Miami Dolphins Media Conference
Friday, November 12, 2021
Miami, Florida, USA
Head Coach John Harbaugh
Ravens Postgame Presser
Miami – 22, Baltimore – 10
JOHN HARBAUGH: Hat’s off to the Dolphins. They played a very good football game. Outcoached us, outplayed us, and won the football game. So the bottom line is this falls squarely on me as the head coach. We were not prepared the way we need to be prepared. Our schemes weren’t up to snuff and we weren’t prepared to execute the way we needed to. That’s it. Not on one player. Our players played their hearts out. They worked hard all week. We did everything we could to be prepared and we just weren’t ready. That’s on me. Okay. What questions do you have?
Q. John, defensive — or Dolphins defensively, seemed like they sent, you know, defensive back blitzes a lot.
Was that something that they showed before or something you were prepared for?
JOHN HARBAUGH: That’s something they’ve done all year. We worked on it all week. We didn’t have a good enough plan for it, you know, as a group and we didn’t execute well with the plan we had.
Q. It seemed like a lot of times, though, guys were getting out of the huddle late, they were snapping the ball with, you know, under five seconds a lot. It just seemed a lack of rhythm. What do you attribute that to?
JOHN HARBAUGH: I agree with that. It was hard to get first downs. So it’s hard to get a rhythm when you can’t get started. You know, too many times we didn’t get started, too many three-and-outs. And there was some crowd noise and things like that in terms of communication. And sometimes you got to handle blitzes and put plays together that are a little more complicated. That’s no excuse. We just didn’t handle it well. They were blitzing us and we got to handle it better. And that’s on us as coaches.
Q. John, I know you don’t want to make any excuses before a short week. Traveling, a short week, humidity, how much of that was a factor you think?
JOHN HARBAUGH: That’s the nature of the beast. You know, it’s a road Thursday night game. It’s hard to win on Thursday night, but we’ve done did before and we’ve been successful. We just played poorly and it’s because of our
coaching. I didn’t do a good job getting these guys ready.
Q. Obviously, football’s an emotional game. Is there any possibility that your team saw a two and seven team and decided —
JOHN HARBAUGH: No. No possibility of that. We watch the teams on tape. We know who the players are, we know what they’re capable of, we know it’s the National Football League. We’re very conscious of that.
Q. John, how do you bounce — I mean, obviously, a disappointing loss, but also you’re still six and three. How do you kind of balance that as your message to the team?
JOHN HARBAUGH: Well, that’s the reality of it. We got to go to work. We got to be better. So if we’re going to win next week, we got to — we’ll play a lot better because we’ll coach a lot better in Chicago.
Q. John, what happened on that Wilson play at the end there? Was that a miscommunication?
JOHN HARBAUGH: We weren’t ready. We didn’t do a good job of it. The boys weren’t coached up well enough.
Q. Nine punts. Obviously, not what you want. What was — is there an overlying theme of what kind of happened or what you guys were seeing?
JOHN HARBAUGH: Yeah, we didn’t handle the blitz well at all. You know, it’s basically an all-out zero coverage blitz. We’re getting on second down, almost all of third downs. And we just did a poor job of it. The plan that we had wasn’t up to par.
Q. John, is the Tavon injury minor or —
JOHN HARBAUGH: Don’t know. I don’t know. We haven’t had any reports since he left the game on that.
Miami Dolphins Media
Conference
Friday, November 12, 2021
Miami, Florida, USA
Lamar Jackson
Ravens Postgame Presser
Miami – 22, Baltimore – 10
Q. They were blitzing a lot of defensive backs.
LAMAR JACKSON: Yeah.
Q. What was the biggest problem to overcome that?
LAMAR JACKSON: You know, it was cover zero the majority of the whole game. They just got hot each and every time. I was dropping back, just couldn’t do nothing about that.
Q. Is that something you’ve never seen before?
LAMAR JACKSON: Nah. We seen it before. We was practicing it the whole week. We just got to do a better job, do a better job facing that. Get a handle. I feel we’ll be good. Dolphins played a great game.
Q. What do you mean they had a guy hot?
LAMAR JACKSON: Nah, I was hot. There was a guy free every time I was dropping back. I was hot.
Q. Lamar, you know the NFL is a copycat league. So one thing has success, you’re going to see it every week. What’s the key going forward to beat that defense?
LAMAR JACKSON: Play our game. You know, do us. Do our thing. We’ll be good. There was some plays we left on the field, some things we left on the field. Little mishaps. Just be us. That’s it.
Q. They showed a clip of you kind of yelling on the sidelines. How frustrating was it that you kind of — you know, when you were stalling so much offensively?
LAMAR JACKSON: I was hot. Like, we wasn’t scoring no points. We were putting our defense out there. They played a great game. Dolphins had their little plays — they had their great plays on offense. But I feel our defense played lights out, man. We just wasn’t getting it done on offense. So that’s why I was mad. Because if you was on offense, you would be mad, too. Like, you know? They played a great game, man.
Q. Lamar, was there something just chemistry-wise that was not happening? You know, there was a lot of three and outs, a lot of punts for you guys. Was there something —
LAMAR JACKSON: No, I wouldn’t say it was the chemistry. They just had a great day. We couldn’t find ourselves. Like I said before, our defense started getting out there, stopping them, three points, stopping them in the red zone, three points. We’re just not capitalizing. We got to, you know, watch film, get back and regroup.
Q. You guys were having a lot of quick throws outside.
LAMAR JACKSON: Cover zero. Cover zero.
Q. Right. Was it just, I need to get the ball out of my hands as fast as possible kind of — was that the approach?
LAMAR JACKSON: Yeah, around — like I said, they had the guy off the edge coming in hot. So I tried to get the ball out to the receivers, make a play. You know, sometimes it was tipped passes, you know, the ball was getting batted down. Just played a great game. They played a great game.
Q. The last time you were here, you had an incredible game against them. Some players on the team — on their team are still there. Were they kind of talking back and forth to you, kind of letting you know that’s not going to happen this time around?
LAMAR JACKSON: Nah, they — nah, nah, nah. There wasn’t none of that. They didn’t say none of that. You know, they going to talk trash. It’s football. They going to talk trash. But, nah, it wasn’t none of that. It was respect.
Q. Lamar, did you talk to Sammy about what might have happened on that first pass when he was in the back of the end zone and he might have lost the ball as it was coming down?
LAMAR JACKSON: Actually, you know, I was hot. I was hot. And I had to throw the ball in the air and give them a chance. But, you know, if he’s not sitting with the back in the backfield, it would probably be hard to try to track the ball, if I’m just throwing it up trying to make something happen. So, nah, I didn’t talk to him about it.
Q. Coach took responsibility for this loss. But it seemed you guys knew what they were going to do, that you were prepared to see what you saw.
LAMAR JACKSON: Yeah.
Q. So was it as much execution as, you know, being surprised by them or anything?
LAMAR JACKSON: Like I said, you know, we just got to do a better job out there. Things like I said before, things we left out on the field. The mishaps. We got to get that fixed, regroup, get ready for Chicago.
Q. Lamar, in the past, you guys generally start pretty fast.
LAMAR JACKSON: Right.
Q. This season —
LAMAR JACKSON: Slow. Every week. It’s ridiculous. I don’t understand it either. We just got to do a better job at that. You know, hit the ground running, like we supposed to do. And that starts by staying calm and just doing us. Don’t put nothing extra on our minds.
Q. Do you have to game plan to your team — you know, even though it was a disappointing loss, you are six and three. Did you try to send that message, as well?
LAMAR JACKSON: Our guys good. We got grown men here. Like I always say, it’s a brotherhood. We not pointing no fingers in here. Not never. We going to get right. Got to. Trust.
Q. Lamar, do you think teams are blitzing you more than they have in the past, especially on those third-and-longs?
LAMAR JACKSON: Say again.
Q. Do you think teams are blitzing you more than they have on third-and-longs?
LAMAR JACKSON: I don’t know. I feel like I got blitzed a lot on my rookie season. I don’t know. We’ll get it fixed,
though. We got a lot of games left in the season. We’re good.
C Bradley Bozeman
(on if the defense did anything they hadn’t shown on film) “No, they did kind of what we thought they were
going to do. They blitzed us a lot. They brought a lot of [Cover] Zero, [and] we tried to pick it up. We didn’t
do a great job of picking it up. We have to make adjustments and go forward from here.”
(on the team’s mindset following a tough loss) “All of our guys are a bunch of battlers. [We] battle to the
end, no matter what the score is. No matter what the situation is, [we] just continue to work until the very
end and until the last breath. I’m so proud of these guys for doing that and just working and trying to
continue to get the win and do like we’ve been doing. Unfortunately, it just wasn’t enough tonight.”
Miami Dolphins Media
Conference
Friday, November 12, 2021
Miami, Florida, USA
Calais Campbell
Texans Postgame Presser
Miami – 22, Baltimore – 10
Q. What do you think — this was very uncharacteristic of you guys. You know, what do you think was the biggest problem or challenge?
CALAIS CAMPBELL: I mean, we just didn’t play a good football game. I mean, I don’t really know what — we need
to watch the tape and get a feel for it. At the end of the day, you know, they played better football than us today. They earned the win. I mean, we played our hearts out, left it out there. Just can’t get it done today.
Q. How much of a backbreaker is it when the offense scores a touchdown? You have a chance for another come back and make a big play.
CALAIS CAMPBELL: Yeah, I mean, that one hurts. All the confidence in the world that we’re going to get a stop there
and they made a play. I mean, that’s football. You know, it happens, but, you know, you try to eliminate it as much as
possible. I mean, I don’t even know what happened. Got to watch the tape. But I just know that, you know, that’s the play — we make that play, I feel like we win the game. So it’s — there were plays out there for us to make, we just
didn’t make them. But, you know, it is what it is. It’s definitely — it stings a little bit. But, you know, like anything
else, it’s a 24-hour rule. We’re studying the tape, looking forward. Got to get a win next week.
Q. On an earlier question, John said, I didn’t have these guys ready to play, I didn’t coach well enough. Did you guys feel you were prepared to play better than you executed out there?
CALAIS CAMPBELL: You know, I mean, I feel like we had a good game plan, especially our defense. I don’t really pay attention much to — I don’t have as much understanding on the other side. I feel like we had a good game plan. They just made a couple plays. This is the NFL. Good, bad, and ugly. Got to keep playing and press through it. For me, I feel like as players we know we can play better. You know, we know we can give — you know, get the ball out there and find a way to win the ball game. But when you lose like this, you know, it’s — the first thing you got to do is look in the mirror and figure out what I can do to help the team win a football game, get us better to where we want to be as a football team. Because, you know, right now wasn’t our best football. We got a lot of getting better to do.
Q. It seems like every week it’s always a couple big plays. At what point did you just kind of — you know, you keep talking about it. But at what point do you try to stop that?
CALAIS CAMPBELL: I mean, I guarantee the effort is there. You know — I mean, it’s — you know, I mean, it’s just a game — it’s a game of momentum, game of football. You know, it’s just a game of momentum. And, you know, I mean, it’s going to be — you know, they’re going to make some plays. As much as we want to stop them every play, and we’re good enough to stop them every single play, they’re going to make some plays. And I feel like we did better today than in the past because we got those guys down and we deflated every blade of grass. You know, they found a way to get a score at the end of the game. It’s good football. They made the plays to win the game. We still got a whole lot of getting better to do. We got a lot of pride in who we are. So it takes one play at a time and we have to earn it. Can’t make no excuses. Just got to go out there and keep fighting. You know, it’s a daily grind.
OLB Justin Houston
(on recording 100 career sacks) “It felt great. I know that’s something big in this league. Not many have
done it. And I just think it’s a blessing for me to have the opportunity to even do it.”
(on the defense generating four sacks) “I felt like we did good when we had the opportunity. We can do
better though, as a whole. We still gave up too many big plays for where we want to be and where we’re
going. We should limit it to no big plays at all. So, we’ve got work to do.”
(on the mindset of this team heading into next week at Chicago) “Oh, I know we’ll be fine. These guys,
like you said, they’re resilient. And so, these guys are ready to work, they’re ready to get better, they’re
ready to see what we did wrong as a whole and fix those mistakes and move on.”
Miami Dolphins Media
Conference
Friday, November 12, 2021
Miami, Florida, USA
Marlon Humphrey
Ravens Postgame Presser
Miami – 22, Baltimore – 10
Q. Do you feel there’s something similar how defensively you held up a few big plays again that really cost you?
MARLON HUMPHREY: Yeah. I mean, it’s kind of — you know, we — things we’re trying to work on. But, you know, I
guess you are what you put on — you know, on film in the game. And that’s kind of been our — our Achilles heel, you
know? Even when we play good, good, good, a slip up here, good, good, good, a slip up there, a slip up, bad quarter.
So we had some, you know — Wink asked me what’s your — what’s something you can guarantee going to happen in
the game for the secondary, and I said we’re going to communicate. You know, as a leader in that secondary, that’s on me, man. We got to communicate better through the secondary and then throughout the whole defense as a whole.
Q. Was there anything going up against Tua as a quarterback that hurt you guys or bothered you guys during the game?
MARLON HUMPHREY: We anticipated that Brissett was going to start. But when Tua came in, it didn’t really change anything. We know they’re two different quarterbacks. But nothing really, really there. But both quarterbacks, great players. And I think Tua, when he got in, it gave them some juice that kind of took them the way.
Q. Marlon, could a game like this be a wake-up call for you guys?
MARLON HUMPHREY: I think so. You know, it’s — I — I think it’s going to be a good time to watch the film. I was
thinking this week, you know, I was sitting there thinking, like, you know, when you have those bad games, I think
you — sometimes you want to, like — if you’re putting something on film and you know you’re better, you’re, like,
Why have I not been consistent and playing as good as I want to?
And it seems at times the defense, the offense, you haven’t been playing as good as you wanted to play. So I believe
this will be a great wake-up call to be for everybody to be like, What is it? Am I not understanding something I’m
doing? I’m not playing the technique I’m coached, do I need Coach to coach me a different way?
I think there’s going to be so many different things to look at and I think, you know, the — how we understand the
coaches, how the coaches coach us. I think it’ll be a good wake-up call for the players and the coaches.
You know, the good thing, we got a bye week. We can spend a full day to really figure out what went wrong
tonight, what we can do getting better, and take another day or two to ourself. And just sit down and have those
mental talks with yourself, You know, what can I do to be better?
Q. Do you have a guess what it might be or do you just have to do the study to figure it out?
MARLON HUMPHREY: Really, just got to do the study. You know, I think when you watch us, you know, in practice and different things, you know, I think we’re practicing right, we’re doing the things right. It seems like we’re getting to the game and there’s kind of a disconnect, at times. At times. You know, I’m not going to say, you know, we haven’t done good things in the past, offense and defense. But there seems like there’s certain series or plays that’s kind of getting us and the certain mistakes that I think can be fixed. So that’s the encouraging thing.
Q. Marlon, you mentioned communication. The Wilson play at the end there when he came across and no one covered him, that play in the second quarter, were those communication issues you think?
MARLON HUMPHREY: Yeah, we just got to communicate it as a whole on defense. And like I said, as a leader of that secondary, you know, that’s one thing that I said we were going to do. And we kind of failed on that. So that’s on me.
Q. Marlon, how much of an impact is it with those entries, especially in the secondary, you know, guys being rotated around? How much has that been an impact, you feel?
MARLON HUMPHREY: I think, you know, it’s weird. You know, we lose an all-pro guy, we lose — this guy moves, this guy sits out here or there. You know, the good thing is we got guys that can play and guys that know the defenses. Excuses are pretty easy to say. But, you know, like I said, I just got to communicate better and we all got to as a whole get there and just be better. I mean, we got to echo the call. Even when you heard it, just say it again.
Miami Dolphins Media
Conference
Friday, November 12, 2021
Miami, Florida, USA
Mark Andrews
Ravens Postgame Presser
Miami – 22, Baltimore – 10
Q. Mark, what exactly were they doing? Obviously, you guys had trouble picking up the blitz. But anything in coverage that they were doing that was giving you problems or something you didn’t expect to see?
MARK ANDREWS: They played a good game. You know, they did a lot of zero. You know, and so that’s kind of what we saw for the most part. But the played a good game. So hat’s off to them.
Q. Did you take more shots against the early blitz or is that just really hard to do?
MARK ANDREWS: Yeah, zero’s is, like, one of those things where you got to make them pay, you know? And, you know, I don’t think early on we did that enough. You know, that’s one of the things, you make them play early on, they kind of get out of there. You know, I think you see towards the end of the game. Again, they played a great game. But we did a lot of things toward the end of the game that I think we need to capitalize early on.
Q. Mark, what does it — especially, it seems like you guys haven’t been able to finish strong in a lot of these games. Why is it that there’s been such slow starts?
MARK ANDREWS: Yeah, you know, I think you look at our first drive today, and we didn’t — and we were moving the ball. You know, we moved the ball pretty well. But, you know, that’s one of those things that we got to go in and work on, is just starting fast. We have a bunch of players that work hard and, you know, fly around, play 100 percent. And coaches that, you know, coach us hard and really care. So we’re going to get this thing down. There’s a lot of positives that happened tonight. You know, we’re a six and three ball team, and, you know, there’s a lot of positives. And that’s what we’re going to build on, learn from the mistakes, and build on the positives. And we’re going to continue to be a dangerous team.
Q. Mark, your catch that they overruled, did you catch that ball and were you shocked that it was overturned?
MARK ANDREWS: I thought I caught that ball. I’m not going to lie to you, I thought I got my hands under it. I know it popped up, but I never thought it touched the ground. You know, obviously, I didn’t see the replay. They didn’t play it in the stadium, obviously, because they thought it was a catch. So…
