Dolphins 20, Falcons 13
RAHEEM MORRIS: We had a well-fought game there to run the football. It was a nice job challenging the guys on the O-Line to step and do some really positive things. I was pleased how they responded in those things. A lot of things
A lot of things to clean up with penalties and things of that nature, the off sides, the false start. Really, the false start on the quarterback fumble, we had the two penalties and the turnovers that really hurt you but other than that, we were pleased with some of the good things, some of the physical play from the linebackers, some of the physical play from your safety and shank, those guys having a chance to get out there and get a little bit of represents and get a little full speed action. Those are positive.
You know, obviously we had the two injuries in the game that I know about right now that felt bad. I will have a better feel tomorrow when I get a chance to let the doctor see those guys but that will be in -- both being taken off on the cart. We will have a better feel with what we've got going on tomorrow?
Q. How did Michael play?
RAHEEM MORRIS: I felt really good about Michael. He wants one of those throws, that out that he threw on the sideline but he was able to go through some progressions really be at a progress -- we get a little pass-happy with him, obviously being your first round quarterback but it was fun to see him go out there and execute some of the pass plays and be able to get some of the stuff done and really lead the offense and get them in and out of the huddle. Pretty much -- a pretty good night for him and I was pretty pleased what he was able to do.
Q. What does it say about him to go back to Blair after the fumble, he had a little pass out to the left, in that series, he comes back and goes right back --
RAHEEM MORRIS: Yeah, I don't think he's ever going to lose confidence in his guys. These are the guys that's been playing with HIM and they had a chance to get major reps with them. Blair caught the stick route. He's able to turn upfield and get us punched out for a fumble. Really good flow and really good placement by Mike and he comes right back to him later on the fade ball, hits him up the sideline in stride.
You know, I don't think -- I don't think Michael is the kind of guy to lose confidence. He plays with a lot of confidence. Plays with a lot of poise. He's always been that way. He's that way in college. He's pretty even-keeled, even demeanored. I don't think he rides the motional roller coaster at all.
Q. How do you kind of reconcile, obviously the work that -- put in over two joint practices and the evaluations of the preseason game, but also the realization that Rondale, Bralen, DeMarcco, had some pretty serious injuries, what's kind of the weight of that?
RAHEEM MORRIS: These present games are tough. You know, we talk about them every year. This is the reason why you try to play as least amount of people as you can.
You know, obviously DeMarcco being a second-year player, you wanted to give him a little bit of action. He gets hurt really early and then now having Trice as a rookie, you want to give him some action as an NFL professional player and those things comeback to bite you at times. It almost makes you not want to, but you know the cost of doing business. You've got to make those decisions and those are heavy on you, all the time, those type of injuries.
Obviously Rondale's happened in practice, but you know, obviously tough when you have a non-contact injury like that to a player that you're going to be counting on within the season.
Q. Four of 11, what did you make --
RAHEEM MORRIS: Tough night on Heinicke. Obviously going out there trying to run the football. He actually hit it and got a little profession issue at the end when he got sacked. You want to get him settled down, get him a couple reps and equity him a chance to go back out there next week and see what he can do.
Q. This is the first time your staff has completely gone through a game day together. How did you feel like the communication was from your staff to the guys?
RAHEEM MORRIS: That's key. You know, the biggest thing with that is the communication from the defense and getting the right defenses out there, being able to do that stuff as far as the procedural thing is what you want to do with staff. Your offense, being able to get the plays out, the personnel groupings, all of those type of things, the communication from the challenges and some of those things and the penalties on what you want to do with some of the penalties.
Obviously backing up on that one punt hoping to see a return kicked out of bound but you know, normally in the normal season game, you wouldn't take that, try to get the touch back. I was hoping for a return and get some evaluations.
A lot of those things were really done really well from special teams, defense and offense and from all of the coaches. I was really happy with the communication, the on-field communication going back and forth, the substitutions, all those things really felt tight. They felt good. We've just got to clean up some of our other penalties that you can control with a lack of discipline and a lack of control, lack of things of that nature.
Q. What were the most important things you were looking for tonight?
RAHEEM MORRIS: Just as an operator, getting him out there, operating, which we have seen a bunch of throughout the practice but to get him out there in a situation where you are playing tackle football, it's always nice to get him in the pocket, watch him go through progressions and do it in a pro professional way, which we know from college. But just always nice to see it again where you can reaffirm those things. You want to give him as much action as possible obviously behind that line because you had a lot confidence in him to protect them.
They went out and did a nice job of doing that and he did a nice job of delivering some football, some strikes, putting the balls in the right spot. You know, obviously you throw it to the stick out, it ends up a fumble. That's a good play on the quarterback. He went to the right spot, went to the right time. Just unfortunate stuff there. Was able to hit a couple plays down the field.
Like I said, the only throw I can think off the top of my head that he really wants bad is that one out route that we see him complete a bunch of times in practice and other than that, it was a pretty good night.
Q. What were your immediate thoughts of the new kickoff format?
RAHEEM MORRIS: It looks exciting. I think it's exactly what we wanted from the fan standpoint. Brought the play back to life. Able to get a couple returns out there. Get a couple coverages. Get a chance to evaluate some people in space and tackling. Was fired up how that stuff looked, and I think we'll get better and better as we go with some of the scheme things. Obviously you're keeping it simple in the preseason but we'll have another couple good looks at that to see those plays and be able to get some of that stuff done.
Q. Does the change have anything to do with the reason you elected to receive the opening kickoff, the rule change in?
RAHEEM MORRIS: Really I was excited to see Michael, just being honest. You know, let's get him a couple snaps and then get him in and out of the game, which we were able to do. We got him out there and he got those things done. Koo was the captain tonight and he went out and took the ball. He was excited to see Michael as well.
Q. This was the first game with the virtual measurement. What did you see? How did that go?
RAHEEM MORRIS: It was great, when you get a chance to watch it live, you see the quarterback slide, you feel like it stopped them before the position goes down so you get a chance to do it. Might have got a little lucky there because they could have counted that as a cut back but you know, when you are talking about that quarterback and those slide positions, you've got to think those slide positions first because you can't hit them as a defender.
We got the spot late. I was ready to challenge to mark that thing heavy. Mike had to end up challenging. That thing ended up being short. He was actually shorter than the line they marked it. So you know, really excited about the league making advancements and doing different things in order to make the game better and that's what they have done with the kickoff rule and the measurements of the line.
Q. I saw in the challenge, you and Mike almost like chirping each other across the sidelines.
RAHEEM MORRIS: Friendly banter. You know, Mike thought it was a bad challenge because he thought his guy clearly had it. He was ready to celebrate, do some of those things. But old sharp-watching it upstairs for us got a chance to look at it and we got a chance to challenge the call and got it right.
Q. Michael's 16 total passes went to Casey Washington. He was targeting Casey. Curious, is that a byproduct of how things shook out on the field or maybe even a little bit of their own connection?
RAHEEM MORRIS: You always want to get a good evaluation of the guys you draft. When you get a chance to get it to your first round in Michael and you get a chance to evaluate Casey a little bit, equity him some opportunities and get the ball out that way. He had a lot of good receivers out there.
You want to get those guys some opportunities and spread it around a little bit. It's always fun. Getting Casey some ops, going out there, being a young player, that's a guy you really want to see. Getting Blair a couple ops, a guy that's really challenging to make the football team, a chance to see him get out there and play and that's stuff that you really want to evaluate and get a chance to see with Michael and he did a nice job putting the ball where it's supposed to be.
Q. Is there a gut reaction that surprised you tonight?
RAHEEM MORRIS: I can't say surprised because we got a chance to get really good looks at all these guys. We got a chance to see those guys go out there and actually make some plays and do some positive things. I will say those linebackers, inside linebackers, those guys did a nice job of going out and playing physical and making some nice plays on defense and really stepping up a couple times there and giving us a chance to win the football game.
Q. More depth in that room?
RAHEEM MORRIS: You know, you never know. You've got those three guys that you are really counting on. You've got JD who you had really high hopes on and Mut went out and played really well for us and those guys played well all across the board at the inside linebacker position. That's fun to watch. That's something good to see.
Q. How do you grade missed tackles --
RAHEEM MORRIS: The same way you grade them any other time. You know, you can't make excuses for missed tackles because you don't tackle in a preseason game or you don't tackle in your practices. You've got to train angles. You've got to train awareness, and those are things that's been training and that's I didn't believe we tackled a little bit better, probably than you think, when you come out. And I'd like to go see, you know, all of it when I get a chance to look at it.
But it felt pretty good on the field. Obviously tomorrow when you look at the tape, you look at it a little bit closer, there's always something that you miss. But on the field, in live action, that felt good. The thing that felt sloppy was the penalties. Some of the off side penalties. Some of the lack of control, the discipline from the receiver jumping off sides, some of those things. The false start that was called the fumble early in the game, those are the things you want to clean up and make sure those things don't happen.
But that's what happens with practice and playing the games and being poised.
Q. (Indiscernible)
RAHEEM MORRIS: You know, I enjoy work so much from a practice standpoint and from the work that, you know, the games are going to be the real games when they comment you know, these are extensions of practice that you like to get a chance to see guys go out there and play.
But the real games are the exciting things in this league. Those practices that we have that we call games our exhibition games, whatever you want to call them, they are still practice.
Q. What's your assessment of your O-line and your D-Line performance tonight?
RAHEEM MORRIS: You know, the O-line, like I said, you know, challenged them to be able to run the ball better coming out the chute. We challenged them in the second half. We were able to get off some runs. Get a couple good runs off there with Jase and Carlos. That was nice to see.
But you have to respond that way right from the beginning and what you he seen from those guys was good protectors for Michael. He had a pretty clean pocket in protection when it came to the pass game you have to be fired up about that. I don't know if he got hit at all. If he did, he probably held on to it, went to his fourth progression, they exhausted his progressions.
So you're excited about those guys from a pass protection standpoint. We've got to come out ready to go in the run game the way they challenged them at halftime and the way they came out and ran the ball a little more physicality, that's something we've got to go be ready to create.
And from the D-Line standpoint, you're really excited about what some of those early guys did when it comes to Street and TQ and Zach Harrison, and you're able to get those guys in there and get those guys out and then you get some of your young guys, and they have some extensive play, that was a lot of fun to see those guys do those things and rush the passers and do different things. Really excited about that when you talk about the O-Line and D-Line standpoint and that's just areas of interest that we'll have this week and correct.
Q. Akeem trying to make it back a couple years out of the game --
RAHEEM MORRIS: Pretty positive showing for him. Went out and made a couple nice plays on the ball. Got a nice pick. Pretty excited to see him go play. We had two guys like that, Eddie was another guy out of the league a little bit and he showed up in a big way. Got a chance to go see Kevin really show some things and do some things really well for us. Ham had a nice night, too, also, for us, and other than the time that he guessed the one out when it should have been a deep third. Other than that, he did a pretty good job.
Pretty fired up about those guys. Those are guys that played a lot of football that's got a chance to get back out there and play for us.
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