Patriots - 21, Dolphins - 11
Q. I wanted to ask your thoughts on how Ryan Fitzpatrick played today?
COACH FLORES: Had some spurts there where we're moving the ball, but obviously with turnovers, those are huge. I mean, we talk about that a lot as a team. It's tough to win when you turn the ball over. But I do think he had some, put some drives together. We need to finish the one. Just too many turnovers at the end of the day.
Q. Coach, they ran for over 200 yards. What did you think of the run defense and the ability to stop Cam Newton?
COACH FLORES: We have to do better at run defense. Obviously the quarterback was an issue. Yeah, we've got to do a better job.
Q. Wanted to ask you, we saw a lot of Myles Gaskin today. Was that the game plan? Was that because Jordan Howard was injured? Or was it just the plan to play him over Matt today?
COACH FLORES: When Myles practiced well, there's a rotation there at the running back with Howard and Matt. (Indiscernible) got a few snaps as well. We had a couple of good runs, good plays in the passing game as well, so we left him in there.
Q. What can you say about Jerome Baker's day? He had the stop at the goal line with N'Keal Harry. (Indiscernible) had the touchdown and the penalty with Edelman on the final drive there. What can you say about his up-and-down day?
COACH FLORES: It's a team game. It's not one guy. It's not just Jerome or Fitz. We've got to do a better job as a unit and as a team offensively and defensively and in the kicking game. We didn't do enough to win today. We've got to do a better job.
We'll go back, learn from the tape. We meet on this tomorrow and close the book on this one and move on to the next opponent.
Q. Without the benefit of reviewing the game on tape, looked like the offensive line held up pretty well. What was your assessment?
COACH FLORES: I thought from a protection standpoint we were okay. We had the one sack late in the game. But other than that we're able to protect. He time in the pocket. It's a good rush, good secondary.
But, again, that part of it, it's a team game, so you can play well in one phase and not play well in other phases. And not good enough.
Q. What were your first impressions of Brandon Jones slotted in here and his first start?
COACH FLORES: We -- I thought he had an up-and-down game without reviewing film. He's practiced well. Stuck him in there, thought he made a couple good tackles in the open field and did good job in the kicking game from what I saw.
We'll go back and learn from the tape. Again, he's a rookie, first NFL game. He'll learn from it just like all the other rookies.
Q. Curious, you mentioned Cam Newton's running. How much of their 217 yards was based on that and how much was just outmuscling?
COACH FLORES: It was based on a lot of things, bad technique, bad tackling. We've got to clean up a lot of things in the run game, which obviously that will be a focus this week.
Q. Do you have a status update on DeVante Parker? We saw him leave not come back.
COACH FLORES: He's in there. We'll take a look at him over the course of the week. I don't have a status update. Obviously he didn't return, so we'll see what it looks like tomorrow and in the coming days.
Q. Wanted to ask about the last drive. Did you consider kicking a field goal earlier or was it all long you were going to go for the touchdown? And also do you think that Gasicki was (indiscernible) with that last throw?
COACH FLORES: We were obviously trying to score a touchdown. If we didn't pick up the last one we would have kicked the field goal. Unfortunately the ball was picked off; whether they made the call, didn't make the call. Not much we can do. We've just got to live with the calls that are made or made on the field.
Q. What was the view on the field of Preston Williams on those two interceptions from Fitz in the first half, the one where he kind of lost his footing, at least one of them, and one he was jammed up by Gilmore? What did you see on those plays?
COACH FLORES: I have to go back on the film. All I had was the tablets. Didn't look up for the replay. We were just kind of moving on to the defensive side of the ball. I'll be able to tell you that probably more tomorrow.
Q. How did Xavien look to you, and obviously it seemed as though there was a rep range that you guys wanted to stay within; is that right?
COACH FLORES: Again, I'm not going to be able to say how it looked until I watch the tape. But, yeah, we wanted to, obviously coming off the injury, no preseason, no games, just wanted to get the three guys in there along with Perry. So I think we got that accomplished. And I'll be able to have a better evaluation once I watch the tape.
Q. You just touched on it but without the benefit of having the preseason, I'm curious of your evaluation of kind of the first time these guys got to live tackle and their conditioning from that standpoint.
COACH FLORES: I thought overall the tackling could have been better. The conditioning could have been better. Obviously without -- we're not going to make any excuses on whether we had preseason games. They didn't have any preseason games either.
But all things we can improve on. We can improve the tackling, improve the run defense. We can improve the conditioning. Gonna work on those things over the course of the week and we've got a tough opponent next week and we'll get back to it.
COACH FLORES: Jerome Baker.
Q. Could you walk us through that play near the end zone on our side where you kind of made like a last-second effort to carry the ball forced a fumble gave your guys an opportunity to get the ball back there?
COACH FLORES: Just go to the ball run to the ball that's all it was. We preach about that every day. So you just run to the ball just try to come up with it.
Q. Seems like a play one way or the other with Ricardo what happened on the late hit did you go back to the sideline and I guess there was unsportsmanlike?
COACH FLORES: The penalties are unacceptable especially on my end. The delayed hit. I really lost track of the sideline. And whatever the last play, I can. A lot of commotion I'm trying to get up. But my penalty was definitely unacceptable.
Q. You had a lot of tackles but in general, can you talk about what you think the reason was that they had so many rushing yards, particularly Cam?
COACH FLORES: We've just got to play together. We've got to focus on the stopping the run and we've also got to play together and just play disciplined. Came up short today. But it's going to be a long season. So we just definitely gotta get on top of that.
Q. Seemed like you and Cam definitely got into it with the sideline hit in the first half and then kind of at the end of the game there. What was it like going against him today?
COACH FLORES: He's a competitor. One thing about him, he's a competitor. I'm the same way. So definitely a tough game but also we've got to figure out a way to come out with the win. Yeah.
Q. How tough was that read option that Cam was running, how tough was that to cover?
COACH FLORES: It was definitely something different. It was definitely tough. But ultimately we've got to make adjustments. We've got to get it handled. We definitely want to go back to the drawing board and focus on that. But just gotta look at we make mistakes at but also we've got to get better.
Q. I know you touched on Cam a little bit. And I'm sure defensive game plan for him but what he could do today still running the ball 75 yards, two touchdowns, was that a surprise to you?
COACH FLORES: I wouldn't say it was a surprise. Cam's still Cam former MVP. We definitely respected his talent on the field. So we just have to play together as a defensive. Today we got a little sloppy. A little undisciplined but also we've got to come together and play better defense.
Q. Obviously I believe it was 17 tackles and you got the number I guess from a team standpoint that stands out 217 rushing yards. Did you know they had that many rushing yards when you're in a game like that?
COACH FLORES: It's not exactly you know how many yards they get exactly. But as a defense we know they were on the ball. So we definitely have to go back to the drawing board put emphasis on that. But we definitely came up short today.
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