Dolphins - 19, Bengals - 7
Q. Your thoughts on what the game devolved to in the second half?
COACH TAYLOR: It was the third quarter in a nutshell. And they came out, had three straight scoring drives and we had three-and-outs. And I've got to put our guys in a better position, too. We have to make plays that are there, but at the same time, I've got to be accountable for that and put us in better spots. We played the game how we expected it to be played in the first half, and then weren't good enough in the third quarter and that's where it got away.
Q. How about when everybody started losing their cool a little bit, do you feel the officials lost control of the football game at any point?
COACH TAYLOR: I'll just I'll have to go to the next question on that one.
Q. I understand. How do you prevent -- I mean, it's a tough situation. It turned into something other than football. I'm sure the league will not be happy about what it turned into. What did you tell your football team after the game?
COACH TAYLOR: I'm proud of the effort they gave. And they're playing hard and had some calls go against them that we'll have to look at, to be quite frank. But I thought our guys were playing hard and got put in a tough spot there.
Q. Only 30 yards of total offense in the second half. What was happening there that caused you guys to struggle so much offensively?
COACH TAYLOR: First-down efficiency, right off the gate. Two first-down runs that put us second and 11, and then I think we were in first and 10, second and 11 and third and 11 the first two drives in the second half. That's where they captured the momentum, went down scored a touchdown and then kicked a field goal to go up what would have been 16-7. And we had two straight three-and-outs there, and that's unacceptable on our end.
Q. What did losing Tyler on the offense and how did that affect it?
COACH TAYLOR: It's a challenge. They played man coverage about every single snap of the game. You need your best receivers out there. But they lost a good corner as well. We both lost guys.
Q. Did you talk to Brian Flores at all after the game; if so, what was said?
COACH TAYLOR: We'll keep that between us, but, yeah, we're good.
Q. It looked like in the first half the short passing game was paying dividends for you, particularly the outside, the tight end screens, the receiver screens, the throw to Boyd. It seemed like you were attacking that area of the field pretty darn well early in the game?
COACH TAYLOR: We obviously left three points on the field there in the first half that we should have had. Whatever we had, four possessions, maybe we should have had 10 points in the first half. Just left points on the board there. But we played the way we expected this game to be played, and just needed to continue on at that rate. And just didn't do that in the second half.
Q. What do you say to Mike Thomas after back-to-back penalties there?
COACH TAYLOR: Well, we'll watch the first one, first of all. And then the second one, he got there a little too soon. That's obvious. We know that. But again that returner is a heck of a returner. That's the number one punt return unit in the league. He does not fair catch the ball. So you've got to put pressure on him.
Of course we don't want to do it before the catch point. We want to play within the rules. But our guys were playing hard. It was unfortunate. We hope he's fine. But again there's no ill will there by Mike Thomas; I can promise you that. He's just being a gunner, going down there trying to make a play.
Q. They called personal foul on the first one did they say he hit him in the head instead of getting there early, or what was the call?
COACH TAYLOR: I don't know what they said, I don't know what they said.
Q. They didn't explain anything to you?
COACH TAYLOR: Sometimes they explain.
Q. Should there have been -- Boyd got flagged, Boyd got flagged for 15 -- should there have been an offsetting?
COACH TAYLOR: That's not what they said.
Q. Did they explain that well because that was obviously a confusing sequence?
COACH TAYLOR: It's a very confusing sequence. Two guys got ejected. There was one (inaudible) and that's all there was to it.
Q. Obviously you saw the first push that started the whole thing. How did they think Tyler Boyd fell into all the people that he fell into, I guess?
COACH TAYLOR: There was a lot of eyes on the situation. I was right there watching the whole thing. There was a lot of eyes on it.
Q. To have a game that kind of unravels like this and there's fighting and it's all a mess, people are going to say you've lost control of the team. What do you say to people that say it looks like you've lost control of the team right now?
COACH TAYLOR: I think our guys got put in some tough spots, you know? And those are two core guys that got kicked out of the game, Shawn Williams and Tyler Boyd. And again we don't ever want that. We don't ever want -- we need those guys; we're counting on those guys. And everyone's got to maintain their composure, myself included.
We just have to look at what happened, but I know they were both very frustrated with what was going on. Shawn got hurt there on a blind-side block. And TB felt he got hit way late out of bounds. And again we've got to maintain our composure, be better than that.
Q. Did something unforeseen happen with Darius to go into the game with only three cornerbacks, or was that by design?
COACH TAYLOR: He was sick.
Q. Did none of the practice squad guys travel -- so you couldn't call anybody else up because they weren't --
COACH TAYLOR: Didn't have COVID -- I mean, no, we weren't in a position with the way the inactives were working to get another guy up there. Jalen Davis was up, so we had the four safeties and the four corners. That's how we played the game.
Q. Is this game an example of the retaliator is always going to be caught, never the instigator, always the guy that retaliates?
COACH TAYLOR: I think our focus needs to be we've got to play better when we're on the field. Again, that's what frustrates me the most is that two weeks really we've played the first half how the game is going to need to be played. There's going to be ugly games sometimes that can come down to a late score to see who wins, and we were not efficient enough in the third quarter and really all three phases there.
We put ourselves in position there how we didn't want to play the game in the fourth quarter, particularly on offense, dropping back and throwing the ball, and gave up some sacks and put ourselves in a tough spot.
Q. Last year the game against Miami, probably even though a loss, had you all feeling you were going in the right direction. What do you feel like after a loss like today?
COACH TAYLOR: Frustrated. I mean, the work that we put in and the way we feel when we walk on the field, to start the game, and really quite frankly the way we walked into halftime the last two weeks. Just it's frustrating when these games, you don't pull them out at the end. It's very frustrating.
Q. Any indication yet how serious the injuries are to Jonah and Brandon?
COACH TAYLOR: I do not know that yet, yeah.
Q. I guess at this point, Coach, it might be early, but Hogan, what would be his status? And how far along might he be? And do you have to go back into the quarterback pool again, potentially?
COACH TAYLOR: We're not there yet. We'll evaluate all our players after this game and make those decisions, but we're not there yet.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports