Brian Flores – September 21, 2020
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Monday, September 21, 2020
Head Coach Brian Flores
(A short week – I know physically it’s tough, but is it a mental advantage after a loss to get right back to work and focused in on the next opponent? Number two, is there anything you tell a team when they’re off to a slow start and the results aren’t there at 0-2 but you want them to keep focused that it’s a long season?) – “I’ll answer the second question first. Yeah, I think every day we try to come in and improve and get better. If we continue to do those things, the results will take care of themselves. That’s always been my message. That’s the message to the team right now. As far as it being a short week, I think the message – that’s the case right now. Yeah, we want to turn the page after a tough loss and we have an opportunity to do that. At the same time, we want to make the corrections from the game yesterday and get focused on Jacksonville. They’re a tough competitive team, they are playing well and this will be a tough game for us. We’ve got to prepare for that in a short amount of time.”
(Where do the fixes need to begin on defense?) – “Communication, run defense, pass defense – we’ve got a lot of corrections to make. There were some bright spots, some improvements in a few areas; but too many big plays and getting off the field on third down. Look, there are critical moments in the game where there are plays to be made, communication that has to be made and we’ve got to make them, and we didn’t do that yesterday.”
(I was hoping I’d get an update on CB Byron Jones and given a short week, does that lesson the chances of him playing on Thursday?) – “He’s in this morning. We’ll take a look at this. Obviously it’s a quick turnaround. He’d have to heal pretty quickly. We’re not ruling him out or anything just yet. We’ll just take a look at how this goes the next couple of days. Again, we’re playing in three days. We’ll see where he is. No official update right now.”
(I wanted to ask about CB Noah Igbinoghene and the challenge he had yesterday and the struggles that he had. I’m sure everybody struggled but how do you hope that a young player responds to what he just faced and what he went throguh?) – “Noah is a mentally tough kid. I think playing against a receiver of that caliber the entire day after an injury, getting put in that position, he had some instances where he covered him well and then he had a lot of instances where (Stefon) Diggs was able to get open against him. I think it’s a good experience for him. I think he’ll learn from it. I think just watching it, there are some things he could easily do better to put himself in a little bit better position. I think hopefully in the long run this will be a good thing for him.”
(What are some of the preparation challenges and maybe the logistical challenges that non-football coaches might not think about having this short week? How do things get condensed?) – “There are a lot of challenges. At the end of the day, you don’t have as much time. You don’t have your normal schedule, you don’t have the normal amount of time that you would hit first, second, third, red zone, two-minute. Everything is condensed so you’ve just got to get it all in in a short period of time. As far as trying to put anything brand new in, it’s hard to do. You don’t get to practice. You never see it full speed. Those are just a few of the challenges. At the end of the day, most teams I imagine may throw one or two new wrinkles in; but it will be off of something that you already have in so there is not a lot of new learning. Those are just a couple of the challenges; but that’s also – especially after a tough loss, you want to get it turned around and get out on the field quickly. That’s going to be – in this building, we’re looking forward to it.”
(I wanted to ask you about WR Preston Williams and his body control. It seems like he has a tendency to maybe just while he’s catching passes or maybe falling over after he makes a catch. What can you say more about him keeping things under control, not jumping for every catch and maybe having better body control?) – “Preston’s a young player. He’s very talented. We talk to him about just his technique at the top of routes, catching the football with his hands. He works at it a lot. He works very hard at it. I’d say he has good body control. He’s made tough catches in traffic up over guys. From a body control standpoint, I know he had that nice catch on the sideline there and kept his feet in. Look, players have good plays and bad plays. We try to correct the bad ones. I don’t want to label him a bad body control guy. I think he has good body control in my opinion.”
(From an offensive line standpoint, how do you think they performed in Week 2?) – “It was a good front. They have good pass rushers. There were a couple of blitzes that got in there. They sacked us three times. But overall, I thought we had time to step up and throw the football. There was space for us to do that and we executed from a standpoint at an ok level. Again, we’ve just got to continue to improve and get better. There are definitely some instances where there was probably a little too much pressure. We probably needed a little bit more time, especially in the critical moments of the game. I thought we were making some strides and making some improvement; but at the same time, we could be better.”
(I wanted to ask you about your pass rush. What are you seeing out of your pass rushers thus far in these two games and what needs to happened for it to improve?) – “Not enough. That would be my answer to that. I think we’ve got to do a better job as a coaching staff of putting them in position to rush better. The players have to work their techniques, their fundamentals and just rush better. There are a lot of things that we have to work on. I would say that’s certainly at the top of the list and we’ll continue to improve and get better. We’re still trying to find who does what best and put guys in positons where they’re doing what they do best from a rush standpoint, from a coverage standpoint, from a zone standpoint, from a blocking standpoint, from a return standpoint. We as a coaching staff – and that starts with me – have to do a better job of putting guys in positions to make plays.”
(I know he missed early camp and he was on the physically unable to perform list. What is your confidence with CB Xavien Howard’s health and recovery? What would be the thinking for not having him cover Buffalo WR Stefon Diggs yesterday?) – “I would say he’s healthy. We wouldn’t put him out there if we didn’t think he was healthy. Obviously we had injuries yesterday, as you guys saw. He was on (John) Brown. I think he’s healthy. To me, we’ve just got to cover the guys that we’re on. I think we had issues with Stefon Diggs, we had issues with Brown, we had issues with (Cole) Beasley. My message to the guys is the guys we put you on, those are the guys we expect you to cover, whether that’s Noah (Igbinoghene) on Diggs or Byron Jones on Diggs or ‘X’ (Xavien Howard) on Brown or Nik Needham on Beasley. We all just have to do a better job of covering. We felt like that was the best matchup, so that’s why we did that.”
(Starting 0-2 is tough, but what are the things that happened in these first two weeks that you feel like you can build on?) – “0-2 is tough. There is a lot to improve on. That’s kind of where my focus is. A lot of the things, like I said last week, are correctable. We made some corrections yesterday. Not enough to win the game in all areas – offensively, defensively and in the kicking game. It was a more competitive game than the week before. We had a lead in the fourth quarter. We’ve got to finish. There are some things we have to build on and the thing that we have to do is we have to finish. That’s something we’ve talked about, something we’ve learned to do as a team, as a unit. We need to learn how to do that. That’s kind of where my focus is right now.”
(The Bills hit you guys with a lot of crossing routes. That’s something teams do – I’m sure you know – to teams that play press defense. Is the issue the fact that you’re not getting pressure on the quarterback or something that you need more zone?) – “It’s a combination of pressure, missing coverages, potentially keeping someone on the weak side. All of those things. We have answers to all of those things. As a press team, as a Cover 1 team, we’ve got to cover better. We can’t let people off the hook from that standpoint. We’ve got to coach it better, we’ve got to mix the coverages, we’ve got to cover better. We’re all a part of it. This is one team. We’ve got to coach it better and that starts with me. We’ve got to play better. I think the players understand that. We’re not pointing fingers or making excuses. We’re just going to come to work and work to get better. I think (you guys) asked what we could build on and it’s that these guys work. They come to work every day and they want to get better and it’s important to them. We’ll build on that. My experience says we’ll improve if we have the attitude that we’ve had.”
(I feel like you’re trying to keep a pretty positive mindset. I noticed at halftime when the team was coming off of the field, you were encouraging your players. You have a lot of young players and a lot of new coaches. How are you personally balancing wanting to maintain positivity and also the reality of a sense of urgency?) – “There’s always a sense of urgency in this league for sure. I try to be positive more than not positive for a lack of a better term. There’s a great since of urgency in this building. Guys want to be good, they want to win, they want to improve, they want to get better. There is definitely a sense of urgency. I don’t want to misconstrue positive encouragement with a lack of sense of urgency. I don’t think anyone really feels that here. Players, they work extremely hard and they want it. I understand that it’s not all positive. I try to be demanding and tell them how important each play is; but at the same time, when we kick a field goal to go down one score and we’re getting the ball after the half, that’s something to be excited about. I’m going to be excited and encourage them.”
(Closing Statement) – “I just want to send condolences from myself and the Dolphins to James White and his family. He lost his father Tyrone in a car accident here in South Florida yesterday. His mom is in critical condition. His father is an incredible person who has done a lot for, or did a lot, for a lot of young people here in South Florida. James, Gio Bernard along with a lot of other guys – that’s a big loss. You guys can write about all you want from a Dolphins standpoint, but I would just take a look at what his father Tyrone did for a lot of young kids in South Florida. I want to send my condolences to James White and his family. I know he’s on the Patriots and we compete against those guys; but we’re a football family in the National Football League. I just want him to know he has our support. We’re praying for his mom right now. His dad was a truly great, great, great man who did a lot for a lot of people. I think people need to know about that.”
