Tua Tagovailoa – October 26, 2022
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Wednesday, October 26, 2022
QB Tua Tagovailoa
(Now that you’ve seen the film and had a few minutes to think it over a little more, I wanted to ask you again about how you judge when to lower your shoulder versus when to slide? How much is a risk-reward kind of thing coming into play as those plays are developing?) – “I looked at it. Obviously, I had my coaches telling me, ‘We don’t ever want you to do this.’ Obviously, I get that, coming off of the injury and what had happened prior with the concussion. But to me, it’s football. You go out there and for me, I can see the first down in instances, and want to do all that I can to go and get it. I don’t know. It’s football. I want to be able to continue making plays that I feel can contribute to moving the chains and helping our team. So whatever it takes for me, but then again, I’m going to tell you I’ve got to slide, I’ve got to do all of that. But instinctively, it’s just – I don’t know, it’s weird. It’s like a weird competitive thing.”
(How much can a second game back make a difference as someone who missed time, just having a home game under your belt and going back out a second time?) – “I think you start to get into a rhythm again. You start to get back into how your routine was coming off of the first week to the second week and then staying in that rhythm of doing things. So I think it’ll help a lot.”
(There was a moment in a pregame NBC interview that you did where you were talking about when you were first kind of being exposed to criticism at Alabama after the National Championship loss to Clemson, you said that you had spoken to like a mind coach or somebody. I was curious if you still speak to somebody to kind of work on that? And if not, what have you taken from that moment, that time, that you still keep to yourself now?) – “Of course, I definitely have someone that I speak to, and we have a routine of the times I talk to him, the days that I talk to him and things like that. But a lot of that has helped going through this entire process for myself, and it’s kind of helped, because a lot of the things that me and the person that I kind of have in my corner talk about is a lot of the things that (Head Coach) Mike (McDaniel) sort of reiterates, and Mike doesn’t even know who the guy is that I talk to. So I think that’s cool, and it helps me work on things that I need to work on in that sense.”
(When you look at the first drive on Sunday, how do you recreate that magic throughout the game this week?) – “Well, every game is different. We like to – our saying is, ‘Every play stands on its own merit.’ We like to think the same for every game. We understand that they’re a really good team. Obviously, their record doesn’t show but they play extremely hard, defensively, offensively and in the kicking game. They’re a really well-coached team. I’m speaking defensively, they play really hard. They’re well-coached. They run a variety of things that can confuse quarterbacks. So we’ll have to be prepared going up against these guys.”
(What have you seen from the Lions defense from a couple of days of film study?) – “Obviously, they’ve got their first-round draft pick (Aidan Hutchinson) who’s really looking comfortable, kind of fitting into their defensive scheme. We’ve seen some things that they do really well and we’re trying to nitpick on things that they don’t to try to give us in an advantage in this game. But they really – Jeff Okudah, a really good corner. He does a lot of good things, and you can see a lot of the traits that he has, you see them in really good corners. He’s really good getting his hands on receivers. He’s really good with sort of keeping track with fast guys or lanky guys once he gets his hands on them. So we’ll have to work our matchups, and then also, they’re a really good disguise team.”
(You mentioned they’re better than their record indicates. Do you have to remind guys to look at a team’s record when it’s a losing record?) – “I would say it’s not something that is necessarily spoken out in a locker room where guys are like, ‘Oh, this is going to be an easy win.’ But it’s never bad to remind the guys that this isn’t just like a college team we’re playing. These guys get paid too on the other side of the ball, whether you’re playing offense, defense or special teams. So I mean they’ve got some really good players. I know they’re still trying to figure out how to put everything together, but that doesn’t discredit a lot of the good things that they do.”
(I know you’re not in the receiver room per se, but we heard Wide Receivers Coach Wes Welker last week say WR Tyreek Hill tends to turn a lot of things into a competition – recognizing coverages, first to sit down, something like that. I was wondering if that’s something that you’ve noticed or participated in?) – “Well, yeah, he’s a very competitive person. I’ve known that since the day he came in, and whatever it is, ping pong – although the ping pong table is still not back. I don’t know, you guys have to ask Tyreek (Hill) about that. (laughter) In everything, the dude loves to play Fortnight – he’s very competitive in Fortnight, too. He loves to stream. (laughter) He wants to be the best streamer. I’m at least thinking he does, too. (laughter) But yeah, since I’ve met him, he’s been a very competitive person, always.”
(You guys are doing really well when you look at numbers like yards per play, yards per game, but the points per game aren’t matching up with the other two stats I cited. Where is the disconnect? What do you guys have to do better to get the points per game where you want it to be?) – “I think we’ve got to finish drives. At the end of the day, we’ve got to finish drives. I mean, we can march down the field to the 10-yard line and kick field goals every time, or we can march to the 30 (-yard line) and kick field goals every time, but I mean, that doesn’t matter if we’re not able to finish and put the ball in the end zone. So that’s something that we definitely got to hone-in on and we’ve got to get better with as far as communicating, executing and things like that.”
(We learned today about S Brandon Jones’ injury. When you were out, your teammates rallied behind you and wanted to win for you. Is this a similar scenario? Is this another motivation and added motivation to the team?) – “Yeah, I mean, Brandon (Jones) has – I don’t know how many of you guys talk to him, but Brandon has a pretty big impact on that defense. Outside of his impact on the defense, dudes love being around this guy. Whether it’s been on the ping pong table or just having a chat with this guy, guys rally around him. He’s a really good guy. He will definitely be missed. But I mean, for me, that’s my boy. His locker is next to mine, so that’s my guy. It sucks to see him go through that and his family have to go through that with him as well. But my thoughts and prayers are always with him, and (I’m) hoping that he can recover fast from this and come back stronger next year.”
(Your line kept you clean on Sunday night. What did you like about the protection?) – “Oh, I loved it. It was great. I think (Head Coach) Mike (McDaniel) schemed it up really well, too, only because we were getting the ball out quick. It was kind of hard, I think, for their d-line to get a feel with their rush patterns and then also get a feel of where the spot was for the quarterback. We were moving spots in the back there and not just catching the ball and dropping back. So I thought they did really well.”
