Miami Dolphins coaches and players comment on their upcoming game against the New England Patriots.
On the Patriots...
"It's a big game obviously. We're just going to prepare for it like we always do. Obviously they have a talented team and it will be a hard-nosed game. It always is when we play the Patriots."
- Dolphins LB Jaelan Phillips
"Every year is the new year. 4-0, 0-4, doesn't matter. I don't care, I don't think those guys care. I don't think my teammates care. They care about this year and what problems that team has to offer us, both offense, defense and special teams. We're looking for a tough game. It's always tough to go on the road against a team like that. It's against a Bill Belichick coached team, so you never know what to expect."
- Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa
"Well, New England's a different defense, and they got us last year at the end of the year. We've got to come in with a new mindset that we're going to attack them and we're going to bring the fight to them. I think that's what's important starting in our room with the guys that we have. The leadership with Tyreek (Hill) and Jaylen (Waddle), those guys are hard to stop and when you have good compliments off that, it's good ball."
- Dolphins WR River Cracraft
On Bill Belichick...
"It is amazing to me and I hope one day I can even sniff this - it's amazing that the orchestration of the defense is so consistent. It's so fundamentally consistent and sound. Very, very detailed. The leader of the ship was at the same job when we were like - what's an iPod. They have very strong and consistent techniques and fundamentals. You can tell all the coaches work together. They are unique in what they do and that is a testament from and an X's and O's standpoint to one of the founding fathers of this generation of football."
- Dolphins Head Coach Mike McDaniel
On Mac Jones...
"I know that Mac (Jones) is a competitor. I know that he's going to want to make things right, so it's a no-brainer for me that regardless of the outside talk, he's going to be himself, that he's going to go out there and do all he can to help his team win. But yeah, 'Bama (Alabama) on 'Bama, that's what happened last week with Jalen (Hurts) and Mac. Mac has got to go again, 'Bama on 'Bama. So we'll see, it'll be fun."
- Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa
On the Patriots defense...
"Yeah, they do a lot of good things and it starts with their front, their front seven. How they're able to maneuver where guys are, they're exchanging personnels, making things look the same in that sense. Coach (Bill) Belichick has been coaching in this league for way longer than I think I've been alive. So he knows exactly what he's looking at when he coaches his guys. Nothing new under the sun for that guy. So we got to come out, we got to be prepared. We understand that that's a physical team and they're going to make us earn everything that we can."
- Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa
On Bill O'Brien and the Patriots offense...
"You can tell there's some good relationships going on there. Bill O'Brien has always done a really good job and I think they're doing some things that, you can tell when there's connectivity between coach and quarterback, and there's stuff that he's playing very confident in. It's a good litmus test when the quarterback is playing better. Generally everyone is because they go hand in hand. And he can only be successful if his players are in the right spots doing the right thing. So there's definitely some tempo going on. There's some different formations. There's different ways to attack, similar to what he's done in the past to a degree. But then there's new things. The crazy thing about NFL Sundays is then you could just come to work on Sunday and he could have five wide receivers, no running backs or tight ends every play. You just don't know. There is some unknown in that regard for what they're doing. You have one team that is known on how they want to do attack. But outside of that, you have to defend everything. So it'll be a good challenge for us."
- Dolphins Head Coach Mike McDaniel
On trying to outdo TE Mike Gesicki on Sunday...
"That's the enemy. They're all the same. Enemies are faceless as they say. He's definitely faceless for me. (laughter)"
- Dolphins TE Durham Smythe
