**I know you say it's about the players, which I'm sure your players love, but are you able to share beyond what happened in the locker room that the Dolphins' X account posted? Can you share with us anything else that's neat that happened personally for you in the hours that followed? Like, did Dave Wannstedt send you a text? Something along those lines that was neat and meaningful to you.**
Jeff Hafley: Yeah, Dave called me. The cool part was the locker room was really – they kind of caught me off guard. I usually greet all the players win or lose outside the locker room. When I walked in, I didn't expect to have a waterfall on me, but I appreciated that. I mean, that was special. I could sense just as I was excited for the players, I felt like the players were excited for the coaches and myself. And I think that says a lot about the team that we have and that meant a lot to me, truthfully. It kind of caught me off guard. And then after the game, when I walked out, when I finished up with the media, my mom, my brother and my sister were right outside the door. So that was more meaningful than any text – other than my wife. She'd kill me if I didn't include that. But that was really meaningful to me to see my mom, my brother and my sister. Growing up there and going to games there, I think it was special for all of them. So it was a good day.
**There's a fraction of this fan base that this season with any win would actually worry about the potential negative impact on a draft pick. Being with this group and seeing it come together, what would you tell anyone who thinks that way?**
Jeff Hafley: I have a hard time even kind of grasping that, to be honest with you. I mean, I think everything we do and every move we make and every day we give everything we got to try to go win a game. So I hope they see that and I hope they're happy that we won the game and hopefully we'll get more. But we're going to keep working and that's our goal. I can't even like grasp that in my head.
**1-0 after the bye. How does this win fuel the team for the next one against the Patriots and the rest of the season?**
Jeff Hafley: Obviously, you could feel the energy and the excitement. It's what I thought, there's a lot of young guys, a lot of this team has never won an NFL game. So a lot of it today, it's their first Monday. I mean, I didn't even have to give a victory Monday, because most of the players on our team don't even know what a victory Monday is. They're too young. But you could see the energy and the excitement and the confidence. And at the same time, when I watch the tape with them, it's win or lose, we got to be real with each other and turn on the tape. And when you watch the tape, it's always nice to put the result aside, win or lose, and just focus on what we did well, what we need to do better, and move on. But you can sense the energy in the building. But to talk about when we took the break, erasing the five games, getting to this 12-game season, starting 1-0, really hitting hard on the division, right? And the importance of a division game on the road, which is hard to do, and get a division win. The guys were happy last night and there's good energy in the building, but I think though it's a young group, it's a mature group and they understand that after they leave the building today it's over and we have a really good team coming into play us at home. So we've got work to do and we got to get back to it. But I like your energy.
**With the decision to go for it on fourth down – and there were a couple of other calls earlier in the game where you decided to go for it – to win in that fashion and get the positive results that you wanted to, how important is that in aligning with how you want this team to be built on physicality, on toughness, on those gutsy type of calls?**
Jeff Hafley: I appreciate that because we keep asking about identity, like what's our identity? Who are we? Who do we want this team to build? As we build and we build this foundation, the things you just talked about are really important to me. It's toughness, it's resiliency, it's physicality, it's how we play the game. So the two instances of that, which I'm just super proud of, is we got hit on a big play and we strain to get the ball down at like the one-yard line. And I showed that clip today, and that could easily been a touchdown on that play, and then it was first and goal inside the one-yard line, and they wound up going backwards three plays in a row. I mean, that needs to be our identity, right? When things get hard, are we gonna go in the tank or are we gonna step up and fight? And it's like when you're 0-5, you're going to go fight or you're just going to go back into a corner. It's the same thing being on the goal line on those three plays, and I was proud of that. That's who we are, that's who we need to be. And then we get the same thing. At the end of the game, we have a chance to drain out the clock and win the game. Like we ran the same play three times in a row on offense. And it was awesome. I mean, we just ran a gap scheme play three times in a row and we got to fourth-and-1 or fourth-and-whatever it was. We need to be able to finish out games. We have to be a tough, physical when the game's on the line we got to be able to close it out. And when I looked into the guy's eyes, I could see it and I could feel it. And after that, there was no way we weren't going to go for it. And Bobby made the right call and running the sneak and the push was awesome. The cool part is when you watch that, and I showed the guys the TV copy just in the team meeting. I mean, you got a guy in the ground when the referee went first down, I think it was Kacmarek was on the ground. You could see his energy almost popping off the ground. Proctor, I don't even know what he did. He jumped so high in the air, and he was excited. Brew and all the guys, Jonah, and all those guys, you could just see the excitement and the enthusiasm. I mean, that's really important to me as we build.
**As you went through the first six weeks and they said the maturity and even though you were losing, the players knew what this was about, there was a process here and it wasn't going to let them get good now. But mentally getting one, and sure they're excited today, but do you think that helps? Do you think that gives them a different feeling than all right, we're on 0-6, we're 0-7, but they have one to show that what they're doing is paying off?**
Jeff Hafley: Yeah, for sure. I meant what I said, as we're sitting here 0-5 last week coming in a bye and there's this excitement and this energy and really just trusting the process and focusing on the process. I mean, it's real, but at the same time, you play the games to win the games, right? So to get that win and to really, for some guys, it gives them more confidence. For some guys, it gives them more belief. For some guys, it gives them justification of, I can really trust the process and continue to do so. So I do think it's important, right? Now, I think it's important to get back to what we do and move forward, but certainly, I'd be lying to you if I say no.
**I wanted to ask you about the eligibles playing without the football. What can you say about those guys who strain and being selfless to help their teammates?**
Jeff Hafley: It's inspiring. It's half the time I spend my meeting talking about. It's easy when you have the ball and you're making plays to go out and strain and guys are getting all the praise and all the love. But take a guy like Herman, all he does is block and strain and fight, he didn't touch the ball one time yesterday. And those wideouts, some of the blocks that they're making and throwing in, like Chris Bell, how physical he was and CD yesterday and Malik Washington. And Kacmarek, I mean, he didn't really touch the ball much, but how much you love your teammates? How much you want to win? And that it goes back to our identity, right? To me, it's who the guys are without the ball in their hand, how hard they're playing, right? It's the same thing with the corners tackling to me. And I know that kind of sounds like it's just – no, that is important because as you keep going and you build, those are the things that are going to eventually pay off down the road. It's like the o-line. If you watch Jonah yesterday, Jonah was so physical against what I thought is a really good front. I mean, that o-line yesterday, the way they played, the physicality, watching Brew run down the field and guys like Jonah and Proc and Pat and Austin, I mean, it was, it was fun to watch. We got to keep highlighting that because that to me is more important than a wide receiver catching a touchdown pass when he's wide open in the end zone.
**We didn't get to Greg Dulcich yesterday after the game. What is the impact going forward that getting tight end one involved can have?**
Jeff Hafley: I thought Dulcich played a really good game. I thought Malik's decisions and decisiveness, getting the ball to him quick, he threw hot a few times in zero pressure when they really outnumbered us in the box. But then watching Greg break some tackles and make some plays, I mean the one he had on the screen, we didn't even block the guy in front of him and he had a huge play down in the red area. And then there was another one, he caught the ball beautifully in zone coverage drop step and got vertical and got about six or seven more yards. I thought he played a really good game and it was good to see. I thought Bobby called a really good game, getting him involved, but he had a really good day yesterday.
**Can some of that come as a byproduct of now having your full receiving corps – Caleb Douglas coming back that draws more attention from the defense?**
Jeff Hafley: Yeah, for sure. I think it all starts getting the run game going, right? You get the run game going it opens up your pass game and then all of a sudden, you get the pass game going to some of those guys on the perimeter and now you got a tight end who might be open as a check down or somewhere in short zone and he's got the ability to catch and run.
**What was the difference between coaching and playing with a lead as opposed to with a deficit, especially in the first and fourth quarters?**
Jeff Hafley: First time for a lot of our guys, right? And we hit that pretty hard. I mean, we were up 21-7 and then it was – we had a chance, I mean, and this is where we got to learn, we had a chance at 21-7 on offense to go up, multiple scores. We couldn't get it done. We had a chance on defense. We had a third down and long on the minus side of the field and it was 21-7. We had a chance to get off the field there and we didn't execute. We had a chance to make the play. And then all of a sudden, it's a different game. Then you get the ball back and now is it a three-possession game? Because you know most of these games are going to come down to the last possession of the game. If you can ever get up by those three possessions, it changes a lot. And then the game got tighter. It got to 21-14 and then we fought back and eventually we hit the big play when it got really close within a field goal, we hit the play down the sideline. We had a chance to get off the field on the two-minute drive, which was the first time on defense we were in that. So new situation again for a lot of players that are starting to come up that we practice, but it's always different in the game, right? And I think coming out of halftime, you got to go into that – it's first time we had a lead – you got to go into the second half like it's 0-0. I think it's a good learning experience for the guys.
**We saw a lot of really good things from Willis, what impressed you the most?**
Jeff Hafley: Decision making. I thought he got the ball out really quick. I thought he played with confidence. And then when the plays weren't there, the ability to make the plays with his feet, not take a sack. He had a big fourth down conversion. He had the big conversion in the red zone right before the half. I mean, just looking back at that drive, that drive was like eight minutes and 30 something seconds and we were able to take the clock all the way down to six \[seconds\]. So just leading the offense in those key moments. And then the biggest thing was just protecting the football. I mean, that's what we talked a lot about this week. To beat a team, we got to win the turnover battle, and he did a really good job of taking care of the football.
**Going back to that play that sealed the deal, fourth-and-1 to run down the clock, you had the two-minute warning to talk to your offensive lineman. And we caught a glimpse of what you said in the locker room, that the trust was there. Can you just walk me through that moment of that conversation you had with the whole offense just to make sure you guys were set up for victory formation?**
Jeff Hafley: In that drive, it was really the last play. I'll tell you exactly what happened. I said, "hey, Bobby, hang on a second." We had the two-minute warning, and I told everybody, I said, "no, I want to see the o-line." So I called the whole line over and I wanted to look them all in the eye. I said, "guys, if we get the first down, we're kneeling and we're winning this game. So I can either punt the ball where we play defense or we're going to go for it." I said, "what do you guys want to do?" And they looked at me and said, "coach, we're going for it." And I said, "OK, we better get it." And I walked back and said, "all right, Bobby, call the play." And we talked about the play and we decided to go with the sneak and we got it. But I think anytime you can talk to players and give them ownership, just the type of guys that we have, I was pretty confident that we would get it out of them. And I trust those guys and I think that will help us as we build.
**There were three possessions that I thought were significant. You've already mentioned two, the goal line stand where they go backwards for three plays, the quarterback sneak, but then the final possession of the first half, you guys score and including Malik sliding and staying inbounds. How significant was that possession and even what Malik did there, that awareness?**
Jeff Hafley: It goes back to the things that he did well. I thought decision making was huge. It was 14-7, and we had the ball with eight minutes left. I mean, at any time you can – because they're going to get the ball at halftime, so usually you can't take eight minutes off the clock, but to be able to run the ball and eat it up and then stay in bounds like we did. We did twice. We did it once on the far sideline, and then when Malik scrambled for the first, with the thought in mind to keep the clock running and either force them to call a timeout or take another 40 seconds off. I mean, it was huge. Again, you look at Malik as a guy that is a first-year starter in his first six games, and hopefully he continues to grow along those lines, which he did a nice job.
**The subtle tweaks in the running game stand out to me each week. The offset formation you guys used a bunch yesterday, for instance. I was hoping to give your perspective on that, just the job that Bobby's doing, just scheming up the running game each week.**
Jeff Hafley: Yeah, it's Bobby, it's Zach, it's the offensive staff. And again, I thought Bobby called a really good game yesterday. I thought the offensive staff did a really good job. It's just starting to figure out what we're good at. And you can see there's a variety of the run game. There's a lot of gap scheme, there's a lot of outside zone, which we've run for a long time. And then there's creativity with where are we going to line up the fullback? Where are we going to line up the tight ends? And a lot of it is the same for us, but making it look different for them to cause different adjustments on the defense and different movements and trying to gain leverage and I think that's always really important when you look at an offensive run game versus a defense. It's all about angles and leverage. And they're doing a really good job of creating good angles and good leverage for us to be able to run the ball and then we're getting the movement. But it is, it's making it hard to defend.
**The two-point conversion where Geno completed to Mason Taylor, can you kind of take us through what went wrong there?**
Jeff Hafley: We were in a call where we basically, for a lack of going into too much detail, we basically had two guys covering the tight end and whoever didn't take the tight end was going to be responsible for the quarterback. So we grabbed a tight end with Taaffe and then Trader was going to go get the quarterback. And it just so happened when Geno started the scramble, Taaffe didn't see anybody because Trader was back a little bit further. So Trader was coming to go and get the quarterback. He was on a different level. So Taaffe came off as man thinking he had to go get the quarterback to try to make a play, which you don't fault him, the quarterback's about to score and he's just trying to make a last stitch effort to save him. So just again, two young players that probably haven't been in that situation where they just got to trust the one's going to be where the other should. But good play by him.
**How much can the defense take out of three plays back from the half-yard line to the two to the three, back to the 15? Three plays, you knock them back three times with the game on the line. What can that do now moving forward?**
Jeff Hafley: I think it teaches you a huge lesson. You got to defend every blade of grass. And that's why you strain and you fight and you just keep playing until it's either a touchdown, a field goal or you get off the field. I mean, again, it has to be who we are as a team. You just keep fighting. You keep playing the next play. And they were able to do that. I do think it's such a huge lesson and it was really inspiring to see them. That drive meant a lot. I mean that's a big deal.
**Really talented to see him coming to town. It's a rival, a little bit more rested, they played Thursday night. You talked a lot about playing your game, controlling what you can control. What do you need to see from your guys this week leading up to the game against the Patriots?**
Jeff Hafley: Again, there's plenty from that game that we have to improve. We'll make a big deal of that. It's got to continue to be about ourselves. We are playing a really good team, one of the best teams in the NFL and clearly last year what they were able to do. So, we'll get them rested today, we'll get them back Wednesday and we got to have great practices. We got to know our opponent. We got to study them really well. But we have to continue to get better. And I think this whole year you're going to get bored of me saying that. But it's got to be about us and developing these players because I think what you're seeing is these young guys are starting to play better and there is development and that's got to continue to be the main thing. It's growth and development, so when you turn on the film Week 17, are we better than we are right now? Because the whole key, it's kind of like I joked with you guys about Chop, like you got to do it again. Malik had a good game, all right, let's go do it again. It's got to be our whole team. So we'll keep it about us. But I'm excited to get back to work. I know they'll take some time off. We'll start game planning tonight, and I can't wait for practice. I've loved being around these guys, I've loved coaching these guys, and we'll keep fighting.