The Miami Dolphins fell to the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday by a score of 31-24. One of the main reasons why Miami lost the game was the poor performance of their quarterback, Malik Willis, who had three turnovers — two interceptions and a fumble lost — on the day.
Following the defeat, Willis met with the South Florida media and seemed visibly frustrated with how the game played out. When asked by Marcel Louis-Jacques of ESPN when it was reasonable to expect results from this year’s squad, Willis had this to say:
“It is too much and too hard to keep saying, ‘Oh, we’re just young. Oh, we’re trying to build this and build that.‘ At the same time, we gotta hold each other accountable, because we can’t keep doing this to ourselves. If we’re going to be in games against good teams, we gotta be able to take advantage of it and go and win those games. Cause there’s no point to be in the game if you can’t go and win it.”
Willis was then asked about a backbreaking sack he took when the offense had a first-and-goal situation from the half yard line.
“I felt just dejected for our defense because of how hard they were playing and trying to give us stops and keep going. And I think that we are better than that and that’s what I talk about when we have missed [opportunities] like that, just because we miss an assignment, that’s when it’s frustrating. Because it’s like, okay, we had the opportunity to go and do it. We just didn’t execute. And we didn’t do it… I didn’t throw it away. I took a sack. I wanted to make a play… Unfortunate. Bad play by me.”
The Dolphins will have extra time to regroup and prepare for their next opponent, the New York Jets, with a bye week on the schedule. Willis and the rest of Miami’s offense have plenty of work to do if they hope to turn things around, secure their first win of the season, and finally give themselves a reason to breathe a sigh of relief.