Tua Tagovailoa – November 30, 2022
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Wednesday, November 30, 2022
QB Tua Tagovailoa
(You shouldered some of the blame for the sacks last game. What are some of the things you wish you would have done differently once you had an injury to T Terron Armstead?) – “Well, I think picking plays that were more sustainable to our offense’s success in that game than just thinking, ‘Alright, we need to make a play, and we need a play to happen now.’ Whereas we weren’t necessarily running the ball so our (play) action game wasn’t necessarily perfect when we did do it. It made it tougher on guys to sustain blocks. It made it tougher on guys to seal blocks and get on blocks and stay on guys. So I would say just going with open mindedness of things like that.”
(I asked Head Coach Mike McDaniel earlier in the day, like, one of the themes of his previous offenses was like yards after the catch. I mean, he even said, like, we want to get the YAC. You guys have been really successful on offense, but the YAC hasn’t been there maybe compared to previous offenses. What sticks out to you in terms of like I said, maybe the way defenses are playing you guys or just trying to take what they present? What are you seeing?) – “I would say what we see a lot on tape, defenses are getting a lot deeper than usual with linebacker depth and you also see the shell of the safeties. They’re getting really, really deep. So they do play, I would say, our team a little different in that regard, I would say, just because of the speed that we have. But the opportunity for YAC, I would say, it’s hard when guys are playing so far back. It’s hard.”
(How much has the offense grown from the beginning of the season until now?) – “Yeah, I think we’ve grown a lot with our relationship with each other and how close we’ve all gotten as a group. I would say the communication is still something that we’re continuing to work on as a whole unit, with me getting the play into our guys, with our guys communicating up front what the blocking scheme is, to the tight ends making certain calls, the receivers understanding their assignments. And then it translates also to the passing game. I think we’ve done a lot of good things, but there’s still a lot of things that have been left out on the field and we continue to grow and we continue to get better at those things every week.”
(Can you express to us how important T Terron Armstead has been in the development of this offense and your progression this year and how much you guys are rooting for him to get back from his injury?) – “Yeah, it’s been really good having a veteran as himself help out with the guys up front. When Liam (Eichenberg) went down, how he kind of took Rob Jones under his wing and kind of helped mentor him throughout the process of what it means to be a starting left guard and how you go about your business. And so just seeing their relationship grow and how they communicate on that side, and then also with having Austin Jackson back really helps. I think when you have someone like that who’s a veteran, those guys come in on a Monday, just the o-line, and he runs their meetings. I was in their meeting this past Monday before we had our offensive meeting, and it was really cool to see him take charge of that room and kind of show guys and tell guys just what it was. ‘Hey, I take ownership of this. That’s my fault.’ And like, nothing slips. No one gets a free pass, not even himself so that was something really cool to see.”
(How much of 49ers QB Jimmy Garoppolo have you been able to watch just in terms of obviously starting for the 49ers offense, and what are some things you noticed that are pretty good?) – “When we were starting with the playbook, we watched a lot of their tape with Jimmy (Garoppolo). There were a couple of CJ (Beathard) on there, CJ clips. Trey (Lance) was on those clips as well. And you got to see the timing of the footwork with how they did things on certain pass protections, play-pass protections, necessarily where the spot was in certain protections. And then the timing and how that married up with the route. I learned a lot from his tape and the tape they produced over however many years.”
(What do you see in that 49ers defense? They’re No. 1 in the NFL.) – “Yeah, I mean, we’re preparing for these guys like every other defense. We understand that this is probably going to be our toughest competition because it’s our next, but for us, I don’t think we look at it as something that we shy away from. We embrace adversity. We embrace competition and it’s a great opportunity for us to showcase what we can do against the best and what more can you ask.”
(Your passer rating on third down is about as high as you can go. What is working so well on third down that enables you and the offense to click the way it is?) – “Yeah, I would say, first off our coaches. The third down game plan that ‘Bev’ (Darrell Bevell) and a couple of the other coaches put together, I think they put us in great spots and also being able to simplify some of the coverages for our guys when we go for our third downs, whether it’s (Cover) 1, 2, 3, as far as coverages we’ll see. Or if it’s (Cover) 1, then we’re reacting to a zone. Whatever it may be, it makes it a lot easier when they can simplify it in those terms, with the plays that we have, just so our guys can visualize and understand what I’m going to do versus man, what I’m going to do versus zone and that’s it, or vice versa.”
(What are some things that, some ways that you’ve noticed San Francisco use 49ers S Talanoa Hufanga, the safety that makes him so special and so impactful?) – “Yeah. Just kind of looking at his tape, I mean, I watched a lot of Troy Polamalu when I was growing up just because of him being a Poly brother as well. And then kind of seeing Talanoa’s (Hufanga) film, it’s very similar. Very instinctive, very intuitive, understands what has to be done in their defense. Doesn’t necessarily do much as far as not trying to disguise. Like really good at disguising if it’s Cover 4, if it’s 3-weak, if it’s 3-strong. And then when he has the pressure, you can see it over and over again. He does a really good job listening to the cadence and trying to time things up in that sense. So we’re going to have to mix it up, just so we give him a hard time to try to figure that out. But it’s not just him that we have to worry about. They’ve got Dre Greenlaw. They also got No. 54 (Fred Warner) who, in my eyes is like, a really, really, really good ballplayer. They got (Nick) Bosa. I mean, they’ve got dudes everywhere at every position. So it’s going to be a great opportunity for us offensively to dial in on the details of our offense and execute them.”
(I know it’s tough being away from family for so long on these road trips, these long road trips, but is there anything that you look forward to with these trips whether it’s just all about ball or something else?) – “Yeah, this is a great opportunity for our team to bond. We’ll be out there and it’ll just be us and I would say, as captains and with our leadership council group, we don’t think that it’s necessary that when we do get downtime away from football, guys stay in their room, or ‘hey, I’m tired.’ Like no dude, you can sleep when it’s time for you to sleep. Let’s get guys to go out and let’s do things with our guys, whether that’s finding a basketball game to go to, trying to find a box, trying to go rent out a movie theater, trying to go watch a baseball game, whatever that may be, Top Golf. I don’t know. We’ll try to find some things that we can do that’ll help us get closer with our guys on this team.”
(I know it’s not this week, but finding out the Chargers game is going to be flexed to Sunday Night Football – what was your reaction to finding out you have another primetime game and then also what does that say about this team what it’s been able to accomplish thus far?) – “Yeah, I would say speaks volumes that our game got flexed to the hard work that our team has put in and it’s starting to pay off. But we’re focused on the game that we have to go out and play this week, which is the Niners. So we’ll focus on that and worry about next week.”
(We know a couple of your teammates, especially the running back room, are former 49ers. Obviously Head Coach Mike McDaniel has a lot of familiarity. What differences have you noticed this week in them, if any?) – “I would say I haven’t seen much of a difference with any of them. They’ve really been the same guys coming into work, wanting to work and I haven’t seen any changes really.”
(Does that kind of surprise you that those guys can stay so level-headed when you know obviously this will probably be emotional for them just to go back and see so many familiar faces?) – “I would say it is kind of surprising, but I think, too, for those guys, it makes sense as well for our running backs just because I wouldn’t say they’re emotional guys necessarily. So it is kind of neutral to see how they are in every day, like that’s who they are. I’m sure that when it gets closer to the game and when we go and do play, that you’ll see a lot of energy from the both of them. But for now, they’re just the guys that come into work and the same guys that I see every day.”
