Head Coach Joe Philbin (Opening statement) – “Like I said last night, all three phases contributed to the win yesterday. We have a very good Carolina team coming in here. They are playing a game tonight. We need to have a great week of preparation.” (On if the investigators talking to every player would be disruptive) - “Again, they are in charge of the review process. I believe they have released a statement. As we said from day one, we are going to fully corporate. I’m going to let the statement they release stand by, and I’m here to talk about obviously football.” (On what the mood of the locker room today) - “Well the players, they are here to lift. We have no meetings today. They are going to lift in three different kinds of groups. I’ve been watching the tape and have been in coaches’ meetings.” (On if it will be a strange week logistically) – “We are sticking to the schedule. We’ll be fine.” (On his advice to players and coaches to handle this week) - “Again, I’m here to talk about football. We know the review is here. They’ve released a statement. Until the thing is complete, take a look at that statement. That’s what we are going to be talking about for the week.” (On if practice schedule is altered with Carolina playing tonight) – “We are going to practice tomorrow and have Thursday off just like you mentioned. With nine games in, there is a bunch of film we already have. Certainly there will be some wrinkles and things we may have to tweak a bit once we study the tape.” (On evaluation of offensive line with different personnel playing yesterday) – “I thought they hung in there. I thought they competed hard. There is still work to be done, a lot of improvement we can still make. But I thought the effort was good. I thought they communicated pretty well for the most part. We didn’t have a lot of mental mistakes and mental errors. I thought it was good.” (On if he has glanced at the standings) - “I haven’t had a chance.” (On what he thinks of the team’s playoff chances) - “We are really focused on (Carolina). I think I told the team in the locker room this might be as hot of a football team there is in the league coming in here based on what happens tonight. They didn’t get off to a great start, but they’ve been playing extremely well. We’ve got to take care of business. We got a very good team. We are playing at home, so we are going to be focused on that.” (On what it is like late in the season being in the playoff hunt compared to being on a team that is not) - “Like you mentioned, it is most important to remember that you are professional. When the schedule comes out, you know you have 16 regular season opportunities to go out there and perform at a high level. As a player and a coach, I think you have an obligation to the organization; you have an obligation to one another that you perform whatever duties, whatever roles, whatever your task is you perform to the best of your capabilities. The great organizations, the great teams, the great professionals, they do that regardless of the circumstances.” (On if there is a little more spring in the step when the team is in a playoff spot) - “I think it’s all based on the individual. Everybody is different.” (On if Mike Pouncey is back with the team) – “As I said, the players will be in the building today at three different times, so we’ll see.” (On starting Sam Brenner instead of Dallas Thomas, Danny Watkins or other offensive linemen) - “We’ve been keeping our eyes on Sam (Brenner) for a long time. Dallas Thomas gets most of his work as an offensive tackle. That’s where a vast majority of his practice reps go. Brenner gets the vast majority of his at guard, and he’s been progressing very well. As you mentioned, the only real other factor we felt like that would give us the best chance to win. There’s really nothing more than that.” (On if Nate Garner had gotten any reps at center last week before Mike Pouncey’s illness) – “(Nate Garner) gets reps all the time at center. That’s not a new thing, so he has to prep all the time at center. In my time here, he’s played a game and played well at tackle, he’s played a game and played well at guard, and he’s played a game and played well at center. We are very fortunate to have a guy like Nate Garner.” (On what he learned about his team yesterday) - “I told them the same thing that I told them after the Tampa Bay game last week. I think I’ve said to you guys, you either believe in each other and believe and have confidence in one another or you don’t. The NFL is such that you can’t fluctuate week-to-week based on outcomes all the time. That’s an up-and-down road. Yeah, I felt confident this was the type of game it was going to be. I think I said to you guys early last week that if the Chargers play kind of like they had been playing and if we played kind of like we had been playing it will probably go down to the fourth quarter and who makes more plays and it will be a tight game. We watched the film. I thought the effort by our players was good. I thought they hustled and gave good effort. We still have a lot of room for improvement, a lot of things we have to do better. But I’m not surprised they came out and played hard.” (On what did the tape show on the rushing defense particularly on the long run) - “We kind of over-pursued on one hand and over-pursued on the other. They did a good job blocking at the point of attack. We actually had a blitz called into that particular formation they had. The (running) back hit the crease right at the perfect spot. It was a nice run. It was well-executed by them. We clearly have to do a better job. We have to get off blocks. Our pursuit angles weren’t very good, and that’s why we had a 51-yard (run).” (On how did Nate Garner stack up compared to the normal performance from the center position) - “He played well. He did a good job. The big thing we want from our centers is the communication phase, let’s get the scheme set whether it is run or pass, what guard am I working with, which way we are sliding, those types of things. I thought he was point on. He was very poised. He was good on the sidelines with the guys. I thought he did a good job.” (On if Charles Clay performance has exceeded his expectations) - “Like I said, he’s a guy that has been working hard since day one of training camp. It’s always good. You always would like to see players working hard and getting rewarded with performing well on the field. I don’t have it in front of me, but he took an eight-yard pass and turned it into a 39-yard pass. Those help, those make things a little bit easier in a game when you can get players to step up and make those types of plays. It’s always beneficial.” (On if fourth quarter is as simple as making plays or not making plays) - “It seems to be. As you watch the film, again I don’t know if I shared this with you last week or not but we’ve been in more four (points) or less games than just about anybody in football since the beginning of last year. Why we end up in that spot you could debate, ‘We didn’t execute particularly well in this quarter or that quarter,’ or our opponent could say the same thing. The facts of the matter are we are in a bunch of close games. Every snap is important. Every possession is important. Minimizing mistakes is important. Playing penalty free is important. You just look at the fourth quarter of Tampa Bay. We get an unnecessary roughness call. We field a punt on the 5-yard line. Those things come back to haunt you in the fourth quarter. Certainly we weren’t perfect last night in the fourth quarter, but we made a couple of plays.” (On if he has noticed Tyson Clabo playing better the past three weeks) - “He’s doing well. The matchups have been good. His pass sets have been better I think. The guy is a pro. He’s been at it a long time. He’s not going to radically change his fundamentals or techniques at this stage of his career, but I think he’s been a little more detailed in his preparation and it’s paid off on the field.” --DOLPHINS-- Monday November 18th, 2013 Defensive Coordinator Kevin Coyle (On if he has been told the NFL investigators will work around the team’s schedule) – “We’ve been told that they are going to do everything they can to not disrupt the normal flow of the week. How that all comes together, I’m not actually sure. I’m not involved with that organization in terms of the structure of the meetings and stuff. I don’t think it’s going to have much of an impact.” (On the play of Olivier Vernon) – “He graded out very well. I thought we got good pressure at a number of times in the game. We didn’t get any sacks until the fourth quarter, but that’s not a bad thing that we were able to get the sacks at critical times at the end of the game. Oliver (Vernon) has really stepped up his game. He’s playing very good. That sack that you mentioned was a real big play in the game to get them out of field goal range.” (On the defense and its ability to make big plays compared to the team’s success) – “First of all, to win games in the National Football League, it’s hard. As you go around the league and just look at how competitive it is each and every week. Seven of our ten games have come down to the last possession of the game. You can go back and look at the ten games we’ve played so far, I think I’m accurate when I say that, it’s right down to the wire, some of them to the very last play of the game. Cincinnati, this game, Indianapolis, where if they make a play, or we make a play the game is won or lost on that one play. Being able to have guys that can step up and make plays in those critical times, and coach Philbin says that all the time to the players, and we reiterate it. That’s how teams advance in this league. You get into those crucial situations in games where they’re going to be tight, somebody has to step up and make a play. Fortunately yesterday on both side of the ball, we made plays that really impacted the game and hopefully we can continue to do that. I think if we can do that, there’s not a team on the schedule that you’re not capable of beating. I think we’ve demonstrated that throughout the season, but yet for us to win these games and not be .500 in these games, we have to find ways to make those kinds of plays.” (On the last defensive stand possibly being a turning point for the season) – “It certainly changed the atmosphere in the locker room after the game, that’s for sure. Everybody was excited, everybody felt good about the fact that we were able to make a play at the end to win the game. We went after them on the last play. We weren’t going to sit back and kind of second guess whether we were going to just sit back there and take a shot in the end zone so it was exciting. The players, when we came into the locker room they were kind of giving me a hard time a little bit about the call that we made. Some of the said they knew it was coming, others were like they couldn’t believe it came but that’s the way it was. We had to make a play, we had to force the issue a little bit and fortunately Brent (Grimes) made a terrific play.” (On if his approach to the secondary changes when Dimitri Patterson can’t play) – “We don’t change much. There’s certain things that we can do at times in terms of the coverage’s. Really it hasn’t had a major impact in the way I’ve called the game or the way we’ve played the remainder of the game.” (On what he has seen so far of Panthers quarterback Cam Newton) – “We’re really getting on him hard today. Last week was a difficult week because we didn’t have a day off with the schedule being a Monday night game. He’s a rare athlete, he’s a different type of quarterback than what we’ve been facing of late. They’re combination, their ability to run the football is a major strength for their offense. He’s one of those quarterbacks, one of those read option quarterbacks or whatever you’d like to define them as, that has a rocket of an arm and he can throw the ball down the field and throw it into tight spaces. Its going to be a major challenge this week, we haven’t even sat down yet as a total defensive staff today to start discussing things. We’re all still working on our own individual areas.” (On the range of motions the past month and how hard it has been) – “I think we’ve done a fairly good job of trying to just stay focused on the task at hand as coaches and not allow it to impact the way we’ve prepared. It’s hard when you don’t win in this league so we’ve gone through a stretch there that was difficult but there’s never been a time that we’ve lost faith in the players or I think that they’ve lost faith in what we’re doing. We’re at a critical juncture in the season now. Every week it seems like the same thing but certainly now with six games remaining and sitting where we’re at we have to really step up our game and find ways to win. I think the attitude has been good, the work ethic on the practice field has been tremendous. That’s never an issue. I think we’re going to come out and play our best football here over the last part of the season.” (On Dion Jordan covering tight ends and what makes him excel in that role) – “Dion is like a power forward in basketball. He’s a very smooth athlete. He’s got great length, and he can run like a deer. You put those qualities together, he’s not intimated, he’s actually bigger and taller than most of these guys or at least as tall as s some of these tight ends. They’re used to smaller guys covering them and that’s a big advantage, the body positioning and boxing out and playing basketball which a lot of them do. (Antonio) Gates is a perfect example, he’s a guy that can just muscle up on people like he’s waiting to get the ball in the low post and just catch a little hook route. Dion covered him a few times yesterday and did a very good job, he’s very natural at those kinds of things. The more we can get him involved in those type of things as well as he had some good rushes in the game yesterday too. We have to expand his role and keep him working because he can contribute and he is one of those guys that has the capability of making big plays for us.” (On Koa Misi playing only 15 snaps based on two-linebacker package or health) – “Primarily the two linebacker package. They got into a lot of three wide receiver personnel’s and then they also had personnel grouping where they had two tight ends but one of them was more of a receiver, not (Antonio) Gates, the other guy, tall guy that would come in. Going into our game that was literally like a three wide receiver set in terms of the way they utilize that personnel in terms of run to pass. A lot of times we were in a sub defense.” --DOLPHINS-- MIAMI DOLPHINS QUOTES Monday November 18th, 2013 Offensive Coordinator Mike Sherman (On what he saw in the running game) – “I believe we had four runs that had positive runs that the defense jumped offsides on, so we really had a better run game even still if you added those runs on. And I think four of those were runs by Lamar Miller, so we had to take those off as well. What was happening early in the game was we were attacking and taking some shots downfield with Mike (Wallace), and we didn’t necessarily hit them all the time but they had several in coverage up there and gave us a two-shell. It allowed us an opportunity to get the numbers right where we were able to run the football. That’s what happened. (On what he saw out of Sam Brenner at practice to start him) - “One thing is he is there every day. We just don’t have a lot of numbers in that group. The other thing is I’ve been watching him since (training) camp. He’s just made a lot of improvements. He hasn’t really snapped the ball a whole heck-of-a-lot. Jim Turner has been working him at center. He’s played some guard as well. He’s slowly but quietly gone about his work and his business and just continues to get better. He still has a ways to go. He’s a young player, but I think he does have some promise.” (On how he graded Sam Brenner’s performance yesterday) - “He did some good things. I thought he pulled around on some of our power plays (and) did a nice job. He got beat on a pass protection one time, but overall I thought for someone who came in on Sunday morning and told he was going to start, I think he did pretty good.” (On why is the offensive line such an issue this season) - “It’s always been a big deal to me. When I’ve been asked that question in the past, I’ve always said it’s a work in progress because an offensive line is really a building block in an offense until that is in place and you can run the ball and pass protect. Those guys have to be at the forefront of what you are going to build. They are a very instrumental part of an offense. They quietly go about their business, and you don’t hear them when you are having success. Certainly when you are struggling, it’s usually a lot of times it starts with those guys. So I do think we continue to be a work in progress, and we will continue to be until we get things solidified in there. Obviously we’ve had some changes. Whenever you change that group up there are always struggles with communication, and just being able to be with the same group of guys certainly helps a lot. That hasn’t been the case as of late.” (On Daniel Thomas having an increased workload and if he and Lamar Miller are essentially co-starters) - “Pretty much. When I’ve been asked that question, that’s what I’ve said all along. I look at both of those guys as starters, and you kind of just go with the hot hand. I thought during the course of the game I thought they both ran well. Lamar (Miller) had some runs taken away from him because of penalties, some were ours and some were there’s. I thought Daniel (Thomas) ran very physical. He didn’t practice much last week. He missed some time, but he came out ready to go. When he was in there, he took full advantage of his opportunities. Sometimes it’s just a matter of opportunities when you are in there. It just happened to come up where he had some very well-blocked plays, but he certainly had some great after contact runs which I thought since I’ve been here the best we’ve been on runs after contact whether it be a pass, a catch or a run.” (On if the NFL investigator will work around the team’s schedule) - “No one has told me anything about that other than when I’m going to talk to them. That’s sometime tomorrow.” (On how to keep the players’ focus with all that is going on) - “Hopefully most of what the players have to do will be taken care of today and get that knocked out. I’m hopeful that’s happening, but I’m not really sure. I can’t comment on that because I really don’t know, but I’m hopeful. I think that is how it is going to get worked out. I think that’s what we would try to do.” (On mindset in throwing on final offensive drive) - “I thought, sometimes you’re aggressive and it works, sometimes your aggressive and it doesn’t. I thought we had to be aggressive there, we couldn’t punt in that situation. I didn’t want to run the ball three times, I think they anticipated that’s what we would do. I felt like we had to get the ball out of that part of the field. At the very least, get better field position, work the clock and get a great punt from our great punter. We certainly couldn’t punt the ball from back there. I didn’t want to go with a heavy personnel group and bang out three runs and then put and give it to the defense. We should have been able to finish the game on offense in my mind but that didn’t happen. We did use time off the clock, we did change the field position which I think was beneficial. I just thought we had to be aggressive at that time, I had tremendous confidence in Ryan (Tannehill) in those situations, he’s very poised. He doesn’t panic, neither do our players. They seem to handle those pressure situations very well, it’s those non pressure situations they’re not handling well (laughing). Under pressure they seem like they respond. Our two minute offense, a couple weeks ago we were backed up and we took it the length of the field. Last week we didn’t do so well, but this week in a critical situation at the end of a game I though they did what they had to do. Protected and were able to get the ball out, we really should have been able to finish the game on offense, but unfortunately we didn’t and the defense rose to the occasion and finished the game off.” (On if there is anything that could be done to improve the deep ball dynamic between Mike Wallace and Ryan Tannehill and if they are working on it after practice) - “They’ve done that and part of it, Mike’s (Wallace) still feeling, still resting and working with his leg issue. I thought Mike (Wallace) had a tremendous ball game. He ran hard, and he ran his routes very disciplined. He was open on a number of occasion and sometimes it was protection issues and we didn’t get him the ball, other times we just didn’t get him the ball, but I thought Mike (Wallace) had a tremendous impact in that ball game, because he changed how they played us and allowed us an opportunity to control the game with some runs and what not. He started the game with a catch and a first down where he broke some tackles. It kind of set a tempo for us, I thought, in that ball game. (Brian) Hartline had one, obviously the running backs have theirs, (Charles) Clay had his for the touchdown, I thought the first one was Mike’s (Wallace) and I thought that kind of set the tempo for the game. I think there’s familiarity that the two of them just have to an understanding with how that’s going to work. We certainly underthrew him on a touchdown pass that we can’t do. If they had scored at the end that could have been the ball game, we needed those points, we didn’t get them so that’s something that’s been a point of emphasis and it will continue to be. We have to get them on the same page. They are two willing participants and they want it to work, I think it’s just a matter of two guys getting used to each other. It just takes a little bit of time.” (On how Nate Garner performed at center) - “Nate really had only one mistake in communication. Mike Pouncey has been a stalwart in there. For him to go in there and do what he had to do, just phenomenal. I thought he did an excellent job. Along the same lines, I have to take my hat off to (Ryan) Tannehill as well. I don’t think there’s many quarterbacks in this league that, when they wake up on Sunday morning and the guy they’ve been taking snaps with since they’ve played in this league all of a sudden isn’t playing, he doesn’t bat an eyelash (he says) ‘Ok let’s go, no big deal.’ I think that’s a credit to him and that’s kind of the way he looks at things, he doesn’t sweat things very much. It’s a credit to him and there’s things that he has to work on and get better at but one thing about him, he doesn’t get flustered or concerned about things like that. (He says) ‘Ok, who’s up lets go.’ I do think Nate (Garner) did a fine job stepping in, in the absence of a very good player. Those are big shoes to fill when you’re filling Mike Pouncey’s shoes.”
Posted on: Tue, 19 Nov 2013 05:09:28 +0000
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