Miami Dolphins and Tua Tagovailoa will face his toughest challenge yet
By Brian Miller
The young Miami Dolphins quarterback is going to face his toughest challenge in the next three weeks as a pro QB. How will this narrative be written?
For the first time in Tua Tagovailoa’s career, he has real control over what happens in the coming weeks of an NFL season. Will the stage that is set prove to be too big? Miami is on a five-game winning streak, sitting on top of the AFC East, and has the Dolphins in the second overall spot of the postseason seeding.
This year, Tua started off with a three-game winning streak. He beat the Patriots, led an incredible 4th quarter comeback against the Ravens, and then shocked the Bills in the hot Florida sun. After missing most of the next game and the following two weeks, Tua has come back on fire. But the work he and the Dolphins set out to do, isn’t done yet. In fact, it’s far from complete.
Tua will face a tough west coast trip that will feature a collision course with the Buffalo Bills in three weeks but this week, Tua has to shake off the Mike McDaniel return to San Francisco talk. He has to go into Levi Stadium and knock off a surging team that has three wins in a row of their own and boasts a defensive front that can get to the quarterback consistently.
All of this is pressure-filled. The Dolphins will are not only in the playoff picture, but they are also in the thick of it. We can’t blame Tua for last season’s Tennessee game. Mike Gesicki told the media they were not prepared by the coaching staff on that short week. Tua and the Dolphins looked horrible in that game.
That shouldn’t be the case this week and Mike McDaniel will have the team ready but these will be three tough games in a row with the postseason and seeding on the line. If Miami comes out of these next three weeks with two wins, especially if they both come against the Chargers and Bills, Miami will have a clear path to the division and maybe the top AFC seed.
Miami has become media darlings over the course of the last five weeks but this is when it all gets real. Three teams, all in the hunt for the postseason. Does it really get much better than this?