One of our primary focuses hading into Thursday night’s game was Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa not forcing it Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle as the team takes on the Cincinnati Bengals.
Tua connected with both on passes of 20-plus yards early on in the game. With Miami down 7-3 and facing a second-and-8 late in the first quarter, Tagovailoa seemingly had Hill open for what would have been a long gain. Unfortunately, the early-season NFL MVP candidate waited too long to release the ball, ultimately throwing it into double coverage for just his third interception of the campaign.
First off, the pass was underthrown. Secondly, Tua waited way too long for the play to develop. It was not a great look for the third-year quarterback.
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Tua Tagovailoa’s arm strength comes into question once again
Despite his brilliant start to the 2022 season, there’s continued questions about Tagovailoa’s ability to get the ball down the field.
A top-five pick out of Alabama back in 2020, Tagovailoa averaged less than nine yards per attempt throughout his first two NFL seasons. With Waddle and Hill doing their thing, that number stood at 11.44 heading into Week 4 of the 2022 season.
Outside of those two, it’s been a whole lot of nothing down the field for Miami this season. Waddle (18.0) and Hill (15.1) are the only Dolphins receivers to average more than 10 yards per catch on the season.
We can expect Tua Tagovailoa to continue taking shots down the field. However, he’s going to need to do so in a timely manner while getting more on the football. This first-half interception against Cincinnati was a prime example of that.