MIAMI DOLPHINS POST-GAME QUOTES
Head Coach Adam Gase
(on how much physicality played in the outcome) "At the end of the day, they played 60 minutes a lot more physical than we did. We just didn't match them right from the get-go."
(on the two interceptions for touchdowns) "The one [C.J.] Mosley had was a good play by him. He was engaged in the line, jumped up, got it. Matt [Moore] got pressured on the second one, tried to go to one of his shorter routes, and Jimmy [Smith] sat on it."
(on what surprises him most about tonight's game) "Probably more about the offense. We're just inept. We're not doing anything right now. I'll have to look at the film and kind of see where we're going. When you play a game like that and get shut out again, you just have to start looking at if it's one guy, multiple guys. It's just one of those things, but we have to comb through it. We have a few days to do it, to try to reset everything. We just have to figure out what's causing us to lose out on opportunities to give ourselves a chance to score points."
(on if simplifying the offense made it a catch 22 – making it easier for the offense and defense) "Yes, 100 percent. That's what it is; that's what happens when you cut back like that. It becomes a little easier to defend. We have to start doing something right."
(on the Kiko Alonso hit) "I didn't see it. I just saw a melee of guys, and then just tried to figure out what happened."
(on how much frustration he sensed) "That's going to happen every once in awhile. It's going to get chippy when it gets a little lopsided like that. We're trying to keep everybody's tempers down, but frustrations go up. We couldn't score any points, and I'm sure the defense was frustrated. They had to keep coming out there after three-and-out, so we have to try to keep our composure better than we did tonight."
(on his emotions at the moment) "For me right now, I'm just trying to figure out the reasons why we can't sustain drives. You start looking at everything from 'Are we calling the right things?,' 'Why can't we get it third-and-manageable?,' 'Are we using the right people?' It's just one of those things where you have to go back, and we have to figure out what we can do to fix this."
(on chances of Jay Cutler being available for Oakland) "I'm not 100 percent sure. Monday he ran with the team, and then he threw. He felt pretty good. I wasn't going to put him out there tonight, and I think it was the smart thing to do. I know he's tough, but I didn't want to put him in a bad situation, basically, where he could get hurt worse."
(on what was his message to the whole group) "We have to reset. We have to take this time off that we have, because this is really kind of our bye week and kind of re-focus our mind, get as healthy as we can, and when we come back, be ready to work. We have a lot of football left, and we've won enough games so far to at least put ourselves in a position where we get a chance to keep competing. We just have to find a way to get better. Right now, we're so inconsistent. We're up and down. Until we actually stack one good week on top of the other, it's never going to be right. Right now, we're just all over the place."
QB Matt Moore
(on what happened during the game) "This is tough. We never expected the game to turn out like this. This one really stings. We have to figure some stuff out, and I have to figure out some stuff."
(on his two interceptions) "On the first one, [C.J. Mosley] made a heck of a play. He just jumped up there and caught it. It was a great play. On the second one, [Jimmy Smith] sat back a little bit and waited for me to throw, and he got me good."
(on Baltimore doing anything defensively that was surprising) "Early in the game, they broke some of their tendencies. Their pressure came from different spots, but they just beat us. They made it very hard for us to do anything on offense. It was very tough."
(on the Dolphins having 10 days off before their next game) "We have to learn from this. First, we'll take the weekend to heal from this, and we'll look at film. This one stings. We just need to get better."
DE Cameron Wake
(on what was the most surprising thing about the game) "Everything was disappointing. Obviously, we're all very disappointed. It seemed that everything that could go wrong went wrong for us tonight."
(on the problems with the run defense) "We had a lot of missed tackles. There was a lot of poor communication. We were all very frustrated. We need to get back on the right page, and we need to fix it. We'll do that over the next week or so."
(on the Dolphins' recent comebacks and when he felt this one was out of reach) "I really don't know when I figured that out. We've been coming back from deficits all year, but tonight we just didn't make the plays. We didn't make them on defense or offense. Any chance there was for us to turn the game, we didn't take advantage."
(on the Dolphins' 10-day break) "The first thing we need to do is put this behind us and move forward. Whether you lost by one point or 100 points, it's one loss. We need to fix this and move forward."
(on Kiko Alonso's hit on Joe Flacco) "Kiko plays hard. He plays until the whistle blows. Sometimes things just happen. I don't like to see anybody get hurt, but it's football. But I hope [Joe Flacco] is OK."
DT Ndamukong Suh
(on what happened in the game) "We didn't play well enough to win the game. This is two years in a row for Baltimore that we've come in here and lost, and that's unfortunate. They did a really good job of finding ways to beat us."
(on whether the short week of practice had an impact) "I don't think that had any effect on the game. We've done it before, and we've won. We just didn't execute to the best of our ability."
(on his confrontation with Ryan Mallett) "He came right at me, and he tried to tackle me. I just defended myself."
(on Kiko Alonso's hit on Joe Flacco) "I didn't see it, but I know Kiko's not a dirty player. He just plays hard all the time."
(on the chippiness late in the game) "I don't know about all that. I am always going to play hard, no matter what the score is."
RB Jay Ajayi
(on the difficulties in the running game) "We weren't able to run the ball tonight. We had a good run early and then weren't able to run the ball. They did some different things here and there. At the end of the day, we still have to block up the scheme and execute; and we didn't do it."
(on the loss) "On all sides of the ball, we didn't execute; so we lost. It showed on the scoreboard."
(on playing on Thursday night) "Everyone has to do it. They had to do it, and they came out and played. We should have come out and played, and we didn't. Now we reset, recharge, come back next week and try to go 1-0."
S Reshad Jones
(on the Dolphins' defensive performance) "They made more plays than we did. They ran the ball. They passed the ball. They just made more plays than we did."
(on having extra days of rest before next game) "Just rest and take care of your body. We don't have a bye week. This is the time to take care of your body and get your body well. Regroup and get ready to play more football."
(on bouncing back from a big loss) "The guys in this room are resilient. We've got one of the best staffs in the league, so we'll be able to bounce back and be ready for the rest of the season."
(on the Kiko Alonso hit on Joe Flacco) "I actually didn't see it. I was running from the other side of the field. 'Kik' [Kiko Alonso] said, 'the guy slid late, and he was just trying to make a sound play.' He's not a dirty player, so I know he wasn't trying to harm the guy."
G/T Jermon Bushrod
(on the offensive performance) "We just have to be better. We have to start faster. We've all got to execute better."
(on the difficulty of establishing the pass without the run) "Whatever play is called, we have to go out and execute our assignment. It sucked that we couldn't get anything going today. We need to be able to get it going, and today we did not at all. We have to go back and look at what they did. Why were they successful? We need to figure out why we weren't successful in the run game."
(on bouncing back from this loss) "We are a resilient group. At the end of the day, it didn't show today like we needed it to. We've been in that situation where we're down 14 or 17 [points], and we've come back. When we couldn't put up points at the beginning of the game and can't help out the other two side of the ball, it was going to be a long day, and it was a long day out there."
LB Kiko Alonso
(on his version of the hit on QB Joe Flacco) "It was a bang-bang play."
(on if he will be suspended for the hit) "That's out of my hands. Like I said, it was a bang-bang play, and I hope he's alright."
(on what he said to the referees and the Baltimore Ravens players after the play) "I said it was bang-bang. I thought if maybe he slid a second sooner, I was anticipating him sliding and not hit him. But I think it was like a second late – that's why I hit him."
(on not being able to hit him) "I mean no way. That's the target. When a guy slides, and his target is very small, I just think it's like a second late, which is why I hit him, to be honest with you. At first I was anticipating him – I thought he was going to slide. And then, I had to hit him, because he slid too late. It was bang-bang. I don't know what else I could have done."
(on feeling like there was nothing else he could have done but hit Flacco) "No, I really think if he would have slid a second sooner I would have pulled off. But it was so close, that I had to hit him."
(on feeling bad after the hit) "I definitely hope he is alright. You hate to see that happen to people. I truly hope that he is OK."
WR Kenny Stills
(on the offense) "We didn't score any points today, so it just wasn't good enough. We didn't execute. We didn't convert on third downs. We had turnovers. You just can't win games when you don't execute."
(on QB Matt Moore's play) "It's a team sport. Matt did his job the best that he could."
(on the large point spread and loss) "A loss is a loss. I'm never happy when we lose. As I said, we didn't execute as an offense. We've got to do better."
(on not scoring points in the first half) "We've just got to do our job. We've got good players and a great coaching staff. We've just got to get out there and execute and find a way to get first downs. [We have to] find ways to get into the end zone and score points.
(on today's problems) "We weren't converting on third down. We had two pick-6s. When you can't convert on third down, and you can't get first downs … We've got to figure out a way to get first downs and stay on the field and score points."
LB Rey Maualuga
(on the defensive play) "I wouldn't want to say we came out flat. We had a good gameplan, but we let some plays get out of our hands. Tackling was a big part of it, or not tackling was a big part of how we performed as a defense."
(on the loss) "I don't think I've ever lost this big before. I guess the good thing about it is we still have a lot of games to go. It's still early. We've just got to get this fixed. Thank God we have a couple days to rest. Get our bumps and bruises fixed, get our legs rested and our bodies rested and come back next week and get ready for Oakland."
