The ways in which the Dolphins expect to see Tua improve, and why they think he will
For the many Dolphins fans curious why Tua Tagovailoa barely threw the ball past the line of scrimmage Sunday, here’s your answer:
The Dolphins entered the game planning to play it safe with Tagovailoa, and when the game got lopsided, decided to get really conservative.
That’s according to Dolphins offensive coordinator Chan Gailey, who seemed largely pleased with how Tagovailoa performed in his first start, despite a stat line — 12 of 22 for 93 yards and a touchdown — that was pedestrian.
“We knew how good [the Rams’] pass rush was,” Gailey said Tuesday. “We were trying to get him protected and get the ball out. And because of the way the game went, we didn’t have to take a lot of chances with the football. We hope to be able to do things in the future that create more big plays for our offense. Obviously Tua is very talented in throwing the football. Hopefully we’ll make those things happen.”
He will need to if the Dolphins want to get to the playoffs.
They can’t count on four turnovers and two nonoffensive touchdowns in a game again.
And Gailey seems to believe that Tagovailoa will get there.
He expects the Dolphins’ rookie quarterback to make progress each week — and in these ways:
“Two things happen to me for young quarterbacks,” Gailey said. “One, they start to see defenses better and, two, the game starts to slow down for them because it’s at a hectic pace the first time you go out there. Then the game starts to slow down the more you play. That’s what I’ve experienced with young quarterbacks through the years is they understand better what defenses are trying to do and then the game seems to slow down for them.”
Gailey added: “He needs reps. He’s just gotta keep working timing with these guys and keep getting reps. Those reps that he got the other day were invaluable, and I think he’ll start to get better in bigger jumps as we go forward because the more he sees, the more he understands, the more feel he gets with the receivers, I think he’ll get better and better. He just needs to play. He’s got a lot of talent. I’m anxious to see what steps he’s going to take this week.”
Tagovailoa really only took two true downfield shots — a deep pass to Mike Gesicki early in the game that was on the money but broken up and another to Preston Williams that fell incomplete — but again, that’s a function of how the game went.
It wasn’t a function of the Dolphins not believing in the rookie or his grasp of the offense, even if Tagovailoa has some work to do with the latter.
“Everybody’s different,” said Dolphins quarterbacks coach Robby Brown. “Shoot, there are things that [Ryan Fitzpatrick] sees that I don’t see. Fitz has been 16 years, taking how many ever snaps. To compare that would be incredibly tough.
“I would say that Tua’s got a good grasp of what we’re trying to do. He studies hard at it. He has been studying hard at it since the virtual OTAs.“
How exactly is he studying? By focusing every day first on the next opponent — the Arizona Cardinals, this week — and then on progressions and situations.
“I think he has to do the same thing each and every week and continue to get better,” Brown said.
Brown added that he came away impressed with how Tagovailoa communicated, both with his teammates and his coaches, and the way he bounced back after losing a fumble on his second play from scrimmage.
“He has an incredible personality; he’s loose,” Brown said. “So when those kind of things happen, my initial reaction is, it doesn’t matter who the quarterback is, it doesn’t matter if I’m coaching in college or wherever I was coaching, My initial reaction was, ‘Hey, let’s get over to the sideline, let’s sit down.’ I never want to overreact or jump up. My 4-year-old could look at it and say, ‘Oooh, that’s not good.’ You don’t say that. You sit down, ‘Hey, what did you see?’ He tells you what he saw. He saw it well. He knew what happened. Then you move on, you don’t focus on it.”
This story was originally published November 3, 2020 at 11:43 AM.
