injuries at linebacker and if anyone will be brought in) – “We’re going to place Dannell Ellerbe on injured reserve and we’re going to sign Kelvin Sheppard. That’s going to be done today.”

(On the dropped passes from yesterday and the play where RB Lamar Miller seemed to break off a route down by the end zone) – “Those are some of those first game communication things that we’ve got to get worked out. But we’ve got to catch the ball better. There’s really not much more to say other than that. I thought, at times, some of the balls could have been placed in a different place, but when you get two hands on the ball in the National Football League, you have to catch those. I thought there were one or two instances where we’ve got to go out, reach out and pluck it a little bit better. We have to catch it better, no doubt.” (On if he saw anything from RB Knowshon Moreno on the field yesterday that he hadn’t seen on the practice field) – “Not really, no. He brings good energy to the game, to the team and he’s enthusiastic. He likes the game, likes to compete. We’ve seen some of those things in the practice field. Obviously, we don’t tackle a lot on the practice field, but I’m not surprised he broke some tackles.”

(On WR Mike Wallace saying after the game about how he feels so much closer to him in the locker room, and how it makes him feel more confident in him and the team) – “I talked to him after the game. I’ve talked to him a lot. I said to him to him one of the things I think has made a difference in his performance, I think he’s more comfortable overall with everything. I told him I appreciated the way, even in the offseason, he still does it, you guys have seen him working extra after practice catching on the JUGS machines. In my brain, as a coach, those things pay off at the end of the day. Those are important qualities to have and attributes to have as a football player, and overall as a team. I think he’s been great to coach. He’s been very competitive out there and made some impact plays yesterday. I think there will be more opportunities for him to do that in the future.”

(On if he feels like he’s closer with the players and if it’s making a difference with how they feel) – “Well, as I said, I think it’s fair to say I’ve spent more time visiting with them one-on-one, being more available. I’ve got a great staff around me, great coaches, maybe some less time just over analyzing the tape. Sometimes, (that) has been a problem of mine in the past, even when I was an assistant. You kind of know yourself after 30 years of doing this thing. I’ve kind of pushed some of those things off to some of the other guys and spent more time with the players.”

 

Offensive Coordinator Bill Lazor

(On what pleased him the most about Sunday) – “The win. No doubt about it, the win. There’s a lot of ways to do it and, if you’ve been around long enough, you see  lot of different ways, but the key’s to get the win at the end.”

(On the offensive line opening up holes for the run game) – “I think we talked last week about our feeling as a coaching staff that the offensive line was coming together, they were going to be a unit, they were improving. There’s been a lot of questions since I’ve gotten here about that, and obviously there were five new starters from what we had last year, so I’m not sure everybody believed us. But the biggest thing obviously was the production of the run game. I thought that was a huge difference in the ball game. I thought they did a great job with that. I thought we had one sack in the game, but we had too many hits on the quarterback. And really when we look at it and we analyze it, a lot of it was mistakes that we didn’t expect to have happen. So I can’t quite say we’ve arrived, but the production in the run game made a big difference. I feel like, for the first game, they did enough positive for us to feel like we are just going to keep getting better.”

(On how QB Ryan Tannehill did yesterday) – “My number one feeling is that we better get better fast, particularly in the passing game. I feel like there were a lot of plays that we should have made and didn’t make. Some might have been the throw or the decision. Some were the drop. I think a lot of them were easy to see if you were watching the game on TV and so I don’t think that’s a surprise. I think we are going to have to be better to win tighter games. We are going to have to be more productive in the passing game when the plays are there. They were there and we didn’t make them. It’s going to be a real clear message that we’ve got to get better.”

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Defensive Coordinator Kevin Coyle

(On what the team loses with LB Dannell Ellerbe’s injury) – “Well, Dannell is a heck of a player and we were excited about the prospects of him moving back to the Will position and playing as effectively as he could. But that’s part of the game and we move on and, like every team in the league does when you have injuries, you have to have people step up, fill in and we’ll do that and we’ll move forward.”

(On what he’s most pleased about from yesterday’s defensive performance) – “That we just stayed with the plan. That no one panicked. We just kept on playing and we felt that if we could take the ball away from them that was one of the things we talked about at half time, that we had to get the ball off of them and just keep the pressure on. I think our guys are in terrific shape. I think our strength and conditioning staff have done a phenomenal job working with the players to get them ready for the early part of the season and as have our coaches. And we knew that if we could keep the game close into the second half and late in the second half that there was a chance that we’d be able to come out on top. We just kept the pressure on them in the second half and guys made plays when we had to make them.”DAVIDiPhoto, Inc.

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