Miami Dolphins Media Conference

Tuesday, December 12, 2023

Miami, Florida, USA

Will Levis

Visitors Postgame Presser


Tennessee - 28, Miami - 27

WILL LEVIS: That was awesome. I had to keep my composure a little bit to make sure we were going to do the job. They won us that game tonight and shut down a really potent offense. If it wasn't for those couple turnovers there in the red zone, it would have been even more impressive.

Props to them. Obviously we were able to get the job done with operational efficiency on those two drives. Pumped all around.

Q. That was your first come from behind game winning drive. As you go through that, what were some of your thoughts on the last drive?

WILL LEVIS: Just trusting what I'm seeing, trusting our guys to be in the right spots and just throwing it to the open guy. Sometimes it's as simple as that. Our guys held up up front. Didn't feel any pressure for the most part.

And what happens when we have time and dudes are in the right spots, it's a beautiful thing. That's what happened on those two drives.

Q. What's it like walking into the locker room like that and how much of a relief is it?

WILL LEVIS: It sucks that I kind of got hung up on the field with the interview and stuff because I missed the main cele. We're going to have a fun ride home, and it's going to be a celebratory 12 hours at least before we get our mindset on Houston.

Q. What did you do to regain your composure after the misfire on the catch?

WILL LEVIS: That was a nightmare. Obviously no one wanted to look at me, no one wanted to talk to me after that. Sorry, I didn't want to talk to anybody after that. I just wanted to move on and be ready just to attack that next two-minute drive that I knew we'd be able to get.

I said we'd put it behind us and still have a chance, and we did. I'm proud of our guys for bringing it and being able to execute in that situation.

Q. What was your mindset going back out there? It seemed like you were throwing the ball with confidence and not forcing the run.

WILL LEVIS: Just sticking to the game plan, throwing to the open guy, trusting that I didn't necessarily need to be forcing anything, but we did need to get going.

That had the medium of pushing it down the field but throwing to the open guy. Luckily a lot of stuff that we were dialing up was working and was able to get the ball to a bunch of different dudes and keep them guessing.

Just proud of all the guys and how we were able to operate.

Q. How nice is it to be able to enjoy a moment like this in Miami?

WILL LEVIS: This is a big confidence booster for us for sure. This is not the record we would hope to have at this point in the season, not the position we'd hope to be in in the playoff race and all that. All we can to do is keep pushing.

We talked about that all week. We had the opportunity to come and spoil their party and be a really good football team and build confidence going forward. I'm so glad we were able to do that. So excited to watch that HBO episode.

Q. That throw down the field to Hopkins, the concentration, I think it was a 45-yarder. Do you ever just stop and say like, man, this dude is crazy?

WILL LEVIS: Yeah, that was the one at the two-minute, the end of the half. He tells me sometimes, hey, man, just throw it up to me. I'm like, yeah, okay. Sometimes that's okay. Sometimes it's not.

Each and every week, I feel like I'm slowly believing that sometimes it is okay just to throw it to him. Got to be smart with it. He had him beat. I think I underthrew it a little bit. For him to have the body control to kind of track it and catch it, he's special in that respect.

I'm glad that we were able to get him the ball as much as we did today.

Q. (No microphone) early. Is that just survival mode out there?

WILL LEVIS: I'm just playing ball. I'm just reacting. I think one of them I was able to spin out of a sack, and it was really the only thing I could do. Trying to throw a screen to Derrick, and the DM came up the field. Almost turned into a draw, looked design.

Just instincts kicking in. Got to be smart using my body and maybe sliding here and there. I know I can use my legs, and I've got to use them when it's appropriate.

Q. To win a game like this, is this something completely new? Have you ever kind of experienced this before?

WILL LEVIS: Shoot. This is the biggest stage I've played on. It's probably the biggest game I've won. Not really, but it feels great, feels awesome. Winning a football game, regardless of the stage, is the best feeling in the world, but this definitely makes it that much sweeter.

Q. What does it say about you guys that you did it with a .3 percent chance to win after the second turnover?

WILL LEVIS: Just trusting the process and taking it one play at a time, just like we're taking it one week, one game at a time.

Nobody wavered. Sure there were some shocked faces a little bit after that turnover, but we knew we were going to get right back on the field and have an opportunity to go score.

Props to all the dudes who kept their heads high and had the confidence that we were going to go and get the job done.

Q. How do you hope this to be a building block to finish the season strong?

WILL LEVIS: We've got to use it to go beat Houston next week. It's right on to Houston. That's all we're focusing on going into tomorrow. This definitely is a big confidence booster. The fact we're able to beat a team of a caliber like that, we know we can beat anybody. Definitely means a lot.

Q. What can you say about the defense to keep getting the ball back the way they did?

WILL LEVIS: It's awesome. Like I said in the beginning. They won the game for us. No one's played that offense as well as our defense did this season, if I'm not mistaken.

We gave them the ball in the red zone a couple of times. For the most part, I felt they were able to make them pretty stagnant, which is not what you see out of that offense.

Really cool. Proud of the guys on all levels. And being able to fight back on that red zone series. Sean, I was pumped for him on the holding call and to come back and make two huge plays to force the field goal, that was just the resilience we showed all night in all three phases of the ballgame.

Eric dropping the punt and coming back and getting a nice little return there. I knew he was going to have an opportunity to change the game after that, and I told him that.

We've got to be able to take the good and move forward, take the bad and move forward. Learn from it and use the confidence from the good to go forward as well.

Q. Have you been watching Hard Knocks?

WILL LEVIS: I haven't. I'll watch that one episode.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
139698-1-1182 2023-12-12 05:34:00 GMT

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