Brian Flores – November 25, 2019
Download PDF version
Monday, November 25, 2019
Head Coach Brian Flores
(Do you have any feel yet as to whether WR Albert Wilson or WR Jakeem Grant will play again this year?) – “It’s very early. Both guys are in getting treatment. Yeah, it’s too early to tell. I’ve got the initial assessment, I would say, but it’s definitely too early.”
(Any hopes for this week for WR Albert Wilson or WR Jakeem Grant?) – “It’s too early.”
(Same category?) – “Yeah.”
(What did the tape show?) – “We didn’t play well enough to win the game. They played better than we did. We need to start faster. (There were) too many turnovers. We really couldn’t stop them defensively. We didn’t play well enough as a team.”
(You guys are on pace now for 1,011 rushing yards on the season. That would be a franchise low. Is there something that can be done to address the issue with the run game?) – “Yeah, we address it every week. We continue to improve it, practice it; but I think more than the run game, I think we just need to move the ball more consistently, especially early in the game. Run yardage, pass yardage – as long as we move the ball, I don’t care how we get it done. Obviously you want to try to establish the run game but we just need to play better and move it more consistently – specifically early in the game – and then try to do it for 60 minutes, not 20 or 40. That’s what we need to do as a total team.”
(How disappointing is it for whatever reasons – lingering issues from last year, injuries from this year – that you just haven’t really been able to get either WR Albert Wilson or WR Jakeem Grant going?) – “That’s part of the game. We just have to have the next guy or the next sets of guys ready to play, which I think from that standpoint we were yesterday. We had both of those guys go down and guys stepped in and played and we moved the ball later in the game. Injuries are part of the game. We have to be able to adjust and really move forward.”
(I think we saw DE Taco Charlton yesterday for 15 defensive snaps. Do you just want to ease him back in during his first game back?) – “Yeah, pretty much. I would say that was the plan. Again, coming off the injury he had, we wanted to – I don’t want to call it a snap count or a pitch count but we wanted to get him back in there. Hopefully he’ll practice and play a little bit more next week.”
(What are the qualities that make QB Ryan Fitzpatrick such a good runner?) – “I think he’s tough. He probably has a little bit more speed than people give him credit for. What he does is he does a good job of kind of stepping up in the pocket, finding space – whether it’s to his left or his right – looks down the field and if he sees space, he takes it. He just has a good knack for it. Over the course of his career, I think he understands where there might be some seams and opportunities for him to run the football based on coverage, based on players out on the field, based on how they’re rushing him – if the ends are up the field or a tackle jumps inside and there’s a lane for him, I think he kind of has a good feel and understanding of where the space will be.”
(A lot of that is instinctive, isn’t it?) – “Yeah, I would say (Ryan Fitzpatrick) is very instinctive.”
(Your three new defensive players on the 53-man roster last week – LB Andrew Van Ginkle, DT Gerald Willis, S Adrian Colbert – all played between seven and 12 defensive snaps. Any one in particular of those three who flashed to you?) – “I think it’s good for all of those guys to get out there and get some snaps and get their first plays as Dolphins under their belt. Each one of them had good plays and bad plays, things we’ll get corrected here – or get corrected now – and hopefully they’re better next week.”
(You guys have 16 rookies who have played this season. What do you think that they can take from this year that can help them moving forward?) – “I think every play is an experience. I think you learn from every snap you play in this league. You learn about what you can do versus the 100 other variables that go on in a specific play – defensively whether it’s third down to 2-minute to red zone to man-to-man coverage to zone coverage to doubles to if you’re a d-lineman, getting double-teamed or back blocked. I think all of those plays, they’re good experiences for them and over time, you get a better feel for what’s coming and hopefully they can get to a point where they can anticipate a little bit of what’s happening or what’s going to happen. I think they’re all good experiences for those young guys.”
(With T Julién Davenport and G Shaq Calhoun, what went into the thought process to get them into the starting lineup yesterday?) – “Davenport started last week. He got dinged and kind of made his way back. I thought he played well yesterday. He played better than a week ago. And the same with Shaq. Obviously we wanted to give those guys an opportunity. They both practiced well last week. I think it showed up in the game.”
(Who starts doesn’t mean a lot at running back. The snaps were fairly equal yesterday. RB Kalen Ballage had 24, RB Patrick Laird was right behind him and RB Myles Gaskin had 16. Do you go into this week saying Ballage is our starter or do you go into this week thinking this is an open competition among all four of our running backs to be our primary running back this Sunday?) – “I mean right now I would say Kalen is the starter. That’s kind of my thought process. Again, that’s without taking a deep dive into Philly and what they do. (That’s) my initial (thought) knowing this group we’re about to face; but again, that’s part of this process. It’s who we’re playing, what the matchups are, what we’re going to do offensively. All of that plays a role into which back, which group of offensive linemen, which receivers, which tight ends are going to play. Yes, I would say Kalen would be the starter. At the same time, we’ll see how this goes. All of those guys played yesterday. I think we could see all of them, we could see the majority of one of them. We’ll just see how it goes.”
(Is there a plan moving forward for QB Josh Rosen? Is there a number of games you’d like to see him play regardless of the situation, just to get him out there?) – “I think every week we’re going to try to put the guys (out there) we feel are going to help us win the game. That’s how we’re going to approach it as a team, as an organization. I think Josh has improved on a weekly basis from a practice standpoint. We’re seeing some growth and some development that you guys don’t see. If we feel like he gives us a good opportunity to win, we’ll stick him in there. If we feel like ‘Fitz’ (Ryan Fitzpatrick) is the guy, then we’ll do that.”
(How do you grade the run defense yesterday?) – “Not good enough.”
(Anything in particular stand out?) – “We’ve got to tackle better. We’ve got to set the edge better.”
(How would you assess how the team has played in the trenches this season?) – “Up and down, which is how a lot of things have gone this season. I think you see improvement in spurts. You see good plays in spurts. I don’t see the consistency that we need and that you need in this league. Up and down is what I would say. I think we tried to talk to the players about that in particular: playing with more consistency, play to play, and regardless of the situation – whether it’s after a turnover, on the goal line, third down or whatever the situation is – we’ve got to do a better job of playing consistently. We’ve had a couple of instances where we’ve played okay and others where we haven’t.”
