Safety McDonald defends hit that led to key penalty

DAVIE — Dolphins safety T.J. McDonald said he didn’t take the type of shot on a receiver he could have taken Sunday.

McDonald took a shot Monday, however, in reaction to a key roughness penalty called on him in the Dolphins’ 27-17 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals.

“It’s getting out of hand, man,” McDonald said of safety rules he believes are handcuffing defensive players. “For me, I don’t really do so much talking with the refs and whatever. They call what they call. It is what it is. But I mean, we’ve got a job to do, too. It’s not fantasy football. We come out here to do a job on defense and some of the stuff going on, we can’t control.

“We try to play within the rules, but it’s getting kind of crazy.”

The Dolphins led the Bengals 17-3 in the third quarter and appeared to have forced a punt on an incompletion by Andy Dalton to tight end C.J. Uzomah. McDonald, positioned behind Uzomah, hit him as he leaped for the ball. Officials called McDonald for unnecessary roughness, which he said was the first such penalty he’d be cited for in his career.

“In that situation, I was just trying to make sure he didn’t catch the ball,” McDonald said. “He’s bobbling with the ball. I didn’t take the kill shot. I almost tried to avoid (him).”

It was a turning point in the Dolphins wasting a 17-point lead, which is tied for sixth among the worst blown leads in team history. Buoyed by the first down by penalty at the Miami 28-yard line, the Bengals scored on Dalton’s 18-yard pass to Joe Mixon two plays later to cut the deficit to 17-10.

McDonald is a physical safety much in the mold of teammate Reshad Jones and his father, Tim McDonald.

“At some point, what do you do?” McDonald said. “We’re human beings. You know what you signed up for when you come to play this game. You know that it’s a physical game. You can’t take that out of the game.”

McDonald said coach Adam Gase and defensive coordinator Matt Burke supported him despite the flag.

“They were with me,” McDonald said. “It was basically, those bang-bang plays, you can’t really coach somebody out of that.”

Gase didn’t want to get into it Monday.

“I don’t know,” Gase said when asked if he agreed with the call. “There’s no point for me to worry about it.”

McDonald knows he could face the same situation again, perhaps as soon as Sunday when the Chicago Bears visit.

“Same situation? Maybe try to lower my target a little bit,” McDonald said. “I’m not going to let him catch it. Ten times out of 10, if I have a chance not to let you catch it, I’m not going to let you catch it. That’s it.”

Parker not on trading block: The Dolphins are not shopping receiver DeVante Parker, who has appeared in just one of five games this season because of injury, a league source told The Post on Monday.

Former NFL general manager and analyst Michael Lombardi of The Athletic tweeted earlier in the day that Parker, a former No. 1 draft pick, was on the trading block. Following reports to the contrary, Lombardi doubled down, saying “of course” the Dolphins denied Parker was available because they followed the same course of action before unloading Jarvis Landry this past offseason.

Parker has two receptions for 40 yards this season. They came in the 28-20 victory over Oakland.

Since being drafted in 2015, Parker has 141 catches for 1,948 yards (a 13.8 average) and eight touchdowns. He has started 25 of Miami’s 53 games in that span.

A league source rebutted Lombardi’s claim that the Dolphins have spoken to “several teams” about unloading Parker, who missed Sunday’s 27-17 loss to Cincinnati with a quadriceps injury.

Short takes: During his press conference on Monday, Gase also said:

■ Left tackle Laremy Tunsil is in the concussion protocol. They will evaluate everything over the next two days.

■ The offense was “moving the ball fine” vs. the Bengals, but turnovers started the free fall.

■ On new TE Nick O’Leary: “He did well. He was tough. He did a great job blocking. If you throw him the ball, he’s going to catch it.”

■ On if major changes are needed: “No . ... Nothing drastic . ... We’ll be fine.”