One of the most highly anticipated games of the Sunday slate for Week 8 in the NFL was the starting debut of Miami Dolphins rookie quarterback Tua Tagovailoa.
After suffering a near career-altering hip injury last year in his final season at Alabama, there was plenty of uncertainty surrounding one of college football’s most prolific passers. Yet, through it all, the Dolphins elected to use their No. 5 overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft on Tagovailoa, knowing that they could be comfortable with whatever his recovery timetable would be since they had veteran quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick to lean on in the meantime.
Through their first six games, Fitzpatrick led the Dolphins to a 3-3 record. But going into the bye week, Dolphins head coach Brian Flores made the decision to name Tagovailoa the starting quarterback moving forward, believing the timing was right for him. So far so good on the timing, as Tagovailoa got his first victory as a starter against the Los Angeles Rams by a score of 28-17.
As a draft site, this is the part where we would meticulously break down Tagovailoa’s first win and identify the key areas where he thrived in a manner that allowed his team to come out on top. But the reality is, the team around Tagovailoa was more responsible for the win than Tagovailoa himself.
Tagovailoa’s stat line was fine, but it wasn’t anything spectacular. He went 12-for-22 passing with 93 passing yards and one passing touchdown. The truth is, four turnovers forced by the Dolphins defense (7 points scored by the defense themselves) plus a punt return for a touchdown gave the Dolphins command of the game early, and the defense did not relent to the point where the victory was ever much in doubt.
If we’re being honest, the Dolphins were lucky they didn’t need Tagovailoa to play more of a role in their victory. Tagovailoa was relatively mistake-free, but he did show signs that this might be a slower process to NFL acclimation than what we’ve seen from other rookie quarterbacks such as Joe Burrow and Justin Herbert. He was, as you would expect, rattled by some pressure and wasn’t as quick to get the ball out of his hands as he would have needed to be to really move the ball consistently against varying downs and distances.
Tagovailoa was able to let it fly on a few occasions, including a dime pass to tight end Mike Gesicki down the sideline that was broken up due to a fantastic play by the defensive back, but for the most part, Tagovailoa’s day was relatively risk-free. That missed connection to Gesicki was the longest air yards attempt Tagovailoa had on the day. Tagovailoa was 0-for-2 on his attempts of more than 20 yards, and all but three of his passing attempts came at 10 yards or less.
Tagovailoa didn’t show that he was bad on the day, but we really didn’t get a chance to see if he wasn’t, either. The fact of the matter is the game script, as it played out, did not require him to step up in stressful situations. To put context to that, Tagovailoa’s win today was the first time a quarterback got the first victory of his career when he threw for less than 100 yards on 20 or more attempts since Donovan McNabb in 1999. At the half, the Rams had run 52 offensive plays to the Dolphins’ 22, and yet Miami was still up three scores. No Dolphins receiver recorded more than two catches, and the receiving yards leader on the day was tight end Durham Smythe and running back Myles Gaskin with 16 apiece. Yet, they were fully in control—it was just one of those games.
But, a win is a win, right? The narratives leading up to this game were all about Tagovailoa having to go up against a trench presence like Aaron Donald in his first game as a starter, and on Tagovailoa’s first passing attempt of the day Donald forced a fumble on him. From that moment on, however, Tagovailoa was turnover-free, and even though it wasn’t as pretty or as casually dominant as the days we saw him wearing No. 13 for the Crimson Tide, it is still a better feeling and a better confidence booster knowing you’re 1-0 as a starter.
The Dolphins, now on a three-game winning streak and just two games back of the division lead, travel to Arizona in what will be another important test for Tagovailoa. Chances are the defense and special teams won’t be as dominant as they were today, and Miami will have to have more from their young franchise quarterback in his first road start if they want to make it four wins in a row.
Filed In
Related Articles
NFL Draft
Arik Gilbert Doesn’t Need Big Workload To Be A Top NFL Draft Pick
- Aug 22, 2022
NFL Draft
2023 NFL Mock Draft: Marino 1.0
- Aug 22, 2022
Written By