Tua Tagovailoa – November 5, 2023 (Postgame)
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Sunday, Nov. 5, 2023
Postgame – Kansas City Chiefs
Miami Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa
Q. The last two plays, can you tell us about both of them?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: Yeah. What happened with me and Ced [wide receiver Cedrick Wilson Jr.], that was just miscommunication, and in big-time moments, those things like that can happen. I’ve got to throw a better ball. It was just miscommunication there. Then with the last play of the game, I’m always going to blame myself. I’ve got to catch the ball. Whether that’s getting in a better position to catch it or whatever it is, can’t end the game like that when we have an opportunity like that against a really good team.
Q. (inaudible).
TUA TAGOVAILOA: Yeah, it’s always good to get points on the board. You get back into your groove as an offense. You get back into the flow of the game. You get back into the flow of the game with how the game is played and the guys get into a rhythm of blocking within the runs, blocking within the passes, the timing with our routes, things like that. It’s always good, especially against a team like this. Whenever you can get points on the board, it would be your best to.
Q. How would you describe your emotions right now?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: Man, tough. Tough. You never want to end the game like that, how that happened. But I think any competitor in our field that would be in my position would wish they had that play back. At least they’d give the team an opportunity. I wasn’t able to do that.
Q. The miscommunication between you and [wide receiver] Cedric [Wilson Jr.], were you expecting some different route?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: It was my fault. It was my fault. It was my fault. Miscommunication there.
Q. (Inaudible).
TUA TAGOVAILOA: Well, I think for us, we’ve just got to continue to keep working. There’s nothing outside of working the crowd noise, working the silent cadence, working the communication while we have crowd noise, continuing to do all that, it’s only going to benefit us. These are continued reps for us to get early in the season as we’re entering sort of the back half of the season.
Q. Did you expect the crowd to be this kind of pro-Kansas City?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: Well, I know they travel deep a lot of the times from conversations with [wide receiver] Tyreek [Hill]. It was expected.
Q. Every loss stings, but is there any frustration (inaudible)?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: Well, I think the way we look at it is, every game has its ebbs and flows. But for this one, probably just for me because it was with that last play to give our team just an opportunity for someone to — even if I was getting pressured, I’d be able to throw it up and allow our guys an opportunity to catch the ball, that this game was a little tougher to kind of take in, especially for me. But I think you look at the team that we have, this is the Super Bowl champions from last year. I think our defense did a tremendous job. Although they gave up 14 points, Kansas City didn’t score in the second half. One of the plays towards the ending of the half, that’s something we’ve got to go and talk about. But I’m very proud of our defense, how they played. There’s some things that we need to clean up and fix going into this bye week getting ready for our next opponent.
Q. Who were a couple of the top options on the fourth down play?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: I mean, they played zero, so we had routes for — it was really one-on-ones on everyone. It was really our best match-up. That’s how you look at that.
Q. What went into the scoreless first half?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: We were trying to get things going, couldn’t get things going. Whether we were shooting ourselves in the foot, if there was miscommunication with a run play or there’s a flag for this or that. A game is not played in two quarters, it’s played in four quarters. We knew we had the second half to try to come back and make a run at it, but it’s always tough if you go against a team like that. Those guys know a thing or two about big games.
Q. Aside from the miscommunication earlier in the game, later in the game, [wide receiver] Cedric Wilson [Jr.] did score. How is he coming along this year?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: We call him Primetime Ced. Ced always comes through when it’s primetime.
But the communication has gotten better with me and him, how he sees things, how I see things.
But like you said, we’ve been throwing so much of our routes to [wide receiver] Jaylen [Waddle], to [wide receiver] Tyreek [Hill], and kind of being grooved with those guys that a lot of our other guys, we need to continue to work those things every day.
Q. Being here all week, do you think that might have made a impact?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: Well, I think as we got here, we did feel a little jet lagged. I think if we were to come a little later — I don’t know the science behind all of that, but for me personally, I’m actually kind of glad we got to come earlier because of the jet lag. We got to experience some of Germany, as well, so that was cool.
Q. It was your first time in Germany; how would you compare the crowd to the crowd that you’d have in Kansas City?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: Well, it’s cool. I think if we were in Kansas City, there would probably be “let’s go defense” if Kansas City’s offense was playing. But I thought it was cool with their chants to some of the songs. It was nice. I appreciated playing here.
Q. [Wide receiver] Tyreek [Hill] has been so supportive of you since you met. Did you have some words for him after the fumble near the end of the first half?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: Well, no. It’s one of those deals where we don’t have time to talk about it then. We’ve got to go back out there and try to make something happen, try to put points on the board. As we came in, we had a conversation, like hey, don’t worry about that, like let’s get our guys going. He was on the same page, and all our leaders were. I wish we could have a couple plays back, but outside of that, sometimes that’s how the cookie crumbles and that’s how the games go. We’re going to have to take this one, learn from it, and move on.
Q. Against Philly and against Kansas City, two big chances against (inaudible), is that something you feel?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: Of course. It’s always something we go back and look at, and we think, man, if we would have made this play or if I would have made this throw. That’s a part of the game. It’s a game of inches. All we can continue to do is work and not lose sight of where we want to go as a team. We’ve got to continue to stick together and not deviate from that, regardless of what everyone outside is saying, and we’ve just got to put our head down and keep going.
Q. Any message for the Dolphins fans that traveled overseas for this game?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: Yeah, big shout-out to the Dolphins fans. Thank you guys so much. We understand it wasn’t the outcome you guys wanted to see but thank you for the support. Thank you for the love. We definitely feel it.
Q. You were an exceptional team the second half. Was there anything you changed at halftime to adjust that, and who made those changes?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: There weren’t many changes I’d say as we came into the second half offensively. Really it was just we get a good drive going and then it gets stopped by whether it’s a penalty, miscommunication from something we didn’t really communicate, and it had a lot to do with things like that on our end. I think if we can continue to work at that and clean those things up that we’ll be better for it.
