Miami Dolphins Media Conference

Sunday, December 25, 2022

Miami, Florida, USA

Matt LaFleur

Visitors Postgame Presser


Packers - 26

Dolphins - 20

MATT LaFLEUR: Man, a resilient win by our team. Super proud of the guys in the locker room sticking together, no flinch. It wasn't pretty. I think when you kick a bunch of field goals, that's usually just enough to get you beat. We got to be better in the red zone obviously. Got to give these guys better calls.

But can't say enough about our defense, especially the first half. Obviously was not up to our standard, but in the second half definitely made a few adjustments, and our guys really went out there and executed.

Any time you have four takeaways in a game, you should win that game. That's a really good football team, the Dolphins. They got a lot of, lot of explosive play-makers, like we knew. They do a great job.

But just super of our guys' effort today, their ability to go out there and find a way to win.

Q. (Question about defensive adjustments.)

MATT LaFLEUR: I just think it comes down to all 11 playing the call and doing the best they can. I think our guys, it seemed like we were getting a little bit more pressure up front onto them, making them move out of the pocket.

We knew he's a guy that's going to anticipate, he's going to let the ball go. But if you can read the quarterback the right way, that also gives you some opportunities defensively. Our guys did a great job of that.

Q. (No microphone.)

MATT LaFLEUR: I just think, again, in the first half there were a couple plays where we had some busted coverages, and they got behind us. Those are two guys that are as electric as it comes in the National Football League.

If you give them a sliver of light, they're able to take a little 10-yard pass and make it a house call.

I thought just collectively all 11 being on the same page, making sure we're not giving them as much green grass out there. Our guys did a good job of reading the quarterback. I thought Joe did a really good job in the second half.

Q. You mentioned kicking too many field goals. You had to feel like you were giving them maybe one too many chances.

MATT LaFLEUR: Yeah, definitely. Especially there at the end. There were some discussions about if we could get into I think it was a fourth and three right there at the end. We were trying to get to, like, fourth and two or fourth and one, then go for it.

Just made the decision. I'm glad we made that decision. It ended up working out. It doesn't always. I kind of thought the way our defense was playing in the second half, that we could keep them out of the end zone, at least.

Q. Do you have an option to decline that? They clearly did that on purpose.

MATT LaFLEUR: Yeah, yeah. I knew they did that on purpose. There was discussion about whether or not we should decline it. Do you get the free set of downs? I know it was second-and-short. Those are ones that you just always, you know, maybe look back and second-guess, should you have taken it or not.

Q. You have some guys down with injuries. Can you talk about some of the guys who stepped up.

MATT LaFLEUR: Yeah, no doubt. We had a lot of guys. Certainly never want to see that happen. Losing Keisean, not only as a returner, was huge, but then defensively. Thump going into there, doing a great job. I thought Sav went in there. He's been a pro throughout this whole deal where he's not playing as much. He went out there and made a difference for us in the second half.

Offensively, you got Royce Newman going in there at tackle.

But that's what it takes. Losing Christian Watson was a big deal, as well. That's unfortunate 'cause he is an explosive guy. You can see his speed. Shoot, he took that one slant like 20 yards. You can get Thumb explosive plays, a guy like that. Losing those guys...

But it was cool to see wherever you do lose somebody, who is going to step up, take the opportunity. I noticed Devonte Wyatt was out there a lot more than he has been. I thought he did an outstanding job just from what I could see. Now we got to go back and take a look at the tape to really detail it up and see how it really was.

I just thought there was a lot of guys. It was a total, collective team effort. Did just enough to get the win.

All right, guys. Thank you.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
127886-1-1004 2022-12-25 21:44:00 GMT

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