Tua Tagovailoa didn’t have to do much to get the win on Sunday
By Nick Belotto
Tua Tagovailoa got another win on Sunday but he didn’t need to do much.
On Sunday, Tua Tagovailoa got his third win in a row since replacing Ryan Fitzpatrick during the bye week but he didn’t need to do much to get it.
The Miami Dolphins put together a less than stellar offensive performance on Sunday but still managed to get the win against their West Coast opponents, the Los Angeles Chargers.
The defense played well against a surging Justin Herbert and the special teams contributed where it needed to to ensure the win. The offense, however, was less than stellar and the performance from Tua Tagovailoa left a lot to be desired.
Tagovailoa’s stat line for the day was an average 15 for 25 for 169 yards and two touchdowns (all stats courtesy of ESPN.com). He wasn’t as sharp as the week earlier against the Arizona Cardinals, but, luckily enough for him, he didn’t need to be.
One of the best things about this year’s Dolphins team is that they are playing as complete of a game as anyone in the league. This type of play makes it easier to overcome struggles from one unit, which the offense definitely experienced in this one.
Tua had a couple of passes that were typical of him. He had a few nice, accurate throws on short and intermediate routes. He also had a couple thread the needle throws to guys like Jakeem Grant when he needed to make big throws to either keep the lead or extend it.
Related Story. 5 players that stood out on Sunday. light
All that being said, there were two or three moments where his passes should have been intercepted. He had the tipped pass early in the game and a pass that went right through a Charger defender’s hands that would be intercepted 9 times out of 10. Luckily for Tagovailoa, that was the 1 out of 10 situation. If those plays had been made by the opposing defense, it would have been a different game.
The tipped pass is hard to fault Tagovailoa fully, but the other passes were on him and could have resulted in a huge change of momentum in the Chargers favor. Luckily, those decisions looked more like rookie mistakes than the norm for a guy who is accurate as Tagovailoa is.
His day may have been up and down, but, at the end of the day, Miami got the win, which is what really matters.
QB Grade, Week 10: B