Tua Tagovailoa – December 25, 2022 (Postgame)
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Sunday, December 25, 2022
Postgame – Green Bay
QB Tua Tagovailoa (Transcribed by ASAP Sports)
Q: The three fourth-quarter interceptions, can you take us through what happened on each one?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: On the first one, I tried to throw it over a defender, but I ended up really throwing over the defender and Tyreek (Hill), so that one got away. The second one, I might have said the wrong play. I’m not too sure. But there was just some communication errors on that. Then the third one was just not a good ball for my receivers to have been able to make a play on that. You know, it’s tough. You get an opportunity to play on Christmas Day against a really good team, and I go out there and really — not being able to put my best foot forward for our team. In hindsight, this is something that we’ve got to be able to just move on from. Like I say with ‘Bev,’ (Darrell Bevell) he says, ‘let every play stand on its own merit.’ So for this game, we want this game to stand on its own merit, as well. Obviously we’re going to learn from these mistakes, but this isn’t something that after a loss we should be going home and taking to our families, our kids, our other halves. We leave it all here and we go enjoy Christmas, and then we come back in when time is, and we learn from it.
Q: Moving quickly to the next opponent, how long do you all try to dwell on the loss?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: Yeah, I would say it’s tough for a competitor because there’s always, ‘if I would have did this, we could have won, if I would have did that, we could have won.’ It’s always tough, but the challenge is to be able to just separate what you do here and what you do at home really and kind of just get your mind off it so that when you do come in, you have a clear mind. You’re not just focused on whatever particular play that was that you messed up on, and that everyone has the chance to learn from that mistake.
Q: On the second drive where you had the second interception, it seemed like you were getting to the line particularly late – 8, 7 seconds left on the clock. Was that intentional? If not, how may have that play into some of the miscommunications and just issues that you had?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: Yeah, it wasn’t intentional. I was just trying to get the play out to the guys and just try to make sure everyone was going in the right spots. But just the miscommunication with the entirety of the plays is sort of what went wrong with that interception.
Q: You guys finished with 270 yards of offense in the first half and you threw for 229 yards. Up until the fumble right before half, everything was going pretty well. Did they do anything differently in the second half?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: I would say no, they didn’t do anything new or different. They were playing the same defense, the same way that they played in the first half. But offensively we just didn’t capitalize on our opportunities and we were killing ourselves with a lot of the penalties that had happened off of explosive plays.
Q: When you look at those illegal formation penalties and what not, just where does that stem from?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: I think it stems from me trying to spit the formation out to the guys, the motions, and then when we do break, me realizing how much time I have and then just sending guys already, and there’s times where we’ve got to wait for guys to get set so that one takes the ball, one gets off and dead motions, and those were kind of the mishaps with that today.
Q: It’s been kind of a strange season in the sense that it’s been one streak after another streak and then after another streak. You’ve got two games left; you win and you’re in the playoffs. How do you keep the confidence up with this group?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: Yeah, well, I would say it’s easy to keep the confidence up with this group. I think we all believe in each other. I would say we all love one another. We’re all invested into each other as well. I don’t think it’s a time for us to blink. Like we just move on and we learn from it. We’ve got another tough team that we’ve got to go to and play.
Q: On your touchdown pass to Jaylen Waddle, what impressed you most about that catch and run?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: Really nothing… I was waiting for a reaction. (laughter) No, but like in all seriousness, that’s something that I’ve seen Jaylen (Waddle) do many times, and that’s a testament to how he comes out to work every day, with how he finishes plays, and him and Tyreek (Hill) being able to get the guys in that room better by just going out and doing things like that. Obviously, I’d say that’s very, very impressive; you don’t just do that coming off the bench. That’s the first play of the drive we had on the second series, I think, and that just doesn’t happen. It’s cool and it helps that he’s on our team.
Q: Can you detail what you saw on the long pass to WR Tyreek Hill?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: Yeah, sort of looked like they were playing six-strong. It was like quarters to Jaylen’s (Waddle) side, and then it was Cover 2 to Tyreek’s (Hill) side and I was just trying to pin down the backside safety and then hit Tyreek.
Q: Going out for the final possession there, even though the offense hadn’t really moved in the second half, you still had a chance obviously to win. What’s your thinking as you’re going out there on the field?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: We’ve got to go win this. That’s all there was. We’ve got to go win this. Just very unfortunate. It was just terrible how everything ended. Like I told the guys, that’s on me. I will definitely get better from that.
