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Tua Tagovailoa – January 13, 2024 (Postgame) Download PDF version

Saturday, Jan. 13, 2024
Postgame – Kansas City Chiefs

Miami Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa

Q: What are the feelings about this loss right now after having so much hope for the playoffs?

TAGOVAILOA: “It sucks, brother. Losing sucks in general. It doesn’t feel good, I’ll tell you that.”

Q: The offense has struggled the last couple of games. What do you attribute that to?

TAGOVAILOA: “It’s a team sport. We didn’t come together the way we wanted to offensively. It showed tonight. As the leader of that offense, it really started with practices. That’s how we should’ve got things going, was in practice, with the communication, knowing where we should be going in this loud environment. Those miscues lead to delay of games. We can’t change the protection because we don’t have enough time, things like that. It was communication errors.”

Q: How did the cold feel today?

TAGOVAILOA: “Yeah, it was a little difficult in the beginning. We sort of figured out a plan with how we went about that later on in the game. It was different.”

Q: Did you guys come out wanting to run the ball a little more than you usually have done this season?

TAGOVAILOA: “I think anyone can play the what-if game, but tonight’s ordeal was what we decided to put out there and that’s what happened. We can’t change that, can’t go back, can only learn from it and move forward from that.”

Q: How would you describe this season?

TAGOVAILOA: “I would say there’s been a lot of ups and downs. There were a lot of guys that started out the season with us and weren’t able to finish the season with us. A lot of ups and downs with injuries. For our team, we never want to use any of those things as an excuse. We’re not going to use that as an excuse. That’s what I would say for how the year went, ups and downs.”

Q: With how this season ended, do you feel any pressure for next season?

TAGOVAILOA: “I don’t feel any pressure at all. I have full trust in myself. I have full trust in what I’m capable of doing for our organization, but outside of that, we’re focusing on tonight and what happened. We’re going to simmer on this and see what we can do to get better from it for next year.”

Q: Is your expectation to get something done with your contract this offseason?

TAGOVAILOA: “I’m not worried about that right now. Right now, this is a moment for the guys in that locker room and our team to be with one another, to sulk in this and learn from it.”

Q: What was the overall mood in the locker room after the game?

TAGOVAILOA: “It wasn’t good, brother. Like I said, losing is never fun. When stakes are higher, when it’s playoff time, you feel that maybe ten times more I would say, whether it’s a win or a loss. We’ve got to live with that loss.”

Q: What went wrong late in this season on third down?

TAGOVAILOA: “I would say just being efficient on first and second down. That’s what I would say to that. Like I said, there has been some communication errors and things like that. We can’t do that.”

Q: Did you get a feeling during the week that practices maybe weren’t as sharp as you’d like?

TAGOVAILOA: “Some of it gets tough because as we have the practices, we start with walk throughs and guys nail those. When we came out to practice the next day, on Thursday, it looked crisp. There were maybe some things that we all could have gotten better at. This is what we showed today, and it wasn’t up to our standard.”

Q: The Chiefs seemed to have a lot of success on their blitzes. Was that something that you guys just haven’t seen before or just missed execution?

TAGOVAILOA: “I would attest that to the communication errors that we’ve had. Am I hearing the right formation? Okay, we’re getting out but we have two motions that we have to use. Then there’s maybe nine seconds left on the clock, and we’re motioning. Now it’s about five seconds and we don’t have time to change so now we’ve got to play and we’ve got to through where our hots would be but they pressured. Spags [Defensive Coordinator Steve Spagnuolo] had a good plan. They executed well against us.”

Q: What is the biggest thing that you think you need to change in order for the team to go further next season?

TAGOVAILOA: “I would say right now, we have the greatest opportunity to be with one another. We’re going to look back on this season and figure that out.”

Q: How much do you think the injuries you guys had affected you this season?

TAGOVAILOA: “Like I said, I’m not going to use injuries as something that only we dealt with. We’re not the only team that dealt with that. I would say it did hurt not having the guys that we started with, being able to work with a lot of them throughout OTAs. Maybe there are some things that you don’t need to tell them, that they already would know and things like that. You go out there, everyone in this league is a professional. You’ve got to go out there and play and give it your best shot.”

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