Tua Tagovailoa – September 14, 2022
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Wednesday, September 14, 2022
QB Tua Tagovailoa
(Not a Dolphins football question. You’re going to be in Maryland this week. Will you get a chance to check out your brother play?) – “I’m not too sure. I know they play a night game. I don’t know what time we arrive there, so we’ll see. I’ll have to ask Mike (McDaniel) about that and then kind of see if that interrupts meetings or whatnot.”
(Getting to review your Week 1 win, what were your takeaways and how are you feeling?) – “I would say there’s a lot of things that we wish we had back in the game. Obviously, the first play, we wish we had back. There’s other plays that we wish we had back, too, but it was great to look at them and learn from and then move on to this week against the Ravens.”
(How much – I know you played them last year, the Ravens, but they have a new defensive coordinator – early viewing the film, how much is different?) – “I would say he has his own style of defense with the guys that he has out there. And it accommodates all the guys that are out there and their talents. I don’t know how he’s going to match up their guys with our guys this week, but I’m sure he has a good blend.”
(What excites you about going into a hostile road environment against a very good football team?) – “I mean, opportunity. The opportunity for us as a team to show what kind of team we have. This is our first road game against a really good team, and we have a chance to go out there and do something special. Now it’s going to be a first of crowd noise while we’re on offense and having to deal with communicating out there, so we’ll see how we want to go about that.”
(What do you think of the possibility that you could be without two starting tackles? You also had to have some shuffling o-linemen in Week 1.) – “Yeah, I think that that was kind of awesome. Not that our guys got hurt, but it was awesome that guys stepped up and when their numbers were called, they stepped right in and it didn’t seem as if we kind of missed a step. So I know that Austin (Jackson) is day-to-day and I know that Terron (Armstead) is also doing his best to get back out there with us.”
(There were a couple plays late in the game against the Patriots where you started to go down and then it looked like you were trying to throw the ball away at the last second. How do you balance whether to eat it or throw the ball away, trying to save a sack?) – “Yeah, I would say it’s hard as a quarterback. You’re wanting to make plays. But at the same time, you don’t want to want to lose the field position that you have, knowing you’re in field goal range. So I would say just on my part, I’ve just got to be smarter in those instances. Sometimes it’s not bad taking a sack as opposed to turning it over.”
(Speaking of being under pressure, what was your feeling during the game, just with your decision-making? And when you look at the tape, I know you’re getting better and better at that. We’re seeing it and I’m sure you’re feeling it, but just what are your observations? And what is your feeling after Game 1?) – “Yeah, there’s a lot of things that we need to clean up offensively. There was some miscommunication with plays and then there were also some other things that that were happening that we weren’t able to get plays in on time from my perspective, to tell guys where to go, where to line up and what to do. And so that’s just something that we’ve got to clean up this week and we’ll go out and try to execute a lot better.”
(It was your first time out with both WR Jaylen Waddle and WR Tyreek Hill at wide receiver. What did you think? You were able to obviously to get the ball to Tyreek quite a bit and with Waddle you connected on a touchdown. So what did it tell you about the future working with those two guys?) – “There’s still a lot of work to be done. I couldn’t tell you what the future is going to be like. I couldn’t foresee the future and tell you, ‘hey, we’re going to throw this many touchdowns to this guy or this many touchdowns to that guy.’ All I can tell you is those are two really, really good players. They’re really fast and they make plays for our team. So we’re going to continue to use those guys in our game plans and we’ll see where we go from there.”
(Head Coach Mike McDaniel said the game plan initially was to get TE Mike Gesicki more involved in the offense. What ultimately happened to not allow it to work out?) – “I would say a lot of plays breaking down and having to move to find other guys. So yeah, I mean, it’s just playing football.”
(You had mentioned the summer you keep a pretty tight circle as far as people you let into that circle. I was just curious if there was maybe a moment or just in general some things that Coach McDaniel kind of did to get himself into that circle with you.) – “I mean, first would be the Luau. On the first occasion that I can remember him showing interest and that’s where I would say our relationship has grown and built from there. And then a lot of conversations with him in his office. And not just him calling me up there, but me going up there by myself just to talk to him.”
(Just to piggyback from there, how would you compare your relationship with Head Coach Mike McDaniel maybe to other coaches you’ve had in your life?) – “Yeah, Mike (McDaniel) – I don’t know. It’s different because Mike is different. Mike’s not your stereotypical head coach, if you will. He’s not a screamer. He’s not a yeller. If you mess up on a play, you’re not the worst player in the world. ‘Why did you mess up on that play? How can we help you fix that?’ I would say very reasonable teacher and very reasonable coach.”
(We were joking that we got kind of lucky during training camp because we never got rained on, but was this maybe your guys’ first practice in the rain too today? What was that like and obviously I know that’s something you wanted to work on, too, this offseason.) – “Yeah, this was our first practice in the rain, and it started raining pretty good throughout practice, but I thought it was good. We worked on some wet ball drills, being able to throw it in the rain and I thought it was pretty good for us.”
(Was it fun?) – “Yeah, I mean, it’s fun when it’s not hot and you don’t have to drink as much water. (laughter)”
(If I can ask, I’ve never played quarterback before. How different, like what do you have to think about when you’re throwing in those conditions versus otherwise?) – “The ball gets slippery. That’s it. But yeah, I would say other than that, that’s the only thing. You’ve just got to make sure you secure the ball when the ball is snapped as well.”
(One more, I guess, last year, when you guys played the Ravens, that kind of sparked a nice little win streak for you guys. Do you think that this team is going to come back and maybe have something to prove against you guys?) – “Yeah, I would say every team is looking to prove themselves this season, not just the Ravens against us, but every team. For us, we’re looking at it as an opportunity and we’re hoping to go out there and get their best and know that they’re going to get our best.”
(You had a couple of passes that kind of skipped to their targets last game. Was it more mechanically or hesitancy that kind of led to it?) – “Yeah, I would say it was the timing of the play. Some plays, I was a little fast within my footwork and some plays, I was a little slower and having to speed up. So that’s what I would say about that. It’s just the timing of the plays.”
(What does practice actually do for a Sunday? Like, what can you get better at these two days that can actually help you Sunday?) – “Yeah, I mean you want the way you practice to translate to how you play in the game. And so that’s why we work a lot on timing. We work a lot on where guys need to be and for me, if I – for instance, if we have a slant, and we have an over the ball player, and another player in the alley and a flat, for me, I can’t see because I’m not the biggest guy out there. So if I can’t see you, you can’t see me and I can’t get you the ball. And spacing with the guys. So if you can’t see me, get somewhere to where you can see me, then I can see you, then I can hit you. And then even within our walkthroughs, that’s kind of what I use practice for.”
