Tua Tagovailoa doesn’t play well enough to stop Watson rumors
By Brian Miller
The Miami Dolphins won on Sunday and Tua Tagovailoa did enough to put Miami in the win column but if you are reading along the news wire and social media, he has issues.
Tua Tagovailoa played a good game on Sunday but it wasn’t a great game. Miami fans wanted a great game but they would take a good game if it came with a win. It did. The problem is that mainstream media has had a dislike for Tua since last year when he struggled to regain his confidence after his major hip injury. Sunday didn’t do much to silence that crowd.
Today’s vitriol has been all about how Tua got outplayed by Mac Jones. How the Dolphins shouldn’t have won the game had it not been for a big mistake by Damien Harris late in the game. No, Tua played o.k. but his play only showcased the need to add, say, Deshaun Watson.
Midway through the game the announcers were talking about the trade deadline in early November and how the Dolphins could be looking to make a move for the inactive Houston QB. Throughout the game media personalties around the web questioned whether Tua could play a whole year without being benched, it was only made worse when Jacoby Brissett was brought in to run the QB sneak on 3rd and one and then run a really bad play next that essentially ended that drive with a penalty and eventually a punt.
Forget the fact that the Patriots are a well disciplined team with one of the best defenses in the league. Forget the fact that against that very good defensive front, the Dolphins offensive line didn’t play all that well, and forget the fact that Albert Wilson and Mike Gesicki were taken out of the game plan by the Patriots defense. And forget the fact that Will Fuller was suspended and Preston Williams inactive.
Did Tua play a great game? No, not really all that close. He made a terrible decision to throw an errant pass that was intercepted after being batted around but if Gesicki was able to corral the ball, we would be singing a different tune on that throw. There were some under thrown passes that had he led his receivers correctly could have been touchdowns. He threw one pass five yards out of bounds.
Tua did a lot of thing right though. He had poise in the pocket and he led the offense well. He moved around the pocket well enough even when pressure was in his face, which was often. The Patriots tried to rattle the young QB and they failed. They failed the same way Miami failed trying to confuse and rattle Mac Jones.
Jones spend most of his day dinking and dunking the football in an offense designed for 4 yard passes and YAC to advance the ball. Jones looked good but there are still questions and there is still learning ahead for him. Is he better than Tua? That’s a discussion going on now, on social media. The answer is “we will know in another year or two”.
What we do know is that the Dolphins are 1-0 and Tua Tagovailoa has a lot of room to improve and hopefully, he will do just that. Aside from a couple of poor passes, Tua was fast with his release and for the most part on target like he should have been. Timing will come as the season rolls along but his first outing has not silenced his doubters. Personally? I think Tua did just fine against a really good team with little help from his offensive line.