Miami Dolphins Media Conference

Sunday, December 5, 2021

Miami, Florida, USA

Saquon Barkley

Giants Postgame Presser


Miami Dolphins 20, New York Giants 9

Q. Saquon, can you talk about how frustrating this stretch is offensively here with the 9 points today and --

SAQUON BARKLEY: Yeah. 9 points is not acceptable. We've got to be better. We've got to capitalize on opportunities. We've got to be better as a whole starting with myself.

Q. It seemed like they were determined to stop the run as their first priority on defense. Did you feel that early on that that was the way it was going to be?

SAQUON BARKLEY: In the last seven, eight games, they've been on that streak and that stretch. They've been the number one defense in the league, top 10 defense in the league. And they did a good job today.

Q. Saquon, you guys are probably going to have to play with Jake next week as quarterback as Mike has a concussion. So you look at him --

SAQUON BARKLEY: Wait. Who has a concussion?

Q. Mike Glennon. They just announced it. Sorry. So you guys have put up -- you did what you did today offensively and now you're going to have a guy next week that's never played in a regular season game. So people will look at it and say how can you expect to do any better?

SAQUON BARKLEY: Got to have the next man up mentality. And no matter if it's Mike or if it's D.J. or if it's Jake, when the opportunities are there, the plays need to be made. And we didn't do that today no matter who was at quarterback.

Q. How tired are you of just not producing?

SAQUON BARKLEY: Yeah. Very tired. We know that we've got to be better on offense. It's something that we haven't been doing this year, haven't been scoring touchdowns. And, you know, I know even though we're tired, I know defense is annoyed too because defense is playing lights out. So we've got to do a better job of playing all three phases. And we're not doing it on our side.

Q. When you say you know the defense is annoyed, how do you know that?

SAQUON BARKLEY: I mean, I'm just saying when you go out there and they're playing great, you know, they're playing great, we've got to go out there and make plays for them. When I mean annoyed, I mean understanding that football is about all three phases playing at a high level all together, clicking at the same time. And that's not what happened right now on this team.

Q. Saquon, do you feel 100 percent physically?

SAQUON BARKLEY: Nobody feels 100 percent physically. It's week whatever in the NFL.

Q. Can you kind of go through that play in the third quarter there. (No microphone.) What happened there? What did you see on that play?

SAQUON BARKLEY: You know, we knew they were a big coverage zero team. We emptied it out. Got me in a little position. They had a blown coverage, and we didn't make the play.

Q. Saquon, you had a play I think kind of slanting across there. You had a step or two on the linebacker. Should you have had that catch in your mind?

SAQUON BARKLEY: Yeah. It touched my hands.

Q. How big of a play could that have been?

SAQUON BARKLEY: Could have been a big play. And I failed. I didn't make the play.

Q. Are you comfortable with the commitment to the run game this season because your carries per game is down a lot from your first couple seasons. I think you're averaging 11 carries a game. Are you comfortable with that?

SAQUON BARKLEY: I mean, you know, not -- not producing in the run game right now so I can't -- cannot be upset that I've got 11 carries. We're not doing anything. Myself, I'm not doing anything in the running game. I'm not affecting the game in that aspect. That kind of happens, especially when you get down and you play from behind.

Q. How perplexed are you that you haven't been able to get it going and breakthrough a little bit here?

SAQUON BARKLEY: It's part of the game. I guess we're in a slump right now, talking personally, myself. And I could either sit down, cry about it and give up or go back to work and keep working and keep figuring it out. And that's -- I'm going to do the other side of it, go back to work, put my head down and keep working, keep leading and keep trying my best.

Q. Some people say he's not the player he used to be.

SAQUON BARKLEY: That's their opinion.

Q. What do you have inside you that gives you confidence that you are that guy?

SAQUON BARKLEY: Because I know who I am.

Q. You had two drops. I mean, you would classify them as drops --

SAQUON BARKLEY: Yeah, two drops.

Q. -- in the first hale. When you look at that -- you're going to look at it on tape --

SAQUON BARKLEY: Got to make the catch.

Q. Is it --

SAQUON BARKLEY: Just got to make the catch. Just got to make the catch. Catch it, look it in, that's it. Go back to fundamentals.

Q. After a game like this, would you rather be going home or looking forward to get to Arizona?

SAQUON BARKLEY: I don't think it's a bad idea to get away, spend some time with your team. It's kind of like a little -- if you were in college, kind of like a little college trip. You get away. Obviously, you want to be with your family, but it's -- we can take advantage of this. These, what, eight days or nine days, however many days we're going to be out there. We can take advantage of this, use this as a trip to, you know, relax, breathe, come together collectively, figure out what we've got to do better. Also spend more time with each other.

I don't see any fault or any negative things that can come out of spending time together as a team, getting to know each other more, especially this part of the season where we've got to try to make a run at it and try to win every game we can.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
115358-1-1822 2021-12-05 22:56:00 GMT

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