After taunting foul, Malik Willis told Ollie Gordon he was "dead-ass wrong"

Published November 1, 2026 09:12 PM Dolphins running back Ollie Gordon II should have learned his lesson when he was yanked from a preseason game for flipping the ball at a defender.He didn’t. And so, on Sunday, he got an earful from quarterback Malik Willis after Gordon was flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct in the third quarter of Sunday’s loss to the Patriots.After the game, Willis explained his blunt message for Gordon.“I mean, Ollie is a competitor and he cares about the game a lot and I was just letting him know that in that situation, that he’s dead-ass wrong,” Willis told reporters. “I mean, that’s the honest truth. And it would be wrong if I didn’t tell him the truth. If I was like, ‘It’s okay, you were just trying to compete.’ Like, no, we went from third-and-four to like third-and-15 or 20, and we did not convert. . . . That’s something that we can control and that is wrong. I finished it by telling him I’m on his side, I’m with him and we’re teammates and we’re in this together, and he’s going to go out and help us win this game and we’re going to fight the next play and he’s going to go back out there. But at the same time, I got to tell you that you’re dead wrong when you’re dead wrong.”Coach Jeff Hafley approved Willis’s message. “Well, I think it’s good leadership,” Halfley told reporters. “I hope you guys have seen in a short period of time with us right now is I think telling people the truth and being able to have honest conversations is really important. And for a player to tell a guy how he feels in the moment, and for the player to respond ina non-antagonistic way, I think is a really good sign. It shows good leadership. Good leadershp is telling people the truth, and I respect and appreciate Malik doing that.”It neeeded to be said. And it needs to not happen. Fifteen yards can, at the wrong time, be the difference between winning and losing.In this case, the Dolphins led, 13-10, at the time third-and-five became third-and-20. Miami didn’t convert, and the Patriots took the lead for good on their next drive.