Dark cloud lifted, fun-loving Tua Tagovailoa is back at season’s most important time
The dark cloud over Tua Tagovailoa has been lifted.
All it took was a win, a mending thumb and 296 passing yards.
A week after a melancholy Tagovailoa met with Miami reporters, fun-loving Tagovailoa was back Wednesday.
It began with some good-natured ribbing during Rob Hunt’s Zoom session about his fellow rookie’s mid-grade SUV.
And it carried over into his own media availability. A week after being down in the dumps, Tagovailoa was happy again.
“Adversity has always been in my life,” Tagovailoa said. “From high school, college, injuries and also in the NFL. I think that’s just life. I think last week I was a little down because of the way I practiced. It wasn’t to the standard that I wanted to practice. You learn from those things.
“Like I said before, it’s a continuous learning process in the NFL. You learn day to day, week to week. There’s always something to learn because defenses aren’t going to stay the same. It’s going to be different and you can also expect some nuances coming into this game.”
His improving health and in-game performance probably didn’t hurt his mood, either.
While Tagovailoa was limited in practice for the seventh straight time Wednesday, he no longer wore the wrap on his wrist and lower thumb.
And his sunny disposition suggests that, while he had been through a rough spell that included the injury and his first NFL benching, he won’t stay down long.
That’s great news ahead of his team’s toughest task of the 2020 season: hosting the defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs.
“I’ve learned a lot about him, and I think it just reinforces a lot of things we thought about him when we selected him,” Dolphins coach Brian Flores told Kansas City reporters Wednesday. “He’s tough, he’s resilient, he’s accurate throwing the football, and I think he’s an improving player. We’ll just continue to coach him, help him grow.”
Flores, earlier in the day, said more on the subject while talking with local reporters: “Look, this is a tough kid. He knows how to deal with adversity. I’ve said this for multiple weeks. He’s like any player. He’ll have ups and downs in this league. Anybody who is involved in this league, that’s how it is. It’s not surprising that he can deal with adversity or has a resilient attitude. That’s kind of how he is, who he is. I think he’s done a good job from that standpoint.”
That will need to continue in a big way this weekend.
The Chiefs have scored more than 30 points in seven of their 12 games this season. The Dolphins have scored 30 or more points in just one of Tagovailoa’s five starts.
The best two ways to improve that second stat?
By getting DeVante Parker more involved and improving in the red zone.
Parker has been held to less than 65 yards receiving in each of Tagovailoa’s starts. Their timing is getting better, but Tagovailoa still needs to improve on his touch on jump balls to Miami’s rangy receiver.
“I work with Tua, staying after practice, getting catches with him,” Parker said Wednesday. “It’s something we have to continue doing.”
As for the offense’s recent struggles in the red zone (they have scored touchdowns on just four of 10 trips the past three weeks), offensive coordinator Chan Gailey has been an easy target for criticism.
But Tagovailoa suggested Wednesday that the heat was misplaced.
“I think we’re going to need to execute every time we go out there offensively,” Tagovailoa said. “I don’t think we need to do anything new. We just have to go out there and have all 11 guys playing together and being on the same page. We’ve got to be able to go out there and execute. The red area, I know Chan has something really good for us, but we got to execute offensively. I believe we have the plays. It’s just not just executed the way we have done it in practice. It’s all about execution.”
