Tua Tagovailoa – December 22, 2021
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Wednesday, December 22, 2021
QB Tua Tagovailoa
(I wanted to first ask, there was an Inside the NFL clip from last Sunday’s game where it looked like you audibled to the game-winning touchdown to WR DeVante Parker. I’m curious, over the course of the season, over the course of the week, how much of that – audible options – are emphasized in practice and how much of it is trial and error and just getting a feel for what you see on the field on gameday?) – “I would say it’s a mixture of both. It’s a mixture of us having an audible already in the play and then a mixture of us going out there and us playing football, just how the game goes and how it’s been going, the matchups that we like out there. That was a screen play. It looked like they ran a Cover Zero. Everyone was to the right. We gave DeVante a signal with what we wanted him to run and he executed that with a catch and finishing it off with a touchdown.”
(I know you mentioned after the game that they were giving you a lot of man looks, especially on second-and-long, and you had some success throwing the ball deep. How much more comfortable are you in those situations and knowing that sometimes, whether it is WR DeVante Parker or WR Isaiah Ford, you gave them an opportunity to make a play on the ball in single coverage and they came through with it?) – “I’m very comfortable but I would say it starts with practice, throwing to our guys against man coverage. In seven-on-seven we go against our defense practicing man coverage because that’s what our defense runs a lot and then you get mixtures of zones. Guys just need to be in the right spots and I need to obviously hit them when they’re in the right spots.”
(You are going to be playing on Monday Night Football for the first time, so your thoughts on that. And also the environment in the Superdome and you visiting Louisiana when you played in college against LSU, I just wanted to get your thoughts on Louisiana football fans who can obviously get pretty rowdy out there.) – “It’s pretty cool. I grew up watching primetime football, whether it was Sunday night, Monday night, Thursday night. So being able to be a part of that and being able to play on Monday night, I think that’s super cool. Just being in the NFL, as it is, has always been a dream of mine and I know it’s been a dream of a lot of the guys that are playing in this league. To answer the second question, it’s tough when we went down there to play LSU. I got to play at the Saints field when we played Clemson. We all know what happened there – right Christian (Wilkins)? (laughter) It was loud but it was really 50/50. Their side and our side and it was still loud. I’m excited to see what a full stadium is going to sound like.”
(I know you couldn’t have been too happy with your interceptions on Sunday but when you come back from a game with a couple of turnovers, is there a greater emphasis on correcting what went wrong on those plays or do you just have to forget about it and prepare the same way?) – “Yeah, I think you prepare the same way but you always have to take into consideration those mistakes. Those were two costly mistakes because both of those led to points and if you add them all up, that’s 10 points. With the pick-six and then obviously the first interception that led to a field goal. That’s something that I need to be better with as far as the turnovers and that doesn’t help us stay on track in all three phases of the game. You can’t change field position the way you want to. You don’t give the defense a good opportunity to have their offense go three-and-out. That was bad football. I’ve got to obviously not make those same mistakes and move on from it.”
(I wanted to ask you, why do you think you guys have been so receptive to the one day at a time philosophy from Head Coach Brian Flores?) – “Yeah, I think that mentality just helps us keep into perspective what we’re trying to get accomplished now. That’s why. You don’t want to worry about third downs because if you’re too worried about third downs, you’re not going to get normal down and distance plays correct or you’re not going to understand what your job is on that. I would say that’s why it’s very important that we just focus on what we have to do today and take it one day at a time and then obviously one play and one snap.”
(People looking for Christmas gifts may want to consider Tua’s leis. It’s a project that I know you did. I’m just curious how it came about and hat it means to you personally to be able to raise money for a good cause but doing it by doing something that’s your heritage and so close to your heart?) – “I would say you really spoke on it. It really just embodies where I come from, my heritage and then it’s also giving back to a good cause. That’s really all it is.”
(I know you;ve played in a lot of big games and handled a lot of big moments. Are there any relaxation techniques that you have employed either before or during a game? Any meditation, breathing exercises, visualization? Are any of those things you incorporated into your approach?) – “I’ve never done any of those. I’ve never had meditation. I guess exercises for myself before a game, for me it’s just making sure that I’m prepared whether it’s looking over the gameplan again or really going over my third downs and making sure I’m good with that. For me, I feel that’s what brings confidence for me.”
(Do you feel like the experienced you’ve had in primetime NFL games, at least a few, that will some way be beneficial to you?) – “I think at the end of the day, you’ve got to go out and play football. It’s football whether it’s primetime or it’s not. You’ve got to go out there and perform at the best of your ability.”
(I know you have trust and confidence in all of your receivers, but having WR Jaylen Waddle back, how much more comfortable and confident does that make you heading into a game against a very good New Orleans defense?) – “I would say it helps having Jaylen back, being that threat he’s a vertically and just speed-wise. Whether it’s a juke route or whatever you want to call the routes that he runs, he gives us good opportunities for matchups with whether it’s a ‘backer or it’s their down safety. Then if they do switch it up, it opens up other guys out there on the field. It’s good but we’ll see how we go about using everyone else in the gameplan this week too.”
(The last time you guys were in a hostile environment was Buffalo and there were a lot of communication issues. I don’t know how much the crowd impacted your ability to communicate with the teammates. How are you guys certain that those issues are in the past?) – “I don’t think you’re ever certain that nothing is going to ever come back up again. I think one thing is for certain is that we’ve been working on it in practice – our communication with crowd noise. We do understand that this is going to be very hostile. It’s going to be very loud. We do understand that we got to get in the huddle, I’ve got to get things communicated whether it’s the personnel and we’ve got to give ourselves as much time as possible so we have that much more room for error, so you’re not always playing with the 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 shot clock. That is something that we’ve been working on communication-wise and also with signals.”
(The last two games, you’ve kind of had after the game a sentiment of knowing you could’ve played better. Obviously the two interceptions is evident. But where do you feel the next step for the RPO? You talked about it after the game, you felt like you weren’t producing as much as you could in the RPO. What is missing? What do you feel like is the next step?) – “I think decision-making for me. I think there have been a lot of times where I could’ve handed the ball off where I didn’t. We could’ve went for a lot more bigger runs this year. For me, I’ve been giving up premier looks so I pull it and I throw it and we gain six or seven yards. I think for me, just being 100 percent within my decision-making in the RPO world and it not being 85 or 90 percent.”
(RPO or otherwise, you guys had your best rushing performance of the season Sunday. I just want to ask you how a consistent successful running game impacts the passing game and your job?) – “It helps a lot. Duke (Johnson) did really well. Myles (Gaskin) did really well. Those guys did well. They saw the holes that the line was opening up for them. I think hats and all credit goes to the line upfront. We’ve been talking about establishing our run game and coming off the bye week, that’s exactly what we did. Hats off to our o-line for that.”
