Tua Tagovailoa – September 11, 2022 (Postgame)
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Sunday, September 11, 2022
Postgame – New England
QB Tua Tagovailoa (transcribed by ASAP Sports)
Can you talk about the confidence that Head Coach Mike McDaniel shows in this offense specifically to go for it on fourth down?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: I think he has a lot of confidence in us. You look at the way the game went. You know we got started a little slow, and then there were peaks where we were driving the ball down the field and we just couldn’t finish. There were also times where we had communication errors within our headset, and we couldn’t fully get the play communicated to the guys as well. So it was kind of on the fly things, like, ‘Hey, we don’t have a play. Let’s go to this play, or let’s just go to this play.’ All those things are things that we can clean up. I think Mike has the utmost confidence in us from things that we’ve shown in practice, from things that we’ve done throughout training camp and also when we’ve had joint practices.
So you embrace when it’s fourth down, and you guys — you embrace something like that?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: I love it, yeah. He has the utmost confidence in the entire offense. That’s why.
The play before half, just take us through the logistics of going for it on fourth down and then the play itself.
TUA TAGOVAILOA: I’m not too sure what the logistics are going for it on fourth down where we were on the field, but what I do know is (Head Coach) Mike (McDaniel) had confidence in us that when we did call that play, we were going to make it work. So we did make it work, and Jaylen (Waddle) ended up scoring for us. That was nice.
Head Coach Mike McDaniel said he didn’t want to make it about himself, but getting his first game as a head coach out of the way and getting the Gatorade bath celebration, just what was that like for the team and your thoughts on that?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: I thought that was awesome. It was awesome to see the team come together under (Head Coach) Mike McDaniel. That’s his first win as a head coach for the Miami Dolphins, so it’s something special. And he has always said that he wanted to come here and create something special. It’s just the beginning.
You guys did a lot of great things. Can you give us some breakdowns of the sack? You were sacked and had to throw the ball away at times. What do you take coming out of this?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: What I take coming out of this is what can we learn from this? We’ll go back, watch the film and then we’ll reassess and get back to work on Wednesday.
The team is honoring the anniversary for the 19772 team, and the quarterbacks was the group that was honored today. I want to know, have you had any chance to speak with Bob Griese? What have your conversations with him been like?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: I’ve never had the opportunity to speak with Bob Griese. The only person I’ve really been around has been Dan (Marino). I’ve had many conversations with Dan.
Head Coach Mike McDaniel said this is still the defense’s team until proven otherwise. What do you think when you hear that?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: You’ve seen what the defense was able to do for us. I would say they were the momentum changers for us with the interceptions and the turnovers that they had. Offensively, we just didn’t capitalize, but I think the overall picture with as much as we wanted to do offensively and as much as we didn’t get to do successfully offensively, we still came out with a win. So I think that’s a big positive for us.
There’s so much talk about WR Tyreek Hill and what he means to this offense. What was it like in Game 1 having that option and obviously the connection you have with him?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: I would say it’s a continuation of growing for the timing of me and Tyreek (Hill) continuing to learn what he likes, what he doesn’t like. It’s a continuation still with Jaylen (Waddle) and with all the other guys within our receiving corps.
Your first drive you had third-and-1, you throw a deep pass and then you are suggesting you were going to go for it on fourth-and-1, but the play didn’t get run because they jumped offsides. Is this a changed mindset from say your first couple of years of aggressiveness going forward on fourth-and-short?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: Well, I never thought that we would go for it, but (Head Coach) Mike (McDaniel) told me, ‘Stay in there; we’re going to go for it.’ We had calls that we wanted to call, and I wasn’t sure when we were going to call them. So with it being on the first drive, it was a little surprise, but really nothing should surprise me with Mike.
You were going to run the play?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: Yes, we were going to run a play.
Can you walk us through the touchdown pass to WR Jaylen Waddle? Did you have any flashes back to your days with him at University of Alabama?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: They were playing a one-high coverage. (Jaylen) Waddle ran his route and got open. I just gave him the ball, and he did the rest. I would say it was hard in the moment to have any sort of flashbacks of our time at Alabama. It was just awesome to see what he did with the ball after he caught it.
What did it feel like having WR Tyreek Hill for a whole game and being able to consistently go to him?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: It feels awesome. It feels awesome having someone like Tyreek (Hill). I’ll keep saying this, the dude is a cheat code. It’s not easy covering this guy when he’s motioning, running routes off of motions and doing his thing. I love it.
Would you like to be able to get to the running game a little bit earlier in the game and maybe set up play-action? Was that more of a plan today than you ended up doing?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: Our gameplan was to score points and as much points as we could. For us offensively, (Head Coach) Mike (McDaniel) says that our offense is not aggressive – that’s just the style that we play, whereas other people think it’s aggressive. For us whatever call Mike decides to choose for us to run, that’s what we’re going to run, whether it’s trying to set up a play-action pass or not. We’d like to do a little better in the run game, but I think that’s what the first week is for. We got all the jitters out. Everyone got their first real live action of a game and had all four quarters. Like I always say, we’ll go back into the film room, we’ll talk about it. We’ll go through it, get everything corrected and we’ll come back Wednesday.
You’re 4-0 against the Patriots. Not a lot of quarterbacks can say that in the past two decades. What’s it like against New England, and is there a heightened awareness when you have to go facing Bill Belichick?
TUA TAGOVAILOA: That’s not an individual accolade, and I don’t even look at it closely to being that. It’s a team sport, and this team has won four games straight against New England. However way you see, however way you put it, that’s what it is.
