Tua Tagovailoa – December 4, 2022 (Postgame)
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Sunday, December 4, 2022
Postgame – San Francisco
QB Tua Tagovailoa (Transcribed by San Francisco 49ers)
(Obviously, you were on the injury report earlier this week, can you just update with us how you’re feeling overall?) – “Yeah, sucks. It sucks that we didn’t come out and say what we wanted to do collectively as a team. Obviously, it starts with me offensively, turnovers with third downs, communication errors. In that retrospect, it’s hard to win a game when you’re not on your Ps and Qs, and you’re not dialed in. So a lot of that has to do with just understanding what we’re trying to accomplish and what we’re trying to do.”
(We’re accustomed to seeing you be more accurate, when you look back at the film, do you think it’ll just be a matter of missing certain guys? What do you think you’ll see?) – “Yeah, definitely missing guys in certain areas. There’s also some miscommunication of where guys should be breaking, where they’re setting their angles on certain routes, things like that. But it definitely was a poor performance from my part in that aspect of the game.”
(You hit the big plays, but how hard was it to sustain that defense over the course of the game?) – “Yeah, it was tough, and we knew what we were playing against – a really good front, you look at the linebackers that they have, very intuitive and then their safeties with how they try to mix in their coverages of making things look the same. Not easy being in the back there and then having that kind of pressure and trying to read it at the same time. So they had a great gameplan for us. We were hoping to have a lot more chances to make some plays, but we didn’t. We had a lot of opportunities offensively and didn’t capitalize. So that’s the result of the game.”
(Did you come out of it OK health-wise after the last hit?) – “Yeah, I would say as good as I can be coming off of a game. We’ll assess some things but as good as I can be.”
(When you think about some or all of the third-down plays in today’s game what, if anything, are some common denominators or what stands out about third down today?) – “Execution. Execution and executing those plays. It’s not what we did today, and that was the result of a lot of three and outs from what it felt like offensively. No one really to blame but myself, so we’ll be better from this.”
(What kind of stood out to you on the third down interceptions? Especially on the one to RB Jeff Wilson Jr., what happened there?) – “It was just poor ball placement and nothing more than that. That was just bad.”
(How would you assess the pass protection? You had two back up tackles playing, how did they do?) – “Yeah, I think they did really good, stepping up against really good edge rushers. And it’s not just their edge rushers, their interior rushers are really, really strong to be able to push the pocket and allow those guys to collapse. I think they did a phenomenal job. We’ll take a look at the tape and see what we can get better at offensively.”
(The fourth-and-1 from your own 19, down six points, obviously that’s one the plays that worked. What was going through your mind when you heard you guys were going for it?) – “Just get the first down. That’s all that was. Never thought like, ‘Oh, this is the biggest moment of the game’ or whatnot. I just knew that, ‘OK, Mike’s calling this play and putting the ball in my hands, giving me that decision to either hand it off, or throw it, or run it.’ So just the belief that he had in me, for us to go down and convert on that. I would say the same with our other fourth down that we had where we weren’t able to convert – tough. It’s tough. Even in that play, we had some errors on that play. But like I said, we’ll all look back at the film collectively as a unit offensively, and we’ll get better from it.”
(The two touchdowns that you did have, could you break down each play? The opening play to WR Trent Sherfield and then the one to WR Tyreek Hill?) – “Our personnel, we were in 20, I think they were in base, so really they had no adjustments to the bunch. They just had their linebackers stacked inside. They ended up bringing a guy off the edge to that side. So there was a little pocket or there was a little area that was voided. So we gave Trent (Sherfield) the ball and Trent turned that into a touchdown. And then on the other play, we went fast on the ball, and we saw quarters. They gave us the right coverage for the right play and we took a shot.”
(Because some of the passes were high, the broadcast team was wondering whether maybe you were a little bit emotionally charged or a little juiced for the game. How did you feel in terms of your preparation and your emotions entering the game and joining the team?) – “I felt like myself during the game. Like I said, there’s instances where I just flat out wasn’t getting the ball directly to our guys. But there were also instances where there were miscommunications of, I thought I was supposed to be here, whereas normally you’re here. So just communication errors, and like I said and will continue to keep saying, we’ll get better from those.”
(So as far as this season, this was the first time that you started and finished the game healthy and lost. What was the message from Head Coach Mike McDaniel after the loss?) – “I’ve also been on the other side of that, where I have played in this organization and we have lost games. This isn’t something that is new, where we’re on a win streak and then we end up losing and we can’t find our rhythm. I would say this is nothing for us to worry about, but it is an opportunity for us to get better from. So don’t think that we’re taking this lightly and we’re just going to move on from it. It’s a great opportunity for us that we will use and take coming into the LA game next week.”
(Any thoughts on QB Brock Purdy and his performance coming in?) – “Yeah, I thought he did a tremendous job. Being a rookie, it’s hard in this league to do what he’s been asked to do. I know what it feels like to come into a game being a rookie. Just the poise that he had, doing what was asked of him with action fakes, with his drop back game, I think he did a great job.”
