Dolphins Players

DOLPHINS PLAYERS

Raheem Mostert, RB

(On what he was seeing overall in the run game and with the blocking up front)

“The guys up front were doing an unbelievable job. They’re just progressing each and every week. You saw last week what they were doing – they gave up no sacks and then this week, they were more heavily involved in the running game. It was an honor to just see those guys do what they do best, especially with a good defense like the Patriots. Man, they were just doing everything right.”

(On what it means to start the season 2-0 with two road wins against playoff contenders)

“It’s really good. Each week, you want to just get better and better as the season goes on. Now we’ve got to focus on our next opponent, which is the home opener against Denver. We have the 24-hour, 48-hour rule, and then it’s grind time.”

(On the Patriots defensive front and if anything about it was surprising to him)

“We knew that the defense was going to run the way they did. The d-line was – I mean, you’ve got [Matthew] Judon over there, who’s just a playmaker and then you’ve got Lawrence [Guy] as well and a few other guys, [Josh] Uche. There’s a lot of different guys up front that could make a lot of plays. You’ve got to minimize those as much as possible. I think we neutralized them as best as we could.”

(On the team having good runs on inside zone as opposed to the more commonly used outside zone)

“I think we had a pretty good mixture. We had a 19 that I bounced and got around the corner, I think I got like six? I strive to try to hit that home run, but of course, you’ve got to play the defense how it comes. Inside zone was definitely more beneficial this game. When you have a team like the Patriots, all they do is set that edge. It’s kind of tough to get on the outside anyway. We knew that coming in, we knew that we had to control the edge as much as possible and try to figure out how we could get around them. Ultimately, it was a team effort in that aspect.”

(On what hitting 100 rushing yards means to him and if that’s always going to be a special number as a running back)

“Yeah, it’s always going to be a special number. That means that you’re doing your thing. I mean, 100 yards is hard to come by, especially in a passing league. When you’re able to get 100 yards and do your due diligence, that means that everything was going on all cylinders, you were running the ball very well and even in the pass game, you were completing passes that needed to be completed.”

Andrew Van Ginkel, LB

(On his versatility)

“Obviously Coach Fangio saw the versatility in me, and he knew that I could play multiple roles. In two weeks I’ve played two different roles already. Who know what the future holds? I’m just very appreciative to be back here in Miami and being able to be a part of this team.”

(On the last tackle on Cole Strange)

“It kind of reminded me of the Rob Hunt play a couple years back. It’s kind of crazy when the offensive lineman ends up with the ball in their hands. Honestly, I kind of went for the ball, I should have just tried knocking him back, but obviously it was a great play to get the stop and won the game off that.”

(On his effort)

“I think just my whole life being raised to be accountable. Being dependable so they know that they can trust me. I’m going to do what I’m asked to do, try to know the plays to the best of my abilities. With the different formations with however they may attack us. I just try to be on top of it and I think that allows me to play fast and be in the right spots.”

(On the defense bouncing back from last week)

“Obviously when you give up 34 points it’s a terrible feeling. Obviously the Chargers have a good offense, but it left a sour taste in our mouths, and we definitely came out with something to prove tonight.”

(On his sack)

“Any way you can get the quarterback down on the ground, and obviously get them backed up, putting them in a tough situation. It flips the field position any time you can do that. Any sack in the game is usually a big sack and it becomes a momentum changer.”

(On Bradley Chubb)

“He wasn’t satisfied with last week and he came prepared. He worked his tail off all week and you could see that he was determined. He was going to get to the quarterback and he came out and got the sacks and hits when we needed him to.”

Christian Wilkins, DT

(On how it feels to come into New England and get a win)

“It’s special for me personally because it’s nice coming back home to my home state. It’s always fun to get a win against a division opponent on the road. It was a big win tonight. Good energy. It was a lot of fun to play in this environment.”

(On what the defense improved on from Week 1 to tonight)

“We really didn’t have a choice. We’re running with the guys we’ve got and we had to get better from Week 1. We have some new defensive guys but that’s no excuse. We made some adjustments, and we were able to be better this week and hopefully we can build off of that moving forward. There’s still some stuff we can improve upon. By no means was it a perfect game. It can still be better in some situations.”

(On the defense being able to get pressure on Mac Jones tonight)

“Yeah, guys were able to do a good job, continuing rushing and winning their one-on-one individual matchups. The pressure just kept coming. Guys were relentless and again, hopefully it’s something we can build upon.”

Xavien Howard, CB

(On how it feels to have the defense put together a good game)

“There’s always room for improvement. We have to finish growing. Our offense helped us out a lot last week, so we had to come to play tonight.”

(On the defense causing turnovers and his interception)

“That’s one thing about the Patriots, they aren’t going to stop fighting. They’re going to keep coming but we made the special plays that needed to make and we got the job done.”

(On the pressure from the defensive line making his job easier)

“Getting pressure on the quarterback is a cornerback or safety’s dream. You get pressure on the quarterback, you get jump balls or overthrown balls to make plays on the back end.”

David Long Jr., LB

(On the play of the defense)

“We have dogs all across the board. Once we start gelling together, and playing as one, it’s going to be scary out there. I think you got a glimpse of it [tonight]. We can clean it up at the end. We can’t give them cheap stuff at the end. We are going to continue to build and become a great defense. We have energy and we feed off each other. One guy makes a play and it’s contagious. Our attitude is ‘let’s get a goose egg.’ We were feeling it. We played good football as a team. We are continuing to get a feel for each other. We’re feeling good, but it’s still early and we have some things to clean up. But we made some plays and you can see us making them.”

(On his sack)

“It really opened up for me. The play call was perfect. We tried to disguise it a little bit before the play. I came in free.”

Raekwon Davis, DT

(On the play of the defense)

“We were just doing our job. We knew going into the game that if we could control them up front, we could have them on our terms. We had great preparation. We just focused on our work, and took care of our work.”

(On being 2-0)

“We feel great. We just have to have the same mind set going into each and every game and it’s going to be wonderful when we look up. We are different. We are staying focused, studying our playbook and keep running day by day. We try this one game at a time. Stay focused, great preparation and study our playbook.”

Kendall Lamm, T

(On the game)

“The biggest thing from our perspective is, I wish more people could actually be at practice and see what we were really truly working towards in our standard. From our perspective, when set a foundation and set a standard and that is what you want to uphold. When you’re going into a game regardless of the opponent, regardless if it’s Sunday night, Thursday night, Monday night, or whatever time of day, we try and uphold the standard. Butch [Barry] is very big on that and always preaching that to us and you can see our room starting to see and play that way.”

(On what is more important for the offensive line pass protection or run blocking)

“Not at all, as long as you see a “W” in the column, that’s all that matters. From our perspective of we just want to do, I mean every game is going to be completely different. You don’t really necessarily know what kind of type of defense you’re going to play that night, or you don’t know what they are going to run. The Patriots always have a phenomenal run defense, and they have always been a top-5 or top-10 defense in the league. So to go out and get a W against a type of defense like that, you tip your hat to them, because they are very good. We did what we were supposed to do.”

(On getting a win against a divisional opponent on the road)

“This is year nine for me and to come in here, especially in a division game at night in front of national TV, you’ve got everybody watching, and you go up against a phenomenal organization like this, and you come in here and get a W – it’s hard to get a win any day in the NFL but especially coming into an opponent’s, house and do it, it’s phenomenal. You tip your hat to those guys but you also tip hat to our group, we played really good.”

Braxton Berrios, WR

(On the reaction of the offense to what the Patriots defense showed)

“We have to learn some things on the fly. You know things when the picture changes, pre-snap and post-snap, and we have to stick to our rules, and really just execute. It’s going to be different, so we have to figure it out as we go as well.”

(On the offensive adjustments)

“You have to play the game and see what is given to you and play that. I think this offense did an incredible job of doing that. We put together some really, really good drives, long ones, and again it was a chess match.”

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–PATRIOTS–

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