Tua Tagovailoa out-duels Justin Herbert in Dolphins victory. This is how he did it
The match between rookie quarterbacks Tua Tagovailoa and Justin Herbert on Sunday was more gentleman’s duel than wild west shootout. It featured more intermediate and safe throws than bombs and bedlam. It was decided as much by mistakes not made as chunk yardage throws taken.
But let it be known that in this first of many meetings between these high draft picks with high ceilings, there’s no question which came out on top and has the early advantage:
Tua Tagovailoa.
He was more accurate. More efficient. More productive.
And, oh yes, Tagovailoa came away with a victory, which is the ultimate reason teams select quarterbacks so high in every draft -- to win.
“I think it’s fun winning in general, whether we do good offensively or the defense does good and special teams does good,” Tagovailoa said. “I think today was a great team win. We ran the ball really well. Big shout out to our o-line and big shout out to Salvon Ahmed for stepping up when his number was called.
“We have had a lot of opportunities that the defense has given us, as well, and I think the special teams did a really great job as well, too. It was a great team effort.”
This 29-21 victory over the Los Angeles Chargers was Tagovailoa’s third win in as many starts. And that’s increasingly looking like a serious trend rather than lucky happenstance, as the Dolphins have climbed from being merely relevant to an AFC East division contender only half-a-game out of first place.
And yes, the special teams contributed immediately with a blocked punt that set up Miami’s first touchdown. The defense collected a key sack by Emmanuel Ogbah and big interception by cornerback Xavien Howard that set up another score.
And, of course, Ahmed, an unheralded back cut after training camp and a practice squad player until the second week of October, flashed like a starter. He gained 85 yards on 21 carries.
But let’s not make the mistake of thinking the spotlight wasn’t on Tagovailoa the whole time. Because it was.
It shone on him on that 23-yard throw to Mike Gesicki that was laid perfectly into the tight end’s grasp.
It was on him when he threw what appeared to be his first touchdown of the day to DeVante Parker, which was reversed by replay, and then on the very next play when he came back with a bullet throw to Jakeem Grant for a touchdown that did count.
The attention was even on Tagovailoa when he made the tackle on a fumbled exchange between him and Ted Karras that Karras says he botched because he was sweating a lot and the wet ball slipped from his hand.
“Really, I was just trying to strip the guy from the opposite side,” Tagovailoa said of his tackled following the Chargers’ fumble recovery. “It was probably best to try to just get him down next time, so I’ll take that into consideration.”
Tagovailoa finished the game with 15 completions on 25 attempts for 169 yards and two touchdowns. His passer rating was 106.9.
So, good. Not great. But good.
And Herbert? He struggled.
It was his least productive game in his eight starts by far. He really had only one drive in which he seemed like the dangerous prospect his previous games suggested him to be -- and that came when his team trailed by 15 points late in the fourth quarter.
Herbert finished the game with 187 yards on 20 completions in 32 attempts. He threw two touchdowns and one interception. But the statistics don’t tell the full story.
Because this was an inconsistent, uneven performance.
Herbert actually had 129 yards with one touchdown and one interception before a last minute drive for a score against a Dolphins defense trading yards for seconds off the clock.
But most importantly, this was Herbert’s seventh loss in eight starts. And that record, although obviously not all his doing, is a great way to get the coach and the staff who drafted him fired.
“We definitely could have played better,” Herbert said afterward. “We didn’t execute when we needed to and we definitely didn’t put up enough points.”
Some Dolphins fans will come out of this meeting feeling like their team drafted the better quarterback. They will think general manager Chris Grier and coach Brian Flores made the absolute right call in picking Tagovailoa No. 5 overall in the first round of the April draft, before the Chargers picked Herbert No. 6.
Those fans are at odds with Flores. Because he wasn’t ready to make any such grand pronouncement after the game.
“It looked like Tua made two pretty good decisions,” Flores said. “It looked like there were some throws there that he got into some tight windows. But we’ve talked about this. We have a lot of confidence in all our draft picks that they’re going to develop and improve. He’s no different.
“That’s what we’re trying to do, develop and improve, and take it week-to-week and not make grand, ‘Hey, this is, you know’ ...”
His voice trailed off but his message was loud and clear. Flores isn’t inducting his quarterback in the Hall of Fame quite yet.
“We’re not going to talk about any player and say, ‘Hey, you’ve arrived and you’ve done it,’ “ he said. “Everyone has got to improve and get better. The players, coaches, everybody. So nobody has all the answers. I certainly don’t. It starts with me, and hopefully we just improve really at every position, including with the quarterback.”
That’s all fair and accurate. But so is this:
There were two teams and two quarterbacks in this game at Hard Rock on Sunday.
“It came down to the Chargers versus the Dolphins and we lost that matchup,” Herbert said. “And so I think that’s the biggest matchup we lost today.”
But it wasn’t the only matchup the Chargers lost. Because they also lost the battle of the quarterbacks.
This story was originally published November 15, 2020 at 9:18 PM.
