Miami Dolphins 22, New England Patriots 12
Q. What's your reaction to the Patriots being officially eliminated today?
CAM NEWTON: Well, tough loss. It's just unfortunate. It's unfortunate. But no need to dwell on what's the obvious. There's a lot of good things that happened in the game. We just didn't do enough and that's what it comes down to.
Q. You had a nice connection with Jakobi Meyers, 111 yards, I think. How much rapport are you developing with him? They said in the broadcast you guys have become pretty close. Is that true?
CAM NEWTON: I've known Jakobi longer than probably number on this team, but needless to say, we just got to keep getting better. We just got to keep getting better. I know that sounds like a broken record each and every day, but that's what it really comes down to, when our best is expected, that's when we have to be our best.
Q. I know you're kind of fresh off the field, but you came here to be part of the solution as the team moves into this next place. To not be able to have the answer, necessarily in the short term, how do you feel about that and just sort of how the year has gone so far?
CAM NEWTON: What's your question, though? I don't know what's your question.
Q. You came here to be part of the solution to move on to the next era of Patriots Football and obviously the goal is to make the playoffs, and to not be able to reach the playoffs, how do you feel about that part of it?
CAM NEWTON: Obviously it's frustrating. But like I said, I don't want to just dwell on, you know, what's the obvious. This whole season has kind of been the tale of just coming up just a tad bit short. You know, call it however you want to, you know, do, we still got guys that new to this system. We still got guys that's young. We still got guys that just don't get it and we still got guys that's battling their tails off each and every week. We just got to keep building on the optimism of what we can become and just move from there.
Q. Is that your nature to be optimistic, even in, obviously, this disappointment?
CAM NEWTON: I mean what do you want me to do? What you want me to complain, what you want me to tell you, everything that's not going right? I mean, we obviously know what the standard is around here. Doesn't take a person that's oblivious or living under a rock to understand that. We just came up short, and that doesn't mean we're not good enough, because we are. We just didn't -- didn't show it.
Q. It looked like the offense was getting some momentum for a few weeks, a couple weeks ago and then that has stopped. So what do you think caused that momentum on offense to stop over the last two weeks?
CAM NEWTON: You know, I don't know. I don't know. But I can, you know, critique my play and I have to play better. I have to be better and that's what I just plan on keep doing.
Q. I know that Ben asked you about Jakobi earlier. How much have you seen him improve over the time you've been working with him this season?
CAM NEWTON: It's something that you kind of, you know, you kind of tip your hat to, a guy who makes the most of his opportunity and that's pretty much what it is. You know, he doesn't blink. The moment is never too big for him. You know, and I know he wish he would have had that -- that fumble back just like I wish I would have had mine back, but you know, when you battle hard, mistakes happen. We go all week just to get critiqued on 60 minutes and sometimes it's fair, sometimes it's not fair, but at the end of the day, we just keep doing what we can control.
Q. I know this might be kind of an obvious or dumb question but what does cause you to target him so much more than other guys on the offense?
CAM NEWTON: It's just what the read tells me to do.
Q. How do you feel about how well you ran the ball today?
CAM NEWTON: I just got to do a better job of protecting the football.
Q. You said a couple minutes ago, you need to be better. Do you expect to be the starting quarterback over the final two games?
CAM NEWTON: I don't know, man. Listen, you know, I'm just going to keep doing what I'm asked to do, and you know, for me, I just got to keep getting better. You know, keep doing what's asked of me and go over and beyond and try to learn the system each and every week. I know we're still in the latter part of the season, but still trying to learn as much as possible.
Q. How tough is the reality of not making the playoffs, and at the same time, making sure that you guys show the same character for the last two games to make sure you finish the season long?
CAM NEWTON: We have divisional opponents here and we just want to create great habits. I know it's an unfortunate situation to be in, and there's nothing that I can pretty much say that can give anybody, you know, anything outside of knowing what the reality of our situation is right now. But we just got to keep going. Got to keep going and like I said, we obviously would have wanted to win this game today, just to improve our chances, but we didn't. And sometimes life just gives you that type of, you know, reality, and what are you to do. And what we are going to do is just keep getting better with the opportunities that we're given.
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