Tua Tagovailoa – November 28, 2021 (Postgame)
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Sunday, November 28, 2021
Postgame – Carolina
QB Tua Tagovailoa
Q: Is this as much complementary football as it’s been for you guys this year?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: Yeah, I mean, we look like the team that we kind of wanted to be at the beginning of this year. You know, it looked like a lot of guys went out there confident knowing what to expect offensively, defensively, and in the kicking game. I would say this is the best that we’ve played complementary football yet, but there’s still some plays that were left out there on the field that we can fix.
Q: You have seven incompletions in the last two weeks. Is this the best you’ve felt…?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: I just think it’s preparation throughout the week with the guys and feeling confident in what we got in as far as the plays.
Q: How do you assess the chemistry you once had with Jaylen in college and you wanted this to work and continue to grow. What made it work today? You had the touchdown and that long completion.
TUA TAGOVAILOA: Well, you know, we understood that this was going to be a man team. They played a lot of man, and when they did play zone, we tried to take advantage of in-cuts, crossers, things like that, so it’s really what we expected, and what they showed us out there.
Q: Is that going back to the chemistry that you once had with him in college?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: That’s so far back, I can’t even remember. We had so many guys that I was working with there, but I would say it started when we got Jaylen, when Jaylen came in, and started with OTAs, and throughout the summer camp practices, and then leading up to this point.
Q: How do you explain the turnaround from seven losses in a row to four wins in a row? It’s pretty dramatic.
TUA TAGOVAILOA: I just think it’s everyone in there just not listening to the outside noise, just believing in one another, and really just zoning in and playing football that we know we can play. It’s playing complementary football.
Q: There were a couple sacks that were drive killers — a couple of fumbled snaps, too. Just overcoming those, has that been something you look at this game – all the positive and maybe that’s something you guys are most proud of?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: I would say we’re not proud of taking a sack and getting us out of field goal range, missed opportunities that the defense gives us, and we have a fumbled snap. All of those things, obviously, we don’t like them, and we don’t plan for them to happen, but you’ve got to move on to the next play in this league, and you got to continue playing 60 minutes.
Q: Were any of the passes to Jaylen stand out to you as either communication with him or any of the plays stand out?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: I would say no. Jaylen has just been in the right place at the right time. There’s times where he gets covered and he is still open, so you take a look at one of the third downs that we had. I think it was 26. Donte Jackson covering him. It was really good coverage. ‘J’ (Jaylen) still got open.
Q: I think I remember you saying earlier this year that you and Jaylen had a lot of open communication on the sideline, including him saying this is how I want to run a route, this is where I want the ball. How has that developed over the course of the season, and how has that, I guess, made this current stretch possible?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: I don’t think anything has changed up to this point. It’s still been open communication with ‘J.’ It’s open communication with really all the receivers and the line. We come into the team meeting room as an offense, and really we go through all the plays, and it’s open communication. You know, everyone is in there — the o-line, quarterbacks, the running backs, tight ends — so that we can hear what happened on the play and then we can get it fixed.
Q: Did you expect Phillip to have the workload that he had off of maybe just two days of practice? What did you guys do to kind of give him – ingratiated into the offense, comfortable?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: I think he did a great job today for us. Towards the ending of the game, towards the ending of the third quarter as well, you know, just coming in and not really understanding the offense, but really dialing in this week, staying after practices. Whether it was with me, Jacoby (Brissett), or Jake (Luton), trying to get the guys to stay after, run through some plays with him. I think he is a hard worker from the couple of days that I’ve known him. It shows. Excited to see what the next couple of weeks we can do with him.
Q: You know what it’s like as a rookie coming in needing the time to just transition to the NFL. What’s that been like with Jaylen? Has it been typical of what you would think a typical receiver is? Has it been smoother? What has his transition been like?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: I don’t want to speak for Jaylen, but to me he has looked very mature coming into the league since we got him. You know, just seeing his development as a receiver working against man, knowing the spots in certain zone defenses to be in to get himself open. I think he has done a great job with that.
Q: Can you describe to us what the mood is like in the locker room and if it maybe gets more fun after the wins kind of stack up?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: Everyone is happy. I mean, everyone is happy in the locker room after a win, and that was a really good team that we played in all three phases. We’re going to enjoy this win. We got a victory Monday, so thanks to Coach Flores. Then we’re really on to the next game against the Giants.
