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In three years at Alabama – with less than two full seasons as a starting quarterback – Tua Tagovailoa set the school career record for touchdown passes. He also became the NCAA FBS record holder for passing efficiency rating. In his 10 starts in his last season with the Crimson Tide, Tagovailoa averaged 315.6 passing yards per game, even though he left last before halftime.
Still, in his first NFL start, Tagovailoa had 93 yards on 22 assists. But in his second start on Sunday, with a different game plan for a different opponent, Tagovailoa threw just six more passes but tallied for 248 passing yards as well as 35 rushing yards in the 34-31 win. of the Miami Dolphins over the Arizona Cardinals.
Dolphins offensive coordinator Chan Gailey said the Miami quarterback played as the Alabama-version Tagovailoa on Sunday.
“Sounds like me,” Gailey said at a press conference Tuesday. “I don’t see a real difference. Physically, that’s the only thing you were concerned about, and I think he kind of eased all of our thoughts about it the other night.
TUA TAGOVAILOA: “ THE SCENE WASN’T TOO BIG FOR HIM ”
Tagovailoa left his last game in Alabama before halftime because he suffered a dislocated hip and a fractured posterior wall in a clash against Mississippi State. Tagovailoa’s performance against Arizona included a 17-yard scrum before throwing an 11-yard touchdown pass as Miami tied the score 31-31 with 11:19 to go.
Due to injuries and COVID-19 issues, Tagovailoa led the Miami attack without three wide receivers and two running backs who are contributors for the Dolphins, and his positional coach was also not at the game. . But Gailey could see a difference between the Week 1 and Week 2 Tagovailoas, and he expects continued growth.
“I said it last week, but I believe it’s the truth: as he plays more, the game is going to slow down,” Gailey said. “He’s able to see things better. He is able to feel the game. He has a great sense of the game. It allows him to see certain things and do certain things and throw the ball in places that other people might not, so I think it is. ‘he just went out and played the game. He didn’t care who was there and who wasn’t. He was just playing the game, and that’s what you love about him is that he doesn’t think about adversity. He thinks, “OK, how can we be successful?” And that will take a person very far.
Despite the quarterback’s pedestrian stats, Miami won Tagovailoa’s first start 28-17 against the Los Angeles Rams. In the last two games before Tagovailoa entered the roster, the Dolphins beat the San Francisco 49ers 43-17 and the New York Jets 24-0 with Ryan Fitzpatrick at quarterback.
Miami take their four-game winning streak in Los Angeles on Sunday to face the Chargers as they are square in the AFC playoff run in the season after being bad enough to secure Tagovailoa with the fifth pick in the draft. 2020 NFL. The Dolphins are one of four AFC teams with a 5-3 record with five teams scoring better than the conference. Seven teams are participating in the AFC playoffs this year.
The next step for Tagovailoa as the Dolphins move into the second half of the 2020 season is in-depth knowledge of defenses, Gailey said.
“The next steps are he has to see and understand more and more defenses, and that just comes from doing it,” said Gailey. “We worked against the same defense in the offseason. You had no pre-season game to say, ‘OK, that’s what another team is doing. That’s what another team does. “ He gets it on the fly, so I think just understanding the defenses, what they’re trying to do, how they’re trying to attack you, what their strengths are, what their weaknesses are, that stuff will be the progress that I hope will arrive here in the next few weeks.
Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at Ark AMarkG1.
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· Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa: “The stage was not too big for him”
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