Dolphins' Hafley sizes up where things stand after lopsided loss to Giants
Published in Football
MIAMI — On a muggy Saturday, Dolphins coach Jeff Hafley watched mostly backups struggle mightily in a 26-3 preseason loss to the Giants at Hard Rock Stadium.
The Dolphins, who sat quarterback Malik Willis and four veteran starting offensive linemen (among others), were outgained 390-102 and had the ball for only 19 minutes.
Hafley lamented two holding penalties, a fumble and a shanked punt in the first half, and four penalties, a fumbled snap and a dropped punt in the second half.
“Those are self-inflicted,” he said. “That’s what’s disappointing. We’re not where we need to be. Certainly disappointed as any competitor would be. We have work to do ... It doesn’t matter who’s out there. If you can’t do those little things right, you’re not going to have success.”
He said, “I like how hard they played. The details aren’t good enough right now. That’s some guys that we are going to count on for depth. I told them at halftime these are important moments. I want to see who we can count on as we go toward the 53.”
More from Hafley’s postgame media session:
— Hafley said he doesn’t know if Trey Moore’s leg injury is a long-term injury. He also had no update on Ollie Gordon II’s or Ronnie Harrison’s injuries that forced them to leave the game.
— He said it’s difficult to assess the quarterback play before watching the film. He said dropped passes didn’t help.
“The details aren’t good enough right now,” he said. “We made some poor decisions, and there were protection issues.”
— Hafley said he met linebacker Stephen Dix Jr. on Saturday and he played the entire second half, a day after joining the team.
“We had to tell him the call and tell him what to do every single play,” Hafley said. “We had to play like two calls in the second half, which I had never had to do in my life. The guy literally showed up this morning [and was] giving calls in the huddle. That’s a story. I respect that. That guy played hard.”
— He said how the Dolphins played on defense in the joint practice on Thursday “made me pretty proud.”
But with pass protection, “we’ve got to clean some stuff up. Certainly did not like the fighting [in the joint practice]. That’s not me; that’s frustrating. I liked the way our guys competed.”
— Receiver Chris Bell is “close” to being cleared for contact but isn’t there yet. “We will sit down tomorrow and talk to the trainers and see if we can ramp him up even more.”
Bell was in uniform for the benefit of going through the pre-game routine “but he was not going to play today.”
— He said most starters didn’t play because they logged a lot of snaps in the joint practice.
— He said the game-day release of cornerback Nick McCloud wasn’t triggered by anything unusual.
“Standard transaction,” he said. “I found out last night.”
— On rookie receiver Kevin Coleman Jr, who had two receptions on five targets for 32 yards: “He made some nice catches. He was competitive. I love the way he played. We wanted to get him the football.”
Coleman’s 32 yards were more than everyone else on the team combined.
— He said he just found out about the player who was claimed on waivers during the game, undrafted rookie cornerback Jai’Onte McMillan. He spent time with the Colts this summer after playing collegiately at TCU and Minnesota.
— Two positives from Saturday, in Hafley’s view: He said he thought the running backs ran hard and he thought the defense was physical.
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