Dolphins’ Hafley assesses loss to Vikings and where things stand at 0-4

Miami Dolphins admin October 5, 2026 0 Comments

Dolphins’ Hafley assesses loss to Vikings and where things stand at 0-4

In this Year 1 of a rebuild, Dolphins coach Jeff Hafley continues to express a combination of disappointment and encouragement in his postgame press conferences. Those emotions certainly were appropriate following Miami’s closer-than-expected 15-10 loss in Minnesota on Sunday, a game in which the defense played valiantly and Ollie Gordon reached the 100-yard mark.

“Disappointing,” Hafley said of the loss. “Our guys fought their butts off. I thought they were competitive. I thought they were tough. You knew it was going to be a defensive battle. These losses are hard. I know we’re growing. Our process is right. We didn’t give up a touchdown. Those guys played hard. I wish we could have gotten one more stop on the road.

“This is one of the hardest places to play; it was loud. It’s the first time we’ve really got to experience an environment like this. To come together like this and fight them until the end, I do think there is improvement. I do think there’s growth. I think there’s growth back to back weeks. We’ll get there.”

Then he paused.

“Don’t get me wrong. Guys, I’m not happy. I want to win the game. I think you can sense that. Am I proud of certain aspects? Yes. Am I disappointed? For sure. Do I need to be better? Yeah. Do we all need to be better? For sure. We had a chance to win the game in the fourth quarter. That has to be the next step.”

He said it could have been a different result with one more defensive stop, one more big play on offense or fewer penalties.

“Last two weeks, we played two really good teams [4-0 Kansas City and 4-0 Minnesota] and we battled our butts off. I appreciate and love how hard they work.”

He said the Dolphins, who were called for nine penalties for 55 yards, must “clean up some of the penalties. Illegal contact; I got to look closely at it. I got to figure out exactly what to teach them so it doesn’t happen. Some of the holds, we have to look closely at. We have to fix some technique issues. We need growth every single week.”

Hafley addressed other issues:

▪ On the pass rush, which produced its first four sacks of the season: “I was happy to see that early in the game. We wore down at the end. We were on the field for a lot of plays. I felt we were so close on a couple more [for sacks].”

▪ On Vikings tight end TJ Hockenson, who caught all 13 targets for 119 yards: “Big guy. Big target. There was a body on a body. We were right there on all those plays and he happened to come down with it. Hats off to him. He did a nice job.”

▪ On Gordon, who ran nine times for 100 yards and a touchdown: “I thought Ollie did a really nice job. We were able to run the ball. He had some big runs. Ollie stepped up. I told those guys last night, talking in front of the team, that I believe in Ollie and I believe in [Jaylen] Wright and I believe in [Carlos Washington]. That’s how we’re going to go…

“Tough scheme to play against. I was proud of the way we were able to run the ball. We knew this was going to be a 15-10, 10-7 [game]. This was how we were going to have to win this game.”

▪ On special teams errors in coverage early in the game: “I’ve got to look at the tape. I felt like on the first kickoff return, we folded too far inside. We lost leverage… I’ll look at those punts. We got better as the game went on.”

▪ On Chris Bell’s toe grazing the sideline, negating a 68-yard touchdown catch: “The guy lost where he was on the field. He’s a young guy. He will learn from it. It was a matter of inches he did step out. In so many things, our game is inches here, inches there. He’ll learn from it. He’s a competitive dude.”

▪ On rookie linebacker Jacob Rodriguez’s 18-tackle day: “His communication today — him and I, and I give him credit for this, not me — was by far the best it has been. We were able to talk throughout the game until that [clock] got down to 15 seconds.

“The things I was able to see and tell him, and for him to get that done as a rookie, the adjustments I was making until the thing got down to 15 and for him to lead our defense in a place like this and give up 15 points .. It’s really hard and it’s really impressive. He just keeps getting better and better. It doesn’t surprise me.”

Here’s my piece on quarterback Malik Willis and how he should be judged after four games.

This story was originally published October 4, 2026 at 7:53 PM.