Tua Tagovailoa – October 27, 2024 (Postgame)
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Sunday, October 27, 2024
Postgame – Arizona Cardinals
QB Tua Tagovailoa
Q: What was it like to finally be back out there? How are you feeling having gone through the game?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: It feels good. It feels good to be able to come back and play with my teammates, to hopefully help in whatever way I can to get a spark going for us offensively or get the mojo going for the entire team. It feels good but a tough loss today against a really good team, so that diminishes not just what I’ve done, but a lot of what other guys have done individually as well.
Q: Did you feel like you were in a pretty good rhythm, did you feel like yourself early on? Or did it take a while to start settling into a rhythm?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: I would say I felt like myself. Like I said, I’ve been preparing for five weeks as if I were to play while I was on IR so that’s what it was. So it felt normal coming out there.
Q: You came back to a tough spot. You guys are 2-5 now. What’s next for this team?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: We got to keep chopping wood. That’s it. Keep chopping wood. Don’t look for any external motivation from anyone. Just look within. What can we do to get better? What can we do to continue to encourage each other? Because that’s what it takes. It takes everyone inside that locker room if we want to get to where we want to go.
Q: What did you think about the crowd’s reaction when you had the scramble and you slid and the crowd roared and chanted your name. What did you think of that?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: I thought that was super cool. It was super cool. I think anyone would think that’s awesome.
Q: You said you recognized sort of the need to make adjustments to remain available. Do you think that played out today in any way?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: What do you think?
Q: It looked that way.
TUA TAGOVAILOA: Yeah, so I would definitely agree with you. I’m just trying to avoid the big hits if I can. Sometimes they’re unavoidable. If there’s a free rusher and you got to get the ball out, you take a hit, but just for me putting myself in those situations, I would say just obviously for the past five weeks, I have been able to just really think and ponder about my decisions.
Q: A lot of good plays today but the one negative was the safety. What happened on that one?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: I got to catch the ball. That’s it. So, yeah.
Q: Do you have any lingering hesitation or nerves — did you have any lingering hesitations or nerves before you actually played?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: No.
Q: So there was nothing unresolved?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: No.
Q: How do you balance being aggressive and playing without thinking but also like you were talking about having to be mindful of the positions you put yourself in?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: I think it’s just continuing to practice that in practice, kind of having a different mindset when running the ball or when I’m trying to escape the pocket and there’s nothing there, not trying to be a hero, just things like that.
Q: How well do you feel the offense played as a unit?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: Well, I think there’s a lot of things we can continue to get better at. As a unit, we look to end the drive with points every time we’re out there. I believe we’re too talented to not end drives with points, so we got to go take a look at what we can continue to do to get better for our team, to put points on the board so that a situation like that doesn’t happen.
Q: What was the feeling at the end as the Cardinals are running down the clock and it’s kind of a helpless situation when you’re just watching the game?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: That’s exactly what I would say the (offense) felt, just helpless. We didn’t get another opportunity to go out there and give our team a chance to hopefully put some points on the board. So yeah, it’s not a good feeling.
Q: How much of an emphasis was it today to get WR Tyreek Hill involved in the game?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: It was an emphasis to get everyone involved in the game. For sure Tyreek, but as you can see with how they played their defense, they were really keying ‘Reek and trying to keep a shield over him and when they did give us opportunities we tried to take advantage of those, with those one-on-ones with ‘Reek. Outside of that, we were just playing the plays as they were, reading it out.
Q: You were 11-of-15 on third downs. What was the key to what you guys had there?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: I would say good Thursday practices with that. I would say everyone’s been locked in with – what I would say is what I expect of them with where to be on the field, knowing what to do in certain looks and whatnot. I would say that’s a testament to the guys in studying within their playbook.
Q: Is there enough time left in the season to recover?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: I think there’s always time, brother. There’s always time. Seventeen games. That’s a long time. A lot of games. So whether we’re counted out or we’re not, it doesn’t matter. We’re going to continue to play football. A lot of people in here know that I don’t know how many years ago we started out 1-7. We didn’t have half the guys that we have, and no disrespect to my other teammates, but I’m talking about the talent that we have here, we didn’t have half that talent however many years ago. So to give that group respect, we won the next (seven) games and I’m not saying we’re going to do that or whatnot, but it is possible. Anything’s possible. So we’re going to continue to trust each other, lean on each other, believe in each other, and we’re going to go do it next week.
Q: What are your thoughts as the next team you face will be the Buffalo Bills.
TUA TAGOVAILOA: I’ve got no thoughts. We’ve got to beat them. They’re good. It’s the same thing over and over. You’ve got to beat them.
Q: What happened after the — when TE Jonnu Smith got the first down, those three plays after, was there anything in particular that Arizona was doing?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: Yeah, there wasn’t anything new that they showed us. It was just poor execution offensively on our standpoint and I would say those are plays and that’s a series we wish we could have had back.
Q: When you see the team two weeks in a row lose a game after having a 10-point lead, what is it that you guys have to do to correct that?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: We just got to continue to play complementary football. That’s all it is.
Q: This doesn’t really have anything to do with this game, but we didn’t get a chance to ask on Monday. After the Week 2 game, fans donated I think it was $18,000, $20,000 to the Tua Foundation. Is that something you were aware of in the moment or what was your reaction when you saw that?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: It wasn’t something I was aware of at the moment. I do want to say a big thank you to those fans and then I was told that a good amount of them were Bills fans as well. It is kind of a love/hate thing. It’s hard to hate them, also hard to love them sort of deal. So I really appreciate it from the Bills fans and then also to fans in general, just thank you.
