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Tua Tagovailoa – December 6, 2020 (Postgame) Download PDF version

Sunday, December 6, 2020
Postgame – Cincinnati

QB Tua Tagovailoa

(Congrats on the win. Head Coach Brian Flores just talked about how good you looked in practice and the confidence that they had to have you start out there. How did you feel? You obviously threw for almost 300 yards. If you could specifically talk about the third quarter. It seemed like you had a lot clicking there after coming out of halftime.) – “The thumb felt good. I think – you know, on my behalf, I need to help our guys start a lot faster offensively. I think the guys knew what we wanted to do as far as our game plan, but I wasn’t really playing in-sync with how the guys were out there as well. I think things started to click starting towards the end of the first half. And then second half, we kind of knew what we wanted to do going into the second half.”

(Your first four games, you and TE Mike Gesicki had eight completions together. Today you had nine. So clearly that rapport is building. Could you kind of explain how your relationship on the field is getting better?) – “I think it’s not just with Mike (Gesicki), although I do believe Mike had a great game. He’s made a good amount of contested catches. He made some amazing catches. But I think it’s with everyone. Whoever I see is open, that’s who I’m going to try to give the ball to. Mike put himself in the position to be open most of the game, and so I tried to give him an opportunity and he did what he did.”

(What was it about the up-tempo style that allowed you to get into a groove as an offense?) – “I think, when you’re on the ball and you’re going fast, it confuses the defense because they need to get lined up. They can’t get their right call in at times. Then when you have guys motioning, it confuses up their call, if they have a blitz on or what coverage they’re going to run. So I think the up-tempo things that we did in the second half really helped us to get the ball rolling.”

(How are you? Obviously, you saw a lot of this chippiness out there today. It seemed like – you know, there were five ejections and we saw Head Coach Brian Flores get upset. What is it like for you as a player when you see “Flo” upset when Jakeem takes that hit and kind of wanting to defend him and you guys?) – “Well, I think it speaks a lot to ‘Flo’s’ (Head Coach Brian Flores) character – how much it means to him that, you know, his player got hit, and it wasn’t the first time. It was the second time. It just means a lot. He’s not just a coach out there. If his guy gets hurt, he’s not going to let it go. He stands up for us as a team. You got to see, not just him, but other guys going in there trying to defend Jakeem (Grant) and whatnot. But I think it’s a testament – although it happened the way it did, it’s also a testament to how close we are as a team.”

(Did you see the difference in your play for you personally, between the first half and the second and the way you played in the second half as part of more of your growth, things you’re learning in this league, and how to make those adjustments so it doesn’t turn into a full bad game?) – “Yeah, I think in all these games, they’re all great learning experiences for me seeing the defense, how they’re pressuring, when they’re going to their 4-1 look, their 3-2 look. You know, knowing what to expect as well. I think (Offensive Coordinator) Chan (Gailey) really put us in a good situation, really the first half and the second half. The biggest thing was I just didn’t go out there and execute. Everyone was clicking on the offense except me, and it took the second half for me to regroup with our guys and for us to go down and march the ball down the field.”

(What changed at halftime that allowed you to find what you needed to find? What did you do differently?) – “I’d say the only thing that was different was our tempo. We just got on the ball, and then we played. The question previous, the reason we did that was, it confuses the defense not to get into their calls that they want to get into whether it’s a pressure call or a coverage call. So I think that was our only adjustment. We’ve just got to play football. That was it.”

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