Miami Dolphins 33, New England Patriots, 24
Q. Do you think your team is ready for the playoffs?
DEVIN MCCOURTY: Don't have a choice. Start next week.
Q. Is it harder to prepare for a team like Cincinnati? When you land tonight, you guys are probably going to know who you play based on the outcome. Is it harder to prepare for a team you haven't seen as opposed to a division opponent you've already played twice?
DEVIN MCCOURTY: Yeah. You've got to definitely do more work. Like I haven't seen, really. I haven't seen Cincinnati much at all. So, yeah, as a group, we really got to jump in. But I would say no matter who we play, it's that time of the year that you want to know as much as possible about your opponent, not take it for granted even though we played Buffalo twice towards the end of the season, you don't want to take that for granted either.
So no matter who we play, we're fighting. Come to work the next day. You want to put everything into it because if you don't, that's it. You know, we have another performance like this, that's it. So I think as a group -- you know, everybody individually, you just want to put your all into it because there's no tomorrow.
Q. Devin, the culture that's in place here, you always want to be building something. In the way these three of the last four games have gone, how concerning is it?
DEVIN MCCOURTY: One, I would say culture doesn't matter. Each team, you are what you are. I say it every year. We always talk about what teams in the past have done. It's really irrelevant to the current team. You know, those teams in the past had different players. And I think we can't rely on that and bank on that.
We talk about it all the time. Obviously, you want to be playing your best football. We haven't. So we've got to turn the page and we've got to have a good week of practice and rely on that because we don't have the three, four weeks in a row of good football to rely on. It hasn't been our best.
But I think if we sit there and say we've got no shot because it hasn't been our best, then we might as well not even show up next week. We've just got to put our heads down, get to work and go out there and play our best football.
We know each Sunday is a different opportunity, kind of any given Sunday. And I think that's how we've got to prepare no matter who we play and go out there and try to get a win.
Q. Devin, what is it about these Dolphins that have given you trouble over the years?
DEVIN MCCOURTY: I wouldn't even say the Dolphins. I mean, what did we lose, 3 out of the last 5? I would say it's been more us toward the end of the season. We haven't played well you know, no matter, really, who we've played. So it hasn't just been the Dolphins.
Obviously, division opponent and we come down here and the record is what it is. But today we happened to be down in Miami. But the way we played, I don't think it matters if we would have played the Dolphins down here or played at home against anybody else. It just wasn't good.
Q. Any comment to some of these slow starts?
DEVIN MCCOURTY: Bad football. I would say it's always something else. You know, it hasn't been one thing. It's been a combination of bad football, a bad play here. And then instead of having one bad play and moving forward, we have to two good plays and another bad play.
We let them score on defense, then we throw a pick 6. So it's just a bad combination of complementary football, bad football on both sides of the ball. And then you look up, and you're in a hole.
And, you know, we fought, you know, these last couple weeks. And I think we know we have heart to come back and fight. We've given ourselves a chance to win. But you get in the playoffs, and you get down 17-zip, it's going to be a long day. Everybody's a good team. Everybody's fighting to work the next week. You're not going to be able to do that.
So whatever it is, we've got to find a way to, no matter what happens, kind of move on to the next play and try to string good plays together instead of having good, bad, good, good, bad -- like we can't live like that.
Q. What do you see from their running game? They had 195 yards on the ground. What did you see what they were doing to have that success?
DEVIN MCCOURTY: We'll have to watch and see. The running game is always tough to know exactly what it was, like, as soon as the game ends.
But a couple plays on the edge, the one to Johnson and then the quarterback scrambles hurt us too. So run game is always about consistency play after play. And we just fell short today
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