Miami Dolphins Head Coach Joe Philbin Monday Press Conference Transcript

Miami Dolphins head coach Joe Philbin met with the media on Monday. Here is the team provided transcript of that press conference. You can watch the press conference on the Dolphins' website.

(On what stood out to him the most after watching the film, especially in the fourth quarter and overtime) - "I believe we had three giveaways in the last, I want to say was there nine minutes to go, when we had the fumble and then the sack-fumble with about three minutes to go and then a giveaway. That's just not a good recipe to win games in the National Football League or in high school or Pop Warner. It's disappointing and the turnover margin for every statistical guru is the number one measurement in winning or losing games and we lost that margin again and lost the game."

(On how he reconciles the way quarterback Ryan Tannehill is playing versus his statistics) - "I thought he played well yesterday. I thought he played well enough to win. I thought he threw the ball well. Again, the statistics can be a little bit deceiving. As you just mentioned, we're interested more in overall development and is he making progress in terms of becoming a consistent production starter in the National Football League? And I think we're seeing signs that he's doing that and so we're more, again, the film's more important to watch than necessarily looking at the stat sheet. I think he's making good progress."

(On the team's success passing the ball compared to previously having more success in the run game) - "Well, we talked about, offensively, we needed to be able to make some explosive plays in the passing game. If you looked at our profile, that's an area we were deficient in. The good news is we made a number of big plays in the passing game. That's good and I don't know that we're going to be able to throw the ball for 400 yards every week, but that was certainly a plus from the game."

(On if going into the season he envisioned the run defense being this effective) - "Not overly surprised. We talked about in the locker room before game, I said to the defense, ‘Let's make them one dimensional. Let's get after their quarterback. Let's take the ball away.' Again, we did a pretty good job of those three things, but we didn't... I'm not totally surprised."

(On if Tannehill takes blame for the late turnovers or if they had more to do with the Cardinals blitzing) - "I think it's more of blitzers. I think it's more of blitzers."

(On what he tells his players so they don't dwell on the tough loss) - "Number one, I think we, all of us, have to accept responsibility for what happened yesterday. That's coaching and playing. That's number one. Number two, we've all got to be accountable to one another to improve and do better. Number three, we're all men. This is a not a profession for the faint of heart. We've got to accept responsibility for where we're at and still have faith and confidence in one another that we're going to improve on a weekly basis and that's a challenge. I told the team in the locker room, ‘We've got a heck of a challenge this week. A huge challenge.' And I said that to our staff 45 minutes ago. It'll be a test for our staff to see how good of a staff we have."

(On changing the schedule so players have today off and are in tomorrow) - "More of a West Coast thing. We had talked about this in the offseason when we were putting the schedule together. We had kind of gotten input from different people and we had kind of planned this, regardless of the outcome of the game, really back in June."

(On the play of cornerback Sean Smith yesterday) - "I thought he did a lot of good things. I thought there was a couple impact plays that he made and really they're quality plays when you watch them on film. You like them. I thought he did a good job."

(On if safety Chris Clemons was supposed to help on the 46-yard play by Cardinals' Andrew Roberts) - "Not necessarily. It's more Richard (Marshall) has got to be in better position to play that ball. Obviously, (he) got beat deep. The guy made a little hint to the outside and got by him."

(On the responsibility of Roberts' second touchdown) - "Obviously, Sean Smith's over there. There's one guy. The guy runs a little semi double move if you want to call it, yeah, we've got to have tighter coverage over there in the flesh."

(On if this week is challenging because of coming off a tough defeat or if it has to do with the opponent in the Cincinnati Bengals) - "Everything I think. I think all of the above. We're coming off a West Coast trip. Coming off two tough losses. We're going to play a very good team on the road again. So we've got to strap it up. We've got to get to work. We've got to put together, our staff, I told our staff, we need to have a good, solid game plan against these guys. We've got to get our guys to play hard and to believe in themselves and play our tails off."

(On his level of trust in wide receiver Legedu Naanee and tight end/fullback Charles Clay) - "I thought it was a heck of a throw. It was a good football play and you've got to hold onto the football. You've got to hold onto the ball. Then Charles (Clay), same thing, I thought that throw by Ryan was an excellent throw. If you were sitting there and watching and maybe you'd think he didn't really, having a lot of zip on the ball and it hung in the air a little bit, but if you watch the location of the linebacker, I thought it was a pretty darn good throw. You've got to catch those."

(On if the combination of Tannehill and wide receiver Brian Hartline makes Hartline the number one receiver) - "Not necessarily. Again, as I think I've stated before, the passing game is not predicated on, okay, he's our number one guy, let's do this and do that, he's always going to start here in the progression. I think you have a system, concepts in passing that you believe in that give your quarterback a chance to have some options and certainly he's one of them. At certain times, he's the first option, but, again, I'm more interested in the receivers that catch the ball consistently, get open versus man-to-man and compete for the football and block. What number they are doesn't really matter to me."

(On the offensive line's protection of Tannehill) - "Not good enough. I would say it wasn't good enough. Our protection wasn't good enough. We watched the Eagles game, I had commented that the way that game started for Philadelphia, you knew it was going to be a difficult day because of the way they knocked Michael Vick around. No, it wasn't good enough."

(On whether the overtime interception was a result of poor communication by the offensive line or lack of execution) - "I think it was a little bit of both. We've got to do a better job of recognizing (blitzes). I could stand up here and tell you we have a mechanism to get that blitz picked up. But until you do it on a tape or in a game then it's just a bunch of talk. So yeah we've got to do a better job."

(On whether he came straight to work from the airport this morning) - "God no. I went home and slept. I stayed up the whole plane ride home and watched the entire film on the plane ride home and walked around and saw the players. I told the players, you know football is not that complicated (where) you have to do it 24/7. I love my profession and I think I have a strong work ethic, you can ask people in my 29 years of doing this, but if you see me pulling an all-nighter then we got real problems."

(On whether he felt good to finally see Cam Wake get some sacks) - "It was fun watching him play on the plane ride home, some of the plays he made. You're happy for guys when they produce like that. He played a good game, a very good game."

(On how well he thought Reggie Bush ran the ball) - "I don't think he wasn't limited physically. We watched him work out certainly well enough to play in the game. I thought our run game was sporadic; we had too many negative runs. Some of it was him, some of it was the blocking schemes."

(On where Ryan Tannehill showed the most growth yesterday) - "Probably his accuracy."

(On both Davone Bess and Brian Hartline having big receiving games) - "I think it's a plus, no question about it. You know Brian had a rare day that's not common, but obviously we're delighted that he did, and Davone Bess is a football player. So I think it's comforting for the quarterback."

(On how Ryan has grown since the first game and moved on from getting passes batted down at the line) - "Well we had a couple tipped yesterday. The first play of the game as a matter of fact. I think we were going to have a good completion there, but yeah he seems to be making good progress. He is diligent, he prepares well, and he obviously is smart, so yeah we like what we see."

(On whether he is audibling more at the line of scrimmage) - "Not a ton. Some, but not a ton. He has a good command and he's not usually surprised by what he sees when he comes back to the huddle, I mean the sideline."

(On whether going for the touchdown on fourth and goal in the first half was a heavily debated decision) - "We talked about it. We have a meeting every Saturday morning, myself and coordinators have a little forum and we cover the coin toss and fourth downs. Where are we going to go, when are we going to go, what times of the game, is it going to be a two possession lead. We try to do the best we can and cover scenarios; we can never cover everything. But anyway at the end of the day we thought that if we got in that situation we would go for it. They said that the nose of the ball was on the one yard line and Mike (Sherman), to his credit, said in the meeting on Saturday if we get that, can we get it. He said yeah we're going to run the ball in that. I said ok, and that's what he called. You have to have some faith in your players, and they executed well. It was a good play."

(On Jorvorskie Lane's production) - "There are some things that he needs to do better. We still thought his blocking...there were some good pictures of it but it was sporadic at times. He did a nice job on one or two of the kickoff returns. I think on one of the kickoff returns he splattered a guy pretty good, so I think he is coming along."

(On whether Jorvorskie's blocking issues come in the passing or running game) - "Most of it has been run blocking. I thought yesterday his pass protection was pretty good. It's a challenge because it's not always easy, the position you put him in, but I'd say it was more run blocking."

(On whether he considered reviewing the ball spot on the third and short play that was not converted) - "We talked about it a little bit. We decided not to, but we did talk about it. I thought it was not a very well blocked play. To be frank with you I really didn't think about the spot."

(On whether Daniel Thomas or Lamar Miller have established themselves as the number two running back behind Reggie Bush) - "I don't know whether it is in question. I think it's probably by game plan more. We have confidence in both of those guys. I'm not a big number guy. I think they both have skill, and they both do some very good things."

(On his concern level over giving up three 100 yard receivers in the first four games) - "I think we do give up a few too many pass explosives. You have to caution that with when you look at our run game statistics, some offensive coordinators in the league or some head coaches are going to say, ‘why are we running the ball against these guys?' Possibly, I don't know, I'm just thinking out loud. So there are going to be some pass completions. You have to realize that, but you just have to limit the explosiveness of those passes."

(On whether some losses hurt more than others) - "Possibly; yeah I think they can."

(On whether he feels better about how the team is performing than he did after week one) - "Absolutely, no question about it."