Dolphins 22, Cowboys 20
Q. Mike, just your emotions and the ebb and flows of the final five, six minutes where you had that 17-play drive to take the lead and then just watching them push down the field against the defense.
MIKE McCARTHY: Well, number one, it was a juggernaut game. It's what we expected. Yeah, it's situational football.
The penalty, the face mask, was a big call obviously on the drive, but it's a challenge in these games because you know it's going to come down to one play, and they probably made a play or two more than we did. It was a hard-fought game.
I think it gives you a good taste where we potentially may have to go on the road obviously to get this done. So I think we have a lot that we can draw from this.
We're disappointed because we had plays that were there. We had some miscues. I had a backed up plan. We were backed up twice, and it didn't move the field position. So we didn't help our defense there. We had the one give-away.
So it's those big mistakes that you can't make in these kind of games. I think the resilience, the battle, the grit that you are looking for, I think we clearly have that. I think just the mode of the week, the pregame, the halftime. The team had a good look, but we need to be better. We have to play better than we did today because you have to play above it on the road. Road warriors we will be.
Q. What did they do after the first two drives that kind of stopped you guys for about four, five possessions?
MIKE McCARTHY: The two backed up series like I have already stated that were poor. We had some protection issues. They had linebacker run through too many times.
It's part of playing, and we had some change-ups in the line and in the hots and so forth. We have to make those plays. The protection part, particularly in those pressures that we saw that we had a couple that we did not -- we weren't where we needed to be, so...
Q. The last drive when they're driving down, what's kind of the thought process? Is there any thought process of letting them score and trying to get the ball back to your offense? What was your process?
MIKE McCARTHY: We talked about Freeway would be the call there. Yeah, we discussed it, but I think you have to let the down and distance -- it was too far out, if I recall, in the second and third down we felt. We discussed it as an option.
Q. It felt like the defense kept giving you guys a shot keeping you guys in the game offensively. Did you feel that way? How did you think --
MIKE McCARTHY: Frankly, this is how I view our team. These are the games that I personally really enjoy because I know you need -- to think you're ever going to win a championship, you need these games, especially is on the road.
To go win games on the road -- great road wins are things that we all remember throughout the years, and that's why the urgency to come in here. We put a lot into the game, but it's definitely something we can grow from.
Yeah, to me to keep us in the game to me that's the definition of complementary football. I thought we battled back and forth. The defense stood up, and we came back. The field position -- I haven't seen the stats, but I assume we lost the field position battle, and the one give-away was costly. I think that was a 17-play drive.
Like I said, those are probably two plays -- those are the difference in these playoff type games.
Q. You knew coming into this game that it wasn't going to be a carry-over from Buffalo with missed tackles and things like that.
MIKE McCARTHY: Oh, no, I didn't think so. I've answered the questions about Buffalo. We were coached poor. We played poor. It was a good wake-up call, but we can play better than we did today, and to me that's exciting.
Q. Under pressure that they were giving you guys offensively, what was kind of hard to make these kind of --
MIKE McCARTHY: I just answered it, the protection part. We had some mishaps. I don't know if you were in here, but just went through it. I think we missed three or four says, frankly, today, so we need to be better there.
Q. How do you turn the grit and resiliency, all that, into a win on the road in these big games when you are in these environments?
MIKE McCARTHY: I think it's football. We were minus two big play opportunities in the first half, and I'm sure it was probably about even in the second half. That's what these games -- I mean, in today's NFL you can't win without big play production. I thought both defenses did a pretty good job keeping these offenses -- keeping a cap on them for the most part.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports