He entered the room with a heavy coronary heart, but he pressured nodded a small greeting. He even had one thing to say earlier than the laborious questions got here.
“Merry Christmas,” he mentioned to reporters.
A gentleman doesn’t overlook his manners, regardless of how dangerous a day he’s had. And Sunday was a nasty day for the Miami Dolphins quarterback by any soccer definition. Three interceptions within the fourth quarter. No factors within the second half. A fourth consecutive loss that has the Dolphins (8-7) stumbling to the playoffs — in the event that they even make it there.
A couple of minutes earlier, coach Mike McDaniel had condensed the 26-20 loss to the Green Bay Packers (7-8) right down to premature penalties and the Dolphins’ 4 turnovers to Green Bay’s one. That sounded about proper.
“The percentage of turning the ball over — what were we, minus-three?” McDaniel mentioned. “Yeah, you’re not going to win the ball game.”
Now Tagovailoa stood in the identical spot beneath Hard Rock Stadium and went via the interceptions now, one after the other, wound by recent wound. They didn’t begin the Dolphins bleeding Sunday. That got here when working again Raheem Mostert fumbled at midfield simply after the two-minute warning earlier than halftime and a Dolphins’ 10-point lead — and probably extra — was reduce to seven factors on the half.
But Tagovailoa’s interceptions, one after one other, determined Sunday and muddied the neverending query to this Dolphins period: Who is Tagovailoa? Can he be a franchise quarterback? What’s the ceiling to his expertise?
This disastrous December isn’t simply the sort of stretch that may outline quarterbacks. So are the endings to those video games. Tagovailoa solely had 5 interceptions coming into Sunday. Now he added three within the fourth quarter when the day demanded extra.
“On the first one, I tried to throw it over a defender, but I ended up really throwing over the defender and Tyreek [Hill], so that one got away,” he mentioned.
One play earlier, Dolphins cornerback Kader Kohou intercepted Green Bay quarterback Aaron Rodgers ultimately zone. Rodgers now acquired the ball again on the Dolphins 14-yard line. He’d simply get a discipline aim from a Dolphins protection that did sufficient to win Sunday. But that gave Green Bay the lead for the primary time Sunday, 23-20.
“The second one, I might have said the wrong play,” Tagovailoa mentioned. “I’m not too sure. But there was just some communication errors on that.”
Mostert took the blame. He stored working a seam route, he mentioned, relatively than break it off like Tagovailoa anticipated. Either manner, Packers linebacker De’Vondre Campbell returned that interception to the Green Bay 36. Rodgers led a 56-yard drive ending in one other discipline aim with simply over two minutes left.
Tagovailoa led the offense out then understanding a landing nonetheless gained the day. He accomplished a brief cross, then badly underthrew Mike Gesicki proper to Green Bay security Rasul Douglas.
“The third one was just not a good ball for my receivers to have been able to make a play on that,” he mentioned. “You know, it’s tough. You get an opportunity to play on Christmas Day against a really good team, and I go out there and really — not being able to put my best foot forward for our team.”
You can look elsewhere, if you would like. You can surprise why the Dolphins ran seven instances for 56 yards within the first quarter however simply 11 instances for 26 yards after that. You can level to penalties with none greater than an unlawful formation by Jaylen Waddle that negated a 15-yard catch by him to the Green Bay 10-yard line. A play later, Tagovailoa threw his second interception.
Tagovailoa had an enormous first half with 229 yards passing and an 84-yard landing cross to Waddle. But generally NFL video games aren’t determined by the perfect performs. On the opposite aspect, in any case, Rodgers accomplished 24-of-38 passes for 238 yards, a landing and the interception. Not nice, particularly by his four-time MVP requirements.
Sometimes profitable a sport comes right down to not dropping it. Rodgers didn’t lose it. Tagovailoa did.
“Just very unfortunate,” Tagovailoa mentioned. “It was just terrible how everything ended. Like I told the guys, ‘That’s on me.’ I will definitely get better from that.”
It looks like simply yesterday the Dolphins had a grand five-game win streak the place Tagovailoa had 11 touchdowns in opposition to no interceptions and there was speak of an AFC East title and extra. Now they’ve completed a winless December the place Tagovailoia threw six touchdowns in opposition to 5 interceptions, and the query is will they nonetheless make the playoffs?
“Merry Christmas,” Tagovailoa mentioned to reporters as he left. “Spend time with your families.”
He didn’t overlook his manners Sunday, regardless of how badly the day went for him.
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Source: www.bostonherald.com