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Tua Tagovailoa – December 20, 2020 (Postgame) Download PDF version

Sunday, December 20, 2020
Postgame – New England

QB Tua Tagovailoa

(Obviously 242 rushing yards is a pretty impressive number for any team. But when you have that kind of success on the ground, how much does that help the quarterback?) – “Well, I think when you have that kind of success in the run game, it doesn’t just help the quarterback. I think it helps the entire team. I think the o-line did a great job today. I think our running backs did a great job as well finding the lanes that the o-line gave them and picking their spot in the hole and getting us yards that we needed. I think that was the big reason as to why we were successful offensively today and that helped us in our passing game as well.”

(Obviously playing without WR DeVante Parker, TE Mike Gesicki, WR Jakeem Grant, WR Preston Williams for a couple weeks as well, how did you do it with the guys out there today? How did you feel about their performance?) – “I think all the guys did good, from the wideouts, the slots, the running backs. In every week, we go into preparing for a game, it’s always next-guy-up mentality. Knowing that we weren’t going to have Jakeem (Grant) and we weren’t going to have ‘D.P.’ (DeVante Parker), I mean, that’s tough; but you’ve got to get a good groove with the guys that you’re given, and we went out there and did our best to make that work.”

(You had a couple rushing touchdowns, but I want to ask you about the one where you were scrambling. It looked like you put a juke move on a guy and drug another guy in. Do you, does that, is that some moves, some more moves that your teammates didn’t expect from you?) – “Yeah, well, I tried to do everything I could to get in the end zone. I just got to work a little bit more on some other dance moves I got going. (laughter)”

(Two quick questions for you: How important was it for the third quarter for you there to come out and direct a scoring drive right out of the bat? The second one is, as you look ahead to next week just what are your thoughts on the possibility of seeing Raiders QB Marcus Mariota back there in Vegas?) – “I think that would be awesome seeing Marcus (Mariota) because me and Kamu (Gurgier-Hill), we’re from Hawaii. Marcus is from Hawaii. Me and Marcus went to the same high school. I think that will be something pretty cool, something special. But I think going into the third quarter, we wanted to start better than we did in the first half. I think the first half we did pretty well, but the decision I made down there in the red area kind of put us back a little bit and kind of kept the Patriots in the game. And that whole first half, I was drowning. That was my fault because we had points there and I tried to force that. So third quarter and fourth quarter, second half, we just wanted to come out and take what the defense gave us, and then you guys saw what the o-line and the running backs were doing.”

(I’m wondering if you could speak to the resiliency of this team, not only given all the guys who were out today, but there were several plays that looked like they went very much in your favor and then upon a review, or what have you, it was overturned. How did you manage to overcome all of that?) – “Well, you’ve got to have that next-play mentality and then one-play-at-a-time mentality after that. So I think that’s what we did as a team, both offense and defensively, and then you can include the special teams in there as well. Whatever opportunity we were given, we tried to make the best out that have opportunity and when all else fails, we try to revert back to our rules and what we have gone over in practice.”

(I think today was your sixth start. How would you assess how you played, not just today, but throughout your first season?) – “I think there’s a lot of things that I need to continue to work on. It’s a continuing learning process for me as well. Going up against a Bill Belichick defense, that was a tough challenge for us offensively. But like I said, I think the offensive line did a tremendous job and, in both the run and the pass game, and then you also had the running backs doing their thing as well. But after this game, we’re just going to enjoy it. We’re moving on to the next game.”

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