Before Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa returned to the lineup on Sunday night for the first time since he suffered a concussion in Week Four, he spoke to Maria Taylor of NBC Sports about what he learned from his experience.
Tagovailoa said he’s always been a player who tries to make something happen, but that the last couple of weeks drove home the importance of “the longevity of me just being able to be the quarterback for this team and not try to make something out of nothing.” Once Tagovailoa was on the field, though, the prospect of making a play seemed to win out.
Tagovailoa lowered his shoulder and plowed into Steelers defenders multiple times while running during the 16-10 Dolphins win.
“I wasn’t trying to be Superman or super hero,” Tagovailoa said, via Tom D’Angelo of the Palm Beach Post. “I was just looking at the situation . . . I can see the first down. To me they were close calls, ‘OK maybe if I do just put my shoulder down hopefully I can get forward progress with this.’”
Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel didn’t endorse Tagovailoa’s approach, but also said it is difficult to get a player to fully alter his approach in the heat of the moment.
“You know, it’s hard,” McDanel said in his postgame press conference. “Was I advising him to do that? I think no. I think he immediately the next series after the first time he did it, he was like, ‘Coach, I’m sorry. I needed that.’ I was like, all right. But it is football, and he’s going to protect himself, and he’s got that component to his game where he’s a competitor and he’s trying to get a first down for his team. I’m never going to totally encourage that at all. I’m probably going to advise him to slide every time, but when push comes to shove and a guy has the ball in his hands, it’s going to be tough to get him to completely turn it down, although I will try.”
Tagovailoa emerged from the game without further injury, which means that the Dolphins can work on ways to avoid the kinds of hits he took on Sunday night while also looking for ways to keep scoring points after halftime in the weeks to come.
