Bobby McCain – December 16, 2018 (Postgame)
Sunday, December 16, 2018
Postgame – Minnesota
Miami Dolphins CB Bobby McCain (Transcribed by Minnesota Vikings)
Q: Why does this team struggle on the road?
A: I don’t know, that’s a good question. We blew a couple leads on the road, we played bad on the road, I don’t know.
Q: What contributed to their fast start?
A: We just didn’t play our game. We weren’t executing like we’re supposed to. That’s what happens when you give up 21 points in the first quarter. It’s hard to come back from.
Q: What worked well against [Adam] Thielen and [Stefon] Diggs?
A: Just playing our game, we wanted to take those two guys out of the game, Minkah [Fitzpatrick) and I. I mean they made two, three catches each but we didn’t execute like we we’re supposed to as a unit. We ended up giving up 41 points.
Q: On the impact of Minkah Fitzpatrick’s pick six..
A: It was a big time run, we came back out in the second half and we had a little momentum. We stopped them to three points a couple of times, but we gave it away. It’s hard, playing behind on the road.
Q: Best adjustment after the first quarter…
A: Just had to play our game, we didn’t execute. We didn’t execute like we’re supposed to front and back end, everybody. We didn’t do what we’re supposed to including myself. Execution and we let it get away from ourselves in the end.
Adam Gase – December 16, 2018 (Postgame)
Sunday, December 16, 2018
Postgame – Minnesota
Miami Dolphins Head Coach Adam Gase (Transcribed by Minnesota Vikings)
Q: On team’s performance today…
A: We had a good week of practice. We just couldn’t stop them, couldn’t stop the run and they were able to do all of their play actions out of that. That was the last thing we needed to happen was to get behind like that. That puts us in a different mode on offense and we fell apart on special teams. It’s not like we’ve been dominating the run game anyway. We just needed to hold out better than we did, and we didn’t.
Q: On how Vikings adjusted their running game and the success today…
A: It’s hard to tell from the sidelines. We’ll see what happens when we watch the tape.
Q: On why and how Ryan Tannehill was sacked nine times…
A: Not blocking. He had a couple chances where guys were open but couldn’t get off. We just didn’t block well enough. We knew what we were in for as far as the pass rush. They just beat us.
Q: On whether Ryan Tannehill was confused on the blitz…
A: It wasn’t hard to tell where they were coming from. When 55 [Anthony Barr] starts taking a sprint to the line of scrimmage, he’s probably coming.
Q: On deferring to open the game after a momentous win against New England…
A: Yeah, that’s the decision every week: do we defer or do we take the ball? We just felt like deferring was the best option for us. We could get the ball at the end of the half and swing it. We had an opportunity at least to get points at the end of the half, come out, and score. Then everything just dried up for us on offense. We just couldn’t get anything going in the run game. We got a couple here and there and then every time we had an opportunity it just didn’t hold up.
Q: On Kenya Drake’s limited utilization…
A: We just had different personnel packages and were trying to put ourselves in positions where we were using multiple guys. We knew it was going to be one of those games where we have to use all those guys.
Q: On overall defensive performance….
A: Well on the first drive I saw a couple guys run out of their gaps and try and make a play to try and stop the bleeding. That’s not what we need; we just need everyone to play disciplined. Then after that, we’d stop them a little bit, then let a decent one off – like a 10 or 15-yarder. We couldn’t consistently get a shorter drive; everything just felt like it wasn’t going right.
Q: On short momentum shift after Miami’s defensive touchdown…
A: Coming out of the halftime, it felt like we had a good idea of what we wanted to do drive-wise on offense and you know, it was a one-play drive. After that we just could not get it going. Every time we ran the ball, something happened where they pressured us and we tried to make an adjustment and then someone would come free. Protection-wise we were just horrible.
Q: On the wide receivers’ limitations…
A: We were trying to compete balls. We got sacked nine times. We weren’t open all the time, but we got open enough that if we just got a ball off, we’d have had decent plays.
Q: On whether the defense’s issues can be fixed yet this season…
A: I mean I need to look at what happened in this game first. Last week we played against a team that came in and was running over 100 yards for three games in a row. We did it right, we played physical and played sound defense. It looked like a lot things were trending upward and this game it just fell apart for us.
Q: On players injured during today’s game…
A: Does it matter? Nobody cares.
Q: On salvaging the season…
A: We have to worry about improving on the positive things we have done in the last month and try to get as many guys healthy as possible and go out and try to win one game.
