The anticipation for Tua Tagovailoa’s comeback was high. It sounded like desperation. When you score only 40 points total in your previous four games and the record sinks to 2-4, your season is wobbling.
You need your quarterback back. As much, you need your hope back.
Tagovailoa carried all of that with him Sunday into his first NFL game in 45 days, since his Sept. 12 concussion vs . rival Buffalo.
They announced his name last during pregame introductions, and the ovation from the standing home crowd was a roar a month and a half in the making. Receiver Tyreek Hill had said to his disappointed fantasy-team owners: “We’re back, baby. Start me this week, baby, let’s go!”
And Tagovailoa did not disappoint. Miami’s offense was not crazy-good and Tagovailoa’s stats did not leap and shout, but he did enough that his return was worth the wait, rust and all.
If only his defense had not let him down late.
The Dolphins never trailed except at the final gun in a 28-27 loss to the Arizona Cardinals. They were ahead 27-25, when the Dolphins D gave up a 73-yard, losing field goal drive in the closing minutes. Miami is now 2-5.
“It feels good to come back and get the spark going offensively. But a tough loss for the whole team,” Tagovailoa said afterward. “It diminishes what we’ve done and what most of the other guys have done individually as well. We gotta keep choppin’ wood. Don’t look for any external motivation from anyone. It takes everyone from inside that locker room if we wanna get to where we wanna get.””
Tagovailoa finished an accurate 28 for 38 for 234 yards, including a 12-yard scoring pass to De’Von Achane and no interceptions. He took one sack, and got up from it fine as fans held their breath. He will be ready for next week’s trip to (uh-oh) Buffalo.
“We absolutely had every chance to win it,” said coach Mike McDaniel. “There were critical mistakes that was tough to overcome.”
Tagovailoa was not perfect. He fumbled early, and again on a muffed snap, but Dolphins recoveries masked the mistakes. Later a high snap sailed over Tuagovailoa’s head and out of the end zone for Cardinals safety. His only true deep pass (for Hill) was badly underthrown.
Still, he was good (enough), given the time off.
A couple of moments stood out.
One was a 30-yard strike down the sideline, the Fins’ longest pass play of the afternoon. The crowd’s noise was bedlam for the good old days. meaning last season.
Later, Tagovailoa slid after a 12-yard run before any defender could touch him — what he’s supposed to do but hasn’t always done. The fans made maybe their loudest noise of the day. The QB leaped up, pointed forward and nodded, as if to say, “See, I’m learning.” Moments later he hit Achane for the TD.
“Avoid the big hits if I can,” the QB said that play.
Teammate Calais Campbell was on the sideline screaming, “Slide! Slide!”
After he did, a “Tua!” chant bloomed.
“It’s what I forecast he would do,” said coach Mike McDaniel of the slide. “I was pretty excited.”
Tagovailoa was a sharp 5 for 6 on the opening series that ended with a Raheem Mostert 1-yard scoring run and 7-0 lead. He was 11 for 12 after a 53-yard field goal made it 10-0.
After an Arizona TD the Fins drove 88 yards but settled for a short field goal and a 13-7 advantage at the half.
Then came Achane’s TD catch, and then the Zona safety that made it a one-score game again.
Kyler Murray’s 22-yard TD pass to Marvin Harrison Jr. drew the Cards within 20-18 — but a would-be tying 2-point run attempt by James Conner got stuffed on a great stop by linebacker Jordyn Brooks as the third quarter waned.
Miami made it 27-18 on Mostert’s 6-yard scoring run. But Arizona countered with Conner’s 2-yard score for an anxious 27-25 Dolphins lead with 8:47 to play.
That’s when the defensive collapse began happening. Miami would allow 307 passing yards, with zero sacks.
Tim Bowens, the stalwart 1994-2004 Fins defensive tackle inducted into the clubs’ Ring of Honor at halftime — Miami could have used him out there when the Cardinals were plowing 73 yards for the late winning field goal.
“Missed opportunities,” said the defender Campbell. “It’s tough.”
Said McDaniel: “Pardon my French but nobody we play the rest of the year will give a [expletive] about our problems. We’re 2-5. It’s disappointing. It’s frustrating. Hard lessons. They have to be lessons learned if you want it to change. It’s magnified by situations we put ourselves in. It is testing us for sure. But I feel very good about the human genes we have to be all in with each other, which has not been enough. We have to fix it.”
Miami now at 2-5 will be a big underdog in Buffalo next week but thereafter faces the Rams, Raiders and Patriots in a row — winnable games all.
“There’s always time, brother. Seventeen games? That’s a long time, whether people count us out or not,” Tagovailoa said. “We’re gonna do it next week [at Buffalo]/ We gotta beat them. Same thing over and over.”
It is hard to envision a rally into playoff contention from this, but Tua’s return to health at least brings some of that.
He should .
It is what the Dolphins are paying him for, handsomely. The four-year contract extension worth $212.4 million he signed just before the season demands he be a difference-maker, a team-lifter.
I have seen written and heard said that he can’t be expected to be a super-hero and make everything right upon his return. I don.t buy it. He isn’t being paid to be a game-manager. He is being paid to be the Pro Bowl star he was last season when fully healthy. He is being paid to be the QB who had Tyreek Hill on a record 2,000-yard pace for a time last year.
He is being paid to deliver points, and hope.
He did both Sunday, with Miami’s highest-scoring game of the season.
It should have been enough to win.
He should have trotted off the field to the embrace of cheering fans, but Miami’s late defensive wilt rewrote that storybook ending and turned the stadium quiet.
Local News
Comments / 0