He could have just said, "We had some tough injuries, but it was clear the team was not trending in the right direction. We thank him for his years and wish him the best. He's done some good things for us, but this is a tough league and sometimes a new voice is needed."
ML nor any GM worth anything will never throw a dismissed coach under the bus nor will they make that kind of statement. The most you'll get is " We needed to go in a different direction" or a change was needed.
The fact is what ML said IS true. DA is a very good football coach, one of the best DC's in the league and maybe the best at coaching DB's
ML like Tom Benson is not an advocate of in-season firings of a HC. It RARELY helps and mostly is an appeasement to pressure put on by fans.
Underhill said he thought that ML would have fired DA at the end of the season. . I believe so as well unless we were to after getting mostly healthy we pretty much would have won out. Even so DA maybe would have been gone anyway.
Mrs. B talking to players in times of turmoil is not that unusual. I'm guessing the only difference of opinion between ML and Mrs. B was ML wanted to wait till after the season to let DA go