Flores never considered benching Tua. Instead, Dolphins went no-huddle and the QB thrived
It was only an 8-yard gain, but everything the Miami Dolphins expect from Tua Tagovailoa was there in the short completion to DeVante Parker in the third quarter Sunday.
The Dolphins ran no-huddle to try catch the Cincinnati Bengals off guard and the Bengals’ pressure nearly got to Tagovailoa anyway. Akeem Davis-Gaiter blitzed through the line untouched and Tagovailoa made a simple sidestep to his right, set his feet and whizzed a pass through a tight window to his star wide receiver for a first down.
It was unlike anything he did in the first half of Miami’s 19-7 win against Cincinnati and a reminder of why the Dolphins have thrown their unwavering support behind the rookie. Even as Tagovailoa struggled through a lifeless first half in Miami Gardens, Brian Flores said he never considered yanking him.
“I hadn’t thought about it until you really brought it up here,” the coach said. “He was going all the way, and I thought he was playing well and he did play well.”
Still, it was only two weeks ago the Dolphins (8-4) lost faith in Tagovailoa in the fourth quarter of a close game against the Denver Broncos and turned to Ryan Fitzpatrick for the final two drives of a failed comeback. Sunday was Tagovailoa’s first chance to rebound from his benching in Denver as a thumb injury kept him out last Sunday against the New York Jets and limited him throughout practice last week.
This time, Flores and offensive coordinator Chan Gailey let Tagovailoa play through his first-half growing pains, and the quarterback rewarded them with a two-score win at Hard Rock Stadium.
In the first half, Tagovailoa went just 12 of 19 for 111 yards. In the second, he went 14 of 20 for 185 yards and a touchdown to finish 26 of 39 for 296 yards. Statistically, it was the second best performance of his career behind only his gem against the Arizona Cardinals last month.
“I need to help our guys start a lot faster offensively,” Tagovailoa said. “Things started to click starting toward the end of the first half and then the second half we kind of knew what we wanted to do.”
Miami found some positive signs on its final drive in the first half. The Bengals (2-9-1) missed a field goal to set up the Dolphins at their own 43-yard line with 58 seconds left in the half. They had no choice but to run no-huddle and Tagovailoa moved them into field-goal range to cut Cincinnati’s lead to 7-6 at halftime.
In the first half, the Miami had just 143 yards on 28 plays and ran only two no-huddle plays. On the first three drives of the second half, it demolished those marks.
The Dolphins’ first drive after halftime was an eight-play, 75-yard march into the end zone. Their second lasted 10 plays and spanned 70 yards before Miami kicked a field goal. The third lasted 12 plays and went 46 yards before star kicker Jason Sanders hit his fourth field goal of the game.
“We just wanted to pick up the pace a little bit,” Flores said. “That’s hard to deal with defensively, so we were able to make some good throws, make some good runs and execute, and really keep the pressure on.”
Tagovailoa completed a short pass to tight end Durham Smythe on the first play of the half and the Dolphins rushed back to the line. Miami ran no-huddle five times on the drive and Tagovailoa started 4 for 4, getting both Parker and tight end Mike Gesicki involved.
For his fourth completion, Tagovailoa bailed out to his left to escape pressure, sucked defenders his way and lofted a perfect touch pass down the field to running back Myles Gaskin, who turned it into a 35-yard gain down to the 5-yard line. Tagovailoa threw one fade incomplete to Parker, then tossed up another jump ball to Gesicki, who hauled in a 5-yard touchdown to give Miami a 13-7 lead.
“We were able to kind of catch them in some personnel and some calls that they weren’t ready for,” said Gesicki, who had a career-high nine catches for 88 yards after catching just eight passes from Tagovailoa in the rookie’s first four starts. “It worked for us today.”
Miami ran no-huddle for three plays on the second drive — including the sidestep completion to Parker — and then three more times on its third. In the fourth quarter, the Dolphins slowed the pace to run out the clock on another victory.
“When you’re on the ball and you’re going fast, it confuses the defense,” Tagovailoa said. “The uptempo things that we did second half really helped us to get the ball rolling.”
This story was originally published December 6, 2020 at 6:39 PM.
