QB Review: Tua Tagovailoa plays well in return despite the loss

In another terrible loss on the season, the Miami Dolphins fell to the Jacksonville Jaguars in London on Sunday. This loss was just another terrible moment in a season where everything has gone completely the opposite way of preseason expectations, but Tua Tagovailoa returned.

Miami has now lost 5 in a row and their playoff hopes look to be somewhat over. Of course, with the extended season there’s still a chance, but they would need a bit of a miracle to pull that off and Miami doesn’t look like they have that miracle in them on either side of the ball.

If there is any positive in this one, Miami’s offense looked much better in this one than in weeks past. Tua Tagovailoa returned from a 3 game absence nursing some broken ribs and played well enough to feel somewhat good about him going into next week.

On the day, Tagovailoa finished 33-47 for 329 yards, 2 touchdowns and an interception (stats courtesy of ESPN.com). Honestly, despite the terrible loss, I believe this was one of Tagovailoa’s better games as a pro. Yes, he wasn’t perfect and his interception was a terrible ball that just didn’t have enough drive on it, but that shouldn’t overshadow a good day for the youngster.

And yet, I felt he looked good when the pocket was clean and was able to get a few things going even when he had a few defenders in his face. This offensive line wasn’t as bad as it has been over the last few weeks and when he had time, Tagovailoa looked like he could be the long term solution at quarterback. He looked very accurate and poised in the pocket. He definitely needs to be better on his footwork so that he can get a little more power behind his throws, but he looked good after not playing in a game for 3 weeks.

But, at the end of the day, Tagovailoa couldn’t do enough to get this offense to put up touchdowns instead of field goals that could have changed the dynamics of the game. That wasn’t all his fault, however, as penalties and sometimes bad play calling complicated a few of their short yardage situations. I would have liked him to overcome some of those challenges, but it’s hard to fault him totally for any of the offensive issues.

Tua Tagovailoa was not the problem in this game, but he will get some of the blame even though it should fall on the coaching staff.

This team is not good right now, even when individual players are putting up solid performances. This defense is not what it was last year which makes me wonder just how much of a fluke it was in 2020. The play calling is not consistently putting the offense in a position to succeed (please, pick one coordinator and tell him to stop running the Waddle screen pass). There needs to be some accountability at the top for the performance of this team.

Some of that might trickle down to Tagovailoa which, in my opinion, is not totally fair. He played well on Sunday and I can’t blame him for this loss. But he won’t win any more football games if the rest of his team can’t be a bit more consistent all over the field.

QB Grade: B