Tua Tagovailoa got kneed in the head during Monday’s win vs. the Rams. How did he handle it?
A scary moment happened in second quarter of the Miami Dolphins’ 23-15 victory over the Los Angeles Rams.
After tossing an interception, Tua Tagovailoa attempted to tackle Rams linebacker Christian Rozeboom. The issue: the franchise quarterback dipped his head just as he engaged Rozeboom whose knee hit the right side of Tagovailoa’s helmet. And while Dolphins fans across the globe collectively gasped, Tagovailoa laughed off the interaction.
“I went up to that dude that intercepted me,” Tagovailoa said late Monday night. “I asked him, ‘Bro, you couldn’t have just ran out of bounds or cut back?’ I was like, ‘You saw me and I saw you, you wanted to just run me over?’ He told me after the game. He’s like, ‘There was no room there. There was nowhere else to go.’ He has to do what he has to do to help his team win games. I wasn’t planning on using my head to go hit that.”
Even the ESPN commentators were a bit surprised at Tagovailoa.
“We know his history with concussions and he’s going in headfirst,” Joe Buck said during the broadcast.
“Those are dangerous blows too when you’re taking a knee like that to the helmet,” Dallas Cowboys legend Troy Aikman added.
Luckily, Tagovailoa was fine.
“I didn’t feel any of that,” Tagovailoa said before joking “that was pretty bad tackling form though.”
The Dolphins quarterback’s accuracy once again shined as he completed roughly roughly 71% of his passes, throwing for 207 yards, one touchdown and an interception. He also fumbled once.
“We got to do our job as well — not turn the ball over, stay on the field and puts some points on the board,” Tagovailoa said.
Tagovailoa, luckily, escaped unscathed. Coach Mike McDaniel, however, didn’t even “waste much time saying something to him,” the Dolphins coach said Tuesday.
“You can’t just think about his ability to stay health when he has the ball,” McDaniel added. “It’s also when you’re trying to make a tackle. I told him, ’Not to close his eyes.’ I think you could also prevent that from occurring by avoiding throwing it to the other team which he knows as well. I think there’s always things to improve upon and learn from and he definitely had a learning moment there.”
Nearly two months to the day, the Dolphins quarterback sustained his third documented concussion when his headfirst dive for a first down slammed him into Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin. The collision cost Tagovailoa four games as the Dolphins placed him on injured reserve.
Miami went 1-3 during Tagovailoa’s absence, yet he remained a vocal part of the locker room. When Tagovailoa returned in Week 9, he appeared pretty indignant during a news conference during which he attempted to shift the spotlight away from his concussion history.
“I’m frustrated but this is what it is,” Tagovailoa said Oct. 21. “Do I want to be known for this? No, I don’t but that’s the cards I’ve been dealt with given the history of it. So it is what it is.”
Added Tagovailoa: “I just think this is only becoming a thing just because of what ended up happening two years ago for myself within the sport. I hate that it’s happened, but we don’t look at boxers the same way. We don’t look at hockey players the same way, but I just think because of what happened in the magnitude that that had that it’s becoming more of an issue here in the league.”
Still, the Dolphins crowd erupted with cheers when Tagovailoa slid for a first down during his return game against the Arizona Cardinals.
“It was super cool,” Tagovailoa said of the chants after the Cardinals game. “I think any would think that’s awesome.”
The hopes and dreams of Dolphins fans rest squarely on Tagovailoa’s shoulders so it only makes sense that they want him healthy. With him at QB1, the Dolphins have shown signs of elite offensive play, though the team itself suffered back-to-back loses in his first two games back. A win over the Rams, however, has seemingly injected a bit of life into the Dolphins.
