Head Coach Brian Flores
(I know you thought WR DeVante Parker was close last week. Was there a setback since and do you still think he’s going to play this season? And with WR Preston Williams, just curious if you thought there was any realistic chance of him being able to practice this coming week or is he still a ways off?) – “DeVante (Parker) is doing everything he can to get back out there. He was at practice obviously last week. He’s doing everything he can and he’s getting close, and when he’s ready, we’ll get him out there. Preston, we’ll see how that goes this week.”
(Now that you’ve had a chance to look at the video, I wonder what your observations are about QB Ryan Fitzpatrick’s last pass to set up the field goal? The play and how it evolved and what transpired.) – “We needed a chunk play. There was pressure, he stepped up in the pocket, made a throw under duress. Mack (Hollins) was open, got it to him and it was a good play.”
(It’s been about 12 hours since you guys were on the brink and then came out with the win. How does it feel for you and the team after the win today and still have another meaningful game to play this week coming up?) – “We’re excited. We’re excited to win. It was a tough game. It was a good team win. I think they fought to the bitter end, so it was a good team win and we’re excited. We’ll enjoy this one, but then we’ve got to turn the page and move on.”
(A two-parter: what did it mean to get TE Mike Gesicki back and then for him to have those two big catches from QB Ryan Fitzpatrick there toward the end of the game and then the other part was the decision to go for the fake punt, could you kind of just walk us through the process of having the confidence to do that? Was it the short distance that Special Teams Coordinator Danny Crossman – was it suggested by Danny? Was it you? Just walking us through the fake punt.) – “Danny (Crossman) does a great job with the kicking game and I think how that unit has played the entire year has been a big reason why we’ve had some of the success we’ve had. It was a great design. There was the opportunity to get it called. Again, if we like it, we’ve practiced it, we feel good about, there’s an opportunity to call it; we’re going to call it. The players executed it. ‘Fej’ (Clayton Fejedelem) made a nice run. I would say (Hunter) Renfrow made a nice tackle, to be honest with you. It was a good play design. As far as Mike (Gesicki), it was great to have Mike back out there. Obviously he’s battled through the injury from a couple weeks ago. Really wanted to get out there and was out there and was productive for us last night and happy to have him back.”
(It’s been a while since a team has used two quarterbacks as much as you guys have this year without injuries being a factor. Do you view this as a two-quarterback system with QB Ryan Fitzpatrick as a potential closer?) – “I don’t want to put any labels on – the label is we’re going to do what we’ve got to do to win. I owe that to the Dolphins fans, to the players in that locker room, the people in this organization. So that’s what we’re going to always do, so two-person, three-person quarterback, five-person quarterback; whatever we need to do to try to win, that’s what we’re going to do.”
(Kind of a very less serious question here. QB Ryan Fitzpatrick told us last night after the game that he had to go to the restroom prior to entering the game. I‘m just curious if you’ve ever seen a situation like that before and what was your reaction? He was obviously joking around with us after the game and we thought that was pretty funny.) – “Repeat that? That he had to go to the restroom?”
(The restroom.) – “No, he did have to go to the restroom. He went to the restroom.”
(What was your reaction?) – “I’d like to think he had a little bit more toughness and could hold it. (laughter) I had to use the restroom also, but we were in the middle of a game. Just another part to the story.”
(The Raiders had a strategy near the end of the game where they were going to try to not score a touchdown on purpose. I’m curious, were you hoping they would score and was the directive at all to allow them to score if possible in that situation?) – “Yeah, there were a lot of situations there at the end – things that we’ve talked about. They were trying not to score. Yeah, we were trying to let them score. At the end of the day, they were okay with taking the lead with 19 seconds, which obviously there’s a high probability of winning given that situation, and we made a play at the end, a couple plays at the end. And again, like games in this league, they come down to one or two plays; but strategy-wise, I understand why they did what they did.”
(I wanted to ask you about DE Shaq Lawson. He’d been practicing for a while with that shoulder injury. Did it just get worse during the week of practice? What went into the decision to leave him home instead of just making him inactive? – “We made him inactive. He wasn’t able to play. We felt it was best to leave him here and rehab him, and get him ready for this upcoming week.”
(Earlier this year when QB Ryan Fitzpatrick came in in place of QB Tua Tagovailoa, Tua talked about some of the things he’d learned from watching QB Ryan Fitzpatrick and called it a good experience. What would you’ve hoped QB Tua Tagovailoa learned from watching QB Ryan Fitzpatrick last night?) – “I really don’t have an answer to that as far as what I hoped he would learn. He’s constantly trying to learn about the game, about situations, about different coverages, different blitzes. What I would hope he would learn – sorry I don’t have an answer for that. I don’t have an answer for that one.”
(Earlier you were asked about DE Shaq Lawson. It’s the second time he missed a game this season and in both of those games, LB Andrew Van Ginkel stepped up and had a couple of sacks in both of those games. I’m curious to get your take on how Van Ginkel has risen to the occasion when he’s been called upon more?) – “I think that’s the case for a lot of guys on our team. We’ve had some injuries, we’ve had some situations where guys have been out due to COVID, coaches have been out due to COVID. We just kind of have the next-man-up mentality. ‘Gink’ has done a nice job really the entire year for our team, regardless of who is up. When given more opportunities, he’s come through for us, and he did last night. We had a lot of guys come through over the course of the season and we’re going to need that definitely this week.”
(CB Byron Jones, was that two bad plays by him or two bad calls by referees? One of each? Did you talk to the officials about those two plays late in the game involving Byron last night?) – “Calls that could go either way. We were able to overcome them. I have a lot of confidence in Byron. He’s played well all year. Thankfully we were able to overcome those two situations. But yeah they were – both of them could’ve gone either way. We were able to overcome it. That speaks to the kind of guys we have on this team.”
(QB Ryan Fitzpatrick brought you guys that spark last game. The obvious question is if he’d brought you the spark in a tough situation, why wouldn’t he be the starter this week? What is sort of your thought process on why you still feel QB Tua Tagovailoa is the right guy?) – “Tua has brought us the spark in a lot of other games. I think people just forget that because we just remember the last thing. I think Tua has played well. I think he has made a lot of improvement over the course of this season. I think he is developing. I don’t make judgments or decisions based off of one instance. There is a lot that goes into the decisions we make – conversations, not just one game or one quarter. Tua has done a lot of good things for this team. He knows that; this team knows that. Speculation on whatever people want to speculate about as far as what we should or shouldn’t do based on last night, I wouldn’t do that and forget the body of work over the course of the season, to include the last however many games that Tua has been starting. I think he’s played fairly well. People may disagree, but we’ll just agree to disagree in that instance. That’s kind of my take on that. It’s not based off of one game or one quarter. There are a lot of practices that people don’t see, meetings that people don’t see, walkthroughs that no one sees; but everyone wants to make a judgement and try to make a decision for us about what we should do without all of that information.”
