Tua Tagovailoa wants to do something the Dolphins haven’t since 2016: beat the Bills in Buffalo
Tua Tagovailoa isn’t worried about his injury history against the Buffalo Bills.
Out of his eight games versus the Bills, the Miami Dolphins quarterback has left three — September games in 2021, 2022 and 2024 — with a rib, back and head injuries, respectively. That is far from the mind of Tagovailoa, who will play just his fourth game of the season on Sunday.
“No,” Tagovailoa said when asked if those injuries creep into his mind. “I’m a football player. You go out there and if you have any of those thoughts, that’s when it’s time to call it. So I go out there and just enjoy it.”
Added Tagovailoa: “I just love football and being out there with our guys, but nothing’s better than getting a win and we’re looking for our first win in however long at Highmark Stadium this Sunday.”
The Dolphins’ second game against the Bills will come a little less than two months after Tagovailoa’s third-quarter concussion cost him most of the first half of the season. With him healthy and Miami at 2-5, the Dolphins must accomplish something they haven’t done since 2016: beat the Bills in Buffalo.
“All in all, you got to find a way to beat them regardless of what that looks like,” Tagovailoa said. “That’s what throughout those eight times that we’ve played them and the seven that we lost, that’s just been the recipe for it. We just couldn’t find a way to do that so here’s another opportunity to do that.”
The Dolphins struggles against the Bills have been well-documented. Tagovailoa has just a single win against the Bills while Buffalo quarterback Josh Allen has lost only two games to Miami, one during his rookie year and again during coach Mike McDaniel’s first season. Even more concerning: the Dolphins haven’t beat an Allen-led squad at Highmark Stadium.
“It’s important to let the team know that the environment that you’re going to so you have the entire work week to prepare for it,” McDaniel said Monday, though the Dolphins mainly focused on their growth as a team. “I think it’s important to know that when we’re on that field, there’s going to be a very confident stadium of people and what are you going to do with it?”
As far as the Dolphins’ approach to the second Bills game of the season, Tagovailoa emphasized that the messaging doesn’t change. Rather, it’s more so about correcting some of the self-inflicted mistakes.
“If you look back at the way we play Buffalo in the year, three turnovers, you can’t do that,” Tagovailoa said, later adding “We got to eliminate turnovers, stay ahead of the sticks, take what they give us and if it’s a 16 play drive and we get points, we’re OK with that and we’re willing to do that.”
Prior to being taken out of the game in the third quarter, Tagovailoa had had one of the worst games of his career, completing 68% of his passes for 145 yards, one touchdown and three interceptions, two of which came in the first half. Such self-inflicted wounds have unfortunately become something of a hallmark of the Dolphins season.
“The biggest opponent that we have to overcome is ourselves, really, each and every week,” coach Mike McDaniel said Monday. “If we can do the little things that it takes to win football games, all you have to do is be the best football team on that day, in that stadium and then things will take care of itself.”
Take out the Dolphins’ safety on the mishandled snap and the lackluster final drive against the Arizona Cardinals, the offense looked far better than it had in weeks. That, if anything, is a positive heading into Sunday’s matchup against a divisional rival. As McDaniel said ahead of the first Bills game, the narrative that Buffalo dominates the AFC East will continue until someone changes it. Well, the Dolphins have chance to do just that – and potentially much more – come Sunday.
“These are the cards we’re dealt with,” Tagovailoa said of the adversity that the Dolphins have faced in 2024. “We just got to stay together as a team, grow stronger, stay in the film room and communicate with our guys. I don’t think anything is over until it’s actually over so I believe we still have shot. It starts this week against Buffalo.”
This story was originally published October 30, 2024 at 5:19 PM.
