It was built up as a matchup between two great young quarterbacks in that of Miami Dolphins’ Tua Tagovailoa and Justin Herbert of the Los Angeles Chargers. In fact, the NFL opted to flex this game to Sunday night ahead of Week 14.
A star at Alabama, Tua entered his third NFL season with a ton of question marks about whether he can a true franchise guy. Thus far this year, Tagovailoa has proven the skeptics wrong. He was a legitimate NFL MVP candidate before a brutal Week 13 outing against the San Francisco 49ers.
Despite that performance, most figured that Tua would return to form against an average Chargers defense Sunday night. In no way did that happen.
With his 8-4 Dolphins looking to keep pace in the AFC East, Tagovailoa put up a career-worst outing. He completed 10-of-28 passes for 145 yards in an 23-17 loss. How bad was it for the young quarterback? He completed three of his first 15 passes for a total of 25 yards, failing to come close to the production that Herbert provided for the victorious Chargers. Also seen as one of the top young quarterbacks in the NFL, Herbert completed 39-of-51 passes for 367 yards in vastly outplaying his counterpart.
Following a second consecutive lackluster showing, there’s renewed questions about whether Tua can be the man to lead his Dolphins to Super Bowl contention. If what we’ve seen over the past seven days is any indication, these questions are real.
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Tua Tagovailoa coming up small at the worst possible time
Last week’s 33-17 loss to the 49ers saw Tua throw two interceptions while losing a fumble. He had turned the ball over just three times in his first nine starts this season. San Francisco’s pressure got to Tagovailoa in a big way. A Nick Bosa sack late in the fourth quarter, which was returned by Dre Greenlaw for a touchdown, put an icing on that game.
It’s interesting to look at in that Miami entered that game looking to make a statement. Even after Jimmy Garoppolo went down to injury early in the first quarter, the Fins’ offense couldn’t match what 49ers rookie Brock Purdy and Co. did on the other side. The failed statement came amid a backdrop of new Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel going up against his old team. In short, his quarterback let the team down big time.
This was the case Sunday night in SoFi Stadium, too. It’s the continuation of a two-game span that has Tua looking to be in over his head.
- Tua Tagovailoa stats (past 2 weeks): 45.9% completion, 440 yards, 3 TD, 3 turnovers, 73.1 QB rating
It’s the completion percentage that has to be seen as disturbing for the Dolphins and their fans. After all, Tua completed a whopping 70% of his passes through the first nine games of the season.
Looking at the tape, accuracy has been a major issue for Tua. He’s throwing high and behind his receivers. He’s not hitting them on timing patterns. He’s failing to take advantage of the likes of Tyreek Hill and Jalen Waddle, the best wide receiver tandem in the NFL.
Now at 8-5 on the season, Miami must travel to Western New York to take on the first-place Buffalo Bills Saturday night.
In what promises to be wintry conditions, things could snowball big time for the Dolphins. They need Tua Tagovailoa to prove that these past two games were a mirage. If not, further questions about his ability to be Miami’s long-term answer at quarterback will come up.